The ‘Infinity War’ in the Streets of Hong Kong

The rise of China threatens the free world. 
By Roger Cohen

Protests continued in Hong Kong through the Christmas holiday.

HONG KONG — Carrie Lam, the lame-duck Beijing-backed ruler of Hong Kong, is unhappy that Christmas has been “ruined by a group of reckless and selfish rioters.”
Joan Shang, who works in sustainable development and has joined the pro-democracy protests, takes a different view.
“It’s an ideological war and we are at the center of it,” she said of the near-seven-month campaign. Such struggles do not take a break for Santa.
I found Hong Kong, once home to the pragmatic apolitical pursuit of money, riven and shaken.
One consultant, who thinks the city is now “a base of subversion against the Chinese central government,” told me he’d arranged for his family to stay in New York because he does not want his teenage daughters breathing the “toxic air.”
He was not referring to tear gas, but to poisonous division.
Everything from co-op meetings to dinner conversation is charged with the tension between the “yellow” protesters’ camp and the “blue” Beijing bloc.
Dialogue is near nonexistent.
The yellow-blue ideological struggle pits Hong Kong’s rule of law against China’s “rule by law,” free societies against Xi Jinping’s intensifying surveillance-state autocracy.

Persistent Hong Kong protests threaten Xi Jinping’s authoritarian project.

