What is happening in Hong Kong right now, things look absolutely terrible!

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What is happening in Hong Kong right now, things look absolutely terrible!

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Anonymous 0 Comments

HK was a British colony until it was returned to the Chinese government in 1997. It was granted status as a “Special Administrative Region” SAR, meaning they have their own government and laws, but are still “part of China” who handles defense and foreign affairs.

Recently, there was an issue where a murderer from Taiwan took refuge in Hong Kong; and since there was no extradition treaty, he could not be extradited back to face justice.

Now when this happens, usually they either sign an extradition treaty or put the offender on trial for crimes in their own area.

Now here’s where things get complicated.

Taiwan isn’t recognized by China as a country. Taiwan is ruled by the Kuomintang who left the mainland when the Communist Party took over. Hong Kong, as part of China, can’t form an extradition treaty with a country that, for all intents and purposes, doesn’t exist.

Hong Kong also does not have an extradition treaty with China due to its history of human rights abuses and the fact that giving any power to China would weaken its own autonomy. As the entire point of a SAR is to eventually dissolve its government and assimilate it under the Communist government.

Therefore, the HK government introduced legislation to allow extraditions on a case-to-case basis. This was SOMEHOW turned into legislation which would allow Chinese authorities to extradite criminals to China at will.

This results in the protests of the last few days. There have already been [cases where HK citizens “disappear” and “reappear” in Chinese custody](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causeway_Bay_Books_disappearances) and people are worried that China will abuse this power to snappy-snap away people who slow down China’s assimilation of Hong Kong.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The people of Hong Kong haven’t been officially fully a part of China for over a century.

China wants it.

The people don’t want to be a part of it.