It’s been months since Hong Kong demonstrators
took to the streets in what started as protests
against a controversial extradition bill
and have now turned into a massive movement
against China’s authoritarian government.
The pro-democracy demonstrations
quickly turned violent when protestors continued
to march in areas of the cities banned by the police.
This, unfortunately, gave authorities the perfect excuse
to meet protestors with violence.
According to The New York Times, Hong Kong police
have fired nearly 2000 rounds of teargas
against demonstrators in these past months.
In late July, a group of men dressed in white and
armed with wooden sticks and steel rods appeared
in the city’s Yuen Long MTR station at midnight
attacking protestors and by-standers alike
leaving 45 injured,
including one person in critical condition.
Many believe these armed thugs were paid by
the Hong Kong government though Chief Executive,
Carrie Lam denies these allegations.
Meanwhile, Chinese media claims the protests
have all been orchestrated by the CIA,
describing them as: “behavior that is close to terrorism.”
and carrying out military demonstrations
on the other side of the border in an attempt
to intimidate the unrelenting protestors.
So far, it hasn’t worked.
They movement has shown no sign of stopping
that is until the Hong Kong government
listens to their demands.
But what exactly are the protestors demanding
and why do their demands matter?
You’re watching Explore Mode and today
we’re diving into the Hong Kong protests
and the five demands demonstrators are marching for.
The protestors have five demands:
First, the complete removal of the proposed changes
to the extradition bill
Second, for the government to stop referring
to the protests as ‘riots’
Third, the total release of arrested protesters
including dropping charges against them
Fourth, an independent investigation into police behavior
And fifth, the enforcement of universal suffrage
The second, third and fourth demands
are quite self-explanatory.
We’ll get into the first and fifth.
The first demand was the catalyst
of the pro-democracy movement.
In February of 2019, the Hong Kong government
announced it would revise The Fugitive Offenders and
Mutual Legal Assistance
in Criminal Matters Legislation Bill .
Now commonly referred to as The Extradition Bill.
The revisions would allow Hong Kong to decide
case-by-case whether to transfer suspected criminals to
territories it doesn’t have formal extradition deals with.
Government officials say the bill amendments
were proposed in response to a murder case,
where a Hongkongese local escaped Taiwan
after allegedly murdering his pregnant girlfriend
while traveling there.
The accused man fled back to Hong Kong.
The lack of an extradition bill between the two territories
prevented him from standing trial in Taiwan.
Authorities claim the bill would fix these legal loopholes
so that Hong Kong would not be a refuge for criminals.
So does that mean Hong Kongers are against
a bill that would hold criminals accountable?
Not quite.
Hong Kong hosts several political refugees and
Chinese dissidents who have fled the CCP’s
authoritarian government.
If the bill were to pass,
many of these refugees and virtually anyone
who openly denounces the Chinese government
would risk facing China’s arbitrary legal system.
Between October and December 2015,
five staff of Causeway Bay Books,
an independent book shop in Hong Kong,
disappeared under suspicious circumstances
only to resurface under detention in Chinese territory.
The cause for detention?
Publishing and selling books that are banned in China
or that criticize the Chinese regime.
After their case caught the attention of
the international media,
the book shop owners were released.
According to the South China Morning Post,
China accused them of selling 4,000 banned books
from Hong Kong to 380 customers in China
since October 2014.
If the proposed amendments were to pass,
the book shop owners living in Hong Kong
and other political activists would be in grave danger.
To those unfamiliar with the history of Hong Kong,
it may come as a surprise that the region holds elections
and yet protestors are asking for the right to vote
but the truth of the matter is,
China has been tightening its grip around Hong Kong’s
democracy and they have the final say in
who gets elected as the region’s Chief Executive.
But to understand why protestors are asking for
universal suffrage we must understand Hong Kong’s
complicated political past.
Here’s an Express Explore Explanation. Start the clock:
Hong Kong went from being part of the Qing Dynasty
Empire to being surrendered to the British Empire
at the End of the First Opium War in 1842.
After winning the Second Opium War in 1860,
the British Empire forced the Qing Dynasty
to lease the New Territories,
which includes Hong Kong Island and the
Kowloon Peninsula for 99 years, starting from 1898.
In 1997 the territories were handed back to China
under the condition that the CCP would allow the region
to follow a “One Country, Two Systems” form of
government that would let Hong Kong
have its own economic, political, and administrative
system for 50 years after the hand over.
Hong Kong’s autonomy will last until 2047,
a deadline that looms harshly
over its progressive citizens.
So, unlike China, Hong Kong does have an
election system but not everyone can vote.
Instead, only members of the Election Committee
are allowed to elect Hong Kong’s leader.
Here’s how it works:
The Election Committee is an electoral college
made up of 1,200 members.
Elections for the Committee happen every five years.
Each member belongs to one of four sectors
called functional constituencies, which include:
The industrial, commercial and financial sectors
The professions, which include sub sectors like
education, health services, and chinese medicine
Labour, social services, religious and
other sectors
and finally governmental authorities
Each sector has a total of 300 members
which can be further categorized into sub sectors.
Here’s the catch, only those who are part of
these four constituencies can vote for
the Election Committee.
In 2016, only 3 percent of Hong Kong’s population
were allowed to cast their vote.
That’s a shocking statistic for a region
with over 7 million citizens.
And even though the Election Committee
gets to choose the Chief Executive candidates,
the elected candidate has to go through a final hurdle,
that is being approved by Beijing.
This election system makes it virtually impossible
to elect a candidate that’s not essentially a puppet
of the Chinese regime.
But why is China, which is already
an economic powerhouse,
holding on to Hong Kong so tightly?
Well, Hong Kong is a key financial hub in Asia
and ironically, its openness to foreign markets
make it essential for China to have economic access
to international businesses,
in fact, the majority of Chinese foreign investment
flows through Hong Kong.
According to The Economist,
the region enjoys many benefits from having an
open economy that China does not have such as:
“a higher credit rating;
lower risk-weights for bank and counterparty exposures;
the ability to clear dollars easily;
independent membership of the WTO;
“equivalence” status for its stock exchange with those
in America, Europe and Japan;
recognition as a “developed” stockmarket
by index firms and cooperation agreements
with other securities regulators.”
But apart from the region’s economic value,
what China fears most is what the protests symbolize.
A defiance to their power,
a type of defiance they had not had to face
since the 1989 Tiananmen protests.
But unlike the young university students
that hopefully took over Tiananmen Square
over thirty years ago only to be met by
ruthlessly violent authorities,
Hong Kong protesters know better than to
face police unarmed and unprotected.
Geared with gas masks and protective eyewear,
they fearlessly lunge bricks and umbrellas at police
and have even devised ways
to neutralize teargas canisters.
They have been criticized for not maintaining
the peaceful protest approach they had begun with.
But can a society truly fight for a new political order
through peaceful marches?
Thanks for watching Explore Mode.
If you like topics like these make sure to check out
the videos we’ve made on the
Tiananmen Square Massacre
and China’s Surveillance state.
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