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It’s high time Hong Kongers were rescued|Glacier Kwong

蘋果日報 2020/09/03 16:44


On August 23, 2020, twelve Hong Kongers, all involved in the movement last year, were detained by China’s coast guard when fleeing to Taiwan for political asylum. Andy Li, recently arrested and detained under the newly established national security law, is reportedly among one of them. It has been reported that they are currently detained in Yantian Detention Centre in Shenzhen. However, regardless of the fact that the Chinese and Hong Kong governments have not yet released details of the charges against the arrested Hong Kong people and whether they will be prosecuted, etc., the public must continue to be concerned.
The Hong Kong government is seemingly reluctant to provide support to those detained. Several local media outlets have reported that the Hong Kong Police Force were aware of the incident, and even reported to the Chinese authorities that they were searching for Hong Kong people. They have been notified and received notification of the criminal compulsory measures taken against the arrested Hong Kongers.
The Hong Kong police must have known about the arrest of the Hong Kong people and their transfer to China. The so-called “only learned about it through media reports” in the press conference held by the police force days after the incident took place was obviously a cover-up.
This reminds me of Simon Cheng, a Hong Kong citizen who worked for the UK Consulate and was detained for 15 days in China, during which he was reportedly tortured. At the time when he was detained, the Hong Kong government was reluctant to offer assistance as well. In December, 2019, two legislators asked the government about the arrest of Cheng, the government then replied “the Immigration Department has provided assistance upon the family’s request” and “administrative detention is not part of the reciprocal notification mechanism”, so as to shirk its responsibility.
It worries me that the same might happen to the twelve Hong Kongers. It is our greatest fear that they will experience inhuman treatment. It is overwhelming to have to imagine what they will possibly face in the custody of China. In China, there is a more stringent national security law and other draconian criminal laws that Hong Kong does not have at the moment. The worst case scenario is that they would be sent to China’s secret courts and black prisons, with no access to lawyers and high risks of forced confessions under torture.
I urge the world to pay attention to these 12 Hong Kongers and the developments of Hong Kong’s situation, and offer support to those who are in need. For now, some leaders of the world have been outspoken about taking refugees from Hong Kong. Leaders in the UK, Australia and Taiwan, places with hardening stances towards China, have offered support for Hong Kong residents who decide to flee the city.
According to international refugee law, asylum and refugee status are the protections granted to people who are facing persecution or well-founded fear of persecution if they return to the place they fled. Usually, asylum procedures are independent from diplomatic affairs. However, Beijing has consistently been denouncing any attempts of offering help to Hong Kongers from foreign states, claiming that other nations have no right to doing so. China will and has been threatening countries into staying out of the affairs of Hong Kong with economic benefits it supposedly offers. If, for example, the European Union(EU) offers more help to people from Hong Kong, that would be considered by China as an act of acknowledging claims made for persecution against the CCP. And China will make use of the fact that it is EU’s second-largest trading partner to pressure the EU to refrain from doing so.
It is to my dismay that there will be more Hong Kongers fleeing the city, and hence I urge the world to lend a helping hand to those who are oppressed. Yes, the political repercussions could be grave, even though the process can be done quietly, because China is a bully. States that grant protections to even a small number of political refugees from Hong Kong are taking a stance in regards to the actions of the Chinese government. But it is high time for the world to take a firm stance against human rights violation—the world has failed to stop China from expanding its encroaching authoritarian regime, but it is not too late to offer assistance to those who are suffering from it and take necessary measures to stop the situations from worsening.
(Glacier Kwong, born and raised in Hong Kong, became a digital rights and political activist at the age of 15. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Law and working on the course for Hong Kong in Germany. Her work has been published on Washington Post, TIME, etc.)
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