Hong Kong's youth have experienced something of a political awakening in the last two decades - the proportion of registered voters aged 18-35 rose from 58% in 2000, to 70% in 2016.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on 18th June signaled the end of a controversial extradition bill that she promoted and then postponed after some of the most violent protests since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Hong Kong facing the biggest political crisis since its handover to China
Hong Kong was handover to China in 1997 by Britishers. Hong Kong posed a profound challenge to China and its ruling parties.
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In June 2019, the protest of Hong Kong lead to the more severe political crisis, however, the protest has been done since 1997 as well.
Beijing attempted to pass stringent security legislation during 2003, but it was resisted thousands of protestors.
In 2014, China wanted to propose some changes in the electoral system, but that triggered week-long protest. The protest was known as the Umbrella Movement.
The 2014 protests - which were also known as the Occupy Central protests - ended without any concessions from the government.
This time around it has been different.
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Read about - 5 lakh death in India alone due to unclean cooking fuel
The latest demonstrations, against a controversial bill that would allow people in Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China, has, strikingly, forced the government to apologize and pause its plans - effectively shelving them say many analysts.
In June 2019, the Chinese government wanted to implement the Extradition Bill. The extradition Bill if passed would have allowed, the city government to extradite any suspect to places with which Hong Kong does not have extradition record.
According to the Hongkong government, this bill would have allowed, suspected criminals to avoid trial elsewhere by taking refuge in the city.
To argue that the law is urgently required, in the case of a Hong Kong man who is facing charges in Taiwan for murdering his girlfriend. The extradition plan applies to 37 crimes, including murder, sexual offenses, abduction, drug peddling and corruption, with retroactive effect.
The Chief Executive can decide on extradition requests on a case-by-case basis which would then be reviewed by the city’s courts.
During 2017, Mr. Xi issued a warning in the Hongkong city stating that Beijing would not tolerate Hong Kong becoming a base for a foreign-inspired campaign to undermine its rule. (According to the Chinese government perception)
How is Hong Kong under Chinese Rules?
The Basic Law provides people in Hong Kong more political freedoms than their counterparts in mainland China.
There is a relatively free press, an unregulated Internet and a less-controlled judiciary in Hong Kong.
Also, mainland authorities are not allowed to operate directly in Hong Kong. But Beijing has increasingly tried to exert its influence on the city in recent years, raising concerns of the city’s pro-democracy groups which are largely Beijing-sceptics.
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There have been instances of China critics being abducted from Hong Kong with the city government doing nothing to resist such actions. Furthermore, the Hong Kong government itself has shown growing authoritarian tendencies in recent years.
The events in the former British colony mark possibly its biggest political crisis since its handover to Chinese rule in 1997, and pose a profound challenge to the Chinese president and head of the ruling Communist Party Xi Jinping.
What does China think?
The Chinese ruling Party considers protest to be a foreign-inspired campaign to undermine the rule. Even if China issued various warnings but the mostly young protesters seemed little deterred by such threats.
The Behaviour of Protestors
Protesters even remained anonymous by wearing masks, declined to give their full names to journalists and using cash rather than stored value cards to buy subway tickets.
The demonstrations also follow the 30th anniversary of China’s bloody suppression of the student-led pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
Hong Kong held one of its biggest rallies in recent years earlier this month to honor the hundreds or possibly thousands killed in the army assault and to demand a full investigation into the crackdown, in what was seen as a further sign of defiance against Beijing.
Xi’s administration is also dealing with the trade war with the United States that has thrown its export-driven economic model into question, potentially threatening its relationship with China’s urban middle class that has been predicated on accepting strict political controls in exchange for improving standards of living.
Police fired tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets after well-organized protesters breached their cordon, forcing the assembly to postpone the debate. The council’s official online calendar said no meetings were planned for Thursday.
Protesters said they were seeking to block the passage of the legislation they see as part of Beijing’s moves to tighten its grip over Hong Kong, which was promised the right to maintain its own political, economic and social institutions for 50 years following the end of British rule.
Who is Carrie Lam?
Carrie Lam is a Hong Kong politician serving as the 4th and current Chief Executive of Hong Kong since 2017. She is known as pro- Beijing leader of Hongkong.
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