The Civic Party disappears from Hong Kong's political landscape, and a Ugyhur man "disappears" after arriving at Hong Kong airport

 

 

Civic Party member Audrey Eu on July 1st, 2012 -- less than 

11 years ago but which can seem like it was another lifetime ago now

 

I was hoping that there would not be any negative political news this long weekend but "One of Hong Kong's biggest democratic parties said on Saturday [i.e. yesterday] it would disband after a vote by its party members, dealing another blow to the city's already beleaguered democratic opposition under pressure from China." 

 

In its hey day, the Civic Party was Hong Kong's second largest pro-democracy party.  Formed on March 26th, 2007, its co-founders included lawyers -- and then Legislative Councillors -- Margaret Ng, Audrey Eu and Ronny Tong (the last of whom has inexplicably defected to the pro-Beijing camp). 100 member strong at its establishment, "[t]he party was known for representing professionals in Hong Kong including lawyers, accountants and scholars, and was considered a more moderate democratic voice that appealed to the city's large ranks of middle class voters."

 

If truth be told though, the Civic Party's demise doesn't come as too much of a surprise since it's not been active for some months already.  Of course, it didn't help that "China's imposition of a sweeping national security law in Hong Kong in 2020... saw a number of its members arrested" and some others flee into Hong Kong.  

 

Representatives of the party that are now in exile include former Legislative Council members Dennis Kwok and Tanya Chan.  Civic Party members currently behind bars include three more former Legislative Councillors Alvin Yeung, Jeremy Tam and Kwok Ka-ki who, as far back as April 2021, had -- together with Lee Yue-shun, who like them was among the 47 pro-democracy politicians and activists arrested under the national security law on February 28th of that year, but had been among the few of them granted bail -- had called for its disbandment, saying that "it has completed its historical mission". 

 

 "The world is ever changing. History will tell. Today, the Civic Party is bidding Hong Kong farewell. We hope Hong Kong people will live in the moment with a hopeful and not too heavy heart. Live in truth and believe in tomorrow," Alan Leong, another of the party's co-founders and its last chairman, Tweeted yesterday.  While another "founding member Albert Lai told Agence France-Presse the disbanding of the party “can be deemed a symbol of the end of Hong Kong’s nativistic democracy movement. But the failure does not mean the movement was meaningless."

 

Brave words meant to encourage.  At the same time, I think many of us are only too aware that Hong Kong today is one where being pro-democracy and brave can pose dangers.  And that many people's freedoms and personal safety are at greater risk than just a few years ago; with the national security law that China imposed on Hong Kong on June 30th, 2020, having made Hong Kong (and the world at large) a scarier and less -- not more -- secure place for many folks.

 

If one needed any more reminders of that, consider the reports in recent days of a Ughyur man having gone missing after he arrived at Hong Kong airport from South Korea on May 10th.  According to Amnesty International: "Abuduwaili Abudureheman has not been heard from since he sent a text message to a friend on 10 May. In the message, Abudureheman said he was being interrogated by Chinese police after arriving at Hong Kong airport... The friend has made Abuduwaili’s disappearance public after becoming increasingly concerned for his safety."

 

Xinjiang-born Abduduwaili had spent the last seven years studying in Seoul – completing a PhD in Sports Industry and Leisure in 2022.  Amnesty International stated that it "understands that Abuduwaili was on a Chinese government “watch list” of Uyghurs and other Muslims from the Xinjiang region, based on the fact that he had a history of overseas travel. Amnesty International has documented numerous instances of the Chinese government targeting Uyghurs both at home and abroad with arbitrary incommunicado detention, lengthy imprisonment and torture purely based on the fact that they had travelled outside of China" and fears that he has been abducted and taken over the Hong Kong-Mainland China border.

Yesterday evening, the Hong Kong government issued a statement denying "Amnesty International’s accusation that a Uyghur student disappeared after being interrogated at the airport, and said that government records showed that he had not entered or been refused entry to the city."  That may indeed be the case.  But the fact of the matter is that the Hong Kong government very sadly has previous with regards to denying that people had "disappeared" from Hong Kong before they then "reappear" in Mainland China.  

 

As Howard Cheng noted on Twitter: "Hong Kong's immigration records also didn't show Lee Bo, one of the Causeway Bay booksellers who disappeared from [Hong Kong] and reappeared in custody in [Mainland] China in 2015 with no immigration record of him having left [Hong Kong] to go to [Mainland] China."

 

I sincerely hope that Abduduwaili's whereabouts will be revealed soon, and that he will be safe.  In the meantime, his case is, as Joe McReynolds, Tweeted a "[t]ragic reminder that anyone entering Hong Kong now needs to make safety choices just the same as if they are entering the mainland; there's zero practical distinction if you're a dissident, a member of a persecuted ethnic group, or otherwise a target for the [Chinese Communist Party]."  And ditto, of course, for anyone who is already living here.