Hong Kong - an insight into the year that everything changed
The joint history between Hong Kong and China is definitely long, winded, and very complicated, with the two sharing centuries of events and occurrences that have led to the current political and civil situation; however, although recent history has been relatively tame in the large scale, the past year has meant a complete escalation of a situation that began in 2019, and that has snowballed into a downright human rights’ crisis. The degradation of the rule of law and of basic human rights have resulted in the endangering of the livelihood of Hong Kong citizens, and a society that will probably never be the same. But how did it all begin? And more importantly, what is in store for Hong Kong and its residents, as China moves to restrict its autonomy ahead of schedule?
The very beginning: 1839-1982
Hong Kong was initially Chinese territory, but when China entered the First Opium War against the British Empire in 1839 (in an attempt to prevent opium trafficking into China by the British) and lost, they were forced to hand over Hong Kong island, one-third of modern-day Hong Kong. This was made official in 1842 with the Treaty of Nanjing, together with an increase in British trade and power. When the subsequent Second Opium War ended in 1860, China was also forced to give up the Kowloon Peninsula (another third of modern Hong-Kong’s territory) to the British. Britain seized full control of all parts of contemporary Hong Kong in 1898, as part of a series of predatory lease treaties with China by several European countries, who were taking advantage of China’s weakened power due to losing a war against Japan in 1895. Thus, on the 1st of July 1898, the New Territories area officially became part of Britain for the next 99 years, thanks to the Second Convention of Peking.
The initiation of the “one country, two systems” arrangement: 1982-1997
In 1982, the Chinese and British leaders held meetings in order to negotiate the proceedings that would occur in just 15 years. Although the initial convention only applied to the New Territories area, Britain still decided to hand over all 3 regions, since the other two would probably not survive by themselves. Then, in 1984, the two parties agreed to the Sino-British Joint Declaration, whereby Hong Kong would join China on July 1st, 1997, but would keep its current affairs the same until 2047, allowing them to continue functioning as a capitalist economy and as a nation with free speech and other such rights (which were, and still are, relatively lacking in China). Hong Kong thus became a semi-autonomous Special Administrative Region of China under the “one country, two systems” policy, and even has its own mini-constitution and legal system; both of these, however, came under attack in 2018, in the incident that would spark protests and reform around the city.
Freedom starts breaking down
China began abusing its power over Hong Kong from the very beginning, one example being the extremely biased electoral system. At the moment, the leader, known as the chief executive, isn’t chosen by the people, but rather by an election committee of 1,200 individuals, which is mostly pro-Beijing and isn’t exactly democratically elected either. This, combined with the shady process of electing members of the Legislative Council (somewhat similar to a parliament), where half of the seats are offered to corporations and members of functional constituencies such as those working in real estate and tourism -which are usually pro-Beijing- means that the decision-making bodies will always act favourably towards Chinese initiatives. The Basic Law, which is the mini-constitution established in 1997, states that these elections should occur more autonomously, and China even said in 2014 that they would improve this process by giving voters a list of pro-Beijing candidates they can vote for, but this caused more public outrage than satisfaction.
China had claimed that they would grant universal suffrage for the election of the chief executive by 2017, but when they went back and twisted their words, by offering this “list”, the population was, as expected, not very pleased. The Umbrella Revolution took place at the end of 2014, when tens of thousands of protesters marched holding umbrellas, in resistance to this new process that was going to be put in place. Their dissent was successful, but China did not loosen their hold on the country. Authorities continued by even abducting booksellers in 2015 that sold books criticising the Chinese government, in a subtle form of censorship that did not go unnoticed.
The protests: 2019-2020
The final straw was a bill that was proposed in 2019, to allow extradition to occur for the prosecution of several criminal offences. This began in 2018, when a Hong Kong citizen allegedly killed his pregnant girlfriend in Taiwan, creating a bit of a strange legal situation because no extradition agreement existed between the two regions. The Hong Kong government then proposed this bill, in order to patch up any missing areas in the criminal legislation, but all this bill would do is allow people to be extradited to China and given a trial there, giving China even more power over Hong Kong, and endangering the freedom of many; China’s judicial system has a conviction rate of 99%, and anyone opposing the government could simply be found and prosecuted arbitrarily.
This sparked a wave of incredibly large protests, starting on June 9th, when approx. one million people marched in opposition to the bill. Carray Lam, the chief executive, announced on June 15th that she would delay the bill, but the day after that, two million people march, asking for the bill to be withdrawn entirely. Protests continue for months, even after the bill is withdrawn on the 4th of September, and although the coronavirus pandemic has meant that protests have had to subside, it has also led to a more recent controversy.
The 2020 elections for the Legislative Council were postponed because of the coronavirus, but many speculate that it was yet another breach of free speech and democracy, since many pro-democratic victories were seen in local elections during the year, which could have signalled to the pro-Beijing leaders that they may lose their hold on the population. This claim is also supported by the disqualifications and threats made towards several pro-democratic candidates.
The national security law
In an attempt to stifle the protests, the Chinese government introduced a new national security law, somehow legally bypassing the restrictions imposed by the “one country, two systems” policy, and keeping it under the radar until it was put into practise. This has been seen by many as “the end of Hong Kong”, and is indeed quite worrying in its contents. It bans any acts of secessions, subversion, terrorism, or collusion, with extremely harsh sentences, even life in prison, but the crimes are described very loosely and broadly, allowing the Chinese government to persecute peaceful protesters, under the claims that they are disrupting national security. The law also states that suspects can be trialled in China, which is exactly the situation the protests were trying to avoid, but this time, the trials may also be behind closed doors and without a jury. Hundreds of activists, protesters, pro-democrats, and other such individuals have already been arrested and imprisoned, and the trend is only worsening.
The future
It is extremely unclear what the future of Hong Kong will hold for its citizens, but prospects aren’t looking very bright at the moment. One of the more recent arrests, that took place on January 6th and criminalised more than 50 people, has raised questions about Hong Kong’s opposition, and how far politicians and pro-democrats can go before they are thrown into prison on the grounds of subversion. A government without an opposition is not only undemocratic, but also scary. Terrifying, even. But as we move forward, we can only hope that the situation will not escalate any further, and that with time, these blatant abuses and this glaring oppression will cease to exist, or at least return to a state that can allow the citizens to live without fear, without dread, and hopefully, without tyranny.
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