by Emma Parrott
The ongoing conflict present in Hong Kong since June of 2019 has been a major focus of worldwide attention. Dramatic confrontation between police forces and civilians have ignited a firestorm regarding the imminent re-joining of Hong Kong into Chinese jurisdiction. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced both sides to turn their attention to a second crisis while street protests, and police actions related to the fight surrounding democracy in Hong Kong are halted. Though direct confrontation has paused, COVID-19 has only illuminated the depth of the issues between pro-democracy protesters and Beijing-supported government officials.
Hong Kong is stuck between an older generation of leaders loyal to Beijing and Xi Jinping and young Hongkongers, whose rights and liberties are in jeopardy due to China’s imminent political engulfment of their homeland. The protests and crisis in Hong Kong have shown what happens when two extremely different systems attempt to join into one. The youth of Hong Kong symbolize the spirit of their nation — protective of their rights, democratic system, and freedoms. The government of Hong Kong, even down to its police force, made the decision to borrow from the administration of Xi Jinping, and embrace a more authoritarian approach. Intense conflict with protestors has led police to take aggressive action against protestors, a majority of whom are under 30.
At the height of the protest, police used tear gas, rubber bullets and “unnecessary and excessive use of force” against Hongkongers. Their actions drew condemnation from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. This violence culminated in the point-blank shooting of an 18-year-old student caught on video. The police force stood with their officer, and the officer faced no discipline or charges. The injured student was charged with assaulting the officer involved.
Protestors reacted with their own violence and protections, assembling molotov cocktails and petrol bombs. Though such weapons are assembled in the name of pro-democracy protests, a large proportion of protestors are non-violent. Tensions between police and young protestors came to a head when in November of 2019, a large number of young citizens barricaded themselves inside a local university, PolyU, along with stores of food and weapons. The beginning of the siege started with the blocking of transit ways around the university. For five days, protesters stood their ground in the university and fought back against police operations, which used tear gas, water cannons and even tanks. When protesters finally fled, more than 1,300 were arrested. The siege of PolyU directly preceded the district council elections in Hong Kong and resulted in a massive win for pro-democracy Hongkongers, with pro-democracy candidates taking 87% of seats.
One of the biggest leaders in this conflict is Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, who is backed by Beijing and notoriously staunch in her support of Xi Jinping. She has also embraced “one country, two systems”, a set of ideas that would make Hong Kong under partial control of China and its respective communist policies. Lam has faced criticism in recent years as China begins to make its move at gaining partial control of Hong Kong. Lam herself ignited the start of the conflict when she decided to push for a change in Hong Kong law, one that would allow for people in Hong Kong to be tried in mainland China under a very different judicial system. The concern for pro-democracy protesters and Hongkongers in general is the foundation of the entire conflict: Hongkongers live with rights and privileges that mainland China does not protect, therefore, Hongkongers have liberties and rights to lose when tried under a Chinese judicial system.
These protests regarding the proposed change in law erupted in June 2019, when over one million people in Hong Kong marched to protest the proposed law. When Lam refused to withdraw the bill, more than 1.7 million people marched in protest of her refusal. Lam is now the figurehead of the clash between two different worlds, a much greater and more complicated matter, but her staunch refusal to apologize, back down, or fight for the rights of Hongkongers has made her an enemy of the protesters.
Currently, Carrie Lam and her administration is under fire for her reaction to the COVID-19 crisis. While in the past Lam has appeared as calculating as her counterparts in Xi Jinping’s administration, Lam has not denied that she sent a complaint to Beijing about her “unsatisfactory” cabinet, and furthermore, reports have stated that Lam looked at the crisis in hopes that it could change the political stage in Hong Kong in her and Beijing’s favor. Though such reports are unverified, they are public and circulated and express the same sentiment many Hongkongers criticize and protest against her for.
The Hong Kong government hasn’t mandated a lockdown like Wuhan and greater China, and from a global perspective, Hong Kong has been an example of success in managing and minimizing the spread of COVID-19. Many, however, attribute this success to the individual behavior of Hongkongers, who have been described as acting as “model citizens” throughout the crisis. In addition, while occupied with a health crisis and the cessation of protests, pro-democracy advocates have turned to another form of street action— public health advocacy.
Meanwhile, Lam and her administration have used the cover of COVID-19 to quietly remove and arrest more than ten important leaders of the Hong Kong pro-democracy protest movement. These arrests have been condemned by the United States leaders such as Nancy Pelosi and William Barr. While arrests such as these are transparently political, Lam and her government have claimed the arrests to be “not politically motivated”.
Another concern has been Lam’s decision to keep the border to China open, even as the disparity between cases in each respective country grows (84,325 confirmed cases in China compared to Hong Kong’s 1,038).
Lam’s apparent disregard for the truth is another step towards autocracy, one that no longer respects the rights of Hongkongers to the truth and protection from abuse of power, and one that can lead to the disregard of each Hongkongers right to vote. It is clear that Lam and Beijing are in the fight against protests in order to take away the autonomy and right to democracy of Hongkongers.
While Lam and her police force can breathe easy in the present, due to the empty streets and lack of protest, it is clear that the protestors are not letting up.
Though Hong Kong’s social distancing measures have prevented in-person protests, pro-democracy protests have moved to the online space in order to continue their fight against Lam and her pro-Beijing administration. Protestors have used this crisis period to “regroup and to prepare for another wave of street action.” It is reported that police in Hong Kong have discovered multiple factories that were making bombs in recent times and have arrested 17 people in relation to the factories.
It seems that even as the health crisis rages on, rising tensions between police forces and protestors will culminate in violence in the near future. As one 23-year-old student stated, “ I think everyone would believe that the protest will continue and boost back to the previous scale after the virus, especially in the summer, when most students will be free from school.”
After spending their lockdown advocating for the health of their fellow citizens to a government that disregards the overlying liberties and safety of its people, students of high school age will risk arrest, police brutality, and even their lives to fight for their increasingly threatened rights.
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