1
Sept 2019
Hong
Kong Protests: Democracy under threat
Asad Mirza
The
ongoing protests in Hog Kong is a movement without clearly identified leaders
or structure, making it difficult for the authorities to effectively handle it
and hard for the protestors to manage.
The protests against an extradition law
have been on going for seven consecutive weeks in Hong Kong, they took a
violent turn last weekend. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam publicly
denounced the violence.
Protesters in Hong Kong have achieved a
major victory in their fight to protect their legal system from Chinese
interference. On June 15, in response to massive popular resistance, Chief
Executive Carrie Lam announced she would suspend a vote on a proposed new law
that would allow China to extradite suspects accused of certain crimes and
prosecute them in Chinese courts.
For over a fortnight, some 1.3 million
people had gathered daily outside Hong Kong’s legislature to protest the
legislation, which protesters say China will abuse to extradite political
dissidents. They managed to postpone a June 12 vote by blocking entry to the
legislative building. Days later, consideration of the law was indefinitely
postponed.
What
is the dispute?
The British colonized Hong Kong in the
1800s after the Opium Wars. But China never accepted this territorial claim,
and insisted that Hong Kong belonged to China.
In 1997, after a decade of negotiations
between the United Kingdom and China, Hong Kong came under Chinese rule – with
some conditions. Knowing that Hong Kong had developed under a Western system of
government, the then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping made Hong Kong a “Special
Autonomous Region” and agreed to give the island a 50-year transition period to
come fully under Chinese rule.
Under this system, Hong Kong was to retain
its judicial system and legislative council. But Hong Kong would belong to
China. The arrangement became known as “one country, two systems.” However,
full suffrage and free elections were not part of the 1997 deal.
For two decades, the “one country, two
systems” arrangement seemed to give Hong Kong relative autonomy from Chinese
interference. Then, in 2014, China announced that people would be allowed to
vote in Hong Kong’s 2017 chief executive election only from a short list of
preapproved candidates.
Thousands took to the streets to demand
universal suffrage. To protect themselves from police spraying tear gas at the
front lines, they used umbrellas, giving rise to the name the “Umbrella
Movement.”
Emboldened by international support for the
Umbrella Movement, Hong Kong’s young activists have continued their efforts to
protect their independence from China.
In 2017 Carrie Lam, a candidate loyal to
Beijing and the driving force behind the extradition law, was elected Chief
Executive – Hong Kong’s highest public official.
Under Lam’s leadership, traditionally
pro-democracy politicians were removed from office. Some were even arrested and
jailed as dissidents. Today, only 24 pro-democracy politicians remain in Hong
Kong’s 70-seat legislative council.
The
international stand on the protests.
In a keynote speech in December, Chinese
President Xi reasserted the leading role of the Communist party in
uncompromising terms. Chinese officials are fond of saying Hong Kong benefits
from China’s economic strength and “the affluence of the motherland”.
US President Trump’s cautious distance from
Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement has left him politically isolated from both
parties in Congress, the State Department, European allies and his most
aggresive advisers at the White House.
In spite of statements of support for the
protesters from leading Democrats and Republicans as well as European
officials, Mr. Trump has shown little sympathy for the mass demonstrations. And
in his almost-singular focus on his showdown with Beijing over trade and
tariffs, Mr. Trump is ignoring the view of his advisers, who believe that
China’s authoritarian model threatens American interests worldwide.
Mr. Trump offered no words of support for
the goals of the protesters. He has
deliberately avoided that kind of language as he seeks to negotiate a trade
agreement with Beijing. On Twitter and in comments this week, he has sounded
ambivalent about the Hong Kong unrest, saying that he hopes “it works out for
everybody, including China.” He has also shown sympathy for Mr Xi. Mr. Trump’s
speech is also in sharp contrast to the words of Republicans and Democrats, who
are warning Mr. Xi of grave consequences, including congressional action,
should he order a bloody 1989-style crackdown. US President’s language shows
little connection to his administration’s stated intolerance for China’s
political repression. The drama in Hong Kong is only the latest example of Mr.
Trump’s disinclination to let human rights and democracy thwart his kind of
diplomacy. He has taken no position on recent mass protests in the streets of
Moscow, which have constituted the most open challenge in years to President
Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, with whom Mr. Trump has a friendly relationship.
Mr. Trump also rarely criticizes the repressive practices of several other
governments with which he has forged close alliances, including Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, Turkey and Poland.
Similarly, he UK also is failing to engage
in the dispute, despite being the only country in the world with a legitimate
role and responsibility to do so. UK has to show to the world that
international agreements cannot simply be ignored by China. Hong Kong is
screaming to the world to be rescued. The UK has an obligation to engage — it
has turned a blind eye for far too long.
China's ambassador to the UK has warned
British politicians against interfering, and the UK has called for "calm
from all sides".
Russia on this seems to be on the same
plane with China, as it too is troubled by demonstrations in Moscow. Russia and
China plan to discuss foreign interference as anti-government protests continue
to rock both Moscow and Hong Kong and accuse the US of meddling.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said
Moscow “took seriously” China’s claims that U.S. intelligence agencies and
other Western secret services “directly participated and organized unrest” in
Hong Kong.
Increasing Chinese influence on the island
territory also threatens Hong Kong’s clout as a major economic hub. For
decades, Hong Kong’s relative autonomy has made the island territory an
appealing place to do business in Asia. But under stronger Chinese rule,
financial markets and regulatory systems in Hong Kong may become less reliable
as they begin to reflect the national interests of China – not those of the
free market.
The crisis in Hong Kong has cast a
particularly bright spotlight on the role of western democratic values at a
moment when authoritarian politics are on the rise across the globe.
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