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Following the demise of Queen Elizabeth II on September 8, Hongkongers have used the following interval of mourning to air their feelings in uncommon public gatherings of political solidarity. The residents of this former British colony expressed a mixture of nostalgia for the previous, dissatisfaction with the present management, and anger concerning the regular dismantling of civil rights because the metropolis was returned to Chinese language sovereignty in 1997. Whereas Hong Kong authorities initially confirmed restraint in direction of these gathered, on Monday night time outdoors of the British consulate, police arrested one man for sedition after he performed a tune on the harmonica. AFP reported on the incident:
Tons of gathered outdoors the consulate on Monday night as Britain was holding a state funeral, sharing livestreams on telephones in addition to laying candles and flowers.
At one level, a person began to play songs on a harmonica, in accordance with an AFP reporter on the scene, together with the British nationwide anthem and “Glory To Hong Kong”, a well-liked tune throughout large, typically violent pro-democracy protests three years in the past.
The mourners outdoors the consulate applauded the efficiency and shone their cellphone lights, with many later shouting the protest chant “Hong Kongers add oil” and singing “Glory To Hong Kong”.
[…] On Tuesday, police mentioned a 43-year-old man surnamed Pang was arrested outdoors the consulate for “seditious acts”. [Source]
#BREAKING: As a person performs “God Save the Queen” on his harmonica, a whole lot of Hong Kongers chant ‘Ga Yau,’ a phrase that interprets as add oil, and one which grew to become synonymous with the pro-democracy motion in 2019. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/nGBQwrE6kD
— Jay Ganglani (@GanglaniJay) September 19, 2022
A scene in Hong Kong final night time, the place a person was arrested for seemingly taking part in a protest tune (after god save the king) throughout a candlelit vigil for the queen’s funeral on the British consulate https://t.co/qmpz7V5rgc
— Finbarr Bermingham (@fbermingham) September 20, 2022
Let that sink in. https://t.co/ZNGcFih2d1
— Thomas Chan (@t_chancovers) September 20, 2022
Earlier that night, a police van showed up and a feminine police officer reportedly put out a number of candles that had been positioned outdoors the consulate. Selina Cheng from The Wall Avenue Journal described how the tune, which the person reportedly performed with none lyrics, may have presumably been construed as a menace to nationwide safety:
The arrested man, surnamed Pang, was arrested underneath the British colonial-era sedition regulation, which Hong Kong’s nationwide safety police have more and more used to arrest activists and opponents. The arrest marks the primary time somebody was arrested underneath that regulation for enjoying music.
[…] The tune the person performed, “Glory to Hong Kong,” has develop into fashionable with some buskers because it hasn’t been formally criminalized. Nonetheless, at the least two road musicians have been prosecuted on different expenses after taking part in it in public.
A former training minister within the metropolis mentioned the tune must be banned on schoolgrounds, whereas the town’s state-owned press have mentioned it incites independence. Judges have additionally dominated {that a} protest slogan contained in its lyrics, “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our instances,” may endanger nationwide safety. [Source]
Zen Soo and Alice Fung from the Related Press described how nostalgia and protest towards the present Hong Kong administration motivated the general public gatherings:
“I’d think about that some individuals are going there not a lot for nostalgia causes, however as a type of protest, now that dissent is suppressed,” mentioned John Burns, an honorary professor of politics and public administration on the College of Hong Kong.
“Some folks, for instance, who agree with the type of common values that the U.Okay. stands for, and that had been integrated in our Invoice of Rights on the finish of colonialism may take part on this as a type of protest,” Burns mentioned.
