User:Halben1/One country, two systems

Extradition Bill and Hong Kong 2019-2020 Protests
In April 2019, an extradition bill was proposed in Hong Kong inciting mass protests. The new law identifies that those who are suspects of serious crimes could be sent to China. This was initiated due to a murder suspect fleeing from Taiwan to Hong Kong in 2018. He was accused of murdering his pregnant 20 year old girlfriend, thus Hong Kong authorities were asked by Taiwan to extradite the man. Hong Kong, however, did not concur with this demand and could not prosecute him as Hong Kong does not have any form of an extradition agreement with Taiwan. In terms of the Extradition Law, it was claimed that decisions would be made on a ‘case-by-case basis by the Chief Executive’, in addition to Hong Kong courts making final decisions on extradition requests. For this reason, those accused of crimes based on politics or religion would not be extradited, and the new law would purely be “dealing with cross border crimes and transnational crimes” that carries a minimum 7 years sentence, as Carrie Lam stated in her speech on Monday 10th June. However, many Hong Kong people claim that this is another example of Hong Kong losing its autonomy. There has been criticism that this law would mean that suspects would be susceptible to many practices under the Chinese judicial system that is not present in the Hong Kong judicial system: arbitrary detention, unfair trial and torture. Michael DeGolyer, a researcher at Baptist University of Hong Kong, told Al Jazeera that Hong Kong people fear lack of judicial independence as the current judiciary system “is seen as guaranteeing a measure of protection from the government on the mainland”.

There has been a wide-spread response opposing the law: nationally and internationally. Criticism, petitions and protests have incorporated many parts of society, including doctors, lawyers, teachers and housewives. On June 9th there were an estimated 1 million people protesting across Hong Kong, making it the biggest protest since the handover. Additionally, concern was displayed internationally: in Britain, Canada, the European Union and the US. The US congressional commission argued in May 2019 that the extradition bill makes “Hong Kong more susceptible to China's political coercion and further erodes Hong Kong's autonomy”. China’s foreign ministry has rebutted these international concerns by claiming them “attempts to politicise the Hong Kong government proposal and interference in China's internal affairs”.

Due to this negative response nationally and internationally, on September 4th 2019, Carrie Lam formally announced that the extradition bill would be withdrawn. Despite this, fear of the loss of Hong Kong autonomy remains. Protests continued till the outbreak of the Corona Virus in January 2020, and are predicted to continue once the pandemic is under control in Hong Kong.

Moral and National Education
It was officially announced in September 2012 that the Hong Kong government would introduce compulsory “national, moral and civic education” in all non-international primary and secondary schools to strengthen "national identity awareness and nurture patriotism towards China” . According to an academic research paper, the current school curriculum in Hong Kong projects a “dual sense of identity: ‘Chineseness’ and ‘Hongkongesness’” and notably, this has created strong public activism by Hong Kong pre and post 1997 . However, the new curriculum includes ‘general civic education’ and lessons meant to increase students' appreciation of China . This announcement led to 10 days of protests, with up to 120,000 protesters each day, due to concerns of Hong Kong losing autonomy . In response, Chief executive at the time, CY Leung, chose to remove the idea of compulsory teaching, meaning that schools could freely decide if they would teach the subject. Despite CY Leung’s decision, new chief executive Carrie Lam, who took over on July 1st 2017, has prioritised the topic of national education, by placing importance on “instilling patriotism in pupils”. Furthermore, in August 2017, Christine Choi Yuk-Lin was appointed by the Government as the under-secretary of the Education Bureau. She “has former connections with the pro-Beijing Federation of Education Workers” (SCMP article A). This led to more than 17,000 people signing a petition opposing Yuk-lin having the position. Xi Jinping also announced during his visit to Hong Kong in July 2017 the need for an enhancement and boost of “national history and culture” in Hong Kong education.

Macau and China Relations
Unlike the many outbreaks of protests and civil unrest in Hong Kong, Macau has not responded similarly. According to Jason Chao, a former president of the New Macau Association (a pro-democracy party), Macau is in a different situation to Hong Kong as Macau does not wish for freedom and autonomy. Instead, the majority of Macau’s population are pro-China. A reason for this is because approximately half of the 600,000 people living in Macau are Chinese immigrants. In December 2019, Li Zhanshu, head of the National People's Congress, claimed that there is a “strong sense of international identity” in Macau. In Xi’s first official speech in Macau in December 2019, to mark the 20th year of the handover from the Portuguese to the Chinese, he described Macau as a “a gorgeous chapter in the short history of the one country, two systems experiment”. Current Executive Chief, Ho Iat Seng, said that “Macau will be an example of China’s reunification,” and Xi has agreed, by placing emphasis on the “Macau Model” as Macau has correctly followed the ‘one country, two system’ agreement. As a reward for Macau’s peaceful behaviour and lack of anti-government protests, Xi JinPing has given Macau more Chinese land from Hengqin Island. This is to enable Macau to further develop their education and healthcare system, in addition to physically integrating Macau more with China.