On the final day of a year that much of the world will be happy to see the back of

 

Photo taken on the first day of this troubled year

 

Photo taken on the final day of 2020
 

2020 is a year that many people all over the world will be happy to see the back of.  For much of the world, the main threat to their happiness and safety came by way of the Wuhan coronavirus.  But for Hong Kong, that wasn't the only bad -- or even worst -- thing that came from across the Hong Kong-Mainland China border.  

 

Don't get me wrong: the Wuhan coronavirus has adversely affected Hong Kong too.  To date, we've had a total of 8,846 confirmed cases of infection, with 68 new ones reported today.  And while this coronavirus (still) has been responsible for fewer fatalities in Hong Kong than that which brought about the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) back in 2003, which was reponsible for 299 deaths in Hong Kong, the territory has already seen 148 fatalities from this other coronavirus, including an additional one today.       

Still, when I think back to this time 2019, what has most profoundly changed Hong Kong -- and brought about so much fear, unhappiness and repression to this land -- to my mind is that whose announcement back in May I described as the Communist Chinese regime's nuclear option.  I am referring, of course, to China's national security law for Hong Kong, which was unanimously approved by China's rubber stamp congress on June 30th and came into effect one day later, on the 23rd anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to Communist China.   

So much (that's bad) has happened since that fateful day.  I'm not going to recap it here since so much of it has been documented in previous blog posts (like this one and this other).  Instead, here's bringing things up to date by reporting that yesterday saw the handing out of sentences of up to 3 years of jail time to the 10 adult members of the "Hong Kong 12"  who had been caught in Mainland Chinese waters while trying to surreptiously flee to Taiwan one dark day in August (and not been contactable by their families to date).

And on the final day of this horrible year, Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal overturned High Court judge Alex Lee's decision last Tuesday to allow media mogul Jimmy Lai out on bail, albeit under conditions akin to house arrest. The 73-year-old advocate of democracy of Hong Kong will now return to jail until at least February, even though he has not been accused of a violent crime and is not considered a flight risk.  And, upon leaving the court this afternoon, he literally was in chains once more. 

 

Rather than dwell on that painful image and decision, here's sharing a report on judge Lee's comments as to why he made the decision that he did last week. In particular, I find it worth pointing out that: "Lee noted that for the national security offence, prosecutors had pointed to statements Lai allegedly made during an online chat arranged by Apple Daily on July 30, and during an interview he hosted on August 18.  But the judge said that rather than requests for foreign countries to impose sanctions or engage in other hostile activities against Hong Kong or China, Lai's statements seem to have been merely comments."

 

Put another way: if Lai is found guilty under the security law, it is for speech crimes rather than actual actions that endanger the apparently very insecure governments of Hong Kong and China.  Which begs the question of what will 2021 bring for Hong Kong from China (by way of its enablers in the Hong Kong government or more directly): prosecution for thought crimes? 

 

Against the odds, I still want to have some hope for Hong Kong.  This because, actually, my love for this place and its people remains so very much alive.  And, also, because I really don't want to think that the rest of the world would be so callous as to decide that it's abandonable and stupid enough to think that doing so would actually not hurt them in the long run.