LM Reporter
Amonth has passed since the Hong Kong government made use of the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to adopt a regulation that bans the public from wearing masks in public assemblies and demonstrations. Yet the situation in this former British colony has not got any better.
Violent clashes between the protesters and the beleaguered police force have heated up further and, perhaps, reached a climax on 12 November 2019. The police force turned their target to student dormitories of universities, where the college students reside in.
Since June 2019, thousands of citizens have been arrested for participating in the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill (“Anti-ELAB”) movement. More than one-third of them were students, who were considered to be more active on the frontline and could take more risks in fighting back the brutal force used by the police. At least compared to the grown-ups, who may have family and financial burdens and be obliged to take supportive roles instead.
After a university student, Alex Chow, passed away five days after falling from height during a clash between protesters and the police whereas the truth behind his death remains a mystery due to inconsistent descriptions and chronologies given by the police, the city’s anger towards the unconstrained behaviour and acts by the police grew to a new height.
On 11 November, teargas bombs were used by the police in Central, the central business district of Hong Kong, where political, commercial, financial and professional elites work and have social gatherings at. The workforce in the area suffered from the choking gas during lunch hour despite the protest taking place in this area usually tends to be mild and peaceful.
The government has done literally nothing to ease the concern of the public in relation to the brutality of the police force, which started with teargas in June and was followed by rubber bullets, bean bag bullets and, eventually, live rounds. Back in October, a18-year old was shot in close distance, while the spokesmen of the police wasted no time before declaring the use of live rounds was “reasonable and legal”.
Worse to worse, on 11 November, Monday, when the public mourning for Alex Chow called for a strike and protesters started blocking the traffic early in the morning, a man in blackbloc with no weapons in hand was shot by a traffic police at point-blank range. His kidney and liver were both torn by the bullet and he was once in critical condition.
Without any apologies, as anticipated, the police defended the traffic police’s reaction and claimed that the injured man was trying to seize the gun in the policeman’s hand, while the reason for the policeman to pull out the gun could never be properly explained since live video clip showed he had never been put under a life-threatening situation.
The attitude of the police, which has been more and more adamant as summer turns into winter in Hong Kong, with the firm support provided by the Beijing and Hong Kong governments, triggered further protests from members of public who felt justice was long gone and the next generation’s hope was vanishing due to suppression by the government.
On12 November, the anti-riot police raided the campus area of Chinese University of Hong Kong, claiming that rioters threw objects from a bridge nearby onto a highway. Hundreds of students in full gear responded and defended the entrance of the university.
The fight lasted from afternoon till late and, as I am writing, there is no sign of ceasing fire from either side. The police made a few promises during the day, saying that they would retreat or hold fire, but all such promises turned out to be empty. Minutes after reaching a so-called “agreement”, the police resumed firing teargas bombs at the campus and used various bullets against the protesting students. Arrests were made as policemen entered into the campus and at least one student had his eye shot by bullet.
Without a search warrant granted by the court, it would not be acceptable for police to enter the university campus. But the spokesmen of the police took the hard line and claimed that the university was no private place and the police could enter and arrest suspects at will.
This raised the eyebrows of the public since the saying was off-the-mark and contradicted to the understanding that has been there for many years. University should be a private place. Students study and live there throughout the school year and there is no such thing for students to assembly illegally at the campus. They are simply residents of the university.
Afew hours later, the Vice-Chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Rocky Tuan, showed up after “communicating” with the police for half an hour. He said an agreement was reached. The police would retreat from the campus on the condition that public order would be assured by the university and students would stop using force and disrupting traffic on the highway.
The students, having seen their cohorts injured or even arrested, opined that the police’s actions were not justified and demanded the university to urge the police to release the arrested.
Not even before peace settled in, clashes resumed. Police used teargas bombs again when Rocky Tuan was on the spot. Rocky Tuan later fled in a vehicle, leaving the students there to face the police force, again.
The students guarded their university campus as if it was their home and hours of clashes left over 60 students injured. Traffic connecting the campus was blocked and the police had no sign of letting rescuers in as if they had no sense of humanity.
