Escape from Hong Kong: A Tale that needs to be retold!

The Wall Street Journal (20 June 2021) tells a remarkable tale of courage of five young men who escaped in a speed boat, first to Taiwan and eventually made their way to the US, where they reportedly found asylum. Such a story needs to be told and carried far and wide to demonstrate how the people of Hong Kong have stood up to the might of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and unable to withstand repression have found refuge in democratic countries around the world, including the US. The five protestors, aged between 18 to 25,  had  been  involved  in  the  2019  pro-democracy  movement  made  the adventurous trip in July 2020, eventually finding a home in the US.    

The protestors, who did not reveal their identity, said they set out from Hong Kong  with  only  their  iPhones  and  a compass  to  guide  them  to  Taiwan.  In November 2019, they had participated along with scores of others, in the pro-democracy movement and took part in the many weeks of protest against the now-scrapped Extradition Bill at two Hong Kong Universities. The police later conducted  a  siege  of  one  of  the  campuses  and  arrested  more  than  1000 people. Two of those who escaped were initially arrested but were eventually granted bail.  Once free they began plotting their escape. They first put in money amounting to US$ 1,300 each. Then they purchased a speedboat with twin engines.  

One of the escapees has disclosed that they were scared as they made their way by boat from Hong Kong to Taiwan across the choppy seas; distance of over 700 km. On reaching international waters, the five men intentionally damaged one of the motors of the speedboat and drifted towards the coast of Taiwan. At  some  stage,  the  Taiwanese  Coast  Guard  found them  and took  them on board. They were taken first to Dongsha and then to a secret location near Kaoshuing,  a  port  city  in  southwestern  Taiwan.  After  interrogation,  the refugees were informed by the Taiwanese authorities that they would have to leave Taiwan.   Samual Chu, a Hong Kong-born activist who lives in Washington came into  the picture at this juncture, perhaps at the behest of Taiwanese intelligence who may have connected with the CIA. Samuel was asked by the US State Department to find ways to get these escapees by way of a mechanism known as humanitarian parole to the US.  

There was a six-month period during which legal formalities were worked out between Taiwan and the US and in January 2021, all the five men travelled on a plane to New York. This happened prior to China introducing the draconian National Security Law in July 2020. Since then many residents of Hong Kong have left Hong Kong, taking advantage of the UK residency rules. The UK has prepared for up to 300,000 Hongkongers to migrate over the  next five years under  a special passport scheme. Some have gone there while others have moved to Canada, the US, Australia and even Taiwan.   On 1 July 2020, Hongkongers still demonstrated, in defiance of both Covid-19  restrictions  and  the  new  National  Security  Law.  Quickly,  though,  the arrests began, including of people who had signs and flags calling for Hong Kong’s  independence.  

That  is  the  difference  between  2019  and  today,  as China has put in place a law that allows it to deal with protests in Hong Kong. The challenge for protestors today is that they authorities have the legal power to detain them  without any bail. The change that has  happened  since last year is that the pro-democracy protests have become fewer and muted, but nevertheless they carry on.   A year after the national security law was passed, conditions in Hong Kong are such that the human rights group Amnesty International described the region as being on "a rapid path to becoming a police state".  

For the record in the first 12 months of the law  being in  force, 110 people were arrested for alleged  national  security  crimes,  while  hundreds  more  were  detained  for protest-related actions. This is being usually done under the guise of violation of social distancing norms for Covid-19 or gathering without police approval, known as "illegal assembly".  The  trial  of  forty-seven  democratic  politicians  who  have  been  jailed  for subversion (July 2021) illustrates the trials and tribulations of the democracy movement.  

Among those in court are a prominent legal scholar, health care workers, a disability activist, and a union founder. Ironically, the democratic politicians  had  come  together  to  fight  a  primary election,  soon  after  which China  introduced  the  National  Security  Law,  ostensibly  to  ensure  that democratic politicians did not get a place in Hong Kong’s legislature. This does not mean that the pro-democracy supporters in Hong Kong have lost interest in their goal or objective. They are just angry and bitter that there is little they can do to protest under the new circumstances.  

This is a bitter pill to swallow. That is why number of activists and others have in the last year taken flight Given the current situation, many people feel that Hong Kong will never return to its original nature and therefore have left seeking a better future for their children.   Prior  to  the  coming  into  force  of  the  national  security  law,  the  authorities would allow marches every year on 1 July, a symbol of the relative freedom enjoyed by Hong Kong residents. This changed after the protests in 2019 and China used the excuse of restrictions relating to Covid-19 to put in place a regime that restricted any gathering or movement of peoples in large numbers. This was then doubled up by the National Security Law which criminalized acts  of  secession,  subversion,  terrorism,  and  collusion  with  foreign  forces. China, a country which celebrated the centenary founding of its Communist Party on 1 July, has demonstrated through its handling of Hong  Kong,  its increasingly autocratic and authoritarian behaviour to the rest of the world. That is precisely why, the story of the five brave activists who took a boat trip from Hong Kong to Taiwan to find a new life, must be told and retold. Others who have tried and failed could learn a lesson from them.