[…] “There are some who’re genuinely nostalgic and have sentimental emotions for the Queen, however there are additionally individuals who have grievances concerning the present scenario in Hong Kong,” [former Democratic Party chair and ex-lawmaker Emily Lau] mentioned. [Source]
Regardless of the sudden heavy showers within the afternoon, many stay undeterred from providing flowers and condolences to the late Queen Elizabeth II outdoors the UK Consulate in Hong Kong pic.twitter.com/yCd9KInu7Y
— Razven (@RazvenHK) September 19, 2022
Flower tributes encompass @UKinHongKong; in 11 days simply over 13000 HKers, younger and previous, have signed condolence books. Thanks HK for acknowledging Her Majesty’s legacy and our nation’s grief. A closing farewell as I watch the State Funeral with household, buddies, colleagues. pic.twitter.com/qmKKhMfVAy
— Brian Davidson (@brijdavidson) September 19, 2022
Hillary Leung from the Hong Kong Free Press described how the ritual of public mourning allowed Hongkongers a uncommon alternative to not directly specific their dissatisfaction with the present administration:
With few avenues left for political expression, mourning the late monarch who reigned over colonial-era Hong Kong – and the following decline of the town’s freedoms within the fingers of Beijing – is a method for folks’s voices to be heard.
“It has been a very long time since I’ve taken half in an occasion in a public place with individuals who, I believe, share a few of my beliefs,” a girl who requested to be referred to as Mrs. Chan instructed HKFP.
[…] “We’re mourning the top of an period when there was hope that the longer term can be higher,” mentioned Tommy, who was in his early 30s. “That is our approach of not directly expressing our dissatisfaction with the state of Hong Kong now.” [Source]
In #HongKong the place protests at the moment are successfully banned, mourning the Queen has develop into a type of protests towards Chinese language authorities’s repression. https://t.co/Ld7z6AhklN
— Maya Wang 王松蓮 (@wang_maya) September 19, 2022
When rituals of public mourning aren’t nearly mourning. https://t.co/FjmMz00RzN
— Jeppe Mulich (@jmulich) September 19, 2022
One Hongkonger who introduced his canine on a leash with a Union Jack flag instructed the BBC that mourning was an “different type of political expression,” including that had it been a typical day, displaying that flag would threat arrest underneath the Nationwide Safety Legislation. Kathleen Magramo from CNN described how the Hong Kong folks and authorities have fought over visible symbols of the town’s previous underneath British rule:
However in celebrating the monarchy and its symbols, some Hong Kongers see a possibility for a veiled dig at each the Chinese language Communist Get together, which has made no secret of its eagerness for Hong Kongers to overlook the period, and native authorities who lately launched college books that declare the town was by no means even a colony to start with. The books as an alternative check with the interval of British rule as a “forcible occupation.”
[…T]he shows of affection are additionally a reminder of the town’s pro-democracy protests, throughout which demonstrators adopted the colonial flag as an indication of resistance to Chinese language one-party rule.
On the peak of the 2019 protests, anti-government demonstrators broke into the town’s legislative chamber, defacing it with graffiti calling for common suffrage whereas hanging the colonial flag on the council president’s seat. [Source]
Hong Kong’s public mourning of Queen Elizabeth has been met with scorn by pro-Beijing media and Chinese language nationalists. The Beijing-backed newspaper Ta Kung Pao ran a commentary accusing “political propaganda” and “anti-Chinese language components” of “white-washing colonial rule.” Later, Chinese language nationalists pressured Cantonese opera singer Legislation Kar-ying to difficulty a video on Weibo apologizing for having beforehand posted an image to Instagram with the caption, “Hong Kong was a blessed land throughout her reign.” In his Weibo video, Legislation mentioned, “I can’t presumably overlook my origin and ancestry. […] I’m Chinese language and I really like my motherland without end. I’m sorry.” He additionally deleted his Instagram submit.
Legislation Kar-ying, talking in Mandarin and figuring out himself from Hong Kong, China, has apologised on Weibo on his comment after visiting the BCG.
