Memoirs of a Loser 195: The Needle Is Pulled, The Storm Is Coming

In February 2019, the Hong Kong SAR government proposed to amend the "Fugitive Offenders Ordinance" on the grounds that a Hong Kong man killed his girlfriend in Taiwan, allowing the government to transfer suspects to Taiwan and mainland China.

Hong Kong has agreements with many countries to extradite criminals, but not with Taiwan and China. At a gathering in 2005, I asked Chief Justice Li Kwok-neng of the Court of Final Appeal this question. He said the most fundamental reason is that China and Taiwan still have the death penalty, while Hong Kong has abolished the death penalty.

In addition to countries or territories with extradition agreements, Hong Kong also has a Fugitive Offenders Ordinance for territories without agreements. In Article 13 of the "Order of Surrender", a place with the death penalty is listed, and a surrender order will be issued only if the place will not carry out the death penalty and the Chief Executive of Hong Kong is satisfied with this assurance. However, it further stated: "Where a person is a national of the People's Republic of China, the Chief Executive may decide not to make a surrender order in respect of that national."

This article is believed to be because China is the country with the most executions in the world. According to official figures in 2017, there were 1,551 executions in China, while the total number of executions in countries around the world was only 596.

The original Fugitive Offenders Ordinance was promulgated in 1997 and was subsequently amended to state that: the arrangement for the surrender of fugitive offenders applies to the Government of Hong Kong and to governments outside Hong Kong, but specifies that "the Central People's Government or any other part of the People's Republic of China Except for the government." This means that fugitives cannot be handed over to mainland China.

This regulation excludes mainland China from the countries in the world that can surrender fugitive offenders. Obviously, the CCP also knows that Hong Kong and other countries in the world have no confidence in China's justice. The Chinese judiciary emphasizes the leadership of the party, and the word "party" is composed of "shanghei", which is reflected in many reports on judicial cases in China. In order to gain the confidence of Hong Kong and Western countries in Hong Kong after the transfer of sovereignty, the CCP made this "exclusion" clause regardless of face.

In 2019, the SAR government proposed to amend the "Fugitive Offenders Ordinance" to remove the words "except the People's Republic of China" because China became rich and strong. In addition to the humiliating nature of this clause, there is also a saying that Xi Jinping's "anti-corruption" consolidation of power means that he will arrest some powerful political opponents in Hong Kong and put out books and periodicals that threaten his power. The turmoil in the Causeway Bay Bookstore has stimulated the CCP not to want to secretly kidnap people any more.

Another argument is that because Meng Wanzhou was arrested in Canada and was to be extradited to the United States, Beijing, in order to counteract it, hopes to have a similar legal bargaining chip in Hong Kong and transfer Chinese and foreigners who "violated Chinese laws" and are in Hong Kong to mainland China. On trial.

Many people think that the chief executive, Carrie Lam, proposed the amendment to cater to Beijing, but I believe it is an order from Beijing. As soon as the amendment was proposed, the Liaison Office convened Hong Kong's CPPCC, National People's Congress and pro-establishment lawmakers to ask for their full support.

The excuse for the amendment is the murder that occurred in Taiwan in February 2018 a year ago. Both the suspect and the victim are from Hong Kong. The suspect returned to Hong Kong after abandoning the body. After the body was found, the Taiwan authorities sent letters to the Hong Kong government three times, proposing judicial cooperation. But the Hong Kong government did not respond.

Until a year later, the Chief Executive and the Secretary of Security pointed out with a gesture of compassion that if the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance was not revised, the suspect would not be able to be sent to Taiwan for trial. The victim's family is pitiful! Impossible to demonstrate justice!

The legal profession pointed out that Taiwan and China are different jurisdictions, and the "exclusion" clause of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance should not include Taiwan. There is no problem at all in the one-off case transfer between Hong Kong and Taiwan. In addition, judicial cooperation can also include sending Taiwan case investigators to the Hong Kong airport, and the Hong Kong police handing over the suspect to the Taiwan side and escorting it back to Taiwan. This approach has been tried before, not the first time.

However, the Hong Kong government has put aside the existing feasible measures, and ignored the public opinion to remove the clause "except any other part of the People's Republic of China" in the original Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, and listed Taiwan as one of China's "other parts of the People's Republic of China". ” part, thinking that only in this way can the loopholes in the Fugitive Offenders Act be filled and the suspects can be sent to Taiwan.

The Taiwan authorities were aware of the conspiracy to incorporate Taiwan into the "One China" and immediately refused to accept suspects in this way. It even issued a travel warning, stating that after the amendment of the Hong Kong law, the CCP can legally arrest Taiwanese in Hong Kong and send them to the mainland for trial.

The crux of amending the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance is that after removing the "exclusion" clause in the row, many acts that are not crimes in Hong Kong can be classified as "criminals in China" if the Chief Executive cooperates with the needs of the CCP. Arrest sent to China. For example, "attacking national leaders", "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", "collaborating with foreign forces" and so on. Therefore, the amendment to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance is also known as the "Send-in" Ordinance.

The Lam regime said the amendment was to fill a loophole. But in fact, the "exclusion" clause was made based on the evaluation of China's judiciary, and China itself agreed and participated in the formulation. It is not a "loophole", but the pinnacle of "one country, two systems". When the needle is pulled out, the storm of dictatorship will come.

After the amendment to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance was proposed, many people in Hong Kong have smelled it. As a result, from the legal profession, to the media, writers, businessmen, including some pro-establishment tycoons, they all voiced their opposition. Everyone can see that the Taiwan murder case a year ago was just a clever idea, and it was an unfortunate one, full of loopholes. If this evil law is passed, everyone will live in fear of being blamed at every turn. It swept away the people of Hong Kong with one swipe, defeated One Country, Two Systems with one blow, and even gave Taiwan a dead mouse that swallowed "a part of the People's Republic of China".

Western government agencies, the Hong Kong Bar Association, and some pro-establishment newspaper editorials have opposed the amendment to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance. The rights group Hong Kong Watch, which did not want to be named, quoted several business figures, including top international banks and hedge fund managers, as expressing concerns. Professor Chen Hongyi, a member of the Basic Law Committee appointed by the CCP, wrote a long article questioning the revised regulations.

But the Lam regime is deaf to all doubts. The senior officials presiding over the amendment did not even meet with the legal profession to discuss the bill, but only used force to force some pro-China people to express their opinions, and relied on the establishment members who hold the majority of seats in the Legislative Council to try to pass the test.

Amid the struggle between the pro-democracy faction and the Greater China faction and the local faction, the number of marches led by the pan-democratic faction has been decreasing for several years. Therefore, both the CCP and the Carrie Lam regime have underestimated the strength of the opposition. However, it was unexpected that most of the young people in Hong Kong rose up and turned the situation around, making the anti-extradition movement surging and surging!

(Original post on September 9, 2022)

"Memoirs of a Loser" serial catalog (continuously updated)

187. The opposition between pan-democratic and local

188. One of my most satisfying interviews

189. The Fish Ball Revolution and Liang Tianqi

190. Thinking of Liang Tianqi

191. The courage of young people is ashamed

192. The Weird Story of the Causeway Bay Bookstore

193. The strange story of corruption in China

194. 2019, a new chapter in life

195. The needle is pulled out, the storm will come