Since the first massive anti-extradition-bill protest in June, the city of Hong Kong has been in its worst time since its 1967 leftist riots. Millions of young citizens went onto the street to express their fear of being sent to China and treated unfairly by the communist-party-controlled legal system in China. As the Beijing-backed Hong Kong government carried out its first ever Anti-mask Law in history, the situation in Hong Kong has further deteriorated.
This is not only the worst time of Hong Kong but also the worst time of China.
Since Xi came to power in 2013, China has been falling back in terms of protecting citizens’ basic human rights. Government officials got fired because of sharing opinions that are different from Xi’s (Source), citizens got arrested for supporting Hong Kong protests (Source 1, Source 2, Source 3), criticizing the national day parade (Source), or selling books that the Party does not like (Source). Moreover, China’s chief justice even denounced the idea of an independent judiciary and other cherished liberal principles, warning judges not to fall into the “trap” of “Western” ideology, the biggest change in the country’s legal system during the past decades that shocked the entire world (Source).
Seeing the angry protesters in Hong Kong, most of the people in China felt angry as well – for the “negative impacts” that the Hong Kong protesters have brought to China in the international community. To many Chinese people, justice or freedom comes after “the image of the nation”. The Chinese people never ask why the Hong Kong protesters have literally no confidence in China’s legal system – which can be as adaptive as the Party wants. While the Chinese public continuously blame the Hong Kong people for the anti-government protests, for the “negative” impacts they’ve brought to China, and for the violence – which is not necessarily caused by the protesters and could be done by the anti-protester forces such as the police in black t-shirt (Source).
People call this a new Nazism and give it a name Chinazi. I think to some extent I agree with that: in China today, nobody dares to criticize China. Anyone who does criticize will either be arrested by the government or bullied by the public, a group of people who have already forgotten how to tell right and wrong, truth and lie, but only care about whether you support China or not.
The first time in my life, I have a strong fear of going back to my own country. I fear that I would lose freedom for telling the truth, and I fear that I have to keep silent as if I were already dead. I fear that I have to tell endless lies, and I fear that I would be separated from my holy God.
I have no idea when the “war” is going to end, and I cannot see any resolution in the short term without revolutionizing the existing system. I wonder where China and Hong Kong will go, and I pray to God as I believe He’s the only one who can save the people in China and Hong Kong.