Joseph Sung Jao-Yiu, former Vice-Chancellor of the university and also a doctor, led a team of medical professionals to give a hand to the students.
Only the most notorious and inhumane authority would launch assault against the university, where freedom and wisdom was treasured and grown. The Beijing government did massacre students at the Tiananmen in 1989, and the Hong Kong government, which is undoubtedly a muppet of the Chinese authority, did it again three decades later.
The excessive use of the police force has been criticised by many over the past few months but no one was able to stop the police from making things worse.
The abusive language used by the policemen, naming the protesters “roaches” and declaring they would love to pop a champagne after Alex Chow’s death, demonstrated the mentality of the pseudo-military force.
The unlimited support given by the Beijing government, and probably the long-standing hatred towards the dissidents in the city, drove the police force to walk another mile.
A traffic police officer was seen driving his motorbike into the protesters repeatedly and knocked a few of them off the ground. Police making arrests also used disproportionate force, causing unnecessary injury to the arrested, who were unable to protect themselves anymore. Cases of sexual assault were heard and the police tried to discredit a victim by leaking her previous medical history to the media.
All these showed the authority tried every possible resort to defame the protesters, uphold its legitimacy, at any costs.
Not only the future of the city is at risk. The “one country, two systems” model which has been implemented on a trial-and-error basis since 1997, is also undermined.
One of the key reasons that Hong Kong remains free from the Chinese’s army is its status as an international financial centre. There is indeed mutual needs between the east and west to trade in this tiny little city at the south of China.
The free movement of capital allows both the western capital to invest in China, and the wealth somehow accumulated by the Chinese gurus or officials to get out of the communist country.
Yet, with the Hong Kong police’s view that they are free to enter into the university campus as if there is no such thing as “private place”, the fundamental values of the city is put in doubt.
What if the police feels or thinks (reasonable, as they consider) that it is necessary to enter into an office or an outlet just for the purpose of making an arrest without the court’s permission?
What if the police considers it legitimate to seize the assets of a random person simply because he or she might have shown up in an anti-government assembly, however peaceful it could be?
It is utmost important the the city has a healthy and integral governance structure with effective checks-and-balances. However, from what is seen in Hong Kong, the judiciary arm is giving way to its executive colleague and the police action, regardless of its outrageousness, bears no consequences.
It could the locals that suffer first but every foreigner and company should be worried as well. No one is safe should the rule of law in Hong Kong falls. The rule of police in Hong Kong brings violence and corruption.
Not to mention that, the failure of the civilised world to stop China from extending its totalitarianism to Hong Kong. Weapons and armours that are supposed to be used by the Chinese Army or Police have been found in Hong Kong according to photos and video clips on the Internet.
IfHong Kong falls, democracy and civilisation follows. The British might not have given full democracy to Hong Kongers during its colonial rule of over 150 years but at least, the universities established, the spiritual values that cumulated over all these years, are now under threat by the Hong Kong Police Force, which is used as a tool by Carrie Lam, the most unpopular leader in town in the past 22 years.
Let’s act before it is too late. The “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act” is facing much friction at the House of Senate in the U.S. New reported that the Chinese government is dragging the Bill by exerting pressure on certain Senators. Without any meaningful counterweight, Beijing can be fearless and do whatever they think necessary to put the dissent in Hong Kong to an end.
There will then be little to stop the Chinese government to have their way and the western world could only yield in front of the economic value brought by China. And that would really mean the end of freedom, autonomy and civilisation on earth.
In case you are curious in who I am, this is Lai Shuk, born and bred in Hong Kong (“Shuk” in Cantonese mean “Uncle” and Lai is the surname). While I started with political commentaries, it is another name “Landmark Reporter” that have my first book published, named “Surfing in Central, the guide to enter the banking and finance industry”.
Of course most of the time I write in Cantonese (sometimes in Chinese), but it so happened that we are in an era where articles and communications in English may help our city and future. This is why you see me writing in English after office hours. Share this with your friends if you find this article insightful, interesting or too long, what so ever.
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