Hong Kong’s freedom is in danger
From scary new extradition rules.
Some people in Hong Kong could end up
extradited to mainland China.
But the people of Hong Kong are fighting back.
Welcome back to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
Umbrellas are once again in the streets of Hong Kong.
Not because of foul weather—
more like foul laws that rain down on freedom
and wash away democratic institutions.
The Hong Kong government has proposed amendments
to Hong Kong’s extradition laws.
If passed, people in Hong Kong
could be extradited to mainland China
to face trial for things that are illegal in China.
So Hong Kongers did what they’re so good at:
They protested.
En masse.
130,000 people.
Clearly, no one wants to be extradited to mainland China.
“The way they have organised this law,
as soon as they want to extradite you,
it’s hopeless.
The scariest thing is that in the mainland
they can detain you via executive order.
No crime is needed.”
It’s scary because China
has very different laws than Hong Kong.
Laws that say criticizing the Communist Party
or practicing religion are punishable by long prison sentences.
And even if they don’t have a law for the thing you did,
don’t worry,
they can make one up.
Back in 1997,
the UK had to give Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China.
But they were concerned that the Chinese regime
would immediately take away Hong Kong people’s freedom.
So the British had the Chinese government
sign the Sino-British Joint Declaration—
where China promised not to change Hong Kong’s laws
for at least 50 years.
Only *after* 50 years,
could the Chinese regime take away Hong Kong people’s freedom.
But it’s been only 22 years,
and already the Chinese regime is like,
“What Sino-British Joint Declaration?
Haha, suckers!”
But taking away Hong Kong’s freedoms
has been done little by little,
step by step.
Mostly by the Chinese regime
gradually influencing the Hong Kong government,
which is made up of an unusual combination of
elected officials and business groups,
often with Mainland ties.
And then, from within Hong Kong’s government,
the Chinese regime uses the law to undermine freedoms.
So it’s all done legally.
This became apparent in 2003,
when the Hong Kong government proposed Article 23,
an anti-subversion law.
It would have allowed Hong Kong authorities
to charge citizens with treason or subversion for things like...
saying Hong Kong should be independent from mainland China.
Article 23 would have also allowed police
to search people’s homes,
seize property,
and detain people without a warrant,
as long as they *suspected* someone of treason or subversion.
Even for so-called crimes like
handing out anti-Communist Party pamphlets.
I mean, just look at this man handing out a flyer
on how the Communist Party persecutes Falun Gong.
Information is very dangerous.
The good news is,
half a million Hong Kong residents looked at Article 23 and said
“Nope!”
And they got the government to ultimately back down and not pass it.
That was 2003.
Then in 2014,
the Hong Kong government said they would allow people
to vote for their Chief Executive—
which is like a governor—
but only from among candidates
that the Chinese Communist Party pre-approved.
And once again, the people of Hong Kong
looked at this encroachment on their freedom and said,
“Nope!”
That’s how the 2014 Umbrella Movement began—
where thousands of people occupied major streets
in Hong Kong in protest for 79 days.
But after that,
the Chinese Communist Party got more clever.
They probably had a hand in getting
democratically elected pro-democracy legislators
disqualified from parliament
And they pressured Hong Kong to go
after people for protesting in the Umbrella Movement.
Just last week,
a Hong Kong court sentenced nine leaders to prison—
some of them for as long as 16 months.
Their crime?
Creating a “public nuisance.”
And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Or the bamboo that broke the panda’s back.
Or something.
Anyway, this past Sunday, April 28,
130,000 Hong Kongers protested the latest encroachment:
the new extradition rules.
Hong Kong already has extradition treaties with 20 countries—
but they’re free countries,
like the US and the UK.
But under the proposed changes,
the Hong Kong Chief Executive
“would have the right to order the extradition
of wanted offenders to China, Macau and Taiwan.”
But don’t worry!
Hong Kong promises they’re totally
not going to use it against dissidents.
“The [Hong Kong] government justified
the swift introduction of the changes
by saying they are needed so a young Hong Kong man
suspected of murdering his girlfriend in Taiwan
can be extradited to face charges there.”
Riiight, for that one case involving Taiwan,
it’s necessary to allow extraditions to mainland China now, too.
Why not just have a bilateral extradition treaty
between Hong Kong and Taiwan?
Well, because the Chinese Communist Party
considers Taiwan part of China.
So I don’t think they’d be too happy
if the Hong Kong government had a deal with Taiwan
and it didn’t have with Mainland China.
They’re the same country after all.
So the excuse is obviously flimsy.
But don’t worry,
you can trust the government.
They won’t abuse the law!
