China Turns to Hong Kong to Violate People’s Rights while the World Idly Watches
By Jordan Chrispell
Hong Kong was colonized by the United Kingdom until 1997 when it was “returned to China” as a “special administrative region.”[1] Since then, Hong Kong and China function under a “one country, two systems” approach.[2] In the Handover Treaty, China promised the United Kingdom to maintain Hong Kong’s independence for fifty years, until July 1, 2047.[3] This promise was written into the constitution of Hong Kong, which is known as the Basic Law.[4] The constitution provides for Hong Kongers to have freedom of speech, assembly, and an independent judiciary.[5] Overall, Hong Kong is semi-autonomous from China by maintaining separate legal and political systems.[6]
Since the 1997 Chinese takeover, the Hong Kong people have had their freedoms deteriorated while China increasingly exercises control over the city.[7] Peaceful protests over the rights promised to Hong Kongers occurred for two decades after the Chinese takeover.[8] These protests reached a boiling point in March 2019 when the Legislative Council of Hong Kong proposed an extradition bill to China for criminal defendants.[9] Hong Kongers were especially concerned as China is well-known for its due process rights violations.[10]
On June 9, 2019, an estimated one million people took to the streets to protest the extradition bill.[11] Still, the Hong Kong government was unwilling to withdraw the bill.[12] Meanwhile, the protests became more violent as protestors started getting violently dispersed by police officers.[13] At one protest, a few protestors threw bricks, umbrellas, and water bottles at police.[14] In response, police shot off tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd.[15] More commonly, however, unarmed protestors were violently beaten by militarized police forces.[16]
On June 15, 2019, the leader of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam, suspended the extradition bill.[17] Two days later, on June 17, nearly two million people again took to the streets to demand the bill be withdrawn rather than just suspended.[18] Then, on July 1, 2019, a small group of protestors broke into Hong Kong’s parliament to articulate five demands of the government.[19] This became a turning point in the movement that was once focused narrowly on the extradition bill.[20] Afterwards, the movement organized gained the catchphrase of “Five demands, not one less!”[21] The five demands of protestors were:
1. “Fully withdraw the extradition bill
2. Set up an independent inquiry to probe police brutality
3. Withdraw a characterization of early protests as ‘riots’
4. Release those arrested at protests
5. Implement universal suffrage in Hong Kong”[22]
In September 2019, Carrie Lam stated the extradition bill would soon be withdrawn but insisted the other demands of protestors were beyond her authority.[23] Finally, after 20 weeks of protests, the bill was officially withdrawn, on October 23, 2019.[24] Yet protests continued, escalating into the memorable two week long siege at Hong Kong Polytechnic University starting on November 17th.[25] Police officers had barricaded protestors into the campus and fired off rubber bullets and tear gas at them.[26] The young protestors tried to fight back with “catapults, Molotov cocktails and bows and arrows.”[27] The situation was worsened when police accused the protestors of rioting, which was a criminal charge punishable by up to 10 years in jail.[28] Many of the young people attempted to leave the campus and avoid arrest “by crawling through the sewage tunnels” or by “propelling from a bridge down to a highway where motorbikes were waiting.”[29] In the end, about one thousand activists were arrested with many leaving in ambulances requiring medical care.[30] As one journalist reflected, the siege “revealed how this narrative of these clashes between equal parties is just not true.”[31]
Throughout the protests, a number of activists were wounded, including some who were critically injured from police shooting them with live ammunition rounds.[32] Several police officers were injured by a minority of extremist protestors.[33] “Overwhelmingly, though, [t]he police have taken advantage of the violent acts of a small minority as a pretext to use excessive force against the vast majority of peaceful protesters.”[34]
The protests still have not ended, but they have quieted largely due to the pandemic and China’s harsh actions.[35] The Chinese government vocally opposed the protests with President Xi Jinping “saying any attempt to divide China would end in ‘bodies smashed and bones ground to powder.’”[36] Then, on June 30, 2020, China passed a sweeping national security law for Hong Kong that massively restricted the rights of individuals.[37] The law includes the right for China to hold private trials; surveil and wire-tap people suspected of breaking the law; extradite cases; and sentence people to life in prison for certain crimes like secession, terrorism, subversion, and collusion.[38] The law also gives China jurisdiction over people who are not residents of Hong Kong and people who have never visited Hong Kong.[39]
Since the beginning of the protests, over ten thousand people were arrested.[40] Some of those arrested were as young as twelve years old.[41] Leon Tong Ying-kit, who acted as a medic during the protests, was the first person to be put on trial for violating the new national security law.[42] He was ultimately convicted of terrorism and secession and sentenced to nine years in jail.[43] Under the law Tong was denied trial by jury and instead tried by three judges who were handpicked by the anti-democratic Carrie Lam.[44]
The national security law and subsequent arrests/convictions have drawn international criticism.[45] Amnesty International criticized China saying the law was “deeply disturbing” and asked China to drop charges against all the protestors.[46] Officials from forty different countries agree China has violated its Handover Treaty.[47] The United States imposed sanctions on officials who supported the law, while other countries have stopped extraditing people to Hong Kong, and some countries have helped people seek asylum.[48] Still, China steadfastly insists the law was needed to “restore peace and stability” to the city.[49]
The international community should move beyond weak vocal opposition to China’s actions and begin taking concrete action to protect the rights of protestors. This should include advocating for Hong Kong to no longer be under the control of China, or any other colonizer. Ultimately, the international community needs to do to stand up to China, but it is difficult to imagine countries like the United States taking a real stand for democracy when our government similarly “threaten[s] violence against [people] protesting police brutality and racism.”[50]
[1] Chi-Keung Leung, Hong Kong, Britannica https://www.britannica.com/place/Hong-Kong (last visited Jan. 16, 2021).
