The latest attack on Hong Kong's core values will hopefully backfire on the government

A nightmare courtesy of the Hong Kong government

Innocence and paradise lost

Some 24 hours ago, I wrote about Hong Kong facing a threat more dangerous than the Wuhan coronavirus.  Well, in the subsequent 24 hours, Hong Kong has reported having just two further coronavirus cases in the city, marking one full week of single digit daily totals of rises in infected cases; with further good news coming by way of there having been 35 coronavirus patients discharged from hospital today.

Also seemingly positive news was the surprising announcement by the Hong Kong government that, contrary to that Mainland Chinese body's assertions just yesterday, the China Liason Office and its staff actually are required to abide by the laws of Hong Kong, including Article 22 of the Basic Law.  How this all plays out is something worth keeping an eye on but it's interesting that there seems some push back at this time to what has been a series of encroachments on Hong Kong's "high degree of autonomy" by Beijing and its representatives in Hong Kong.  (Update: that didn't take long: the Hong Kong government has backtracked on its stance!)   

But well before those announcements were made came the shock news of the arrest of 15 Hong Kong pro-democracy figures, the majority of whom are on the moderate side of the political equation.  One good indicator of this is that the oldest of them, 81-year-old Martin Lee, had, like with fellow eminent barrister Margaret Ng (who's just nine years his junior), never been arrested before today.  And how ironic was it that just days after being stabbed outside the Liason Office, "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung was among the people arrested today (for actions which actually were far from violent)?

Although they now have all been released on bail, there's no mistaking the severity of today's police actions -- and how much of an assault to Hong Kong's core values this represents.  The concern right now is that there won't be sufficient international outcry or actual actions taken to make Carrie Lam and co rethink their actions.  

At the same time, it's pretty unlikely that this is going to quell the impetus to protest of those Hong Kongers making five demands, not one less, since the middle of last year.  If anything, this will add fuel to the fire of those who already felt back on July 1st that "It was [the Hong Kong government] who taught us peaceful protest doesn't work" and reconfirm to those who have thought it for some time already that "We can't return to normal, because the normal that we had was precisely the problem".

 

And even though the bombshell news of the arrests initially made me despair, I'm inclined to take an alternative view of things as the day has gone by, one that actually is well articulated in a series of Tweets by the Hong Kong activist behind the Twitter account of Anon_Snufkin which include the following observations:

All those arrested today knew this was the consequence of walking out of Victoria Park and they were all willing to accept those consequences because they all understand the only place to fight the CCP's lawfare is in the courts;  

The win here is that now some of the best connected lawyers and political figures in Hong Kong get to challenge Article 17 of the public order ordinance in what will be a landmark ruling (eventually, after the appeals).

It could spectacularly backfire for the government.  

It's a sad day, yes, arrest should never be welcomed or encouraged But it can be a tool so it isn't a sad day because it's putting people from 'our side' into the battlefield they should be on.