The most worrying thing about the Hong Kong government’s plan to amend the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance is that China could use it to extradite suspects from Hong Kong and put them on trial.
China’s judiciary is not independent, as Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Supreme Court President Zhou Qiang (周強), who is also secretary of the court’s Chinese Communist Party committee, have freely admitted. Politically sensitive trials are held in secret. A defense lawyer can even become a defendant in the middle of a trial.
In 2014, brothers Tu Ming-hsiung (杜明雄) and Tu Ming-lang (杜明郎) were executed in Taiwan for killing three Taiwanese and one Chinese national in China in 2011.
While trying their case, Taiwan’s Supreme Court said that China’s criminal justice procedure “has made clear progress with regard to fair trials and human rights safeguards,” but academics denounced this statement. The case had many dubious points and might have been a miscarriage of justice.
The Chinese and Hong Kong governments see Taiwanese as Chinese, so a Taiwanese whom China accuses of subversion could be extradited to China to face trial, like the associates of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay Books and Taiwanese human rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲)
Some people might argue that there is no need to worry because Hong Kong has no corresponding offense of subversion and is not listed among the extraditable offenses in the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance.
This argument is ridiculously naive. Hong Kong’s legislature supported the government’s extradition bill on its first reading, so what is to stop it adding subversion as an offense at a later date? Given China’s lack of judicial independence, what is to stop it from trumping up charges of another extraditable offense?
Hong Kong has much in common with Taiwan. Both are close neighbors of China, which has deeply influenced their languages and histories, and they have both been colonized by other countries. They have developed their own unique cultures. China’s suppression of Cantonese is similar to the efforts of past Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governments to eliminate Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese), Hakka and Aboriginal languages.
“One country, two systems” has eroded Hong Kong’s independent character. Hong Kong’s experience shows what would happen to Taiwan following annexation by China.
For example: Hong Kong’s proposed adoption of China’s National Anthem Law, Chinese jurisdiction over part of the West Kowloon Railway Station, the huge influx of Chinese tourists who buy daily goods in bulk, the immigration of an average of 150 Chinese per day, the sky-high cost of housing, and now the extradition bill.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) was appointed, not elected. Her allies hold a majority of seats in the Hong Kong Legislative Council, half of whose members are not elected by the public. They always do what the Chinese central government wants, even if the public does not want it.
On June 9, hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers took to the streets to defend their freedom and human rights. Thanks to them, Hong Kong will not easily become just another part of the Greater Bay Area.
Taiwanese should support Hong Kongers. They should cherish Taiwan’s hard-won democracy and freedom, and not give them up for illusions about “making a fortune.” If they let down their guard, they will deliver themselves into China’s hands.
Hugo Liu is a Hong Kong-born student at National Taiwan University’s College of Law.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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