Running head: Hong Kong 1
Hong Kong political history
Hong Kong 2
1. Briefly describe Hong Kong’s political history in the modern era (especially British
and Chinese influences?
Since 1841, when it conquered the area during the First Opium War, Great Britain had held
Hong Kong as a colony. Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997 when it was restored to
China. It has some autonomy and additional rights under the "one country, two systems"
arrangement. Following the handover, Hong Kong has become a Chinese Special Administrative
Region with its mini-constitution, legal system, and basic democratic rights like free speech and
assembly. On the other hand, residents of Hong Kong are unable to elect their leaders until they
get approval from mainland China. Beginning in 2014, elections were held using a Beijing-
vetted list of candidates. Other Chinese policies, such as a recent attempt to allow extradition to
the mainland, have sparked mass protests, strained British-Chinese diplomatic relations, and
fueled growing concerns that China is suppressing public dissent, interfering in local politics,
and eroding human rights in Hong Kong
2. Identify and describe the concerns of the democracy protesters specifically (describe
the extradition bill).
They demanded that the extradition bill be completely withdrawn; the protestors opposed the
extradition bill, which would encompass Hong Kong residents as well as foreign and Chinese
nationals in the city, and would allow criminal suspects to be taken to mainland China for the
first time, to stand trial in Communist Party-controlled courts. Protesters claimed that it
threatened to subject citizens to unfair trials and brutal treatment and that the measure would
strengthen China's grip on Hong Kong and might be used to target activists and journalists. On
September 4, however, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said that the law would be
Hong Kong 3
legally repealed. They also demanded the formation of a panel to investigate allegations of police
brutality; since the police dispersed the protestors outside Legco using what protesters claim was
excessive force, they have been suspicious of the police's actions.
3. What is the Emergency Regulation Ordinance?
The Emergency Regulations Ordinance is a Hong Kong law that gives the Chief Executive in
Council the authority to impose regulations in the event of an emergency or public danger, as
determined by the Chief Executive in Council. It was initially used in Colonial Hong Kong in
1922 to battle seamen's strikes that had rendered the city's ports impassable, and it was used
multiple times during the colonial period. The Chief-Executive-in-Council invoked the
Emergency Regulations Ordinance on 4 October 2019 to impose the prohibition on Face
Covering Regulation in response to the 2019/20 Hong Kong demonstrations and to discourage
violent and destructive behavior. Face coverings that hide facial identity are prohibited in public
gatherings unless there are valid reasons.
4. About minute 40, you will hear protests that take place as Hong Kong Polytechnic
University. Describe what happened.
Protesters, many of whom are university students, but some as young as fifteen years,
take over Hong Kong Polytechnic University, barricading themselves inside and utilizing the
educational facilities to construct weapons and build temporary bunkers to defend themselves
against police who use tear gas and water cannons. The police arrested over 1300 protestors as
they tried to flee. The siege of Hong Kong Polytechnic University is the culmination of a series
of dramatic encounters between Hong Kong authorities, who had reached the limit of their
endurance for dissent, and demonstrators, who refused to give up their rights without a fight.
