Saturday, April 25, 2020

Hong Kong at the forefront in the fight against the Wuhan coronavirus, and political persecution by China

Is the outlook sunny or gloomy?  You decide!

This much I know: I still love Hong Kong

It's been a relatively good week for Hong Kong as far as the Wuhan coronavirus battle is concerned; with zero new cases announced on Monday (the first time this had been so in six weeks) and yesterday; and single digit numbers reported for the other days, including two today.  And although a number of social distancing measures (including cinema and bar closures) remain in force, the authorities decided to go ahead and stage the Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) exams that were originally scheduled to take place back on March 27th.

The first day of the university entrance exams proceeded without any major incidents.  But there are reports today of sick candidates having dropped out today (the second day) and a number of other students having their health fears increase after a transparent partition was set up in the middle of an exam hall for an unwell student (who later decided that he couldn't continue).

Truly, I feel for these kids. For in addition to the fear of infection -- and infecting others -- still playing on the minds of people here,  there's the mental stress brought about Hong Kong's political situation over the past year.  All in all, I'm moved to wonder what percentage of DSE takers are still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in view of what's been happening to/in Hong Kong in the past year?  Heck, even a good number of adults have been feeling painfully strained by it all..
  
It doesn't help, of course, that the political persecution and prosecutions have not stopped -- and, in fact, look to have increased over the past fortnight.  The attacks by the Liason Office on Hong Kong's Basic Law and the arrests last Saturday of the 15 pro-democracy figures are just the tip of the iceberg.  There's also the less publicized arrests of regular folks -- ones that don't get reported much, if at all, in the English language media (but, thankfully, don't go completely unnoticed thanks to posts by concerned folks on social media -- like this one in Shatin on Monday night).

An aside with regards to the press: International media watchdog Reporters Without Borders released the latest edition of its World Press Freedom Index earlier this week -- and it's pretty chilling to see that Hong Kong has plunged down to the 73rd spot from the number 18 position it had in the rankings when the first chart was published back in 2002.  Those who are "the glass is half full" types will point out that Hong Kong has got a long way to go before it's anywhere close to Mainland China (down in the 177th spot, just three up from bottom-placed North Korea).  However, I am sure I'm not alone in taking the view that Hong Kong's press freedom has already deteriorated far more than should be the case!
 
Returning to the persecution and prosecution of pro-democracy figures: One of the fifteen arrested on Saturday, Au Nok-hin, also appeared in court this week for sentencing this week after -- shades of the woman convicted of assaulting police officers with her breast back in 2015 -- being found guilty earlier this month of assaulting police with a loudhailer during a protest.  After he was given just community service rather than jail time (and, frankly, that's still an injustice), the presiding judge was attacked online by pro-government critics for being too lenient in her sentencing.  

Also receiving criticism on social media is the judge who presided over a case yesterday whereby a defendant was found guilty yesterday of attacking three people at a Lennon Wall last August, leaving one of them (a female who had been hanging up posters at the wall) critically injured for a time.  Again, the sentence given -- this time involving a jail sentence of three years and nine months rather than the maximum possible six years -- was adjudged to be on the lenient side.  But what really has riled up a number of people is that the judge openly showed that his sympathies were with the guilty party, going so far as to refer to the attacker as possessing a "noble sentiment"!

Throw in an anti-government protester given community service for desecrating the Chinese national flag last year having been jailed for 20 days after the High Court ruled in favour of an appeal by prosecutors for a custodial sentence yesterday and it feels like Hong Kong can't celebrate as much as it might be expected to do so in view of it looking to be winning its fight against the Wuhan coronavirus.  For the fact of the matter is that, as Martin Lee has put it, "Hong Kong people [are facing] two plagues from China: the coronavirus and attacks on our most basic human rights."

At times like this, I think back to a Tweet by another Hong Kong lawyer back in January: "Everyone is rightly concerned about the spread of #coronavirus. But for years no one has cared about the spread around the world of the very authoritarianism and censorship which caused #WuhanOutbreak to be covered up and neglected until it is way too late."  

Will the world open its eyes to the grave threats to Hong Kong before it's too late, after which China -- and make no mistake that the Communist Chinese regime is behind the political persecution and legal prosecutions in Hong Kong -- will move on to politically attack, maybe even destroy, the rest of the world?  I'm hoping against hope that won't be the case but, at the very least, it does seem that, like in its fight against the Wuhan coronavirus, Hong Kong will have to lead and show the way once more.   

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