Source:
https://scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3012249/why-did-germany-feel-need-grant-asylum-hong-kong-riot
Comment/ Opinion

Why did Germany feel the need to grant asylum to Hong Kong riot fugitives? Ask Carrie Lam

  • Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with Germany, so why didn’t the government seek to have the Mong Kok pair returned?
  • Probably because it didn’t want the city’s dirty linen washed in public, amid perceptions that our freedoms are being eroded
Pro-China protesters hold pictures of Hong Kong activists Alan Li and Ray Wong during a demonstration near the German consulate in Hong Kong on May 23. Germany has granted the pair asylum. Photo: AP

If a government exercises its sovereign right to implement its own laws within its own country, can that in any way be construed as meddling in the internal affairs of another country? To me, the answer is a no-brainer. But try explaining that to the Hong Kong government.

As a sovereign nation, Germany has every right to grant political asylum to qualified applicants. It concluded after rigidly following its asylum process that two Hongkongers qualified for protection. Yet our government went ballistic. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor summoned Germany’s acting consul general to give him a dressing-down. Beijing accused Berlin of meddling in Hong Kong’s internal affairs.

Remember when Britain and other Western countries criticised our government for expelling British journalist Victor Mallet after he hosted a Foreign Correspondents’ Club talk on Hong Kong independence? Hong Kong and Beijing officials slammed those countries for interfering in Hong Kong’s internal affairs. The Lam administration made it clear Mallet’s expulsion was solely a Hong Kong matter and foreign countries had no right to criticise or demand an explanation.

Let’s get this straight. If Hong Kong kicks out foreign journalists, it is solely our matter. Countries that protest are interfering in our internal affairs. But if Germany accepts Hongkongers as political refugees, it is not solely Germany’s matter. We have a right to protest, and doing so is not interfering in Germany’s internal affairs.

Now I get it. Deciding what is or is not interference is solely a prerogative of Hong Kong and Beijing. The Financial Times reported last week that Chinese officials in Germany tried to prevent the Hong Kong pair from gaining political asylum. But that, of course, would not be Beijing interfering in Germany’s internal affairs.

Our government and loyalists alleged Germany, in granting two Hong Kong fugitives political asylum, was effectively telling the world Hong Kong was inflicting political persecution. Don’t they understand it’s not Germany but our government that told the world this by expelling Mallet, who had committed no crime by hosting an independence talk?

Fugitives Ray Wong Toi-yeung and Alan Li Tung-sing, charged with rioting in connection with the 2016 Mong Kok unrest, skipped bail after the judge allowed them to travel to Germany for an academic event. I agree they should have had the guts to be tried in Hong Kong. Others involved in the riot did and are serving jail sentences.

Our government knew where Wong and Li were before they were granted asylum in Germany. Immigration records show they travelled to Germany via Taiwan. Hong Kong has an extradition treaty with Germany. Why didn’t it apply for extradition once the pair skipped bail?

I’ll tell you why. Our government didn’t want Wong and Li to wash our dirty linen in public while fighting extradition in German courts. They would have cited the Mallet expulsion, the disqualification of opposition candidates from elections, the ban on a political party, the national anthem law, the abduction of booksellers critical of Beijing, and the proposed extradition agreement with mainland China. My guess is that German judges would have sided with them.

Germany’s granting of asylum to Wong and Li not only tarnished the image of Hong Kong’s independent judiciary but also blindsided the Lam administration. It’s now striking out like a wounded animal, linking the German decision to the trade war between the United States and China, Western pushback against China’s rise, the extradition bill, and to the opposition’s alleged badmouthing of Hong Kong.

For the record, I still believe in the independence of Hong Kong’s judiciary. Wong and Li would have received a fair trial if they had dared to face our courts. But what I believe means nothing. What matters is what others believe.

Western governments, international human rights groups, and even many in our own legal community believe Hong Kong’s freedoms are diminishing. The question is not whether Hong Kong’s judiciary is still independent. It is. The question is how much longer it can stay this way as our government enacts freedom-eroding laws that judges have no choice but to follow.

Michael Chugani is a Hong Kong journalist and TV show host