High Noon in Hong Kong

“Fight for freedom! Stand with Hong Kong! Five demands! Not one less!”

These are some of the mottoes shouted from the pro-democracy protesters day and night on the streets of Hong Kong. Until March, these streets were usually calm and peaceful. Hong Kong continues to convulse and cry out, wracked with turmoil sparked by the failure of the Carrie Lam government to listen to all of the demands of her people.

The impetus for the protests relates back to a extradition bill proposed in February between Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China. The proposed bill came to the forefront due to a homicide case that happened last year involving a Hong Kong couple that traveled to Taiwan. The man killed his girlfriend while they were traveling. The Taiwanese government wanted to extradite the man from Hong Kong to stand trial for the murder, but Hong Kong had no extradition agreement with Taiwan, so the parents of the murdered girl went to a pro-Beijing party called the DAB (Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong) for help. The DAB, in turn, asked Carrie Lam to help get justice for the girl’s family. Thus, Lam proposed the extradition bill.

Ever since the 1997 handover, Hong Kong has been negotiating with mainland China to come up with an agreement to send criminal suspects back and forth between them; a deal has never eventuated in large part because of the two different legal systems that exist on the mainland in Hong Kong. Lam thought that she could succeed in addressing an issue that previous chief executives have failed to do over the past 22 years. Importantly, she had the support of her advisers, supporters in the Legislative Council, the DAB, and Beijing.