The confrontation will not end soon.
To say the course of the 21st century hinges on this conflict’s outcome would be a stretch, but not an outlandish one. 
“This is the infinity war,” Joshua Wong, a prominent democracy activist, told me.
“When Xi says the ‘motherland,’ it leaves me flat,” Shang said over coffee.
“I have no ties to that country. We in Hong Kong are not an authoritarian society. Psychologically, China cannot understand young people prepared to hurt their own interests for democracy. To them it’s all about money.”
Newly acquired wealth and rapid development have been the glue of Chinese society in recent decades. 
Xi — concentrating power, abolishing term limits, extending technological tyranny — has left no doubt over his determination to prolong that cohesion through diktat.
The history of China has been marked by periods of unity followed by fracture.
Xi wants to put an end to that alternation.
His ruthless assertiveness has conjured that impossible thing: overwhelming bipartisan American congressional backing for a piece of legislation. 
Such was the support for the bill last month that authorizes sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for human rights abuses in the city.
President Trump signed the bill reluctantly, but he signed.
China was furious.
The persistent Hong Kong protests threaten Xi’s authoritarian project.
The Chinese periphery looks frayed.
Taiwan, on the eve of elections next month, has taken note of the troubles in Hong Kong.
Unification on the basis of the chimera of “one country, two systems”?
No, thank you.
China has its red lines, and Hong Kong is treading close to them.
But the city is a special case; it’s dollars and oxygen.
Hong Kong affords mainland tycoons the ability to move “red capital” in and out. 
The city, the world’s third-largest financial center, provides access to international capital markets.
It even offers honest courts and judges.
And so China is likely to play a waiting game.
A second Tiananmen in Hong Kong would be a horrific gamble that perhaps only armed insurrection or an outright push for independence would provoke.
Gradual infiltration of the increasingly brutal Hong Kong police by mainland paramilitaries is an obvious alternative. 
But it’s not a solution.
Beijing’s dilemma is that “one country, two systems,” always an exercise in creative ambiguity, is broken.
The model, agreed upon for the British handover of sovereignty to China in 1997 and supposed to last until 2047, is now almost halfway through its putative life.
The limits of its internal contradictions have been reached.
It would have been one thing if China had moved in the liberal direction many expected; it’s quite another when Xi’s rule grows ever more repressive and an estimated one million Muslim Uighurs in China’s East Turkestan colony undergo Orwellian re-education in camps.
“The problem is the idea of a half-century of no change begins to feel like handcuffs,” Teresa Ma, a Hong Kong lawyer and mediator, told me.
“Our society has evolved, but our government is utterly unresponsive.”
Hong Kong’s restiveness has many roots: rising inequality, unaffordable housing, diminishing prospects for young people, dithering governance, a sense of marginalization as China rose.
The city represents 2.7 percent of Chinese gross domestic product today, compared with 18.4 percent in 1997.
Shenzhen, just over the border, was a cow town three decades ago; now it glistens and gleams, a high-tech hub.
Freedom versus repression is not the whole story of the protests.
Many frustrations have found an outlet in demonstrations that have turned violent at times.
But it is the essence of the story.
Only the tone-deaf insensitivity of Lam, the city’s chief executive, pushed Hong Kongers into open revolt in June.
Her administration’s proposal for an extradition bill would have meant game over for Hong Kong.
 This city knows as no other that the rule of law and an independent judiciary are the basis of its prosperity. 
Allowing "criminal" suspects to be sent into the one-party lawlessness of mainland China would have nixed that. 
“The spirit of the rule of law is in the blood of the Hong Kong people,” Benny Tai, an associate law professor at the University of Hong Kong, told me.
That’s why millions poured into the streets.
The bill was withdrawn, but too late.
Pandora’s box had been opened.
The genie that emerged was called freedom.
Lam, according to an audio tape obtained by Reuters, has conceded that the bill was “very unwise.” Her life, she said, “has been turned upside down.”
She’s paralyzed.
But she can’t quit.
The last thing Xi wants is a precedent for massive street protests leading to the ouster of a leader.
The protesters have five demands, including an independent investigation of police brutality and an amnesty for the thousands arrested. 
But the most intractable is insistence on the election of the chief executive through universal suffrage — in other words, real Hong Kong democracy.
The Basic Law of 1997 calls for “universal suffrage” as an “ultimate aim,” but in “accordance with the principle of gradual and orderly progress,” and “upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee in accordance with democratic procedures.”
Creative ambiguity, I said, otherwise known as an impenetrable verbal fudge.
This convoluted language worthy of a Soviet bureaucrat is fast withering into irrelevance. 
Lam was chosen by a 1,200-member election committee dominated by pro-Beijing factions.
That sure worked out well!
Wong, the 23-year-old democracy activist, put it bluntly: “The fundamental problem is that, from Beijing’s perspective, universal suffrage is not far from independence.”
Regina Ip, a Hong Kong legislator and a former secretary for security, thinks the fundamental problem lies elsewhere — in the maximalist demands of the protesters.
China, she told me, agreed to a “more democratic form of government in Hong Kong,” but “not a democracy as available to an independent political entity.”
The protests had morphed into “a serious attempt to overthrow the government and split Hong Kong from China.”
I don’t think the issue is independence.
The protests, largely leaderless, coordinated through social media, ranging from flash mobs in malls to massive marches, are the furious response of a frustrated population to Xi’s ominous repressive turn and Lam’s subservience to it.
Hong Kong’s culture has changed. Once intensely pragmatic, it is now intensely values-driven. 
That could happen one day on the mainland, too.
Millennials value values.
District council elections last month, in which democracy advocates took 87 percent of the seats, suggest where Hong Kong public opinion lies.
Impatience and irritation at the disruption of the protests in a business-driven city have grown, but are far from predominant.
Legislative elections next September are likely to reinforce the pro-democracy trend.
Tai, the law professor, was unsure whether to give me his card because the University of Hong Kong is trying to oust him over his role in the 2014 political protests and could succeed soon.
He spent a few months in prison this year after being convicted on public nuisance charges.
He is now out on bail.

Protesters in Hong Kong on Christmas Eve.

“Our fight for our rights will not end,” he told me.
“The rise of China is a threat to the free world and that is what Hong Kong is resisting.” 
The city is the avant-garde of a world awakening, with a mixture of anxiety and dismay, to the full implications of Chinese ascendancy.
The most significant, perhaps the only, foreign policy achievement of the Trump administration has been to get behind the Hong Kong protesters while pressuring Xi on trade and keeping channels open to the Chinese leader. 
This American pressure, which has made Trump popular in Hong Kong, must not relent.
Mike Bloomberg, who has said Xi “is not a dictator,” and Joe Biden, who has said China “is not competition for us,” should take another look.
Universal suffrage for Hong Kong is the only endgame I can see to the “one country, two systems” impasse, short of the People’s Liberation Army marching into the city and all hell breaking loose.

