Discussion

Hi,

May I ask in which academic or official source that you have found claimed Hong Kong was indeed a country autonomous from China? Also, you have defined democracy as granting the right to citizens to vote for a leader that best represents them and it also means that citizens get to enjoy freedom of speech and equal rights. I am wondering how does the recent protest against the extradition bill relate to a fight for democracy? As to my understanding the biggest controversies about the extradition bill are the erosion of Hong Kong's independent judiciary system and the risk of fugitives facing unfair trails should they be extradited to China.

Hi!

I believe you have misunderstood what I said about Hong Kong being autonomous, and I apologize for I should have been more clear in my opening sentence. What I meant to say was that it is a common misconception that people see Hong Kong as being completely autonomous, however, this is not entirely the case.

As well, you are correct about the anti-extradition bill being a huge erosion to Hong Kong's independent judiciary system. You mentioned that Hong Kong citizens are at risk for "facing unfair trials should they be extradited to China", which is true as well. How democracy comes into place with the extradition bill is when this bill trickles down into the lives of the citizens and what happens when they do face their judiciary system, which intersects into their everyday lives (such as having freedom of speech -- we see censorship as a huge thing in China (https://www.wired.com/story/us-companies-help-censor-internet-china/)). If this bill passes, then this 'one country, two systems' way of governing will be tarnished, which is a system that has been commonly accepted as semi-autonomous enough for Hong Kong and to be somewhat democratic. Like I mentioned, this governing system means that Hong Kong is able to have their own head of state, which is elected by a 1,200 member electoral college, and with the people of Hong Kong being eligible to vote over 18 for their respective constituencies. Not only that, there may be the possibility of China's gradual move of wanting to have more say in Hong Kong's political system.

If you would like, here are some links that you can read about (there currently aren't any scholarly articles on the topic!): https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/17/suspension-of-hong-kongs-china-extradition-bill-and-what-it-means.html https://www.vox.com/world/2019/7/21/20702812/hong-kong-protests-extradition-bill-independence-police-carrie-lam-beijing https://globalnews.ca/news/5493624/hong-kongs-extradition-bill-protests/

Thanks for your comment - I will take it into consideration to further refine my intersectional analysis.