To lose this battle would be to give up our way of life, says Fernando Cheung, a member of the Legislative Council
This is a by-invitation commentary in a series on “Hong Kong’s Future,” part of The Economist’s Open Future initiative, which aims to foster a global conversation across the ideological spectrum on vital issues. You can comment here or on Facebook and Twitter. More articles can be found at Economist.com/openfuture
IT HAS now become clear that this is a fight between two civilisations. Hong Kongers are fighting to defend Hong Kong as an open society: one that is free, where personal safety and property are protected by the rule of law. The enemy, communist China and its puppet government headed by Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who represent dictatorship and the winners of a highly unequal society, have been struggling to tame a defiant young generation using the police and triads.
These protests were sparked by a bill that would have allowed the mainland regime to extradite Hong Kongers to be tried and imprisoned in China, further eroding the personal safety and liberty of 7m people. If it weren’t for the tens of thousands of young people, mostly students, who surrounded the Legislative Council (LegCo) building on June 12th, making it impossible for the pro-China legislators to enter the building, the extradition bill would have passed.
Mrs Lam was soon forced to suspend the bill. But she has refused to withdraw it altogether and, as the police take increasingly aggressive, violent measures against protesters, she has rejected a demand from protesters for an independent commission of inquiry to investigate police brutality. She has remained completely unmoved by the growing outcry. She has disappeared from the public for days at a time, and her government has condemned protesters for violence while thanking the police for their diligence. But what the public has seen via livestream media coverage is excessive police brutality.
Hong Kongers are fighting to defend … an open society; one that is free, [and] protected by the rule of law.
Then came the Yuen Long saga on July 21st, where white-shirted thugs were allowed to beat people up indiscriminately in a train station. There is ample evidence that the police were well aware of the incident. Yet not a single police officer arrived until the thugs had finished their job and left.
In one astonishing televised scene, a high-ranking police officer denied having seen anyone carrying weapons, while a split screen showed a large group of white shirt thugs nearby were carrying long iron bars in their hands. No one has yet been charged for the beatings. Meanwhile more than 110 protesters have been charged, many of them with rioting, a crime with a maximum penalty of ten years of imprisonment.
The Yuen Long incident also revealed possible manipulation by the Chinese Communist Party. There were no clear motives for thugs and triads to engage in such risky behaviour unless they were mobilised. Pro-China legislator Junius Ho was filmed shaking hands and thanking the triads for their hard work at the scene.
Almost a week later, Matthew Cheung, the chief secretary and the head of all civil services, made a tepid apology for the mishandling of the Yuen Long incident. He was quickly condemned by police associations for misrepresenting the police. As a disciplined force, the police are not allowed to comment on public policies, let alone rebuke their superior.
It is quite clear that the Hong Kong police are now more powerful than the civil government. The Chinese Communist Party has clearly taken control and they could very well be directly supervising the police. In fact, during a recent press conference Carrie Lam evaded a question about whether she even has the authority to withdraw the extradition bill on her own.
It is quite clear that the Hong Kong police are now more powerful than the civil government
Social unrest has continued and protests have been happening all over the city. Most of the protests end in violent confrontations between the police and protesters. Both sides have continued to escalate their level of violence and tactics. Every weekend, there is urban guerrilla warfare, and the smoke and stinging smell of tear gas is almost unavoidable.
On August 5th alone, the police fired more than 800 tear-gas canisters in several residential districts. On August 11th, they fired tear-gas into an indoor metro station, endangering people’s safety in an enclosed space. The media also caught police posing as protestors dressing exactly like them, wearing all black with masks. Livestream footage showed these supposed protesters assisting the police in arresting other protesters, holding batons and leaving together in a private van.
With such actions and rhetoric the government and the police have completely lost their credibility and legitimacy in the eyes of many Hong Kongers. I have attended almost all major protests in the past two months and I have found the hot spots for confrontation are police stations. In many instances, it wasn’t the protesters but local residents who were the ones yelling at the police for their brutality and the disturbances they have caused in their neighbourhoods.
If the Chinese regime is counting on the resumption of school to halt this movement, they can forget it. A recent poll showed that nearly 90% of senior high school students support a strike and that close to half of them will participate come September. Despite the injuries and more than 700 arrests, there is no sign of the protests subsiding.
The Chinese troops being deployed to the border, and the threat that they can reach the centre of Hong Kong in ten minutes, do not mean much to many protesters. They know the Communist Party has a lot to lose itself since taking over a good proportion of businesses in Hong Kong. The line from the “Hunger Games” series, “If we burn, you burn with us” has become a popular motto among protesters.
To lose it is to give up … the freedom and human rights that have been guaranteed by the rule of law
To many Hong Kongers, this is the final battle. To lose it is to give up our way of life, including the freedoms and human rights that have been guaranteed under the rule of law. There is no room for any compromises. Many oppressive measures against human-rights lawyers and political dissidents and the recent re-education camps in Xinjiang are widely reported here.
To many young people, this is the battle to preserve their identity as Hong Kongers. To them, China is authoritarian, vulgar, brutal, materialistic and uncivilised. This is a fight against being integrated into and absorbed by China. While China has grown into a superpower, practically colonising many developing nations, Hong Kong remains one defiant “colony” that will never surrender our core values for economic stability.
Our young are no longer satisfied with being reduced to survivors. Hong Kong is an international city that shares a similar set of values and way of life with the developed world. Judging by military strength, this is David versus Goliath. Please do not let Hong Kong fight alone.
__________
Fernando Cheung is the vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Labour Party and a member of the Legislative Council.
Other articles in the “Hong Kong’s Future” series include commentaries by: Regina Ip Christine Loh