Behind huge Hong Kong march, a dramatic show of public support

The passage of time and outbursts of violence can upend any protest movement. But Hong Kongers have been able to sustain a remarkable sense of unity around their pro-democracy demands.

By Ann Scott Tyson 

At the biggest pro-democracy protest since June, protesters show the palms of their hands as they call on the government Dec. 8, 2019, to meet all five of their key demands, including universal suffrage and an independent investigation of police.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters staged one of Hong Kong’s biggest marches since June on Sunday, in a dramatic sign of the strength of public support for the six-month-old campaign for greater democracy and autonomy from China.
The overwhelmingly peaceful protest was approved by police and saw an estimated 800,000 people surge through downtown Hong Kong, according to the organizer, the Civil Human Rights Front, the territory’s biggest pro-democracy group. 

The group also led marches of an estimated 1 million and 2 million people in June that helped push Hong Kong’s government to withdraw a controversial China extradition bill. 

Chanting “Five Demands, Not One Less,” protesters of all ages and walks of life raised their outstretched palms as the vast crowd spilled out of Victoria Park and slowly flowed down Hennessy Road and Queensway into Central, the heart of Hong Kong’s financial district. 

Parents carrying children and retirees holding umbrellas like parasols against the sun joined black-clad students wearing gas masks, as the nonviolent and more radical elements of protesters joined forces in a striking display of unity that analysts say is the hallmark of the movement.
“There is an ethic of solidarity … that encourages people to stay united,” says Francis Lee, director of the School of Journalism at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, one of a team of scholars surveying public opinion on the protests. 

Indeed, using protest art, banners, and chants, the crowd on Sunday articulated slogans that stressed their strong bonds.
“No derision. No division. No denunciation,” read one poster on display along the march route. “Contributing in our own ways, we traverse toward the same summit as one,” it said, showing a protester waving others onward and upward.
As many as 800,000 people participated in a peaceful march Dec. 8 down a major road on Hong Kong Island.

Polls show that about 70% of Hong Kong’s 7.4 million people are in favor of the pro-autonomy movement, according to Professor Lee’s research. 

The movement has lessened the gaps in political views between Hong Kong’s moderate, pro-democracy, and localist supporters, but has heightened polarization between those groups and the pro-establishment camp, which favors closer ties with Beijing, he says.
About 89% of Hong Kongers now believe that a combination of peaceful protests and radical tactics can achieve the best outcome, while 92% think that radical actions are understandable “when the government fails to listen,” a mid-September poll shows.
Protesters on Sunday included civil servants, teachers, and other professionals, who voiced deep disdain for how Hong Kong’s government, led by Chief Executive Carrie Lam, has handled the political crisis. 

Posters mocking Lam are mainstays of the protests, as her popularity has fallen to a record low.“I work for the government, but I don’t agree with the government,” said one middle-aged civil servant as he marched through the financial district, requesting anonymity because of his position.
One of the protesters’ main demands is to elect Hong Kong’s chief executive by universal suffrage, instead of through the current, Beijing-controlled selection process. 

Some 81% of people polled in October said they seek political reforms. 

Lam is viewed as beholden to Beijing, and prominent posters on Sunday depicted her in the embrace of Chinese dictator Xi Jinping.
While Lam has not achieved a political resolution to the crisis, she has ordered Hong Kong’s 30,000-strong police force to quell the unrest, leading to more than 6,000 arrests, the heavy use of tear gas and rubber bullets, and a few instances of firing live ammunition. 

Protesters have hurled Molotov cocktails, bricks, and arrows at police.
Yet despite an escalation of violence on both sides, polls show the majority of people blame the government and police, not the protesters. 

Trust in the police has dropped sharply since May, and more than half of Hong Kongers have “zero” confidence in the force, a November survey shows.“Hong Kong people are really tough,” says Brian Fong, a political scientist and former government official. 

