Protests in Hong Kong are starting to disrupt daily life as they enter their tenth week
Hi everyone, welcome to Plain English. I’m Jeff; JR is the producer; and this is episode 181 of the best podcast for practicing English. That’s because we go a little bit slower than native-speed, so you can understand every word. Your recipe for success. If you’d like to check out the full word-for-word transcript of the show, that’s available absolutely free on our web site at PlainEnglish.com/181.
Coming up today: The idea of Hong Kong and China living peacefully side by side as “one country with two systems” is being put to the test, as pro-democracy protests increase in intensity now in their third month. Later on in the episode, we’ll talk about what “let up” means, a good phrasal verb. And we have a song of the week by the Queen of Soul: if you’ve been with us for a while, you remember who she is. Let’s get started.
Protests continue in Hong Kong
The widespread protests in Hong Kong are entering their tenth week and are showing no signs of letting up. Just the opposite: what started as peaceful protests have escalated with confrontations, tear gas, suicides, strikes, canceled flights, and disruptions to daily life. Last weekend, police accused protesters of attacking them with bricks and gasoline bombs; police released tear gas in the subway. The US, Australia, UK, Ireland, Japan, and Singapore have issued travel advisories, warning travelers to stay away from protests and keep a low profile when visiting the city. Every day seems to bring more news of escalating tensions between protesters and the police.
Related: Keep a low profile
To understand what’s going on, I needed to give myself a bit of history lesson on Hong Kong and its unique status. Hong Kong is a large city—about seven million people and the same land area as other big cities like Sao Paulo or Mexico City. It is one of the world’s most influential cities in finance, on par with Tokyo, Paris, Sydney, or Singapore, for example. It’s located on the South China Sea, in southeastern China. For over 150 years, Hong Kong was a British colony; as such, it had a basically democratic government, with a governor appointed by the UK. In 1997, however, Britain transferred sovereignty to China, with the understanding that for at least fifty years, Hong Kong would maintain its democratic character and that its citizens would have more individual rights than those of mainland China. The understanding is called “one country, two systems.” China has its system of government, but it agreed not to impose that Communist Party-centric system on Hong Kong for at least fifty years, although Beijing does currently appoint the Chief Executive of Hong Kong.
Sensitivities around “one country, two systems,” are at the heart of the protests that are going on now. Here’s how it all started—it’s a little complicated. The Chief Executive proposed a bill called the Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill. That’s a mouthful, but it was in response to one specific situation. A person in Taiwan was accused of murder, and that person fled to Hong Kong. Hong Kong and Taiwan do not have an extradition treaty. Extradition is when one country will deliver a person accused of a crime in another country to face a trial there. So for example, the US and Brazil have an extradition treaty: if you’re wanted for a crime in Brazil and flee to the US, then the US will send you back to face trial. This is the whole reason why Julian Assange was hiding out in the Ecuador embassy in London for so many years. He was wanted in Sweden and the United States, so he was hiding out, with the protection of Ecuador’s government.
Okay, so follow me here, this person accused of murder fled to Hong Kong, where there’s no extradition treaty. Now, the Hong Kong Chief Executive proposes a bill that says, even if we don’t have an extradition treaty with a given country, we’ll send someone back if they’re wanted in that other country. Under this bill, a person wanted for murder in Taiwan would have to go back to Taiwan.
But here’s the controversial part: Hong Kong does not have an extradition agreement with mainland China, so if this bill passed, then Hong Kong could begin extraditing citizens if they were wanted by mainland China. Mainland China does not have the kind of individual rights and protections that they have in Hong Kong. And many in Hong Kong are of the opinion that mainland China is looking for ways to exert additional influence on their city, possibly non-democratic influence, and that this would be just one way for them to do so. People are worried that this would be a way for the much stricter Beijing to eat away at the individual rights and freedoms of citizens of Hong Kong.
This bill was the source of the protests. The Beijing-appointed governor, Carrie Lam, said she would not move forward with the bill, but she did not formally withdraw it. Her personal assurances have not been enough to satisfy the protesters, who have been demonstrating in force for over two months now. Some marches included a million people in a city of seven million people. The protests started along organized routes and were mostly peaceful, but the intensity has increased in recent weeks: not only have they
Confrontations with police have resulted in tear gas and rubber bullets being fired; groups of people have attacked protesters with sticks. Flights to Hong Kong have been canceled and public transportation has been disrupted. I saw a photo showing people flooding into the arrivals terminal at the international airport.
The situation now is this: the protesters are demanding the complete withdrawal of the extradition bill, the release of arrested protesters from prison, and an inquiry into police behavior. China, for its part, is digging in its heels, saying they can’t open an inquiry while protests are still going on. Chinese authorities don’t want to be seen backing down to protests in any part of China, two systems or not.
I want to say hi to Taki in France. He had a funny line; he said he lives in France, in the outskirts of Paris, but far enough away so he doesn’t have to worry about the catacombs we talked about in Episode 178. I heard from a lot of you who liked the the episode about João Gilberto. Marlon, Walisson, Derek, Gabriel, Michelle, and Alexson all specifically mentioned that one.
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