Polyphonic
Martin Lee: ‘I Was Arrested in Hong Kong. It’s Part of China’s Larger Plan.’
Cogent, poignant op-ed from the 81-year-old “father of Hong Kong democracy”:
When seven police officers came to my door to arrest me on Saturday, I had just finished my morning walk around Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak. . . . They took as evidence my cellphone and the T-shirt I wore to a demonstration last August that drew 1.7 million people — about a quarter of the population. We were protesting an extradition bill that would, if passed, have allowed for trial in China where there is no due process.
On Hong Kong’s geopolitical significance:
The novel coronavirus pandemic is Exhibit A for how damaging the subversion law would be to Hong Kong — and to the rest of the world. Hong Kong’s unfettered media was vital in alerting the world to the coverup by mainland officials and to the stories of front-line health workers such as Li Wenliang, a doctor who was reprimanded for warning about the outbreak. Indeed, Hong Kong was the only place in China that could publicly mourn Li’s death from the virus. […]
Hong Kong operates as an oasis of freedom because our people have long fought off China’s efforts to import communist concepts such as “subversion,” which in China is frequently used to send peace-loving political critics to jail.
“Our people.” Powerful words, these.