4 Years Post Anti-Extradition, Hong Kong Has Changed Beyond Recognition
On June 9, 2019, Hong Kong held its first million-person rally in the “anti-extradition” movement. Soon after that, Hong Kong citizens launched waves of large-scale “anti-extradition” demonstrations, but they were all dispersed and suppressed by the Hong Kong police.The curtain raiser of the “anti-extradition” movement was in February 2019, when the Hong Kong government proposed the “Amendment Bill to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance,” allowing Hong Kong criminal suspects to be extradited to the mainland for trial. This move triggered protests by Hong Kong people, which later escalated to five major demands, including the withdrawal of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, withdrawal of the “riot” name tag, withdrawal of the charges against the demonstrators, prosecution of the police for abuse of power, and the resignation of Carrie Lam Yuet-ngor. But they were all rejected by the Hong Kong government.
Four years on, more than 10,000 Hong Kong people were arrested and imprisoned, and nearly 7,000 of them have not yet been brought before the courts.
According to figures provided by the Hong Kong police to Radio Free Asia, as of Dec. 31, 2022, the Hong Kong police had arrested a total of 10,279 people, aged between 11 and 87, with 1,754 under 18. They are accused of taking part in crimes including participation in riots, illegal assembly, and the like. Among them, 520 have been prosecuted; 2,928 people have been or are going through judicial proceedings, of which 1,789 will have to bear legal consequences, 57 had their charges withdrawn, 387 people were acquitted after interrogation, and the judicial process for the rest is still in progress. In addition, 25 people were released after being cautioned by the duty superintendent.
Since 2019, Hong Kong has experienced large-scale mass exodus, and its population has continued to shrink. According to latest figures obtained by Ming Pao from the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, there has been a net outflow of 231,500 people in the past three years.
Many countries provide immigration channels for Hong Kong people. Radio Free Asia has compiled data and statistics on three popular destinations for Hong Kong people, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Taiwan. In the past three years, these three places have issued a total of some 237,000 visas to Hong Kong people, with the largest number of Hongkongers going to the UK.
Over the past four years, the Hong Kong’s political spectrum also underwent tremendous changes. Currently, the pro-establishment faction holds 89 of the 90 seats in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, and the democrats are nearly “extinct.” The democrats also have just 20 percent of the elected seats in the district councils.
All these are results of the “National Security Law (NSL)” implemented by the CCP in June 2020, with a lot of the incumbent lawmakers arrested and sentenced; and the introduction of the “Public Offices (Candidacy and Taking Up Offices) (Miscellaneous Amendment) Ordinance 2021,” requiring current district councillors to pledge “allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.” This led to mass resignations of the pro-democracy members who did not want to be deprived of their seats for not taking the oath, or being ruled invalid even after swearing the oath of allegiance.
The CCP has also not stopped reducing the expanse for free speech over the same period either. So far, at least eight independent news organizations in Hong Kong have ceased operation.
Dr. Lin Bin, a veteran Australian media professional and Doctor of Politics from Hong Kong, told The Epoch Times on the June 9, “Hong Kong has now become more like a small fishing village during the Cultural Revolution in mainland China, a lifeless so-called quiet and stable society, and a society claimed to be under the “rule of law” yet is using this as a guise to practice “rule by law” to deal with dissidents. A society that only has candidates allowed by the CCP to be elected.”
“By the fourth anniversary of the Anti-Extradition Movement, Hong Kong has changed beyond recognition. It is no longer the Hong Kong that local Hongkongers used to know. It is no longer a diversified international metropolis, no longer a society full of vitality and enthusiasm. Also, not a society under the “rule of law” where everyone is equal before it, and is no longer a society that allows elections through universal suffrage.”
Today many Hong Kong people make a mockery of the status as “the UK has turned a fishing village into an international metropolis, and the CCP has turned this international metropolis into a stupid (rhymes with fish in Cantonese) village.”
Analysis: Hongkongers Will Not Submit to the CCP Brainwashing the Younger Generations
While suppressing the “anti-extradition” movement of Hong Kong people, the CCP also tried to brainwash Hong Kong children, and the education curriculum for students began to match that of the mainland. PTV News once reported that one of the priorities of primary schools in Hong Kong today when school starts on Sep. 1 is to learn to sing the CCP’s national anthem and raise the five-star flag. There is at least one flag-raising ceremony every week as mandatory.The content of the new version textbooks also deliberately downplayed the connection of Hong Kong with the UK and deleted the statement that “Hong Kong was once a British colony.”
