Al Jazeera English published this video item, entitled “Majority of Hong Kong’s opposition politicians resign” – below is their description.
The majority of Hong Kong’s opposition politicians have resigned en masse after Beijing passed a resolution disqualifying four of their fellow legislators.
The government accuses them of being a threat to national security, but critics say China is stepping up efforts to silence dissent.
Al Jazeera’s Divya Gopalan reports from Hong Kong.
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Al Jazeera English YouTube Channel
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In This Story: Hong Kong
Hong Kong, officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR), is a metropolitan area and special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta of the South China Sea. With over 7.5 million residents of various nationalities in a 1,104-square-kilometre (426 sq mi) territory, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world.
Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the Qing Empire ceded Hong Kong Island at the end of the First Opium War in 1842. The colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 after the Second Opium War and was further extended when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898. The whole territory was transferred to China in 1997. As a special administrative region, Hong Kong maintains separate governing and economic systems from that of mainland China under the principle of “one country, two systems”.