User:Tuanminh01/Draft06

Hong Kong government


Carrie Lam continued to push the second reading of the bill despite a mass anti-extradition bill protest that attracted 1 million people, saying that the government was "duty-bound" to amend the law. Following the 12 June conflict, both Police Commissioner Stephen Lo and Lam characterised the conflict as a "riot". The police later backed down on the claim, saying that among the protesters, only five of them rioted. Protesters have since demanded the government to fully retract the riot characterisation. Her analogy as Hong Kong people's mother attracted criticisms after the violent crackdown on 12 June.

Lam announced the suspension of the bill on 15 June, though she insisted that the justification of amending the bill was "sound". She officially apologised to the public on 18 June following another massive march on 16 June. In early July, Lam reiterated that the bill was "dead" and reaffirmed that all efforts to amend the law had ceased, though her use of language was thought to be vague and ambiguous. During July and August, the government insisted that it would not make any concessions, and that Lam could still lead the government despite calls asking her to resign. For the demand to set up an independent commission to investigate police misconduct, she insisted that the existing mechanism, the Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC) would suffice.

After condemning the protesters for storming the Legislature on 1 July for their "use of extreme violence" and defacing the national emblem during the 21 July protest, Lam suggested in early August that the protests had derailed from their original purposes and that its goal was to challenge China's sovereignty and damage "one country, two systems". She suggested that the radical protesters were dragging Hong Kong to a "point of no return" and that they had "no stake in society", a remark that received criticisms from some civil servants.

Following a rally on 18 August that was attended by more than 1.7 million people, Lam announced that she would create platforms for dialogue but continued to reject the five core demands. On 4 September, Lam announced that she would formally withdraw the extradition bill, introduce measures such as introducing new members to the IPCC, engaging in dialogue in a community level, and inviting academics to evaluate the deep-rooted problems of Hong Kong. However, protesters and democrats had previously affirmed that all the five core demands must be answered. Her concession was described as "too little, too late", as the conflicts would not have escalated if she had withdrawn the bill during the early stage of the protest. The first dialogue session was held on 26 September. However, critics doubted Lam's ability to solve the problem in these dialogue sessions since a Chinese envoy has previously affirmed that the HKSAR government would not make any more concessions.

On 5 October, after what Lam referred to as "extreme violence" taking place, an emergency law was enacted to ban face masks in Hong Kong – without declaring a state of emergency – which has sparked criticism from various human rights organisations. All pro-establishment lawmakers with the exception of Michael Tien and Felix Chung supported the anti-mask law, while pan-democrats believed that it breached the Basic Law and that it violated the rule of law since the use of the emergency law bypassed the Legislative Council's scrutiny and approval. The democrats have filed a judicial review to challenge Carrie Lam's decision. Political analysts warned that invoking the emergency law would be the beginning of authoritarianism in Hong Kong. Associated Press reports that the pressure from the anti-mask law and the escalating violence have deterred some citizens away from participating in the demonstrations.

On 26 October, the Justice Department was granted a temporary court order (lasting until 8 November) that bans the public from harassing or doxxing police officers online. The ban had been criticised for the possibility of producing a chilling effect on free speech.

On 8 November, a group of independent experts appointed by Chief Executive Lam to advise the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) concluded that the IPCC lacked the "powers, capacity and independent investigative capability necessary" to fulfill its role as a police watchdog group given the current protest situation.

On 11 November, Chief Executive Lam labelled protesters as the enemy of the people.

Pro-Beijing parties
The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) and the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU) supported Carrie Lam's amendment of the bill before the mass protests broke out. After Lam announced the suspension of the bill, the views of many pro-government lawmakers U-turned. Starry Lee, the leader of the DAB, claimed that her party would not oppose the withdrawal of the bill, and the party distanced itself from Ann Chiang, who claimed that the government could revive the bill after the summer. Lee disagreed with setting up an independent commission to investigate police behaviour as she felt that it would "dampen their morale". Felix Chung, a lawmaker from Liberal Party, supported the withdrawal of the bill, though he felt that an independent commission should be set up to investigate the whole incident. The Chief Executive's Office held a private meeting with pro-government lawmakers explaining the decision to suspend the bill, though some lawmakers, including the HKFTU's Alice Mak, were said to have vented their anger toward Lam as her decision may harm their chances in the upcoming elections. Abraham Shek supported the formation of an independent commission and that the problem cannot be resolved by solving economic problems. He said that "their five demands did not mention that they want a house. The five demands of young people are that they want justice, fairness and transparency".

As protests continued to escalate, pro-Beijing lawmakers have condemned the use of violence by protesters, including breaking into the LegCo Complex and using petrol bombs and unidentified liquids against the police. They have maintained their support for the Hong Kong Police Force, and have held various counter-demonstrations to support the police. On 17 August, a pro-government rally organised by the Safeguard Hong Kong Alliance occurred in Tamar Park. Organisers said 476,000 people including pro-government politicians and business leaders joined the demonstration, but police stated only 108,000 attended.

Members of the Executive Council, Ip Kwok-him and Regina Ip alleged that there was a "mastermind" behind the protests but could not provide substantial evidence to support their claim. Fanny Law accused that some young females have been offering "free sex" services to the hardline protesters without providing any evidence. Her claim was condemned for spreading fake news with malice.

