Hong Kong students in Taiwan yesterday expressed skepticism over the Hong Kong government’s suspension of a controversial bill that would enable the extradition of criminal suspects to China.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) announced the suspension of the bill yesterday. However, the announcement was likely only meant to give Hong Kongers a misplaced sense of victory, and Lam’s administration was likely to pass the bill in secret after the unrest calmed down, the students said, adding that the Hong Kong government had employed similar tactics in the past.
Protesters must continue to express their opposition to the bill until it is completely scrapped, they said.
Screen grab from artist 653’s Facebook account
Student Ho Wing-tung (何泳彤), who moved to Taiwan from Hong Kong 10 years ago, said that she and other students were planning to go ahead with their protest outside the Legislative Yuan today, despite yesterday’s announcement.
They cannot believe that Lam has only suspended the bill, not canceled it, and has not released arrested demonstrators, she said.
A Hong Kong student surnamed Ng (吳), who studies at National Taiwan University, also said that the suspension of the bill was insufficient, and expressed concern that the legislation would be passed in secret.
The will of the Hong Kong people was made clear when more than 1 million protesters took to the streets, Ng said.
An even larger protest was expected today, failing which the Hong Kong government might have an excuse to leave the bill on the back burner rather than scrapping it, Ng said.
While the suspension is a “temporary victory,” if the Hong Kong government does not promise to scrap the bill the protests will not cease, National Federation of Teachers’ Unions president Chang Hsu-cheng (張旭政) said.
The core of the problem is that Hong Kongers do not trust the judicial system in China, he said, adding that Beijing’s heavy influence on the Hong Kong government would likely to result in more conflict further down the line.
Chang said that he supported the teachers’ strike in protest of the bill that was led by the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union over the past week.
He would also encourage Education International to express support for Hong Kong’s striking teachers, and would call on the Hong Kong government not to punish them, he said.
Meanwhile, 25 colleges and universities in Taiwan have issued online statements in support of protesters in Hong Kong. Organizers compiled the statements of students and teachers from the institutes into a video that has been uploaded to YouTube at: https://reurl.cc/3Avql.
The video showed that Taiwanese students care about international affairs, and also demonstrated the importance of protecting Taiwan’s hard-fought democracy, the organizers said.
Hong Kong’s struggles with the extradition bill show how quickly democracy can be lost, they said, adding that more activities are being planned and other institutes would be brought on board.
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