Value noting his spouse and actress, Liza Wang is an election committee member and has nominated CE John Lee. https://t.co/VBV89zqa6T pic.twitter.com/UN3wD9yQ9U
— Alvin Lum (@alvinllum) September 15, 2022
Hong Kong’s sophisticated previous underneath British rule motivated some criticism of the general public mourning. On Friday, one protester outdoors of the British consulate carried a banner that learn: “Chinese language folks don’t overlook the Opium Struggle,” referencing the warfare that initiated Britain’s century-and-a-half rule over Hong Kong. World Voices famous that through the Queen’s rule, British management over Hong Kong included durations of intense repression, with crackdowns on protests towards the colonial authorities and the appliance of strict legal guidelines that shut down publications and punished those that insulted the Queen. One such regulation was the sedition regulation, used to arrest the person on the mourning gathering on Monday, in addition to quite a few different residents over the previous two years, together with authors of youngsters’s books who had been sentenced to jail earlier this month.
Including to the criticism, some on the decolonial left challenged claims that the Queen had facilitated an enlargement of democratic freedoms in Hong Kong. Referencing the Queen’s engagement together with her colonies, Howard French argued that “she incarnated and ably helped promote her nation and its system whereas by no means criticizing or apologizing for any side of its previous,” including that “it’s long gone the time when the world ought to fake that […] British rule was benign or that the rights of London’s imperial topics had a lot of something to do with what ‘empire’ was actually about.” Drawing the connection between Hong Kong’s oppression underneath each British and CCP rule, Promise Li argued for Lausan that “[t]he demise of Queen Elizabeth ought to remind Hongkongers that the dearth of democracy within the metropolis is an outgrowth of British colonial rule, not a consequence of its absence”:
Not solely did the British Empire underneath Elizabeth’s reign fail to ensure and broaden democratic rights for Hong Kong till Christopher Patten’s eleventh-hour electoral reform, it additionally actively suppressed them—at instances even in collusion with Beijing. There isn’t any room for colonial nostalgia in Hong Kong’s wrestle for democracy, particularly as Beijing’s violations of Hongkongers’ civil liberties merely construct upon the town’s institutional legacies inherited from its colonial previous.
[…] Had been these all Queen Elizabeth’s private fault? No, however the British’s system of constitutional monarchy deliberately makes it troublesome to separate the private authority of the monarch and the systemic abuses of British colonial rule. Additional, the queen was a direct beneficiary of the largesse violently reaped from Britain’s colonial exploitation across the globe, mirrored prominently even within the jewels she wears. In truth, her failure partly lies in what she didn’t do: refusing to even acknowledge, not to mention advance insurance policies to include, her empire’s violence bothered on colonised communities through the period of “decolonisation.” The British had greater than a century to make sure Hongkongers’ proper to self-determination, together with liberation from unfettered market deregulation and authoritarian management. As a substitute, they stunted the makes an attempt of just about each Hong Kong social motion to organise and institutionalise their democratic good points en masse, weakening Hongkongers’ capability to successfully organise for generations and leaving us weak to new forces of oppression right this moment. Thus, the Queen isn’t any image of Hong Kong’s former brilliance, however a reminder of how the lead as much as Hong Kong’s political demise right this moment has been extra refined and gradual than a fast sequence of blows by a single state. [Source]
The Queen’s demise additionally put a highlight on geopolitical tensions between the UK and China. Eleni Courea from Politico reported on the controversy attributable to the British authorities’s provide, cancellation, and reinstatement of an invite to a Chinese language authorities delegation to attend the Queen’s funeral and lying-in-state:
POLITICO revealed on Thursday that Lindsay Hoyle, the Home of Commons speaker, had rebuffed a request by Chinese language authorities representatives to witness the ceremony due to Beijing’s sanctions on seven British parliamentarians.
[…] Entry to Westminster Corridor just isn’t the only jurisdiction of the Commons speaker however is shared with the Lords speaker, John McFall, and the lord nice chamberlain, who’s appointed by the monarch. On Saturday, parliamentary authorities introduced that the Chinese language delegation can be allowed into the lying-in-state in any case.
[…] Iain Duncan Smith, the previous Conservative chief who’s amongst these sanctioned by Beijing, claimed on Saturday that the “institution” had “leant” on Hoyle to make him change his determination. [Source]
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