Opinion | Extradition agreement with China would trample on Hongkongers’ human rights and due process

Hong Kong’s existing arrangement for extradition does not apply to the mainland because it has to protect Hongkongers’ rights. We should not be exposed to an opaque, harsh legal system that doesn’t respect human rights and due process

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Chan Tong-kai, 19, is driven away from Kwun Tong court on March 15, 2018. He is suspected of killing his girlfriend, Poon Hiu-wing, in Taiwan. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 12:49pm, 7 Mar 2019Updated: 12:11am, 17 Mar 2019

The issue of extradition from Hong Kong to the mainland has become contentious again, in the wake of the suspected murder of a pregnant young Hong Kong woman in Taiwan last year and Taipei’s insistence on having her boyfriend, Chan Tong-kai, sent to the island to face charges related to her death.

Although there is an overall desire in Hong Kong to facilitate the rendering of justice, it is alarming that the case has become highly politicised by those in favour of a rapprochement with mainland China. Indeed, how did a Taiwan issue turn into a China issue?

The fact is that Hong Kong, like Beijing, sees Taiwan as part of China and does not acknowledge the island’s jurisdictional independence.

Previous Hong Kong legislators had safeguards put in place in the existing arrangement for extradition. They specified that the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance and the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Ordinance would not apply to the mainland, with Taiwan included in that geographical scope.

In forbidding extradition to the mainland, Hong Kong’s overarching concern was and remains the protection of Hongkongers and the city’s large expatriate community, who to this day benefit from Hong Kong’s independent, high-quality legal system.

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