Hong Kongers abandon a city and lifestyle they no longer recognize

In July 1997, China promised to preserve Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms for 50 years. Halfway in, thousands left the city for New Zealand to escape Beijing’s grip. Justin Wong reported.

Kit-hung Yip never thought he would end up in Wellington, but that all changed when police officers knocked on his Hong Kong door in January 2019 after a Facebook post.

Days before, he shared a 38-second video clip showing a male student trapped under two chairs and assaulted by seven other students to blow the whistle on the violent bullying at his high school.

The detectives asked Yip to go with them to the police station for a statement about the alleged bullies, but instead questioned him for five hours.

Yip speaks out because Hong Kong today is 25 years since the former British colony was returned to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997 as a Special Administrative Region (SAR).

READ MORE:
* Hong Kong University removes Tiananmen massacre statue
* Latest Apple Daily newspaper issue sold out across Hong Kong
* Apple Daily newspaper editors and managers arrested under Hong Kong security legislation on charges of collusion with foreign powers

Although Beijing promised that the rights and freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kongers under colonial rule would continue for another 50 years after surrender until 2047, it struck the city at more than 7 million.

“There were five policemen who surrounded me and treated me like a convicted criminal,” he said. “They asked me about my political position and why I should spread incorrect information about the school and the government. “I was ordered to keep my mouth shut and not make any trouble,” he said.

“I was really scared – they did not allow me to call a lawyer or family.”

He was only released after signing a statement that he did not agree with, Yip said, claiming that he “has no intention of pursuing anyone”, and was told to report to the police station every two weeks. .

By July of that year, pro-democracy protests had become increasingly violent. Protesters clashed with authorities every day, blocking the main roads and setting fire to railway stations. Riot police responded with rounds of tear gas and a water cannon.

At that time, Yip chose to leave Hong Kong for good to study at Victoria University in Wellington. His experiences with police officers and seeing the power they used to suppress protesters taught him not to trust the police in Hong Kong.

Yip is just one of more than 3,300 people who have moved from Hong Kong to New Zealand since June 2019, including those with dual citizenship. They join a growing wave of nearly 100,000 Hong Kongers who have been leaving since 2020, disillusioned with the future of their hometown.

Since the enactment of a comprehensive national security law banning “undermining” or “secession” in July 2020, the government has used it to crush the pro-democracy movement.

Activists, lawmakers, social workers and academics have been detained in mass arrests, while crowds of elected district councilors have been disqualified for refusing to take an oath of loyalty.

Independent media like Apple Daily shut down immediately after police raided their offices and charged their editors with national security violations. Public protests, including vigilance to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacres, were banned.

Authorities’ election reforms last year, which officials claimed would “improve” the electoral system, only allowed “patriots” to run in elections and rule the city.

Sutela Cheung was not happy with that future for her 9-year-old son, which is why she relocated her family to Auckland last year.

She is no stranger to migrating to a new country. Her family was part of the previous outflow of Hong Kongers who migrated to New Zealand after the Tiananmen Square massacre in the 1990s, as they were unsure of what Beijing meant to the city.

“It’s like political assurance at that time because everyone was scared,” she said. “But a lot of people who were gone were still looking over their shoulders because they had a slight hope that everything would turn out well.”

Cheung returned to Hong Kong to work after graduating from Auckland University in the early 2000s. Things looked good – China was opening up its economy to the world, Beijing was crowned at the 2008 Olympics.

Many who left were convinced that Hong Kong’s new master was not as threatening as they once feared and returned to the city.

Two decades later, history repeats itself – Cheung moved from Hong Kong to New Zealand again, this time as a mother.

If uncertainty was the reason Hong Kongers went overseas in the 1990s, she said, people are leaving now because they “gave up” the city.

Cheung was wary of how the new political environment changed education, especially after a new middle school textbook denied that Hong Kong was ever a British colony, but Chinese territory had been “since ancient times”.

It showed that Beijing was trying to “rewrite history”, she said. “They now deliver patriotic national education curricula in schools. It’s basically brainwashing from kindergarten – they got toddlers learning to sing the national anthem and hoist the flag. I just can not accept it.

“We know what education is like in China – I have colleagues from the mainland who have no idea what happened on Tiananmen Square. I’m afraid my child will not be able to speak Cantonese.

“It is important for him to be able to think critically, not just do what he was told.”

A new government led by former Security Secretary John Lee will be sworn in by Chinese President Xi Jinping on July 1 to replace the outgoing chief executive, Carrie Lam.

Lee ran as the sole candidate for the role and was elected 99.44% of the vote in May by the 1,500 members of the select Election Committee.

As Hong Kong’s security chief, he played a key role in drafting a now-failed extradition bill that led to the 2019 protests, comparing the violent actions of some protesters to “terrorism”.

Lam said last month that Hong Kong was entering a new era of stability, prosperity and opportunity, thanks to national security and electoral reforms.

But Max Wong, who settled in Christchurch in September 2019, does not share the same rosy vision.

These have been nothing but broken promises from China over the past 25 years, he said, especially about delivering universal suffrage to Hong Kongers to elect their chief executive.

The authorities did not serve local residents, but rather their rulers in Beijing, he said, and Lam’s government just hit the last nail in the coffin by turning Hong Kong from an international financial center into an “ordinary Chinese city”. alter.

• All interviews were conducted in Cantonese and translated into English