Not the kind of place I want to spend
any significant amount of time in
Not the kind of treatment I want meted
out to prisoners, political or otherwise,
in Hong Kong, Mainland China or wherever else
Back on August 27th, the (Mainland) Chinese Coast Guard Bureau posted on its social media site that it had arrested at least 10 people after intercepting a boat off the coast of the southern province of Guangdong four days previously. Soon after that news broke, Hong Kong media got to piecing together that the people arrested on August 23rd (i.e., three Sundays ago) had been headed to Taiwan to apply for political asylum and included activist Andy Li, Chairman of the Independent Election Observation Mission to Hong Kong. Further details that have emerged since include that a total number of 12 Hong Kongers were arrested by the Mainland Chinese authorities, they range in age from 16 to 30, and include one female.
Yesterday afternoon, family members of six of those individuals held a press conference to make their first public appeal for help and information on their plight. As the wife of one arrestee stated: "We are just ordinary people. We have no other ways. I can only urge the government be more active. All the departments have simply been kicking us around like a ball and have not provided any concrete response."
Among these people's "demands" are their wanting to reject the lawyers assigned by the mainland Chinese authorities and have the lawyers they hired be allowed to meet the arrested individuals. They also wish to be able to personally contact them (so that it can be proved that they are indeed still alive and in one piece) and, in the case of at least two of the detainees, make sure they have the medication they need (for such as asthma and existing skin conditions).
When appearing at the press conference, the fearful family members felt a need to cover their faces and mask their identities (and I don't just mean with surgical masks to guard against being infected by the Wuhan coronavirus). What does it say about Hong Kong that they not only felt a need to do this but were so fearful that to do this when desperately making appeals in their home city on behalf of loved ones detained on the other side of the Hong Kong-Mainland China border in Shenzhen?
Perhaps they were shamed into action after hearing a mother of one of the detainees declare that: “I hope the government can tell us what's going on. It seems that they are indifferent. Those are twelve lives. Human lives matter... They are precious to us." Even if so, what does it say about the Hong Kong government that it seemed to only feel compelled to issue a statement that the 12 Hong Kongers are "in good health" after, rather than before, that press conference took place?
And it was only this afternoon that the Shenzhen Yantian Police have provided confirmation that the 12 people arrested 21 days ago by the Guangdong coastguard have been placed under criminal detention for “illegal border crossing”. But seeing as today also saw the captured Hong Kongers being labelled as "separatists" by China's Foreign Ministry, this news is not going to assure people all that much as to these detainees' safety; with fears that they will end up being high profile as well as "highly sensitive" cases who will be subject to such as forced confessions on TV.
This whole affair has traumatized much of Hong Kong because we know how bad the Mainland Chinese prison system is (and, worse, its "black jails"). And we also know about the ridiculously high conviction rate of its justice system (as in close to 100 percent any given year). So even listening to the press conference caused emotional upset; this not least because it brings back memories of past events (such as the abduction of the Causeway Books booksellers back in 2015) and the fear that we will "become just mere figures of people that vanished".
Frankly, these days, it's already upsetting to know about the (political) prisoners in Hong Kong's prisons and the fact that Hong Kong has now passed the 10,000 mark with regards to the number of people arrested in conjunction with the 2019-2020 protests (which still don't have a name and which I still sometimes refer to as the extradition bill protest(s) but have become so much more). I've heard Hong Kongers say "They can't arrest us all" (as well the even more dramatic "They can't kill us all") at protests but sometimes it feels like they're going to try!
Adding to all the anxiety is that, particularly in the past year, accounts about life in prison in Hong Kong itself for those put behind bars after being arrested at protests and such have sometimes been nightmarish. Take, as an example, this recent tale by someone arrested inside Prince Edward MTR station on the night of August 31st which some might consider farfetched because it's so dramatic but rings true to me; this not least because quite a few of its details jibe with those found in accounts by other protestors who have talked about having been tortured and abused while detention here (and not just at the notorious -- and supposedly since-closed -- San Uk Ling).
Furthermore, despite Taiwan being looked to and upon as a safe haven for Hong Kong political activists, it's come to light that five Hong Kongers have been detained by the Taiwanese authorities in Kaohsiung for almost two months! Like the 12 who detained by the Mainland Chinese authorities, this quintet also sought to flee Hong Kong for Taiwan by boat. In their case, they were intercepted by the Taiwanese coast guard as their boat drifted near the Dongsha Islands.
I realize it's small consolation but at least the asylum seekers detained in Taiwan have been granted access to lawyers. Still, one really gets the sense that trying to flee Hong Kong by boat for Taiwan is not something anyone should be doing -- now more so than ever -- and doing so may well be a case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
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