Pro-democracy camp
The pro-democratic parties played a supporting role in the protests, and have opposed the amendment of the bill and have criticised the Police Force for the alleged misconduct. Many lawmakers, such as Democratic Party's Roy Kwong, assisted the protesters in various scenarios. The Civic Party criticised the government for not responding to the protesters, and described the storming of the LegCo as the "outburst of people's grievances". Responding to the escalation of the protests seen in mid August at the airport, the convenor of the pro-democratic lawmakers, Claudia Mo, while disagreeing with some protesters' actions, asserted that her group of lawmakers would not split with the protesters. Fernando Cheung warned that Hong Kong was slowly becoming a "police state" with the increasing violence used by the police.

Both the incidents on 21 July and 31 August were likened to "terrorist attacks" by some pro-democrats. Pro-democrats also criticised the arrests of several lawmakers before the 31 August protest, saying that such arrests were an attempt by the police to suppress the movement, but warned that the police would further "fuel greater anger". The pan-democratic camp also condemned the violence directed at its protests organisers, lawmakers and election candidates. Lo Kin-hei has accused the pro-Beijing camp and its supporters of committing the "most brutal physical violent acts" throughout the protests.

Several lawmakers, including Dennis Kwok and Alvin Yeung from Civic Party also travelled to the US to explain and discuss the situation in Hong Kong with American lawmakers and business leaders and voice their support for the reintroduction of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. Joshua Wong, Denise Ho and several other democrats also provided testimonies during the US congressional hearing for the Democracy Act. Meanwhile, some councillors proposed several alternate versions of the extradition bill.

Former government executives, including Anson Chan, the former Chief Secretary for Administration, issued several open letters to Carrie Lam, urging her to respond to the five core demands raised by protesters. At the civil servant rally, Joseph Wong, the former Secretary for Civil Service, said "If we think today's officials, today's chief executive, violated or failed to follow the rule of law, as civil servants and as civilians, we have a duty to point it out", responding to the current Secretary Joshua Law's letter to all civil servants which requested them to maintain their political neutrality.

Mainland China reactions
The Chinese government has expressed their opposition to the protests, while taking measures against the protests and their supporters. The protests have been depicted by Chinese government and media as separatist riots. Beijing has accused the movement of displaying "characteristics of colour revolutions" and "signs of terrorism". The Beijing government and state-run media have accused foreign forces of interfering with domestic affairs, and supporting the protesters; These allegations were criticised by those who were blamed, and CNN noted that China has a record of blaming foreign forces for causing domestic unrest. On 22 October, following similar protests and violence in Catalonia and Chile, the Chinese government accused Western media of hypocrisy for not providing similar coverage and support to those protests.

State-run media have pressured various companies, including railway operator MTR Corporation, airline Cathay Pacific, and the Big Four accounting firms to take a hardline approach against employees who have taken part in the protests. Cathay Pacific witnessed a huge managerial reshuffling and began firing pro-democratic employees after the CAAC threatened to block Cathay's access to Chinese airspace, while the MTR began to close stations and end its service early after being criticised for transporting protesters. China also stopped broadcasting NBA matches following a pro-Hong Kong tweet by Daryl Morey, and banned the American television programme South Park after the release of the episode "Band in China".

Chinese state media outlets largely ignored the protests until 17 April. The protests were mostly censored from Mainland Chinese social media, such as Sina Weibo. On 19 August, both Twitter and Facebook announced that they had discovered what they described as large-scale disinformation campaigns operating on their social networks with Facebook discovering that those posts had altered images and taken them out of context, often with captions intended to vilify and discredit the protesters. According to investigations by Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, some of the attacks were coordinated, state-backed operations that were traced to the Chinese government. A report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute found that the purported disinformation campaign promoted three main narratives: condemnation of protesters, support for Hong Kong Police, and "conspiracy theories about Western involvement in the protests." Google, Facebook, and Twitter have since banned these accounts.

Foreign envoys have reported that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have doubled the number of troops stationed near the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border. The army itself also filmed and uploaded a video of an anti-riot drill in Shenzhen, which was considered a "thinly veiled warning to Hong Kong" by Time. On 6 October, the PLA issued its first warning to the protesters, who were shining laser lights on the exterior of the PLA garrison in Kowloon Tong.

International reactions
As a result of the protests, many nations have issued travel warnings for Hong Kong. Demonstrations in reaction to the protests have taken place in locations around the world, such as Los Angeles, Berlin, Canberra, Frankfurt, Melbourne, London, New York City, Seoul, San Francisco, Delhi, Sydney, Taipei, Tokyo, Montreal, Toronto, Vilnius and Vancouver. Some protesters in the concurrent 2019 Catalan protests have claimed inspiration from, and solidarity with the Hong Kong protests.

Various U.S. politicians have expressed disapproval of corporate decisions related to the protests, including NBA's apology to China over Daryl Morey's tweet about Hong Kong, Apple's removal of the HKmap.live application from the App Store or video game developer Blizzard's suspension of an esports athlete from competing in events after he expressed support for Hong Kong protests during a streaming event. Supporters of the Hong Kong protests have also called for the boycott of Disney's 2020 live-action remake of Mulan after lead actress Crystal Yifei Liu, a naturalized American born in China, reblogged on 15 August support for the Hong Kong police.