Causeway Bay bookseller Lam Wing-kee on his way to Taiwan, citing fears over the controversial proposal to change Hong Kong extradition laws so that fugitives may be transferred to jurisdictions including mainland China. Photo: Facebook
I am sure that, if purely based on the allegedly violent deeds of Ray Wong Toi-yeung and Alan Li Tung-sing, the authorities in Germany would not have provided asylum to them. Not only must they have scrutinised the deeds of these two Hongkongers, but also the polices of the Hong Kong government in recent years, such as disqualifying Legislative Council members, declining to renew the work visa of a Financial Times journalist, as well as a proposed extradition bill that many fear will subject Hongkongers to the vagaries of the mainland judicial system.
Most people prefer to live in their hometown than to live in exile. To live in a foreign country is not as easy as we think. We can understand that through the lives of the artist Ai Weiwei, Liu Xia, wife of the late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, and other dissidents who now live in exile.
In meeting with European Union delegates, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor dismissed their reservations. Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung seconded her and said the diplomats did not fully understand and were misled, labelling their fears “unfounded and unwarranted”.
Lam is naive not to understand that “one country, two systems” is being evaluated. The EU delegates’ response is simple: they don’t favour any bill hazardous to their people and want safeguards such as taking international human rights standards into account in vetting fugitive transfer requests, which could see criminal suspects sent to mainland China.
Of course, the pro-Beijing people can point to the smooth running so far of the joint immigration checkpoint at the West Kowloon high-speed rail station, and say pan-democrats who raised fears of people being dragged across the border were just paranoid. But who can blame us for our communist phobia?
Ling Man Tsang, Fanling
Supporters in Berlin wait to welcome Liu Xia, the widow of Nobel Peace Prize-winning political dissident Liu Xiaobo, on 10 July, 2018. Beijing said Liu Xia left China for Germany on health grounds after nearly eight years under house arrest. Photo: EPA-EFE
After his sudden about-turn, a repentant Lau declared he “loves his country and Hong Kong” – but obviously not including Macau.
In this case, there appears to be “one country, three systems”. Ordinary people resent that the rich with their clever top lawyers usually manage to evade justice. Lau’s statement, sincerely hoping that Hong Kong society will “maintain its harmony, stability, prosperity and progress” illustrates that our property tycoons live in a totally different Hong Kong dimension to the rest of us. Indeed, on another planet.
