Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers resign after China ruling

All Hong Kong's pro-democracy lawmakers have resigned after Beijing forced the removal of four of their colleagues.

On Wednesday Beijing passed a resolution allowing the city's government to dismiss politicians deemed a threat to national security.

Shortly afterwards the opposition lawmakers said they would leave the city legislature in solidarity.

For the first time since Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997 the body has almost no dissenting voices.

BBC China correspondent Stephen McDonnell says the legislature was already stacked in favour of the pro-Beijing-camp.

Hong Kong Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai told reporters: "We can no longer tell the world that we still have 'one country, two systems', this declares its official death."

Hong Kong - formerly a British colony - was returned to China under the "one country, two systems" principle, which allowed it to retain more rights and freedoms than the mainland until 2047.

The dismissal of the four legislators is being seen as the latest attempt by China to restrict Hong Kong's freedoms, something Beijing denies.

UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has called the Chinese resolution "a further assault on Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy and freedoms under the UK-China Joint Declaration".

"This campaign to harass, stifle and disqualify democratic opposition tarnishes China's international reputation and undermines Hong Kong's long-term stability."

China introduced a controversial and far-reaching national security law in Hong Kong in late June, which criminalised "secession, subversion and collusion with foreign forces".