What Made Millions In Hong Kong Come Out And Protest A Bill?
Originally published on LinkedIn on June 20, 2019 by Binati Sheth.
Hong Kong is a beautiful city known for its position as an international finance center in Asia, with high degree of freedom, education, justice and a very low crime rate. It was originally owned by China, then colonized by the British, and finally handed over to China in 1997. This robust (and painful) colonial history of Hong Kong has ushered a unique culture formed by a fusion of eastern and western values. Learning from their past, they established a legal system which they take pride in.
They have their own unique flag, sets of laws, legal system, and language. They also have their own position on international issues and events (like the Olympics) which are separate from those of China.
22 years ago, in 1997, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping historically introduced the ‘One country, two systems’ policy as part of his strategy to economically and spiritually revitalize a broken China.
He promised, "there will be no change in Hong Kong for at least 50 years."But then, what happened?
Well, a lot of things to be honest.
Primarily though, the Communist Party of China (CCP) has been aggressively trying to digest this Special Administrative Region using legal loopholes. They are trying to quell dissent in any way they can.
For instance, let’s talk about internet and activism censorship.
Hong Kong doesn’t censor the internet like the CCP does. China has successfully cracked down on the internet. China’s 1.4 billion citizens and 800 million internet users rely on their government for all the information flowing into China because they have, what is dubbed as ‘the great firewall.’
Telecommunication and technology companies have to, by law, give the cyber arm of the Chinese government the power to control the internet in real time. Every web-based application in China has a replacement and a doppelganger. In fact, to continue operations in China, LinkedIn had to censor profiles of prominent activists otherwise they would have been banned and replaced by their rival Maimai.
As you can guess, activism gets massively affected in China.
Currently, more than a million Uighur Muslims, who are a minority in the region, have disappeared into re-education camps, and nobody (in China) is allowed to talk about it. It is speculated that around 2.5 million people in the province of Xinjiang were tracked by an AI-based Surveillance firm named SenseNets. Dutch security researcher Victor Gevers spotted 6 million location data points in a leak, collected in 24 hours, of locations like mosques and hotels.
The CCP can take anything down.
The #MeToo movement came to China as the ‘Rice Bunny’ movement. It is the first university student coordinated movement since the Tiananmen protests of 1989. China is politically egalitarian so while it boasts equality among both genders, they shame women who don’t have children by calling them “leftover women.” There’s also a lot of alleged sexual assault that goes on behind the unreported scenes in the tune of how 70% of university students get sexually assaulted and only 4% of those report these crimes. Outrageously, no court in China accepts these cases as they have no legal definition of sexual assault in their system. Young China started their #MeToo (我也是-WoYeShi) movement by using creative ways of escaping censorship like blockchain and memes. In response to this #MeToo (米-mi 兔-t’u is a homophone) movement and all the sneaky activism by the rice bunnies, China is preparing the Draft Civil Code, which will be reviewed by 2020. They have currently banned and removed #米兔 and #我也是 posts on Weibo (Chinese Twitter) though.
This isn’t a problem in Hong Kong. A person in Hong Kong can criticize China, Hong Kong and anything else. They hold on to their cultural roots while leveraging all the benefits of the open market.
Back in 2014 (26 September to 15 December), the remarkable Umbrella Movement occurred in Hong Kong. Peaceful protests ensued, and people lined the streets hoping for a democratic election so that the new government that comes to power would put a stop on harmful policies that threaten their freedom. People stood their ground while small companies gave out materials like water, towels, free tuition for the student protesters, etc. Even though the protesters were only armed with umbrellas, the official response of the city began from 28th September with heavy policing techniques like flinging unnecessary tear gas. This infuriated the protesters, whose numbers increased and in spite of the hopeless endeavor, the protests continued till 15th December. Ultimately, the people lost hope and leadership; the protests ended with 470 injured and 7 million metaphorically broken hearts.
Life continued, as it does.
Disqualified pro-democracy legislative councilors in Hong Kong continued to do China’s bidding. Cantonese, the official language of Hong Kong was treated as “just a dialect” while replacing it with Putonghua (currently being taught to the students). The Causeway Bay Books disappearances happen where book shop owners who sold anti-communist books in Hong Kong either disappeared or were reportedly brought (kidnapped) to China for “diagnosis.” Hong Kong, an already over-populated city has to officially take in 150 immigrating families (one-way permits) per day from mainland China, who then drive up the medical and housing costs to the maximal value. All of these policies are implemented by the government of Hong Kong which is, in essence, formed by China. While the rest of the world progresses ahead with breakneck speed, Hong Kong is forced to step on the breaks.
All this frustration mounts until one day the government announced that they are planning to amend the extradition law, that allows China to arrest anyone they want from Hong Kong. Highly mistrustful of the government in power and apprehensive of the Communistic Party of China, internet activism went into overdrive.
People started discussing how Facebook, Instagram, Google, non-state sponsored news are all blocked in China and will probably now be blocked in Hong Kong as well. People fretted about how all their actions will be strictly monitored and they could all just wave off their human rights.
Back in 1997, when China was negotiating with the U.K., the Hong Kong’s extradition accords were finalized. As mainland China’s criminal justice system is quite different from that of Hong Kong, Taiwan as well as China weren’t included in this extradition agreement.
The linchpin that lead to the dominoes falling was the ‘Chan Tong-kai’ case. When Hong Kong local Chan Tong-kai was suspected of killing his pregnant girlfriend in Taiwan, Hong Kong couldn’t extradite him to the jurisdiction where he committed the crime because of the aforementioned agreement. Citing this case in February, the Hong Kong government stated that the loopholes in this extradition agreement needed to be amended. These amendments would enable the Chief Executive of Hong Kong to cherry pick which case gets extradited where, even if the city/country has no existing extradition agreement with Hong Kong.
So, on 9th June 2019, 1 million out of 7 million citizens of Hong Kong gathered to protest on the streets once more. The protesters stuck with peaceful protests this time around as well. However, the police retaliated forcefully.
The government casually responded with, “We will not include the protection of human rights in the law in order to maintain flexibility,” adding, “We heard and respect all the voices in the society. We will continue the legislation of the extradition bill two days later.”
We oftentimes tend to forget that peaceful protests do not work in non-democratic societies operated by proxy officials.
The administration is pushing back but so are the people.
By 12th June, a more aggressive protest ensued. Hong Kong’s leader and chief executive Carrie Lam, who initially presented a stern maternal stance, caved in and indefinitely suspended the government’s efforts to pass an extradition law. She also offered a ‘sincere’ apology.
However, the protesters continue to wear black and protest against their government, which they don’t trust. People are now also asking Carrie Lam to step down and for Hong Kong’s rules to permanently (and legally) withdraw the extradition bill.
According to Reuters, the key 5 PM deadline issued by the Hong Kong Federation of Students has been ignored by Carrie Lam. 20th June came and neither is the Bill canceled nor are the arrested protesters released. A fresh ‘Civil Disobedience’ protest has been slated to start at 7 AM on 21st June.
Also, there are no updates regarding two other bills — one aimed at criminalizing abuse of the Chinese national anthem and the other aimed at an expensive infrastructure project that includes extensive land reclamation assignments. For now, it looks like all discussions surrounding these controversial bills have been postponed.
It’s safe to say that these protests against this controversial bill have turned into a proxy fight.
China is said to resume ownership of Hong Kong in 2047, till then, the larger issue of Chinese control over Hong Kong remains as an open, festering wound.
