A hundred days have passed since protests began in Hong Kong. A hundred days since citizens went out to the streets to show their repulsion to the extradition billproposed by the Hong Kong government in February 2019, which would allow Hong Kong citizens to be extradited to Taiwan, Macau and mainland China, jurisdictions with which Hong Kong has no agreements. The bill would thus entail that Hong Kong citizens would be subject to the criminal law of mainland China, governed by the Communist Party, which would subsequently undermine the autonomy of the region and jeopardize its citizens’ civil liberties—it is a fact that the Chinese government still conducts witch-hunts to arrest those defying the regime. In order to understand Hong Kongers fear of losing their autonomy to China, it is necessary to briefly look back on the history that separated and reunited them.
Hong Kong became a British colony and territory in the 1840s during the Opium Wars and remained as such for over 150 years until the United Kingdom handed it over to China in 1997. These Western roots are still mirrored in the Hong Kong legal and political systems: under the motto of “one country, two systems”, Hong Kong maintains its own pseudo-constitution (Hong Kong Basic Law) which recognizes rights that are unavailable to the rest of China, including the right to protest, the right to free press and the freedom of speech. The Basic Law guarantees that Hong Kong has full autonomy to develop its own democratic order and aims at safeguarding the rights of its citizens for a period 50 years after the handover (Sino-British Joint Declaration), although the Beijing government has already started interfering with the provisions set in the Hong Kongese constitution.
The announcement of the extradition bill thus generated a turmoilin the system. Hong Kongers took the streets and gathered in peaceful marches, which soon escalated and became a battlefield in which riot police officers deployed tear gas and rubber bullets against the demonstrators. Since the beginning of violence in early June, riots and protests have continued and magnified during the summer. Around 12,000 people took part in the first peaceful demonstration against the extradition bill, but soon after, on June 9th, a million people joined the rally. The police department has fired 2,414 shots of tear gas from June 6 to September 15, and it has not hesitated to deploy batons, pepper spray, and rubber bullets, which can cause serious injuries and even death.
The brutality of some specific protestshas shaken the entire world. On July 21, men with white shirts attacked those wearing black—protesters usually wear black—but these attacks were not halted on time by the police, which took some time to respond. It is believed that these attackers were affiliated with the triads, Hong Kong’s mafia-like gangs that often respond to Beijing’s wishes. On August 11, a woman who was said to be a volunteer medic was hit in the eye with a beanbag round fired by police, thus becoming the symbol of the protests: many demonstrators have decided to wear gauze eye patches with red stains while chanting “an eye for an eye!”. The protests have been accompanied by several general strikes and occupations like the events taking place on August 12 and 13, when protesters took over the Hong Kong airport to catch worldwide attention.
What started with an opposition to the extradition bill led to the adoption of five key demandsby the protesters: the withdrawal of the bill, an independent investigation into the use of force by police, amnesty for the arrested protesters, a halt to categorizing the protests as riots (rioting charges carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison), and the implementation of universal suffrage. So far, only the first demand has been complied with, as Chief Executive Carrie Lam indefinitely suspended the bill on September 4.
Pro-democracy activists have been fighting for a more transparent political system in Hong Kong for several years now. The Basic Law recognizes universal suffrage as such, but in 2014 Beijing decided that each person’s votes could only be directed to some specific candidates previously chosen by a nominating committee. Sure enough, these candidates were chosen by China. This system led to the 2014 Umbrella Revolution, at the end of which Beijing’s voting reform was rejected by Hong Kong. Since then, Hong Kong possesses an electoral committee of around 1,200 members, yet the vast majority is still loyal to Beijing. For instance, Carrie Lam, the current chief executive, was the preferred candidate of Beijing.
Demonstrators are mostly young people in their 20s and late teenagers who are now realizing that 2047—the year when Hong Kong’s special status is set to expire in accordance with the agreement between the United Kingdom and China—is not so far away as it may have seemed. But not only the youth is mobilizing. Trade unions are going on strike for solidarity; nurses and doctors are protesting as a response to the attack to their colleague; bankers are demonstrating, aware of the fact that if China takes away Hong Kong’s freedom, business will suffer a severe setback.
A hundred days of protests. Fearing another hundred, Beijing has made sure that no one in mainland China sees or hears what is happening in Hong Kong lest it sets a precedent. When protests started, China decided to ignore them, convinced that they would fade away. But now that they have not only not disappeared, but intensified, Beijing has decided to increase its disinformation campaign to demonize protesters and to spread fake news that could harm Hong Kong. The Chinese government has already sent paramilitary groups to Shenzhen, a city across the border with Hong Kong, but as of now it cannot intervene militarily. In order for Beijing to be able to conduct a military operation in Hong Kong, it can either wait for the Hong Kongese government to request China’s assistance, or it can declare war or a state of emergency in the region.
A hundred days of protests. A hundred days that may eventually lead to a real democracy or to a real tragedy. But what Hong Kongers have accomplished in these hundred days, despite China’s disinformation campaign, cannot be undone. And whatever the result might be, the flame of democracy has already been ignited.
