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NEWS & LETTERS,
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2003
Our Life and Times by Kevin A. Barry
Hong Kong protests
More than 500,000 demonstrators in Hong Kong on July 1, the
sixth anniversary of Hong Kong’s reversion to China’s control from British
colonial rule, forced Tung Chee-Hwa to withdraw a proposed draconian security
law. It would have undermined free speech and other civil liberties guaranteed
until 2047 under the Basic Law of Reunification by, among other provisions,
permitting warrantless searches and making future demonstrators and even
truthful reporters liable to charges of sedition against China. This was the largest outpouring in Hong Kong since as many
as a million demonstrated in solidarity with the Tiananmen Square martyrs in
1989. It was the equivalent of 20 million Americans rising up against the
comparable PATRIOT Act. The unelected Tung, appointed by Jiang Zemin directly from
Beijing, at first pretended to ignore popular opposition, but then accepted the
resignation of his Security Secretary and withdrew the security law. If Tung
survives despite no local support, it will be as a crony that Beijing’s rulers
hesitate to discard. Appropriately, on July 9, the very day that the security
law was to have been passed, 50,000 demonstrators ringed the Legislative Council
to demand the return of power to the people. --Bob McGuire |
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