A heavy police presence and limited liberty for many in national security law-era Hong Kong

  

Yellow bird in a beautifully decorated Chinese cage

 

I wrote close to two weeks ago about having gone to a farewell dinner for a friend.  An update: he's now back on American soil.  And since that post, another friend informed me that he too will be leaving town soon.

Even while I continue to stay put (for now), I can understand their wanting to leave Hong Kong.  For with each passing day in national security law-era Hong Kong, it is increasingly hard to deny that this is a police state -- or, at the very least, one where the police presence is far heavier than should be the case and definitely far heavier, and heavier handed, than it was just some three and half years ago.

 

Whereas not so long ago, it was utterly normal to not see a police officer or vehicle for days, even weeks, it's now a rare day when I don't see police officers out on the streets or some kind of police vehicle out on the road when I venture out in Hong Kong.  Even worse is that I've now seen too often people -- usually youths (but sometimes also older folks), usually male (but sometimes also female), usually those in black attire (but sometimes not) -- getting stopped by the police and subjected to "spot checks"; the most recent of which occured yesterday evening, as I was walking in a part of Causeway Bay that is assuredly not the kind of place where one would expect criminals to frequent.

 

And it's not just out on the streets where one can expect to be harassed by the police but also if one is frequenting a "yellow" (i.e., pro-democracy) shop.  Someone I know told me of being in a "yellow" bookstore when the police decided to pay a visit; and how the experience has left her shaken many weeks on.  And, actually, raids have taken place at establishments which don't seem particularly "yellow" (though I'd bet that "yellow" establishments are targeted more); and, in any case, resulted in the customers present not having all that pleasant anexperience, to say the least.       

 

Still, all this is nothing compared to the harassment and persecution that pro-democracy politicians and activists are subjected to.  At this point in time, it can feel like exile or jail is the fate that pretty much all of them are being consigned to.  So small wonder that political parties are set to dissolve, including the Civic Party, a major pro-democracy political party that was seen as the choice of professionals not so long ago.  As Oiwan Lam pointed out, of its key members: "Alvin Yeung,  Jeremy Tam, Kwok Ka-ki, Claudia Mo are charged with conspiracy in subversion, Margaret Ng has been convicted with failing to register the now defunct 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund, Tanya Chan, Dennis Kwok and Fernando Cheung have left Hong Kong."  

 

Something else which Lam makes clear in her piece: "The crackdown on the 2019 protests by the imposition of the national security law and rewriting the electoral rules is to retain Beijing’s absolute control of the establishment. The desire to take over the control of the Legislative Council is viewed as state subversion, as indicated in the arrest of the 47 pro-democracy activists. It is hence, not simply a crackdown on pro-Hong Kong independent activists but on those who played by the rules yet did not follow Beijing’s order."

 

Even those in the pro-democracy party that may be seen as the most centrist of all, the Democratic Party, have not been exempt from the crackdown on pro-democracy figures.  Just last week, the current head of the Democratic Party, Lo Kin-hei, looked to have achieved a rare victory -- or, at least, got a rare reprieve -- when he was cleared of an unlawful assembly charge linked to the 2019 police siege of Hong Kong Polytechnic University.  But today saw him getting re-arrested, asked to surrender his travel documents and barred from leaving Hong Kong after the Department of Justice lodged an appeal against his acquittal.                

How many people in Hong Kong are there these days who have had their travel documents seized and been barred from leaving Hong Kong?  We know of those who are behind bars -- some because they have been denied bail rather than because they have actually been found guilty of any crimes.  But there are many more for whom Hong Kong has become a giant cage. 

What with arrests having taken place at the airport (of people who thought they had been free to leave the city until this happened to them), I have had friends who decided to permanently leave Hong Kong who wondered if this would be their fate too.  Thus it was that one friend kept on messaging me at the airport on the day of her departure until she stepped onto her plane.  

 

And is probably why this latest friend who left messaged another friend and me after he shortly after he stepped of his plane in the USA -- indeed, even before he had cleared immigration there this evening!  And should it not be clear: these are folks who truly aren't criminal types and, in fact, would be considered pretty upstanding members of society -- and will be so outside of Hong Kong.