Lin said that the CCP is now going to re-educate Hong Kong people, but whether it can strangle the younger generations we need to analyze from different aspects.
First, from the Umbrella Movement in 2014 to the “anti-extradition movement” in 2019, we can conclude in one sentence, “Hong Kong people cannot be beaten to death.” As the Chinese idiom goes, “no prairie fire can kill all the grasses, they shoot again when the spring breeze comes.”
Lin believes that the uniqueness of Hong Kong people is the accumulated history of Hong Kong. Hong Kong people are basically those who escaped from the CCP’s persecution and fled to Hong Kong with their descendants grew up here. As a tradition Hong Kong people not only hate dictatorship, but also do not want to survive under totalitarian rule.
Second, the younger generation of Hong Kong people, after experiencing the CCP’s suppression of Hong Kong people in 2014 and 2019, are becoming even more hateful toward the CCP. This will continue for one or two generations until the CCP falls.
Third, the CCP is currently sending all kinds of people from mainland China to immigrate and live in Hong Kong. Some of them are the children of high-level cadres, and the others are brainwashed compatriots from mainland China. These people are described as the “new Hong Kong people.” They are exactly like the CCP’s migration of Han people to Xinjiang and Tibet. It is an attempt to gradually change the demographic of the population.
Lin said that the longer it takes, the more they will become new Hong Kong people and the obedient slaves. But this new blend of locals are no longer analogous to the original Hong Kong natives.
Overseas Hongkongers Relay ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ Chorus Against Government’s Suppression
Recently, the Hong Kong Secretary for Justice filed an application for an injunction in the High Court, prohibiting the public from disseminating the anti-extradition movement song “Glory to Hong Kong” on the Internet or on any platform.In this regard, Hong Kong people in many places around the world called for a broadcast relay of “Glory to Hong Kong” for a week from June 12, and pointed out that the purpose of the action is to defend the freedom of speech as one basic right.
On June 9, Hongkongers organizations overseas issued a joint statement that their people from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Denmark, Austria, Australia, and Japan are contacting local radio stations, and hope to broadcast “Glory to Hong Kong” on airwaves around the world.
The promoters also appealed to Hong Kong people all over the world to do the same and contact the hosts of their local radio channels via email, phone calls, and text messages to explain to them the current situation of “freedom of speech in Hong Kong being destroyed,” and strive to broadcast “Glory to Hong Kong” on their programs.
Lin said, “I also played this song repeatedly on radio programs and sang more than ten times during the June 4th event, because Hong Kong people have been forced by the CCP to fight with their backs against the wall, and they must show the CCP that they will remain unbowed. We are all committed to overthrowing the dictatorship.”
He said, “No matter when we will see Hong Kong restored, the people of Hong Kong will never give up and must persist in realizing this day.”
How Can Hong Kong Regain Its Glorious Past?
As for whether Hong Kong still has hope for freedom and democracy in the future, Lin said that Hong Kong people now fully realize that only when the CCP falls can Hong Kong regain its former splendor.Lin said that Hong Kong people used the adjective “Brave New Hong Kong” this year to ridicule Hong Kong’s transformation into a “dystopian” work “Brave New World.”
“Brave New World” is a “dystopian” novel written by British writer Aldous Huxley in 1932. The background is 2540 London. It is listed as the “Three Dystopian Novels” alongside “1984,” and “We.” “Dystopia” is the opposite of “Utopia.” There are other Chinese translations such as ”(evil)topia,“ and ”(hostile)topia,“ all referring to ”unideal society.”
“On the surface, Hong Kong is now becoming the ”beautiful“ city that the CCP wants, a silent society. But in reality, this is never the ideal society to which the public aspires. The current state is completely opposite to the interests of the public. It is only moving toward the dream of realizing “the beautiful Hong Kong” under the CCP dictatorship.”
Lin believes that during the “anti-extradition” era, some young people thought that Hong Kong could be self-governing without the need to overthrow the CCP. By going through the past four years, we all realize Hong Kong itself can achieve self-governance and enjoy true democracy and freedom only by first overthrowing the CCP dictatorship.
