Then & Now | Why ‘foreigners’ in Hong Kong should heed history’s lessons on forced deportation
- Despite assurances, history shows ‘foreign’ residents are briskly discarded when their presence appears more nuisance than benefit – just look at Indonesia
- Seemingly ironclad sureties become ‘not at all binding’, as the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong has been described by China in recent times
What happens next, when some quietly muttered “witch’s warning” makes it plain that times have irrevocably changed?
When – for whatever reason – those in power want one gone, the least controversial expulsion method leaves ultimate decision-making to the individual.
Forced deportation – being dragged in handcuffs by uniformed personnel onto a waiting aircraft – simply attracts negative publicity. But should someone suddenly decide, late one evening, to fly off and “visit their old mum”, never to return – well, that was their own choice. Wasn’t it? Any broader inferences drawn from an abrupt, permanent departure are merely third-party interpretations. Aren’t they?
History’s ever-changing tides, and flotsam from sudden shipwrecks, inexorably slosh onwards. Long-ago guarantees to “foreign” residents are briskly discarded when their continued presence appears more nuisance than benefit. Seemingly ironclad sureties become “an historical document […] and not at all binding […]” as the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong has been described by Chinese officialdom in recent times.
Worth remembering, Dutch citizens in recently independent Indonesia – including two lifelong personal friends – experienced such unilateral changes first-hand, with far-reaching effects.
