Hyderabad: Street protests continue in Hong Kong over a National Security Law proposed by Beijing last month. Beijing says continued protests that sparked off last June are ‘embodying acts of subversion with elements calling for secession’, charges that activists and pro-democracy political leaders in Hong Kong deny.
A former British colony, Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997 under the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ arrangement with special rights and autonomy. Hong Kong has its own judiciary and a legal system separate from mainland China that allows rights including freedom of assembly and speech.
Last June, unprecedented social unrest broke out with an estimated one million people taking to spontaneous protests against an Extradition Bill. The bill which was later withdrawn in September would have allowed the extradition of fugitives to mainland China. Critics feared this could undermine judicial independence and put lives of dissidents speaking out against Chinese authoritarianism at risk. Since then demonstrations have continued in Hong Kong with activists demanding full democracy and an inquiry into police excesses.
The New National Security Law proposed in May this year has now added fuel to the fire with experts believing that Xi Jinping’s position in China has been questioned and weakened because of the demonstrations. Many Indian observers believe that Chinese aggression on the Line of Actual Control is also triggered by events in Hong Kong and Taiwan which have led to unprecedented criticism of President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party domestically.
Senior Journalist Smita Sharma spoke to the leader of the Civic Party and legislator Alvin Yeung in Hong Kong about the ground situation, demands on the table and international dynamics of the ongoing protests. In November last year, Hong Kong held local council elections that saw a landslide victory for the pro-democracy movement with 17 of the 18 councils now controlled by councillors fighting for full democracy. Alvin Yeung says that the people of Hong Kong are saying no to the National Security Law that infringes upon their rights and making reasonable demands promised under the Basic Law. He said that the demand for secession does not resonate among majority sections and that Beijing does not respect ‘One Country, Two Systems’ or promises of autonomy. Alvin added that people speaking out in
Hong Kong faces fears of a crackdown and extreme challenges but these ‘leaderless’ protests will continue.
Here is the full text of the exclusive conversation.
Q- Beijing says this new law is needed to protect national security and ‘curb terrorism’. How do you view this argument?
Alvin Eyung: Hong Kong under ‘One Country, Two Systems’ has its own set of rules. We are governed by the Basic Law that is like a mini Constitution of Hong Kong. Inside this Basic Law, there is one article that states so clearly about national security. That the Hong Kong government should legislate its own set of legislation in relation to national security. So that is part of a domestic issue and should be governed by people of Hong Kong. In 2003, the Hong Kong government tried to put forward a controversial national security bill and half a million people took to the street and said no to it. Since then no administration has dared to put forward something similar because we understand that it is so controversial you have to make sure that your rights are well-protected. Since Hong Kong still does not have full democracy we cannot choose our own Chief Executive, only half the legislature is elected by the people. So you can imagine people of Hong Kong are not well protected. So people are saying No to National Security Law because that is going to infringe our rights. Since last year there have been protests on the street because people have been fighting against the extradition bill. Since then we have met with police brutality and this government decided to turn a blind eye to police brutality and basically back the police force without considering any consequences. So Beijing right now is saying that I do no care about Basic Law, I do not care about the promises, I am going to impose this National Security Law without consulting the people of Hong Kong, without going through our legislature, without giving a chance to people to say No.
Q- China has insisted that "foreign forces" are to blame for the turmoil in Hong Kong, where pro-democracy protesters are being labelled as terrorists- described by Beijing as rioters.
Alvin Eyung: All authoritarian governments are the same. Basically blame everybody. Like the opposition, university students they called foreign forces. But they never put forward any evidence. They never really have the guts to have a self-reflection of what they have done. What this government fails to do is to look into the eyes of the people of Hong Kong and say I am wrong, yes there is something wrong in my governance and I am going to improve it. What they are doing is basically point the fingers at each and every one of us but for themselves. Last year they failed to push forward a controversial bill with all these consequences. This year they tried to fix the problem by introducing an even worse piece of legislation.
Q- What are the demands of the protesters? Is secession also a demand on the table?
Alvin Eyung: Some people are calling for that but that is not shared by the majority. Hong Kong people since last year have been calling for five demands. Universal suffrage that is a right to choose our own government. That is promised under the Basic Law. We are not asking for the Moon here. We need an independent enquiry to look into police brutality. This government still refuses to set up a committee to look into police brutalities. That is extremely disappointing. We want this government to stop prosecuting people on political charges, this is completely wrong. Do these demands sound extremely unreasonable to anybody? No. In an ordinary free world, the government would have done this without people demanding for that.