This past Sunday afternoon, their relatives appeared in public for a second time to make an appeal for further information about their loved ones. Among other things, they would like to see proof that the 12 were in fact detained in Chinese waters in the first place. (And, no, they aren't content with just getting "assurances" that this was the case by the Hong Kong police: that is, the same organization that alerted the Mainland Chinese coast guard as to the fugitives' attempts to flee Hong Kong.). The obviously very concerned individuals also want Hong Kong officials to contact the detainees to check on their latest condition to ensure that they aren’t injured as they themselves have been denied access to them.
These are demands that don't seem all that unreasonable, right? However, these are the Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese authorities they are dealing with. And as we have seen time and time again, Hong Kong officials will not stand up for Hong Kongers against Mainland China. (Forget the Mainland Chinese ones caring about what happens to Hong Kongers.) Why should they as they're too are not answerable at the polls (what polls?) to the people of Hong Kong!
Watching this saga, many people here have had the same thought. Hong Kong Hermit was speaking for us all when he Tweeted that: "This is every reason why we fought against the extradition bill in the first place. Because everyone feared being sent to China, where there is no hope of a fair trial, and with a Hong Kong govt. that won’t even advocate for its own people doing less than nothing to help."
Back on Saturday, Hong Kong Secretary for Security John Lee declared that he "understood the 12 were in good health, but [Hong Kong] officials had no right to visit them." He also essentially dismissed the attempts by the families of the detained Hong Kongers to ensure that their family members would get good legal representation by stating that this particular issue had already been sorted, with the detainees having picked lawyers from a list provided by the Mainland Chinese authorities.
As far as the family members are concerned though, this is not a satisfactory arrangement; especially since they have already hired lawyers to represent their loved ones -- and those lawyers have, like the family members themselves, thus far been denied access to the 12 detained Hong Kongers. And with one month now having passed since they last set eyes on their loved ones, they appear more determined than ever to see them and get assurances re their still being alive and well (something that sadly is not guaranteed when one is incarcerated over in Mainland China).
Many of their fellow Hong Kongers -- and human rights activists in other parts of the world -- are also seeking to publicize and plead for the cases of the 12 detained Hong Kongers. Earlier today, the Civil Human Rights Front announced that it had applied for a letter of no objection (from the Hong Kong police) to stage a march on October 1st with "Save [the] 12 Hong Kong Youths" as its theme. (And in a gesture of solidarity, the organizers of a previously planned October 1st protest march -- in Tsuen Wan, in honor of the schoolboy protestor shot in the chest there last October 1st-- have announced its cancellation.)
I have to be honest and say that I wonder how many people will take part in the planned October 1st march, especially if the police decline to issue a letter of no objection. It's not that people aren't still dissatisfied with the Hong Kong government nor do very much want to get the 12 Hong Kongers back to Hong Kong. But the fact of the matter is that the risks of getting arrested (and/or plain harassed) by the police, even if one were to stick to walking on the sidewalks rather than venture onto the road itself, are now so much higher -- and the possible penalties, if convicted, so much worse than before China's security law for Hong Kong came into effect this past June 30th.
Still, it seems that you can always trust Carrie Lam to fan the flames of indignation, if not resistance, and cause people to want to show their disapproval of her words, actions and very being -- and if not her, it'd be the Hong Kong police. Just this week, we have Carrie Lam telling the parents of the murdered teen -- whose murderer she had previously wanted so much to see brought to justice that she introduced the ill-fated extradition bill -- to "get over it" (with it being the murder of their daughter, lest it not be clear!). In addition, the Hong Kong police have announced that they will be tightening controls on the press and refusing to recognize the likes of freelance journalists, reporters for news websites, student journalists and citizen journalists (even if they are accredited by major press associations such as the Hong Kong Journalists Association and Hong Kong Press Photographers Association).
As Agence France-Presse (AFP)'s Xinqi Su has noted in a Twitter thread: It was journalists not considered genuine media under the police's new and questionable classification who broke the news about: the passengers being beaten by the police inside Prince Edward MTR station on August 31st, 2019; a cop shooting an unarmed protestor at Sai Wan Ho on November 11th, 2019; a riot policeman shooting a young protestor in the chest in Tsuen Wan on October 1st, 2019; and a 12 year old girl being chased and pushed to the ground by riot cops this past September 5th.
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