“Despite the fact that over 6,000 have been arrested, and many have been persecuted, Hong Kong people still fight back. The momentum of the movement is still very strong,” he says.
Sunday’s mass protest unfolded largely without police presence or interference, apart from some tensions toward the end. 

Some marchers said they felt safe to attend because police approved the demonstration. 

“Because today is legal most people will come out,” says a teacher who identified himself only as Mr. T. 

“I’m not afraid of violence, but if it’s illegal we have fears of being arrested, even months later.”
Some protesters shed their masks for the rally, and seemed less worried about being photographed. 

At one point, they enthusiastically responded as a young girl with a loudspeaker led the sea of marchers in chanting: “Fight for freedom! Stand with Hong Kong!” 

As darkness fell, they lit the way with thousands of cellphone lights and sang Hong Kong’s unofficial anthem, “Glory to Hong Kong.”

The Battle of Hong Kong

800,000 Hongkongers attend pro-democracy march

By Holmes Chan

Hong Kong saw yet another massive street protest on Sunday, which ended peacefully despite heightened tensions between demonstrators and police in Central.

The streets from Causeway Bay to Central were packed with demonstrators of all ages, as well as families and black-clad protesters.

March organiser, the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), estimated that around 800,000 attended.


Sunday’s protest coincided with the half-year mark of the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, which was sparked in June by the now-withdrawn extradition bill.

It was also the first CHRF march since July that received a green light from law enforcement – coming after police banned multiple events proposed by the group.

Speaking after the march ended, Jimmy Sham of the CHRF said that the turnout was a sign that the Hong Kong public have not yet been placated.

“We hope that Chief Executive Carrie Lam will set up a bona fide independent commission of inquiry,” Sham said, adding that the turnout – despite being lower than previous marches – was nevertheless satisfactory.

Sham also criticised the heavy police deployment after nightfall, which he said was “unnecessary” and made participants “nervous” despite joining a legally sanctioned event.

“Don’t forget the original intentions, after just winning a small battle.”

While Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement showed signs of escalating violence last month, the march on Sunday did not see any major physical clashes.


Hong Kong Free Press
✔@HongKongFP
Riot police detained a couple of black-clad protesters in Causeway Bay after nightfall. The area saw some vandalism but no major clashes on Sunday. The two men put up no resistance and were later taken away on a police van after body searches.Video: HKFP. #hongkong

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11:42 - 8 Dec 2019


At the march, protesters shouted slogans such as “Five demands, not one less” and “Disband the police force now.” 

A protester who gave her name as Angeline told HKFP that she was frustrated that the police did not face any form of accountability.

“Thousands of our younger generation have been arrested, but we don’t see even a single police officer suspended,” she told HKFP. 

“It has been six months, but nobody throughout the government has taken any personal responsibility, or faced any consequences for their actions.”

Protester Nicho said that universal suffrage should remain a top priority for the movement. 

Another young protester, Nicho, told HKFP that he believed the most important demand of the movement was universal suffrage. 

“It’s been talked about for so long… universal suffrage is probably the best solution, because it will give the people of Hong Kong a better mandate to sort out their issues,” he said.

In a statement, the government said that the march was “largely peaceful and orderly,” but noted that there were still violent acts.

On Sunday evening, protesters threw petrol bombs outside the High Court and the Court of Final Appeal, and defaced the exterior wall of the High Court, according to the government. 

Both fires were relatively small and were put out within minutes. 

No injuries were reported.
Graffiti was spotted on the exterior of the High Court, which read: “If there is no rule of law, what is the use of courts?” 

In recent months, protesters have expressed growing discontent with the local courts, saying that judges have subjected arrested protesters to harsh bail conditions.


Hong Kong Free Press
✔@HongKongFP
Replying to @HongKongFP
Sometime during the march, an entrance to the Court of Final Appeal was vandalised, while a fire was briefly lit at an entrance to the High Court. Protesters have criticised the judiciary for harsh recent bail decisions.

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12:57 - 8 Dec 2019

Standoff in Central
Massive crowds were seen departing from the Central Lawn of Victoria Park from around 3pm until after dusk.

