After walking out of the legislature to protest an anti-subversion bill they call a threat to Hong Kong's freedoms, opposition lawmakers tried but failed to have it withdrawn, one of them said Thursday.
Democratic Party chairman Yeung Sum called on the government to withdraw the bill, but his suggestion was voted down shortly before midnight on Wednesday, said another Democratic lawmaker, Sin Chung-kai.
Sin had introduced a motion condemning the government for allegedly distorting the public's views on the law, and it was thrown out earlier Wednesday in the Legislative Council.
The council is dominated by pro-Beijing lawmakers and their big-business allies who typically side with the Hong Kong government. It appears poised to pass the anti-subversion measure, which critics fear could crush freedoms of speech, press, religion and assembly.
About 20 of the 60 Hong Kong lawmakers walked out of the legislature in protest on Wednesday, while several activists ripped up a copy of the bill and hurled pieces down from a public gallery. The activists were later arrested.
The anti-subversion legislation has been constitutionally required ever since Hong Kong reverted from British to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. The government disputes contentions that local freedoms are in jeopardy.
Pro-democracy lawmakers and rights activists who fear otherwise say Hong Kong might use the law to ban Falun Gong, the meditation sect outlawed in mainland China as an "evil cult" but thus far free to practice and protest in Hong Kong.