Democracy Remains in Hong Kong

Democracy Remains in Hong Kong: It’s Not All that Bad

By: Landon Pollock

The 2019 Hong Kong protests have likely been one of the greatest displays of civil disobedience in modern history. Throughout the 6 months that the protests persisted (quickly quelled by the COVID-19 outbreak in late 2019) up to 2 million Hongkongers took to the streets, maintaining their civil rights in the face of an encroaching China. I suggest that this story is maybe the best to come out of 2019 and will be remembered for decades to come - hopefully not forgotten about because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

What is the Relationship Between Mainland China and Hong Kong?

Hong Kong and China maintain a tense relationship, which is described as one country, two systems. Hong Kong is legally a part of China, situated on its southern coast. It was colonized by Britain in the 1840s during the Opium Wars and regained independence in 1997. Due to its colonial history, Hong Kong enjoys far more civil liberties than those in mainland China. The British cession of Hong Kong to China stipulated that Hongkongers would maintain their own way of life until the year 2047, entirely sovereign from Beijing. Hong Kong’s Basic Law (the closest they have to a constitution) states that Hong Kong shall self administer. However, the Basic Law also gives mainland China the ability to appoint the chief executive of Hong Kong. Chief executives are appointed by a 1200 strong election committee, many of whom are Beijing loyalists. Effectively, the Chief Executive the committee wants is the Chief Executive Beijing wants. Many HongKongers are not okay with this and want a universal suffrage system, where one citizen has one vote. In 2017, Hong Kong almost achieved this, however Beijing stipulated that candidates must be chosen from a nominating committee. China would have chosen who was on this committee. Ultimately, the Hong Kong legislature rejected the voting system and the 1200 person election committee remains.

Why Exactly did the Protests Start in 2019?

Supposedly, the bill was prompted by a 2018 case where a Hong Kong man killed his wife in Taiwan. The man fled to Hong Kong, which lacked a formal extradition bill with Taiwan. As such, the man could not be sent back to face trial. The Hong Kong political class (many of whom are Beijing loyalists) used this as an opportunity to introduce amendments that would allow extradition to countries that they do not have formal extradition agreements with- notably China. However, some have called the 2018 murder a “phony excuse.” Jerome A. Cohen, an expert on Asian Relations at the Council of Foreign Affairs said that “everybody knew - who paid attention to it - that this was a long overdue effort to extradite people from Hong Kong to China.” These amendments would give sweeping powers to China, a country that has been known to imprison dissenters who speak out against the Communist Party of China (CCP) regime. Hong Kong has enjoyed freedom of speech for many years and under the new amendment, those who speak out against Beijing would be subject to extradition to the mainland. The amendments were proposed in March and expected to go through the legislature in June. On June 9th, 1 million Hong Kongers took to the streets to protest. A few days later, the bill was “indefinitely suspended.” Protesting and rioting persisted throughout the summer, with police forces using tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets on dissenting crowds. On August 18th, the protest had its biggest showing: 2 million in the streets. On September 4th, the bill was formally retracted. However, the protesters were not yet satisfied. The protests have now morphed more generally into a fight against state intervention by Beijing and full democracy for Hong Kong.

Many at this point began to realize that the only way Hong Kong is to ever have absolute freedom from China, is to have universal suffrage in their voting system.

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Global Implications

Global response to the protests have been mixed. China itself has built up its military presence around Hong Kong, as well as inside: in July there were 12000 members of the People’s Liberation Army throughout the city. Trump, in the midst of a trade war with China, stated that it was a “tough situation” and that he stood with both Hong Kong and Jinping. Commentators have speculated that his evasiveness on taking a side is due to his wanting to complete the trade deal before the next election cycle. The UK has also been tight lipped on the protests, despite them having a historical claim in the issue. In the midst of Brexit, they likely do not want to alienate China by overtly supporting Hong Kong: it is likely China will end up being one of their key trading partners once out of the EU.

It’s Not All Bad

Hong Kong standing up to the world’s greatest dictator is maybe one of the best things to happen in 2019. 7 million people averted the state intervention of a 1.4 billion strong behemoth. On paper, that would sound impossible. However, the fight for freedom and democracy has been achieved at similar odds before: think of the American Revolution. A comparatively small, ragtag army of patriots using sloppy, guerilla warfare tactics to defeat Britain, vastly more powerful than the 13 colonies. Who knows? Maybe in hundreds of years, the 2019 protests will be taught in history books the same way the American Revolution is. Hopefully its legacy will not be washed away because of the COVID 19 outbreak. The Hong Kong protests should cement for people that when people are fighting for freedom and liberty, great things can happen out of seemingly horrible odds. This upholding of democracy is the most explicit the world has seen in many years and should exemplify that the fight for democracy will never be over. The 2019 Hong Kong protests is important for democracy because it is a wake up call that power hungry autocrats exist in the 21st century, as they did in 1939 and many centuries previous. Let this wake up call not be lost on us, nor the importance of combating oppressive regimes that seek to stamp out democracy.

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