What's up with Hong Kong?

[Disclaimer: The author is human and is prone to bias. If you find factual errors or inconsistencies, please mention it in the comments for others to know. If you find that I have missed out on some events, also mention it in the comments. This article is mainly a secondary review and all the statements made in the article are backed by appropriate sources. Please don’t sue me.]

Aye yo Monil! What’s up with Hong Kong? Also, make it quick. I have a lecture in about 12 minutes.

So a guy murdered his girlfriend. And fast forward one year, this shit-storm erupted.
… Okay okay, it isn’t that simple in reality. Here’s what really happened:

Chan Tong-kai and Poon Hiu-wing went to Taipei for a romantic holiday around Valentine’s Day in 2018. However, only Chan returned from the trip. Later, he would tell the Hong Kong police that he had strangled Poon, stuffed her body in a suitcase and dumped it in the bushes near a subway station in Taipei [1]. Here starts the problem - the Hong Kong government does not have an extradition treaty with the Taiwan government. An extradition treaty allows a jurisdiction to transfer an “accused” or a convict to another jurisdiction’s law enforcement provided the accused can be criminally tried in both the requesting and the requested jurisdiction.

So, what is the problem here? We can just transfer Chan to Taiwan, right?

Umm, not really. As I said before, Hong Kong does not have an extradition treaty with the Taiwan government and China does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state and it has repeatedly stated that it would annex Taiwan by means of force if necessary. Now, HK has the system of “one country, two systems” which it achieved after the British left the province (this is not a permanent status and will expire in 2047) [2]. So it is a very awkward situation for HK. So what does the HK government do? It brings out a bill called “Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill” in 2019. This bill allows HK to send suspects to countries with which it does not have an extradition agreement and… you got it right. It also involved Mainland China.

Why is extradition with China a problem?

China - People’s Republic of China (PRC), is a shitty place to be in for general people who might have some inconvenience with the Chinese government or it’s belief systems. Note that I will refer to Mainland China as the People's Republic of China and not just China because two different(?) sovereignties have been claiming to be China - the other one being the Republic of China (ROC) aka Taiwan. It has a communist party in rule and as we know, “communism has not been implemented properly in the history of the world so far”. What PRC does is silence all those who speak against the government (sound familiar?). Till now, it is alleged that China used to secretly take people from HK to its territory to be tried [3] and it has no fair trial or humane treatment for prisoners [4][5]. When you put this bill in practice, the PRC can openly take “suspects” who speak against the communist regime in the PRC.

Oops. * makes weird face *
What is up with China, man?! Do they have to meddle in everyone’s business?

In Hong Kong’s Legislative Council or LegCo, there are 70 seats. And parties are either pro-democracy or pro-China. People of Hong Kong do make sure that the majority of the seats are occupied by pro-democracy parties. The Legislative Council has 70 Members for the sixth term, with 35 Members returned by geographical constituencies through direct elections, and 35 Members by functional constituencies. Now, a functional constituency is a professional or special interest group involved in the electoral process and that includes corporations too. Corporations have an incentive to do business with China and hence those seats are dominated by - you guessed it right - pro-China parties.

This is bullshit. And they’re protesting now after so long?

No, no. These guys have been doing this for a long time. The PRC isn’t ready to wait till 2047. And this was not the first protest. There have been multiple such protests earlier because of some reason or another. 2003 protest saw the people of HK protesting an article that would have punished them on speaking against China; 2014 protest, also known as Umbrella Revolution since umbrellas were used as a defense against pepper spray, saw tens of thousands of people [6].

Then why did this become such a big deal?

Because this one is the biggest of them all! This one had about 2 L people protesting on the streets from various sections of society - students, lawyers, etc. People are tired of the PRC trying to encroach HK and this shows. This protest isn’t limited to HK itself. People are also showing up in London, New York, Taipei, Washington, etc. There has been a lot of online activism: online petitions on change.org and We The People, AirDrop broadcast, boycotts, hunger-strikes, non-cooperation movements as well as police station blockades … which brings me to the Police.