Now to all those people who say,
Chris Chappell, you’re exaggerating!
The law only applies to serious crimes,
not dissidents!
Well, you’re technically right.
It only applies to crimes that
“if the conduct had occurred in Hong Kong,
would constitute an offence...punishable in Hong Kong
with imprisonment for more than 3 years.”
But remember,
Hong Kong just jailed a bunch of democracy activists
to 16 months in prison for the “crime”
of creating a public nuisance.
So there’s already a trend away from Hong Kong’s
traditional British-style freedoms.
But to be fair,
this current round of changes to the extradition law
is not at the level of allowing mainland Chinese authorities
to just go into Hong Kong
to grab any activist they want.
But it very likely *is* step 1 in a larger plan—
a plan to make Hong Kong’s legal system
look a lot more like the legal system in the rest of China.
It’s also possible dissidents
aren’t the main target of the extradition law.
They might just be icing on the cake.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping is in a life or death power struggle
with a rival faction in the Chinese Communist Party
made up of officials and businesspeople
tied to former Chinese leader,
and retired Battletoad, Jiang Zemin.
Since everyone’s corrupt in the Communist Party,
Xi Jinping has been using what he calls
an anti-corruption campaign to go after them.
“Since Xi started the push in 2012,
authorities have investigated more than 2.7 million officials
and punished more than 1.5 million people.”
The problem is, many of Xi Jinping’s rivals
have fled with their ill gotten gains to Hong Kong.
Like a jar of honey,
just out of reach.
In fact, it’s widely believed Jiang’s political faction
still controls Hong Kong.
The new extradition law could help Xi
purge his rivals in Hong Kong,
so he’d have greater control.
Xi Jinping’s got Jiang under close watch.
In this scenario, Piglet is obviously me.
So it could be part of the reason why this protest
has united both democracy activists and businesspeople—
to say no to the extradition proposal.
Notice the sign says “No China Extradition.”
No one seems to be concerned about Taiwan Extradition.
And that reflects the larger problem.
Normally, extradition only happens between countries
that have a comparable legal system—
allowing fair trials,
and allowing the accused access to a lawyer.
So it makes sense to extradite people from Hong Kong
to the UK, or the US, or even Taiwan,
not that I’m saying Taiwan is a country.
But mainland China?
People in mainland China
sometimes don’t even get a trial.
They just sit in prison,
like this Chinese journalist.
Or are denied access to a lawyer,
like this Australian writer.
Or if you’re like this elderly Falun Gong practitioner,
face trial,
but it lasts only 20 minutes
and you’re not allowed to defend yourself.
Her “crime,” by the way,
was distributing flyers exposing
how the Communist Party persecutes Falun Gong.
Tragic irony.
So anyway,
Hong Kong’s new extradition rules
are just one small step towards bringing
Hong Kong’s legal system closer to mainland China.
But the Hong Kong government
wants to make sure you don’t worry about it!
It’s really just to make sure that suspected murderer
faces trial in Taiwan.
But Hong Kongers over the weekend still said “Nope!”
And now they want Hong Kong’s chief executive
to step down over it.
For them, that’s “step 1”.
So what do you think the protests over
Hong Kong’s new extradition rules?
Will protesters be able to block them?
Leave your comments below.
And before I go,
now’s the time for me to answer a question from one of you—
who supports China Uncensored
through the crowdfunding website Patreon.
carbide149 asks:
“If Chinese citizens are able to travel abroad,
what is stopping them from learning the truth about
the atrocities the CCP is covering up
such as the Tiananmen Square Massacre?
Nothing is technically stopping them.
And a lot of them do learn some shocking things
when they travel to free countries.
Except that the Communist Party
has done such an excellent job of brainwashing people
that even when some mainland Chinese citizens travel abroad,
they reject the truth even after seeing it on TV,
or being handed a flyer,
or talking to foreigners.
A lot of times,
when people encounter criticism of the Chinese Communist Party,
they conflate that with criticism of *China*—
their country—
so they reject it.
Like they take it personally.
Or they learn about the Tiananmen Square Massacre,
but they think, oh,
well it happened a long time ago,
and the students were also agitating the situation.
It often takes a long time for them to realize that
they’ve been lied to their whole lives.
And nearly all Chinese language media outside China
are controlled through either Communist Party money
or outright ownership—
so there’s still a lot of Chinese people
that never really learn how bad the Communist Party is.
Thanks for your question, carbide149.
And thank all of you for supporting China Uncensored.
At least Chinese people can come watch China Uncensored
to learn about the real Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Stay tuned for our upcoming 30-year anniversary episode,
where I sit down with a special guest who was there.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
See you next time.