However, many had skipped ahead and occupied Hennessy Road in Causeway Bay.

Police displayed warning flags multiple times – including a warning that tear gas may be used – but the march continued without incident.

At the march endpoint, some protesters occupied Pottinger Street and Des Voeux Road Central, which led to a tense standoff with a heavy police presence.
During the evening, police stationed a water cannon truck and an armoured truck outside the Hang Seng Bank headquarters. 

Protesters urged each other to retreat.

Police said that the protesters were “participating in an unlawful assembly” and some “held weapons” in their hands.

Protesters donned ponchos upon sight of the water cannon truck. 

At around 10pm, police started to clear the makeshift barricades on Des Voeux Road Central, which had already been abandoned as protesters dispersed.


Hong Kong Free Press
✔@HongKongFP
· 8 Dec 2019
Replying to @HongKongFP
Protesters urge eachother to retreat as the water cannon truck is spotted in Central. #hongkong #hongkongprotests #antiELAB #china The atmosphere at the endpoint remains tense but peaceful.


Hong Kong Free Press
✔@HongKongFP
Protesters keep an eye on the water cannon truck in the distance and hand out plastic ponchos to eachother. #hongkong #hongkongprotests #china
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10:07 - 8 Dec 2019

In a statement, police added that “violent protesters” vandalised shops and a bank in Causeway Bay and Wan Chai.

While scenes of mass arrests did not appear on Sunday, police conducted a widespread stop-and-search operation that spanned the city.

After dark, riot police were spotted detaining people at ferry piers, MTR stations, transport hubs and streets.


Hong Kong Free Press
✔@HongKongFP
Police are clearing barricades and reopening roads in Central. Most protesters have left. #hongkong #hongkongprotests #antiELAB #china
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14:54 - 8 Dec 2019

HKFP witnessed riot police arrest at least one protester dressed in black in Causeway Bay, who appeared to be walking along the street without participating in criminal activity. 

He was led away on a police van after officers searched his belongings. 

Other arrests were also reported in districts such as Central.

Calls for a mass, city-wide strike on Monday have been promoted online, though it is unclear if rush hour transport links may be affected in the morning.

A banner promoting the newly formed union for freelancers. 

Some protesters handed out flyers on Sunday which advertised dozens of newly formed industry-specific unions. 

A protester affiliated with the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) told HKFP that the unions would be useful in organising strikes, as well as promoting a “golden economic circle” – an informal coalition of pro-democracy businesses.

Hong Kong Uprising

The violent Hong Kong authorities have lost their legitimacy 
Financial Times

Public execution, Tiananmen style: Hong Kong police cold-bloodedly shoots a young protester with a live round.


Hong Kong is on the edge of a precipice.
Late into Tuesday evening, protesters at several locations hurled Molotov cocktails at police who fired back volleys of tear gas.
Since the weekend, a protester has been shot by police with a live round, and a man horrifically set alight after confronting demonstrators.
Violence that has been building for months has reached a critical pitch.
With neither side appearing ready to back down, the danger is now real of a tragedy on a far broader scale.
Blame for the current crisis must be laid primarily at the feet of the Hong Kong government and Beijing. 
Since the protests began in April, both have underestimated the demonstrators’ seriousness and resolve.
Concessions have been too little, too late.
Had Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, withdrawn the extradition bill that originally triggered the demonstrations when they were still peaceful mass marches, she might have defused the situation.
Instead, she initially only suspended the bill instead of cancelling it, and only after the first bloodshed.
This sent protesters a damaging message: that only violence brought results.
Continued mishandling of the crisis by the Hong Kong authorities has led to the loss of their legitimacy in the eyes of the population. 
In a sign of how sentiment has shifted, office workers in suits could be seen cheering black-clad demonstrators in full battle dress as they ran through the city’s central business district on Tuesday. Having lost popular legitimacy, the authorities have resorted instead to police rule. 
In the absence of any political resolution, the brutal police find themselves, invidiously, on the front lines, expected to govern what has become an ungovernable city through force.
Since they only have one set of tools, an inevitable cycle of escalation has set in.
The city no longer has a law and order problem, but a rule of law problem. 
Now there are signs that Beijing is preparing to take an even harder line.
Protesters fear further steps to erode the rights and freedoms Hong Kong has enjoyed since the end of British rule in 1997, which are guaranteed in the Basic Law that came into effect at the handover. Chinese officials have signalled a desire for legislative and education reforms in the city, including strengthening security legislation.
An article of the Basic Law said Hong Kong should enact laws to prohibit “treason, secession, sedition [or] subversion” against the central government.
But a move to implement that through a national security bill in 2003 was dropped after half a million people protested.
Any attempt to introduce a national security law now would be seen as a final straw by demonstrators.
If Beijing intends to push through such legislation, the only way it might succeed could be by also enacting another unfulfilled article of the Basic Law — which set the “ultimate aim” of choosing Hong Kong’s chief executive by universal suffrage.
This has become the biggest of the demonstrators’ five demands.
The chances appear slim indeed.
Granting the universal suffrage demand would risk making Beijing appear cowed by violence, and setting a precedent for other parts of China.
Yet, balanced with an eventual commitment to introduce a national security law in Hong Kong, it could in theory provide the framework for a visionary compromise.
It might be the only route left to a peaceful end to the protests — and to averting the ever-increasing danger of a bloody military intervention from the mainland.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi welcomes Hong Kong pro-democracy activists to Capitol