Yeah man, what are the police doing in all these protests?

You see, as with any other protests, the police have to be present to make sure things do not go out of hand. And very naturally, people have hurled abuses against the police and sometimes thrown things like bricks towards police blockades and in the police station. But… the police have been accused of using shady methods like shooting rubber bullets. One of the female protesters got injured during a rally in a market after getting hit by a bean bag round. There were also incidents of police brutality, firing of tear gas from heights which would make it prone to injuries by the canisters.

Alright alright. But I read somewhere some Carrie was being protested against. Where did Carrie Fisher come in all this?

No re, idiot! Not Carrie Fisher. It is Carrie Lam. Yeah, so she is Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China - basically Head of the HK Government. And I bet you’ll find this interesting. Guess who she was appointed by! The Central People’s Government of PRC! Now that clearly means she is pro-Beijing and that clears up a lot about her motivations. She has actively pushed the bill in the legislative council. Even after the protests started, she refused to back down and withdraw the bill. She went as far as claiming that the protests were “organized riot” [7]. The bill got suspended later on and she claimed “the bill is dead” but still refused to withdraw it. On 16 June, she offered an apology and has remained out of the public eye.

Wow. A lot of things happened very quickly.

Yeah, just look at the timeline [8]:

February: HK’s Security Bureau submits a paper to the city’s legislature proposing the case-by-case extradition amendments to countries with which it currently does not have any such treaties.

Apr: On 3rd, Carrie Lam (CL) introduces amendments to HK’s extradition laws.
On the 28th, tens of thousands get on the road demanding the scrapping of the law entirely.

May: Scuffle breaks out between pro-democracy and pro-Beijing lawmakers in the LegCo and CL claims that her administration is determined to push the bill through despite the mounting pressures.

Jun: On 4th, more than 120,000 students, alumni, staff, and parents from 185 secondary schools sign a petition against the extradition law. On subsequent days, violent protests break out and we see that police start firing rubber bullets and tear gas canisters. On 13th authorities shut down government offices. CL apologizes but refuses to take the bill back.

Jul: On 1st, protesters break into LegCo. On the subsequent days, they clash with the police, pepper spray and batons come into the play. CL calls protesters “rioters” in those clashes. On the 26th, there is another rally at the International Airport.

Aug: Here’s something interesting. The PRC’s People's Liberation Army garrison in HK releases slick military video and declares it has “confidence” and “capabilities” to maintain peace in HK. China's Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office holds a rare press conference, warning demonstrators not to mistake Beijing's restraint for weakness, this was on the 6th of August.

This is not a detailed timeline of course. You’ll find that in the references (I just broke the fourth wall to meta-reference, beatch!). This is just an overview. Once the protests began, there has been no stopping them. Scuffles breaking out with the police here and there, people being arrested (hell, one student was even arrested for buying laser pointers and later the entire bunch of protesters organised a laser pointer show), tear gas release, etc. Beijing has been declining external help (it said that this issue will not be discussed in the G20 summit in Japan), threatening citizens, etc.

Wow. Alright. That is a lot to take in. Let us just hope that HK citizens get the freedom they very rightly deserve. And… it is 9:55, let us hope that I reach in time to class. BBye!

* arey bhaiya ek chai dena*

The References that were promised:
[1] https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/2137067/hong-kong-man-19-arrested-after-being-suspected-killing-his
[2] http://www.hklii.hk/eng/hk/legis/instrument/A301/declaration.html
[3] https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/29/the-disappeared-china-renditions-kidnapping/
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/23/lawyer-torture-china-secret-jails-xie-yang
[5] https://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/23/asia/china-organ-harvesting/index.html
[6] https://multimedia.scmp.com/infographics/news/hong-kong/article/3016815/hong-kong-protest-city/index.html
[7] https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3014104/thousands-block-roads-downtown-hong-kong-defiant-protest
[8] https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/hong-kong-protest-timeline-extradition-bill-china-11676634#main