Opinion | Hong Kong’s democracy movement is roaring back, thanks to Carrie Lam’s inexplicable extradition bill

Five years after the failure of the Occupy movement, protesters are out in force again. The latest protest against the government’s proposed extradition arrangement with the mainland is the biggest since Lam became chief executive

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A mass protest against the Hong Kong government’s controversial extradition proposal, on April 28, proved once again that no one should underestimate Hongkongers when it comes to defending their values. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:00am, 2 May 2019Updated: 7:00am, 2 May 2019

Am I seeing things or has Hong Kong's democracy movement come back from the dead? I had intended this column as an obituary of the movement but last Sunday's mass protest proved once again that no one should underestimate Hongkongers when it comes to defending their values.

Who should the democracy movement thank for firing it up? Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, that’s who. Hongkongers are, on the whole, a tolerant lot. They don’t rampage through the city – unlike the French – even though they live in a city with the world’s highest home prices, stagnant wages, no retirement pension and a failing health care system.

But they have a bottom line – their civil liberties. Mess with that and you’ll feel their wrath. They believe Lam crossed that line by proposing an extradition treaty with the mainland. That’s why 130,000 protesters – or 22,800, according to the police – took to the streets last Sunday.

Most Hongkongers have zero faith in the mainland’s judicial system, characterised by its closed trials, forced confessions, and politicised rulings. Lam’s determination to rush through a treaty with Beijing stoked the worst fears of Hongkongers.

They were reminded of the abductions of Hong Kong booksellers by mainland agents, one-day murder trials, and the detention without trial of two Canadians in retaliation for Canada’s arrest of a Huawei executive at the extradition request of the United States.

The government’s refusal to withdraw its extradition proposal was a godsend to the democracy movement, which used it to unify its divided followers. Whether the turnout was 130,000 or 22,800, last Sunday’s protest was still the largest since Lam became chief executive.