Protesters involved in the 2019-2020 pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong have been treated extraordinarily harshly by the criminal justice system compared with local and international norms, a report has found.
The surge in arrests, detentions and charges in the wake of the anti-extradition bill protests that saw millions of Hongkongers taking to the streets to oppose closer ties with mainland China meant that the criminal justice system was put under “extreme stress,” according to Jun Chan, Eric Yan-ho Lai and Thomas E Kellogg at the Center for Asian Law of Georgetown University.
“In nearly all respects, the post-2019 response has on average been more punitive than prior responses to social movements, particularly the 2014 umbrella movement,” the authors said.
Photo: Reuters
As of August last year, more than 10,000 Hongkongers had been arrested in connection with the 2019 protest movement and nearly 3,000 prosecuted, according to government statistics. The Georgetown researchers analyzed more than 1,500 cases that had concluded by July 31, 2021.
Protesters were charged with 100 different types of offences. These included unlawful assembly, rioting, police obstruction and police assault. More than 80 percent of people convicted received custodial sentences, compared with just over 31 percent of people who were convicted on charges relating to the umbrella movement. The most common charge in the dataset was unlawful assembly, a colonial-era ordinance that allows the authorities to prosecute peaceful protesters.
The anti-extradition bill protests lasted for more than six months in 2019-2020, much longer than the umbrella movement in 2014. They were ultimately defeated in June 2020 by the imposition of a draconian national security law (NSL) that effectively banned all forms of dissent and carries a maximum of a life sentence. The Chinese and Hong Kong authorities said the law was needed to restore stability.
Photo: Bloomberg
As of September, 280 people had been arrested under the NSL, including high profile figures such as the activist Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) and the former media proprietor Jimmy Lai (黎智英). These cases are tried in separate courts, with judges hand-picked by the executive.
But most of the people swept into the criminal justice system after the protests have been charged with more ordinary offences, with many detained for several months in pre-trial detention.
Between 2019 and 2021, the average waiting time for criminal trials increased by 50 percent, to 287 days, well beyond the official target of 100 days.
Photo: Reuters
“Such long wait times suggest that the court system is flailing under the weight of a massively increased caseload,” the report said.
More than 130 of the defendants in the cases analyzed by the researchers were under 18, with the median age being 23. More than 66 percent of juvenile convictions resulted in custodial sentences, which the researchers describe as “an extraordinarily high rate of incarceration for children”.
By comparison, In England and Wales, 5 percent of juveniles who received criminal convictions in 2021 were put in custody.
Photo: AP
Open displays of dissent in Hong Kong are now exceedingly rare. In March, a small protest about a land reclamation plan took place under close police monitoring, the first time that any kind of demonstration had been allowed since 2020.
John Lee (李家超), the city’s chief executive, has said that introducing another Hong Kong national security law, in addition to the one imposed by Beijing in 2020, is a priority for next year.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and the country’s other political groups dare not offend religious groups, says Chen Lih-ming (陳立民), founder of the Taiwan Anti-Religion Alliance (台灣反宗教者聯盟). “It’s the same in other democracies, of course, but because political struggles in Taiwan are extraordinarily fierce, you’ll see candidates visiting several temples each day ahead of elections. That adds impetus to religion here,” says the retired college lecturer. In Japan’s most recent election, the Liberal Democratic Party lost many votes because of its ties to the Unification Church (“the Moonies”). Chen contrasts the progress made by anti-religion movements in
Taiwan doesn’t have a lot of railways, but its network has plenty of history. The government-owned entity that last year became the Taiwan Railway Corp (TRC) has been operating trains since 1891. During the 1895-1945 period of Japanese rule, the colonial government made huge investments in rail infrastructure. The northern port city of Keelung was connected to Kaohsiung in the south. New lines appeared in Pingtung, Yilan and the Hualien-Taitung region. Railway enthusiasts exploring Taiwan will find plenty to amuse themselves. Taipei will soon gain its second rail-themed museum. Elsewhere there’s a number of endearing branch lines and rolling-stock collections, some
Last week the State Department made several small changes to its Web information on Taiwan. First, it removed a statement saying that the US “does not support Taiwan independence.” The current statement now reads: “We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the Strait.” In 2022 the administration of Joe Biden also removed that verbiage, but after a month of pressure from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), reinstated it. The American
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus convener Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) and some in the deep blue camp seem determined to ensure many of the recall campaigns against their lawmakers succeed. Widely known as the “King of Hualien,” Fu also appears to have become the king of the KMT. In theory, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) outranks him, but Han is supposed to be even-handed in negotiations between party caucuses — the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) says he is not — and Fu has been outright ignoring Han. Party Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) isn’t taking the lead on anything while Fu
RSS