By LISA MASCARO

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday welcomed Hong Kong pro-democracy activists to the U.S. Capitol, sending a message to Beijing that Congress supports the protesters in their months-long campaign for human rights.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is given a lapel pin by a Hong Kong activist following a news conference on human rights in Hong Kong on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019. Behind Pelosi is Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong. 

Pelosi thanked the activists for "challenging the conscience," not only of the Chinese government, but the worldwide community with their mass protests over the territory's autonomous status. 

She sided with the protesters' demand for universal suffrage and "a political system accountable to the people." 

And Pelosi warned others in the U.S. government not to allow "commercial interests" to drive foreign policy in the region.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, left, with Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong and other members of Congress during a news conference on human right in Hong Kong on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019. 

"If we do not speak up because of commercial interests in support of human rights in China, we lose all moral authority to speak up for them any other place in the world," Pelosi said.
Republicans joined the Democratic leader, alongside several Hong Kong activists who have become prominent figures in the mass protests since June, in a stately room off the House floor beneath a portrait of George Washington.
Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said Americans see the young people waving American flags on the Hong Kong streets. 

"America stands with you," he said.
Several of the activists appeared before Congress this week, appealing to lawmakers to support the mass protests that began with a now shelved proposal to extradite people arrested in Hong Kong to China.
Against the backdrop of the 30-year anniversary of the Tiananmen Square uprising, with its brutal and bloody crackdown on young democracy protesters a generation ago, the U.S. lawmakers are prominently backing today's young activists. 

Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong called it "a remarkable day" to share the support of the U.S. leaders.
"We will continue our uphill battle until the day we enjoy freedom and democracy," Wong said.
Denise Ho, a singer and pro-democracy activist based in Hong Kong, thanked Pelosi for the "warm welcome" during their visit to the Capitol amid what she called a "very difficult but also very empowering" time in Hong Kong.
"This is a message to the Hong Kong people that we are not isolated in this fight," Ho said. 

"We are in the forefront of this great noble fight for universal values."
During a hearing Tuesday before a U.S. government commission set up by Congress to monitor human rights in China, several activists asked lawmakers to support their efforts by banning the export of American police equipment that is used against demonstrators. 

They also want lawmakers to more closely monitor Chinese efforts to undermine civil liberties in the city.
Republicans and Democrats on the panel, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, expressed their support. 

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said Wednesday the hearing was beamed around the world and "no doubt" watched closely by the Chinese government.
The House is expected to advance legislation that would require the secretary of State to annually review Hong Kong's special economic and trade status, providing a check on the Chinese government's influence and the territory's autonomy.
Pelosi welcomed the Hong Kong government's decision to drop the extradition bill that sparked the protests over summer, but she said Wednesday, "We all know it's not enough. Much more must be done."

