All that is Solid melts into Air

Published on THE DIPLOMAT MAGAZINE

As triad society members viciously and indiscriminately beat up citizens in a subway station in Yuen Long in an apparent attempt to punish anti-government protesters, it has become clear that Hong Kong’s stormy summer has no end in sight. Evidence of collusion in the incident by Hong Kong police and pro-Beijing legislator Junius Ho only added fuel to the fire.

The apple of discord is the China extradition bill, which allegedly closes the legal loophole allowing Hong Kong to become a “haven for fugitives,” but has also sparked massive concern over the potential legitimization of state-sponsored kidnapping of Hong Kong residents. While Chief Executive Carrie Lam, amidst waves of protests, has yet to officially withdraw the extradition bill, the legislative process of the law has ceased, and Lam has reassured the public that the bill is “dead.”

A complete withdrawal of the bill remains one of the demands of the protesters, but the consensus is that the…

Less than five years after the Umbrella Movement, Hong Kong is back in international headlines. On June 9, over a million protesters dressed in white took to the streets to oppose a bill that would allow extraditions to China. The following Sunday, an estimated two million people — nearly 30 percent of the population — took to the streets again, this time clad in black.

Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing chief executive, Carrie Lam, claims that the extradition measure is needed to bring to justice a Hong Kong man wanted for murdering his girlfriend in Taiwan. But the bill has sparked immense opposition, with critics insisting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would use it to extradite activists or dissenting journalists to the Mainland. In other words, it would open the floodgates between the legal system of the Mainland and Hong Kong, and enable the CCP-sponsored kidnapping of Hong Kong citizens.

Police have responded to the demonstrations with force. When protesters initiated a peaceful sit-i…