Hong Kong Election Hopeful Quits After 'Threats From Beijing'

A candidate in recent elections to Hong Kong's legislature has said he abandoned his campaign after being threatened by "three men from Beijing," fueling further concerns over the erosion of the city's freedoms under Chinese rule.

Ken Chow, who had planned to run for a seat in the city's Legislative Council (LegCo) from the New Territories West electoral district for the moderate Liberal Party, said he was warned off with threats by people who appeared to know a lot about his family.

The meeting took place at a hotel across the internal immigration border in neighboring Shenzhen, where he was introduced to the three men by a "friend."

"If I did not comply with their request, then important people surrounding me would face serious consequences, and they [said] they will act immediately," Chow, who withdrew from the LegCo race ahead of last Sunday's poll, told a news conference on Wednesday.

He said the men had shown that they had extremely detailed information about the background, financial situation and daily activities of "all the people that are important to me."

Chow said he hadn't reported the incident to the Hong Kong authorities, because he believed the case was outside their jurisdiction.

"They have no power to arrest mainland officials, or people outside Hong Kong, and their behavior [took place] outside Hong Kong," he said.

Chow left Hong Kong for the United Kingdom, where he said he was also followed.

Pro-Beijing candidate Junius Ho went on to win the seat Chow had contested.

Chow said he had been approached by another unidentified man on three occasions and told not to continue to fight the seat, and by another unidentified person who offered him a large amount of money.

"I told them, if you say any more, you are violating the law," he told reporters in Hong Kong.

He said he had made a report to the city's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) after arriving back in the city on Monday.

Victory for pro-democracy parties

Sunday's LegCo elections saw pro-democracy parties increased their seats in LegCo to 30 out of 70, enough to veto constitutional change, including unpopular national security legislation.

They also saw Nathan Law, 23, former leader of the 2014 Occupy Central movement for universal suffrage become the city's youngest-ever lawmaker, and three candidates from "localist" groups who want more autonomy for the city elected alongside traditional pan-democrats.

Liberal Party chairwoman Selina Chow said Chow's claims sounded plausible, as did key figures among pan-democrats.

But Jasper Tsang, who heads the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), said he found Chow's story "strange."

"If somebody really tried to threaten Mr. Chow and make him give up his election campaign, if it was me, I would have asked them why, because it isn't very logical to force a candidate to give up his campaign when he commands next-to-nothing in terms of popular support," Tsang told reporters.

"Why didn't they spend more time on people who actually had a chance of winning ... who could win a lot of votes?"

Beijing has repeatedly warned that "separatist" ideas won't be tolerated in the former British colony, and election candidates were forced to sign a declaration rejecting independence.

Authorities in Hong Kong had earlier barred several candidates from taking part in the election, citing the candidates’ openly stated support for Hong Kong’s independence.

The administration of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying reportedly acted on instructions from Beijing officials, who were unhappy that more candidates hadn't been disbarred, according to Reuters.

Leung has also ordered schools to punish any talk of independence among students, threatening teachers with deregistration if they are found encouraging it.

A recent opinion survey showed that almost 40 percent of young people in Hong Kong favor independence for the city in 2047, when existing arrangements with China expire.

The elections came amid grave warnings that Hong Kong's traditional freedoms of speech, publication and judicial independence are being eroded, following the cross-border detentions of five booksellers and an attempt by the Justice Department to influence sentences handed down to Occupy Central protesters by a magistrate.

Reported by Lam Kwok-lap for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.