JOVELYN L.

BASADA
BEED-EE3-3
19 December 2020

Hong Kong’s Freedom Preservation: A Protest to Extradition Bill

(Analytical)

What more is ever satisfying than embracing the freedom to do things in accordance to your
own will? What more is ever relaxing than to be doing things your way and not by the suffocating dictate
of someone else? Probably, if there were, it would still be freedom itself but is taken in an upgraded
level. Freedom is what the people of Hong Kong have been enjoying and was in the closest verge of
disappearing as an extradition bill was held in place during the lead of Hong Kong’s Chief Executive,
Carie Lam, on 2019. The bill had infused Hong Kong residents a massive fear of the erosion of their legal
system that had provoked hundreds of thousands of them, be it an ordinary citizen, or a citizen of great
influence, wealth and power to go off the street to protest their akin concern of opposition to the bill.

The idea of having an extradition bill or the Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in
Criminal Matters Legislation Bill 2019 in Hong Kong was triggered because of a murder case on February
2018 of a Hong Kong resident executed and was recorded at Taiwan. However, the case could in no way
be given a solution because the accused murderer had already flew back to Hong Kong a month long
before the case was discovered in there. By that fact and considering that Hong Kong operates as a
semi-autonomous region of China, Taiwanese Justice System officials would have a great difficulty to
capture the fugitive. In fact, they hold not a single right to convict an offender that is out of their
jurisdiction. Yet, with Lam’s fear to keep Hong Kong a safety haven for fugitives, she planned to create
an extradition agreement that would allow them to legally send the accused offender to Taiwan to face
criminal charges in there. Yet, the said agreement is not only limited to Hong Kong and Taiwan. It would
also allow the Chinese government to take hold of the possible charges a Hong Kong fugitive is likely to
suffer from.

Should the extradition bill pass through the approval of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, the
Chinese government would have a great access towards the democratic system of Hong Kong. With
China’s very huge extent, compared to the very small boundaries of Hong Kong, chances of over
powering them and the total erasure of their judicial independence may take effect and that is what
strongly instigated people to run a huge street protest exposing their high opposition to the said bill.
Knowing that China, a capacious country that is following a flawed authoritarian system, they might
carry it through handling cases linked to Hong Kong and by that, surely, Hongkongers’ freedom and
safety would be at risk. Hence, the issue does not only revolve between the pure scopes of their
agreement on extraditing fugitives but rather, on a larger scale, it talks about the threat it has towards
the democratic life of Hongkongers.

Being a democratic country, a protest especially a large-scaled one could really make a
difference. They, the citizens, are the government themselves; hence, their concerns matter and what
they speak of should be listened to. Together, as their immediate action towards the prevention of the
passing of the said bill, they run a huge protest demanding for the withdrawal of it. Their protests
highlights their immense desire to the preservation of Hong Kong’s freedom against the filthy
government China has. Protesters were off the streets for almost 15 weeks trying to convince the
national government to keep the said bill on trash. Having them heard, Carie Lam’s first approach was
her decision of suspending the bill. However, it only caused a higher tension to Hongkongers that has
led them towards a more intense and louder protest. Clearly, they know that that there is a thick line of
difference between suspension and withdrawal. By the power of their solid voices, their demand to
suspend the bill was later on approved.

It is clearly depicted in their protest how people of Hong Kong fights for their judicial
independence. With full dedication, they voiced out publicly their immense crave to suspend the passing
of the extradition bill that is in high possibility to connect their system to China’s crippled way of
governing their people. With their fear to be ruled over by the Chinese government, they went off
streets not just for a day but also for months of expressing their intense opposition to the supposed
implementation of the extradition agreement. Yet, their efforts of doing a protest were paid of as their
Chief Executive; Carie Lam officially has put the bill on withdrawal. Indeed, Hong Kong’s freedom is
preserved and democratically, Hong Kong remains safe from the authoritarian system of mainland
China.