[2] Iain Marlow, Will 2047 Be the End of Hong Kong as We Know It?, Bloomberg (Dec. 30, 2019), https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2019-hong-kong-expiration/.
[3] Robert Olsen, U.K. Says China breached Hong Kong Handover Treaty for Third Time, Forbes (Mar. 14, 2021), https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertolsen/2021/03/14/uk-says-china-breached-hong-kong-handover-treaty-for-third-time/?sh=7c706d632cb4.
[4] Greg Torode & James Pomfret, Explainer: Hong Kong’s ‘borrowed time’ – worry about 2047 hangs over protests, Reuters (Aug. 23, 2019), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-protests-explainer/explainer-hong-kongs-borrowed-time-worry-about-2047-hangs-over-protests-idUSKCN1VD0S6.
[5] Id.
[6] Jessie Yeung, From an extradition bill to a political crisis: A guide to the Hong Kong protests, CNN (Dec. 20, 2019), https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/15/asia/hong-kong-protests-explainer-intl-hnk-scli/index.html.
[7] Torode & Pomfret, supra note 4.
[8] Hong Kong Protests, Human Rights Watch (Dec. 6, 2019), https://www.hrw.org/blog-feed/hong-kong-protests.
[9] Id.
[10] Id.
[11] Amy Guina et al., Hong Kong Suspends Controversial China Extradition Bill After Massive Protests, TIME (updated June 18, 2019), https://time.com/5607678/hong-kong-extradition-bill-suspended/.
[12] Preeti Jha, Hong Kong protests: The flashpoints in a year of anger, BBC News (Aug. 31, 2020), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-53942295.
[13] Hong Kong: Peaceful protestors targeted as police start 2020 with renewed attack on dissent, Amnesty International (Jan. 2, 2020), https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/01/hong-kong-peaceful-protesters-targeted/.
[14] Jha, supra note 12.
[15] Id.
[16] Id.
[17] Guina, supra note 11.
[18] Hong Kong protest: ‘Nearly two million’ join demonstration, BBC News (June 17, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-48656471.
[19] Jha, supra note 12.
[20] Id.
[21] The Hong Kong protests explained in 100 and 500 words, BBC News (Nov. 28, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-49317695.
[22] Yeung, supra note 6.
[23] Justin Solomon, Hong Kong Extradition Bill officially withdrawn, ABC News (Oct. 23, 2019), https://abcnews.go.com/International/hong-kong-extradition-bill-officially-withdrawn/story?id=66464962.
[24] Id.
[25] Jha, supra note 12.
[26] Id.
[27] Id.
[28] Id.
[29] Id.
[30] Id.
[31] Id.
[32] James Palmer, Hong Kong’s Violence Will Get Worse, Foreign Policy (Nov. 11, 2019), https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/11/police-killing-protests-beijing-lam-xi-hong-kong-violence-will-get-worse/.
[33] David K. Li, At least 72 injured in violent Hong Kong protests over extradition bill, NBC News (June 12, 2019), https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/least-72-injured-violent-hong-kong-protests-over-extradition-bill-n1016866.
[34] Id.
[35] Austin Ramzy & Mike Ives, Hong Kong Protests, One Year Later, NY Times (June 9, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/world/asia/hong-kong-protests-one-year-later.html.
[36] Hong Kong protests: President Xi warns of ‘bodies smashed’, BBC News (Oct 14, 2019) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-50035229.
[37] Hong Kong security law: What is it and is it worrying?, BBC News (June 30, 2020), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-52765838.
[38] Id.
[39] Riyaz ul Khaliq, Amnesty criticizes Hong Kong nation security law, Anadolu Agency (Aug. 4, 2021), https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/amnesty-criticizes-hong-kong-nation-security-law/2202167.
[40] Ng Kang-chung, Hong Kong protests: more than 10,200 arrested in connection with unrest since 2019, government tells lawmakers, South China Morning Post (April 9, 2021),
[41] Jennifer Jett & Austin Ramzy, From Protestor to Prisoner: How Hong Kong is Stifling Dissent, NY Times (May 28, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/world/asia/hong-kong-arrests-court.html.
[42] Ramy Inocencio, Hong Kong protester convicted in first trial under Chinese national security law, CBS News (July 27, 2021), https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hong-kong-protester-leon-tong-ying-kit-convicted-first-trial-china-national-security-law/.
[43] Kelly Ho, Activist Tong Ying-kit jailed for 9 years in Hong Kong’s first national security case, Hong Kong Free Press (July 30, 2021), https://hongkongfp.com/2021/07/30/breaking-activist-tong-ying-kit-jailed-for-9-years-in-hong-kongs-first-national-security-case/.
[44] Inocencio, supra note 42.
[45] Jett & Ramzy, supra note 41.
[46] Khaliq, supra note 39.
[47] Benedict Rogers & Johnny Patterson, How Can the World Help Hong Kong?, The Diplomat (July 1, 2020), https://thediplomat.com/2020/07/how-can-the-world-help-hong-kong/.
[48] Jett & Ramzy, supra note 41.
[49] Ho, supra note 43.
[50] Michael H. Fuchs, The US needs to stand up for Hong Kong to deter China’s crackdowns, The Guardian (June 1, 2020), https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/01/the-us-needs-to-stand-up-for-hong-kong-to-deter-chinas-crackdowns.