As dozens of pro-China lawmakers in Hong Kong’s legislature stood up in May to heap praise on a bill giving Beijing an effective veto over candidates in the city’s elections, only one legislator condemned the move.

"Cronyism will be the primary prerequisite for this election,” said Cheng Chung-tai, by then the legislature’s sole directly elected opposition member, after the others had either resigned or been removed. "Corruption is bound to happen,” he told the assembly at the time.

By late August, Cheng had been stripped of his seat by the committee he had criticized, which ruled that he didn’t "genuinely uphold” the city’s charter. Last week, he announced that his political party Civic Passion was dissolving.