The dispute in Hong Kong centers on a provocative display of anti-China sentiment by two pro-independence lawmakers, Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching, at their swearing-in ceremony last month. Such action "seriously touches the bottom line of 'one country, two systems', endangers national unity, territorial integrity and national security, jeopardizes the nation's core interests and the basic interests of the majority of Hong Kong residents, and is vile in nature," it said. The Standing Committee of China's rubberstamp legislature, the National People's Congress, said in a statement that Beijing could not afford to do nothing in the face of challenges in Hong Kong to China's authority, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late Saturday. Several thousand people gathered in the evening to protest outside Beijing’s liaison office. At about 7.50pm, policeon Connaught Road West deployed pepper spray multiple times against protesters during a stand-off which saw masked demonstrators charge police barricades. Along with the personnel already deployed on Des Voeux Road, they began forcing protesters out of the intersection between Western Street and Des Voeux Road. “They will be removed immediately if they use violence and charge police cordons.”

About 12.30am officers came down Western Street from Queen’s Road. “That will, in the long run, damage the international investors’ (confidence) in Hong Kong’s stability and the rule of law, and of course how our court functions.”

The legislative panel in Beijing said the words and actions of the two Hong Kong lawmakers — Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching — “posed a grave threat to national sovereignty and security,” Xinhua reported. If such a situation were to persist, the Standing Committee said, it would hurt the interests of Hong Kong’s residents and China’s progress. “The whole controversy escalated in a short span of time only after the central government decided to step in.”

A number of families also attended the march on Sunday. The statement followed discussions by the top legislative panel on issuing an interpretation of an article in Hong Kong's constitution, known as the Basic Law, that covers oaths taken by lawmakers. Leung, 30, and Yau, 25, who are from the radical Youngspiration party, altered their oaths to insert a disparaging Japanese term for China. Displaying a flag reading “Hong Kong is not China,” they vowed to defend the “Hong Kong nation.” Leung crossed his fingers, while Yau used the F-word in her pledge. Their oaths were ruled invalid, but attempts at a do-over have resulted in mayhem in the legislature’s weekly sessions. Saturday’s comments indicated that the Standing Committee intended to use its interpretation of the article to send a strong message against separatism — and could ultimately lead to the democratically elected lawmakers’ disqualification from office. Such an outcome would be favorable to China’s Communist leaders, who are alarmed by the former British colony’s burgeoning independence movement, but is also likely to plunge their troubled relationship into fresh turmoil. The group urged people to take to the streets and

“While not everyone agrees with how Leung and Yau took their oaths, an interpretation [of the Basic Law] and the demise of the separation of powers will affect Hong Kong’s economic prosperity, stability as well as people’s livelihood,” a leaflet handed out at the event read.
In Hong Kong, police clash with protesters after more than 10,000 locals march against the Chinese government interpretation of the Basic Law in the Legislative Council oath-taking controversy.