{"id":6729,"date":"2021-12-03T12:46:08","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T12:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=6729"},"modified":"2021-12-03T12:46:08","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T12:46:08","slug":"what-one-americans-case-says-about-the-future-of-the-courts-in-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=6729","title":{"rendered":"What one American\u2019s case says about the future of the courts in Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\n\n&#8220;When Great Britain returned Hong Kong to China\u2019s control in 1997, it was with the understanding that the territory would be governed under the principle of \u201cone country, two systems.\u201d Hong Kong would maintain a separate economic and political structure from mainland China until 2047. That includes Hong Kong\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/comment\/insight-opinion\/article\/1864598\/different-legal-traditions-keep-hong-kong-and-china-apart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tradition of common law<\/a>, an independent judiciary, and protections for certain freedoms like speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Chinese Communist Party has sought to erode the separation between the two systems. In the aftermath of the 2019 protests, it intensified its efforts to dismantle it entirely.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2021-06-01\/hong-kong-protests-fall-silent-under-never-ending-covid-rules\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Covid-19 restrictions<\/a>&nbsp;quelled Hong Kong\u2019s mass demonstrations, and in the summer of 2020, Beijing&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/7\/2\/21309902\/china-national-security-law-hong-kong-protests-us-sanctions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">imposeda national security law<\/a>&nbsp;targeting crimes, such as secession, subversion, colluding with foreign powers, and terrorism. It portended a dragnet on dissent in Hong Kong. This week, a 30-year-old man was sentenced to more than five years in prison for \u201cinciting secession.\u201d He yelled&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/captain-america-protester-gets-nearly-six-years-in-prison-for-hong-kong-mall-chants-11636625197\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pro-Hong Kong independence slogans<\/a>&nbsp;in public.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2021\/11\/14\/22776862\/hong-kong-samuel-bickett-appeal-china\">https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2021\/11\/14\/22776862\/hong-kong-samuel-bickett-appeal-china<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;When Great Britain returned Hong Kong to China\u2019s control in 1997, it was with the understanding that the territory would be governed under the principle of \u201cone country, two systems.\u201d Hong Kong would maintain a separate economic and political structure from mainland China until 2047. That includes Hong Kong\u2019s tradition of common law, an independent judiciary, and protections for certain freedoms like speech.<\/p>\n<p>The Chinese Communist Party has sought to erode the separation between the two systems. In the aftermath of the 2019 protests, it intensified its efforts to dismantle it entirely. Covid-19 restrictions quelled Hong Kong\u2019s mass demonstrations, and in the summer of 2020, Beijing imposed a national security law targeting crimes, such as secession, subversion, colluding with foreign powers, and terrorism. It portended a dragnet on dissent in Hong Kong. This week, a 30-year-old man was sentenced to more than five years in prison for \u201cinciting secession.\u201d He yelled pro-Hong Kong independence slogans in public.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[89,431,660,1470,581,1471,941,661],"class_list":["post-6729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-china","tag-democracy","tag-dictatorship","tag-great-britain","tag-hong-kong","tag-independence","tag-protest","tag-tyranny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6730,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6729\/revisions\/6730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}