The speaker, who has become something of an alternative ambassador on the global stage during her tenure, has a long history of monitoring China from her early years in Congress when she appeared with other lawmakers in Tiananmen Square to pay tribute to the protesters.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, has been allowed certain autonomy and freedoms since it was returned to China in 1997 as a territory, with a "one country, two systems" policy that was supposed to ensure a smooth political transition.
Under U.S. law, the territory of Hong Kong receives special treatment in matters of trade, customs, sanctions enforcement, law enforcement cooperation and more. 

China has benefited from this and used it to evade U.S. export controls and sanctions.
The legislation to be considered by the House from Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., places Beijing on "annual notice" that it will lose Hong Kong's special economic and trade status if its autonomy continues to erode.

China's human rights abuses

Hong Kong legislator urges U.N. rights body to probe police abuse

By  Stephanie Nebehay

Hong Kong pro-democracy legislator Tanya Chan poses after her address to a session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, September 16, 2019. 

GENEVA -- A pro-democracy Hong Kong legislator called on the top U.N. human rights body on Monday to investigate what she said were “brutal crackdowns” and “police brutality” against demonstrators in the former British colony.
Tanya Chan addressed the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva as Hong Kong’s businesses and metro stations reopened as usual on Monday after a chaotic Sunday when police fired water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who blocked roads and threw petrol bombs outside government headquarters.
“Today marks the 100th day of the movement, but there is no sign the police will exercise restraint. This is a direct result of the lack of democracy in Hong Kong, as the government is not held accountable for its endorsement of police abuse,” Chan said.
Referring to U.N. human rights boss Michelle Bachelet, she said: “Will the High Commissioner support our appeal for this Council to convene an urgent session and establish a Commission of Inquiry, to ensure justice and human rights for the people of Hong Kong?”
China’s diplomatic mission wrote to the United Nations in Geneva at the weekend urging it to deny Chang accreditation for the event, according to a letter seen by Reuters.
It called her a “convicted criminal”, citing her suspended sentence handed down in June after she was found guilty of inciting public nuisance during 2014 pro-democracy protests.
Hong Kong returned to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula that ensures freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland.
The spark for the latest protests was planned legislation, now withdrawn, that would have allowed people to be sent to mainland China for trial. 

They have since broadened into calls for universal suffrage.

Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act

Joshua Wong seeks U.S. support for pro-democracy protests

By Gabriella Borter

NEW YORK -- Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong said on Saturday he was seeking the support of U.S. lawmakers for the demands of his fellow protesters who have led months of streets demonstrations, including a call for free elections.
Wong, who spoke to Reuters in New York ahead of a planned visit to Washington, led Hong Kong’s pro-democracy “Umbrella Movement” in 2014. 

The latest protests, which began over a now-withdrawn extradition bill but grew into demands for greater democracy and independence from mainland China, are mostly leaderless.
“We hope ... for bipartisan support,” Wong said of his trip to Washington, adding that U.S. lawmakers should demand the inclusion of a human rights clause in ongoing U.S.-China trade negotiations.
He said he also hoped to convince members of Congress to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which would require an annual justification of the special treatment that for decades has been afforded to the Chinese-ruled city by Washington, including trade and business privileges.
The bill would also mean that officials in China and Hong Kong who undermined the city’s autonomy could face sanctions. 

Democratic U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer said earlier this month that it would be a priority for U.S. Senate Democrats in their new session, which started on Monday.
Hong Kong returned to China from British rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula that guarantees freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland.
China has accused foreign powers, especially the United States and Britain, of fueling the unrest.
The latest protests, often involving violent clashes with police, have roiled Hong Kong for more than three months. 

Millions of people have taken to the city’s streets, even shutting down its airport for two days. Demonstrators’ demands include an independent inquiry into police brutality and universal suffrage.
There were clashes in the Kowloon Bay area on Saturday. 

But the unrest was minor compared with previous weeks when protesters attacked the legislature and Liaison Office, the symbol of Chinese rule, trashed metro stations and set street fires. 

