Hong Kong in Revolt; Black Bauhinia

The current situation in Hong Kong is, something I should have commented more on before. For over a year now, the people of Hong Kong have been protesting in opposition to the Chinese government quickly imposing new laws on the territory. It would be very difficult to go over the entire history of this territory but a brief overview must be given and I will tackle that task in a bit. The other things that I will go over in this post will be the new “National Security Law” and a recent incident with the protesters and the police in Hong Kong.

First though a very brief history of Hong Kong. Hong Kong was a British colony for some time and the territory was handed over to the Chinese in 1997 with certain strings attached. The strings were that there would be a set of laws and rules that the British would leave behind and the Chinese would have to abide by when it came to Hong Kong, one of these was the protection of free speech to a certain degree of course. Another part of the agreement is that these rules would stay in place until 2047, when Hong Kong could be fully integrated into the Chinese system. It wasn’t until recently in 2019 that China seemed to take a very hard line and essentially moved the deadline, in a sense, up by about 20 years of course though up to interpretation as China doesn’t see it that way at all. New laws were being purposed in 2019 that would allow the Chinese government to extradite Hongkongers to China for trial. This move worried many in Hong Kong as now people could legally be taken to China to face trial. The practice before was essentially having to kidnap someone and they would just appear in a court in China months later. The protesters took to the streets for months and locked the small territory down. The only sign of things easing up came with the COVID19 pandemic, but now as that seems to be abating the protesters are back at it again in 2020. In response to this China implemented what it calls the “National Security Law”.

The “National Security Law” is a set of new restrictions that were just thrust upon the Hong Kong constitution. Nothing was voted on or passed within the Hong Kong legislative body but rather Beijing just implemented these new rules. The “National Security Law” is making things like subversion and secession a crime. Certain books are now banned and newspapers are worried that they will be shut down and or raided any day now. Books are being taken off shelves of schools and book stores as these institutions fear they will be the next target of the police in Hong Kong. It is now also a crime to have banners or flags as these are now considered to be subversion. In what seemed like the blink of an eye Hong Kong has become a place where freely expressing yourself can find a person in prison facing a life sentence. Recently this was tested and sadly at least eight people that we know of were arrested, but not for having a banner or a flag.

Protesters recently attended a silent protest, it didn’t stay silent, in the AMP Mall in Hong Kong. The protesters did have something with them though. They all had blank pieces of paper that they held up. And by blank I mean blank, nothing not even a symbol or smudge were written upon them. When police arrived they held their banner (oh the irony) stating “… you are displaying flags or banners/chanting slogans / or conducting yourselves with the intent such as secession or subversion, which may constitute offenses under the ‘HKSAR National Security Law’ You may be arrested”. It is a bit unclear how long the two sides just sat there but eventually the police started to clear out the protesters arresting eight in total. Eight people were arrested and might face life in prison sentences for holding up blank pieces of paper. The blank pieces of paper aren’t anything new in protests. During the time of the USSR, there was an activist that was handing out blank pamphlets. He was eventually arrested and charged with some crime against the state. His defense was that the pamphlets were blank, the state’s response was simple “We know what you meant to write.” To state, no lives matter.

What many have feared for years in Hong Kong is finally happening. The Chinese government is on the warpath it seems to stripe the people of Hong Kong of their liberties and if they don’t comply they will let them rot in a prison for life. This isn’t the first time we have seen a government do this and sadly it won’t be that last. It is crazy though to see that such a large country where so many people are living under rules like this. These authoritarian regimes fear freedom of thought and expression. These states will kill those that want to express themselves.

Some will say “oh that can never happen here in the west” though it already has just to a smaller degree. During WWI in the United States newspapers were censored and people could find themselves in jail for writing or saying anything against the war in Europe, you know another continent. Similar laws were passed in many western European countries at the time. Sure those laws have been redacted but later to be replaced with things like the Patriot Act in the United States where what you check out from the library can now be subject to search from a federal agent without a warrant. We need to ensure our human rights to expression are protected and secure.

I’ll end with a warning of how serious this is. I know four people in Hong Kong, three of them I can no longer reach and now it is probably in their best interest that I don’t attempt to contact them. Their social media accounts have disappeared, Hongkongers are doing this to try and protect themselves though so there is some hope. The one person I have contact with left in Hong Kong recently ended a message with “Stay Free (and protect your 2A)”. How right they are.

There are some signs of help though coming from outside governments. Australia and the United Kingdom are now offering pathways to citizenship for those trying to leave Hong Kong. I would love to see the United States follow suit.

Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times

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Keep that coffee warm for us

LWS

Sources:

Security law: Hong Kong police arrest 8 at ‘blank placard’ silent protest