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Letters | Hong Kong extradition protests risk repeating the errors of 2014 Occupy movement

  • In 2014, protesters refused to compromise on how universal suffrage could be achieved. Today’s extradition protesters are taking the same non-yielding stance, at a cost to the rule of law and Hong Kong’s democratic development

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Protesters hold up posters lampooning Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, at a rally in Sha Tin on July 14. Photo: Dickson Lee
During both the 2019 and 2014-15 “yellow ribbon” movements, many may have overlooked some facts about Beijing’s approach towards Hong Kong.
Even as the 2019 extradition bill was being considered by the Legislative Council’s security panel, the government, presumably in keeping with Beijing’s intentions, proposed changes to the bill that would set a very high hurdle for extradition.

For instance, the offence had to be a crime punishable by at least seven years’ imprisonment instead of the three years proposed initially; various white-collar and computer-related crimes were excluded, leaving mainly crimes like murder and rape; a provision was made that the request for extradition must come from a central authority, such as the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, not local authorities; and the government would look into whether the convicted offender could choose to serve the sentence in Hong Kong.

These would be on top of safeguards under existing extradition agreements, such as an open court hearing and the right to appeal, judicial review and legal aid.

According to Legco’s normal practice, more critical changes were likely to have been made in the relevant Bills Committee. What might those changes have been?

In a press conference on June 15, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor expressed willingness to take on board ideas from the bill’s critics, the most authoritative of which has been the Bar Association. Any such progression was ruled out, however, by the disruptive actions of pan-democrat councillors in Legco and by mass protests for the bill to be withdrawn.
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