It was the largest mass demonstration in the territory’s history - huge street protests in Hong Kong caught the world's attention in the once British colony in June.
A controversial extradition bill drove Hong Kongers to "safeguard" their judicial independence - but did the demonstrations identify flaws in the implementation of China’s “One Country, Two Systems” framework in the city?
Over the past two weeks, an estimated two million people took to streets of the city demanding the withdrawal of the proposed bill that would enable Hong Kong to transfer criminals to mainland China.
Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous territory of China under the country’s 'One Country, Two Systems' policy, was handed back from Britain in 1997.
But some Hong Kongers feel the policy has been losing its legitimacy as China appears to be exerting greater control in local politics. This was seen in the appointment of a pro-Beijing committee which appointed Carrie Lam as the city's chief executive, which triggered a 79-day in 2014.
Among the two-million protestors on Hong Kong’s streets in 2019, the majority of them were youngsters and students.
“Most of my friends in Hong Kong, most of the teenagers...they might think the democracy degree and the autonomy in Hong Kong is getting worse,” said Max Choi, president of Monash University’s Hong Kong Student Association.
Hong Kong expert Ben Bland from the Lowy Institute said a lot of young people took part in the protests because they felt their identity of being a Hong Kongers was threatened, especially during the period when their rights were under increased threat from China.
“This generation of young Hong Kongers, they came at an age of the hand-over, so they never really felt the connection with the British colony part; but because mainland China was quite hands-off at the early years of the hand-over, the young people also didn’t feel very Chinese either,” said Mr Bland.
Many mainland Chinese seemed reluctant to comment on the protests, not mentioning most of them being blind-sighted: the Chinese government has long been placing firewalls on people’s information flow.
Joshua Wong, 22, who led the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong in 2014, spoke to demonstrators on Friday. Many student groups are among protestors who continue to rally outside of Hong Kong’s government offices and its police headquarter (AAP). Source: SIPA USA
Reports suggest many WeChat groups had been blocked during the first days of the protest due to sensitive remarks about the protest.
“There’s nothing about the protest in Hong Kong on Weibo, it’s like a whole different world,” wrote one user in Chinese on Matters, a blockchain-based public discussion forum.
“Most of Chinese have no apathy in politics, or in other words, China’s status-quo doesn’t allow (people) to care about politics.”
On the same discussion page titled as “As mainlanders, what can we do for Hongkongers?,” another user thinks that the information asymmetry between the two regions does not necessarily mean mainlanders are unconscious about what’s happening outside of mainland China.
Those who live outside of China’s firewall who believe they have more freedom of speech does also not mean they have a full picture of what’s going on in Hong Kong, she wrote.
“As Hong Kong is protesting against the extradition bill, how many of them fully understand what’s in the bill? How many of their actions [to echo the protest on social media] are just based on if they don’t repost, they’re not Hongkongers?”
Mr Choi also pointed out that not every Hong Kong student around him, whether they support or oppose the bill, fully understand the bill’s impact.
The bill, which allows Hong Kong to extradite criminals to foreign countries that the region has no formal agreements with, including mainland China and Taiwan, is spurred by a murder case in Taiwan involving a Hong Kong resident. The Hong Kong government claimed that every extradition request will be reviewed by the Chief Executive on a “case-by-case basis,” and does not apply to political crimes.
Under China’s “One Country, Two Systems” policy, Hong Kong retains its own political, economic and judicial systems. Many are afraid that the change of the extradition law will erode the base of Hong Kong’s legal system, and moreover, people’s democracy and freedom that have long been preserved on this land.
The HK protest happens amid the escalating trade war between the US and China, which there were speculations that the US was involved in inciting protestors in Hong Kong. US officials denied such claim.
Local Hong Kong parents condemned foreign forces for stirring up Hong Kong youth to join massive protests (China Daily). Source: China Daily
But this did not convince the Chinese government, with foreign affairs officials warning the US to stop meddling Chinese politics.
“We urge the US to stop spreading false and irresponsible statements, stop interfering in the normal legislative agenda of the Hong Kong government, and stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and China's internal affairs,” the Office of the Commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region said in a statement.
Protests in Hong Kong continue to simmer, with the latest development of clashes between police and people, as Hongkongers call on its Chief Executive Carrie Lam to step down.
Ms Lam announced last weekend that the HK government would indefinitely postpone the legislation process of the extradition bill, a move attempting to quiet down the protest. But she refused to resign.
She was also reportedly meeting with Chinese government officials earlier to discuss the Hong Kong situation.
Experts said even Ms Lam or the central Chinese government choose to back down on the extradition bill, the fundamental problem of the “two systems” is unlikely to go away.
“The protest against the extradition bill is partly about the extradition bill; they’re also about the much bigger and wider threat to Hong Kong’s freedom and autonomy. And that’s the result of this clash between the communist system and the liberal values that Hong Kong is based on,” said Mr Bland.
“The amendment of this law already hits the bottom line of Hong Kong people,” said Jane Poon, a Melbourne-based Hong Kong community leader and protest leader.
“The main request behind this is the Chinese government don’t interfere with our affair anymore; let the Hong Kong people run our government.”
Yet Mr Choi believes that protesting is not the best way to solve the dispute over the bill between the Hong Kong government and its people.
Local Hong Kong community gathered in Melbourne’s CBD to protest against Hong Kong’s extradition bill. The Australia-Hong Kong Link, a local community organization to which Ms Poon belong, has asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison to openly condemn Hong Kong’s extradition law but has received no formal response. The organization is planning another protest next week, a time ahead of the G-20 Summit, aiming to unite the international community to pressure the Hong Kong government (Australia-Hong Kong Link Facebook). Source: Australia-Hong Kong Link Facebook
“When we talk about the ‘One Country, Two Systems,’ does the ‘two systems’ override the ‘one country?’ or vice-versa? Why this [protest] arises is not because of the bill itself, it’s because the system itself is not democratic, which is not determined by the people,” Mr Choi said.
