Hong Kong’s battered pro-democracy opposition faces a bleak political future after a week that saw the entire bloc resign from the city’s legislature to protest at the ousting of four members for “unpatriotic” conduct under a new law.

Chinese authorities have signalled that those who walked out may not be able to stand in future elections on the grounds their protest was itself unpatriotic and therefore bars them from office, Sin Chung-kai, a member of the Democratic party executive board, told the broadcaster RTHK.