Police have responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon.
China is eager to quell the protests before the 70th anniversary on Oct. 1 of the founding of communist China. 

Wong said the Hong Kong people would keep fighting for their cause through the anniversary.
“We will continue our protest with our course on free elections,” he said. 

“I see no reason for us to give up and it’s time for the world to stand with Hong Kong.”

Joshua Wong: World's pro-democracy poster child

Joshua Wong is hailed as one of the world's most influential figures by Time, Fortune and Foreign Policy magazines.
By Jerome TAYLOR

Joshua Wong is one of the most prominent faces in Hong Kong's leaderless pro-democracy movement.

Joshua Wong, the Hong Kong activist soon to visit the United States, was the unlikely hero of the Umbrella Movement that inspired hundreds of thousands to take over Hong Kong's streets for 79 days in 2014 calling for free elections.
Five years later, the 22-year-old is one of the most prominent faces in the city's leaderless pro-democracy movement, often seen on rallies, locked up by police and individually called out by the Chinese government.
Scrawny, with gaunt features and a studious frown, Wong has now taken his fight around the globe, recently meeting with politicians in Taiwan, holding talks in Berlin with the German foreign minister, and has speaking engagements scheduled in the United States.
Since Hong Kong's mass protests began earlier this year, he has been in and out of custody and was among several high-profile activists rounded up in August, a day before the fifth anniversary of Beijing's rejection of a call for universal suffrage in the city which sparked the 79-day Umbrella Movement.
The arrests were seen as a chilling warning to the current movement.

Activist at 13
Wong spearheaded the Umbrella protests alongside fellow student leaders Nathan Law and Alex Chow, and his speeches and calls for civil disobedience electrified the crowds but the movement failed to win any concessions from China or Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leaders.
He captured the attention of the world in his casting as David against the Goliath of the Chinese Communist Party, and was hailed as one of the world's most influential figures by Time, Fortune and Foreign Policy magazines.
He even became the subject of the Netflix documentary "Teenager vs Superpower", released in 2017.
Born to middle-class Christian parents Grace and Roger Wong, he began his life of activism aged just 13 with a protest against plans for a high-speed rail link between Hong Kong and the mainland.
At the age of just 15, Wong campaigned successfully for Hong Kong to drop a pro-China "National Education" programme, rallying a crowd of 120,000 to blockade the city's parliament for 10 days.
In many ways, he pioneered a method of demonstration that has since been embraced by Hong Kong's current protest movement -- seizing streets in non-violent civil disobedience -- after years of peaceful rallies failed to achieve much.
But he has paid for his activism: prosecutors came after him and many of the Umbrella Movement's leaders.

Joshua Wong and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

'The city I love'
In May, he was sentenced to two months in prison on a contempt charge after pleading guilty to obstructing the clearance of a major protest camp in 2014.
He was also convicted in a second case related to the storming of a government forecourt during the 2014 protests.
He spent some time behind bars for that case, but in the end the city's top court ruled that community service was sufficient punishment.
He went on to found the political party Demosisto, which campaigns for more self-determination for Hong Kong but not independence -- a clear red line for Beijing.
Wong's demands have been both consistent and fairly simple: that Hong Kongers should get to decide their city's fate, not Communist Party officials in Beijing.
Since the end of the Umbrella Movement, he has been denied entry into Malaysia and Thailand, attacked in the street, and abused by pro-China protesters in Taiwan. 

But he has said he will fight on.
In an article written for Time from prison in June, he wrote: "My lack of freedom today is a price I knew I would have to pay for the city I love."
He stepped back into the fray shortly after when authorities released him just one month into his prison term, immediately calling for Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam to step down over her role pushing for the controversial extradition proposal that sparked the current wave of protests.
Authorities did not confirm whether the decision was procedural or a gesture to protestors.
After the bill was eventually scrapped in early September, Wong vowed to fight on, deeming its withdrawal "Too little, too late".
"Our determination and courage to fight for freedom will still continue," he said. 

"Hong Kongers deserve universal suffrage. We deserve to elect our own government."