Justice for the Crimes Committed?

The street scene in Mongkok on December 16 last year

Today a woman was sentenced to 80 hours of community service after she was convicted of throwing a water bottle at a police car during last year's anti-government protests.

Michelle Lai Hoi-ching, 27, had pleaded guilty to one count of attempted criminal damage even though the police vehicle was not damaged.

Police has not been made accountable for actions

Her defense lawyer told West Kowloon Magistrates' Court on Wednesday that a probation report on Lai was favourable and that the probation officer had recommended 80 hours of community service as an appropriate sentence.

The report also said Lai was seeking psychiatric help, and has learned to control her anger and impulses. She also felt sincere regret for her actions.

The incident happened at 1am on December 16 last year in Mongkok, when police had used tear gas on protesters in the area.

Lai was at the scene and as she was leaving she threw her water bottle at the police car that even though sustained no damage, officers arrested her anyway.

The police have inflicted a lot more pain and physically injured protesters last year -- did they get prosecuted for roughly handling them? And firing thousands of canisters of tear gas at people, protesters and those who happened to be in the area, that can cause serious respiratory illnesses? 

Numerous incidents of police brutality last year

Because the five-member panel from overseas was never able to properly investigate the officers because of limited powers, the so-called Independent Police Complaints Council instead issued a report that did not criticize the police at all, saying the use of force was only responding to violence during the protests.

When compared against that, it seems trivial for Lai to even be arrested and then sentenced for what she did.

But this is the new normal for Hong Kong, where everything can be criminalized...

One piece of good news is one of the senior protesters known as "Grandma Wong" has safely returned to Hong Kong. 

The 63-year-old Alexandra Wong was frequently spotted at anti-government protests waving a large flag with a Union Jack. However, she was last seen August 11 when she was surrounded by police in front of Tai Koo MTR station. 

Alexandra Wong taken away August 14, 2019

She later told the media that she was detained in Shenzhen last year where she lives and was awaiting trial.

Wong said she was detained August 14 at a detention centre in Futian for "picking quarrels and provoking troubles", a common charge against dissidents on the mainland. 

In any event she released a short video sent to lawmaker Eddie Chu Hoi-dick. While clutching a duck painted with the Union Jack on it, Wong said she was back safely, but lamented that Hong Kong had changed already.

That's for sure.

Word of the Day: Bei Luyou

A dissident hanging out at the beach... with minders makes for a bei luyou trip

I just finished reading an article in The New Yorker by Zha Jianying who wrote about her brother, Zha Jianguo, a political dissident in China.

He has gotten into trouble with the government for helping to found a small opposition group called the Democracy Party of China. For this he has been in and out of jail a few times but nowadays, his sister writes that he gets 被旅游 bei luyou, or "to be touristed", with bei meaning something that is involuntarily passive.

There are other uses of bei -- bei loushui (to be tax-evaded), bei zisha (to be suicided), bei shenjingbing (to be mentally-illed).

For Zha's brother, bei luyou is ironic and sad at the same time. During sensitive periods, like the June 4 anniversary, or National Day on October 1 or a foreign leader visiting Beijing, he and other dissidents are taken "to be touristed" by his minders.

They completely arrange his travel schedule, where he will be going, where he will be staying, how he will be getting there -- and these minders get to accompany him too -- which is why they like these free trips that are work-related.

She describes them fussing over him, making sure Zha Jianguo is OK by giving him extra food and soup, and when they are on bus tours, fellow tour participants wonder if he's a big boss, or their father, as there's always three young men looking after a man in his 60s.

Her brother doesn't get a moment of privacy -- he even has to share his hotel room with one of his minders.

So while Zha Jianguo gets to travel around China at taxpayers' expense, his minders get a 美差meichai, or "beautiful duty". 

Despite such forced trips that Zha is forced to go along with, he continues to criticize the one-party state and refuses to stop writing and then post them online on social media.

His minders try to suggest that he didn't mean to write these incendiary pieces, perhaps he copied them from somewhere else, but Zha insists that he did, resulting in his minders having to scold him politely for causing more trouble for them.

Zha is prepared to go to jail again if his minders have received the signal from above; he believes his cause is too important not to give up on.

But in the meantime with this year having a number of sensitive anniversaries, he will continues to bei luyou, a burgeoning cottage industry that so far can only be found in China...

What it's Like to be Disappeared

This latest book details experiences in detention

A new book has been published in English and Chinese that offers more insight into what it's like to "be disappeared" by the Chinese authorities.

Called The People's Republic of the Disappeared, the book is compiled by Safeguard Defenders, a group founded in August to protect those in Asia who fight for human rights, women's rights and civil society.

In it are 12 accounts from people who have experienced first hand what it's like to be disappeared into what were previously nicknamed "black jails", or "secret detention centres" where the rule of law does not apply.

Tang Jitian tells of having to give military salutes his captors

This was allowed to happen after Article 73 of China's Criminal Procedure Law was amended in 2012 so that authorities could detain people for reasons of "state security" or "terrorism". Detainees can be held as long as six months in "designated locations", or secret prisons.

Anyone who is considered to be critical of the government or a political threat to the leadership is rounded up -- from lawyers, dissidents and activists to Tibetans and Uyghurs.

Of the 12 accounts, some are anonymous, others attributed to people who live outside of China, or some brave souls within the country willing to stick their necks out. They only represent a tiny sliver of the thousands of people who are are subjected to this kind of treatment daily.

The first-hand accounts talk about being forced to sit on a chair and not move for hours on end staring at the wall in front of them, being forced to do military salutes to their captors as a sign of submission, being deprived of sleep for days on end, and being in solitary confinement.

One defense lawyer, Tang Jitian, writes that despite the cruel physical and mental treatment he suffered in 2011, his captors were unable to break his spirit.

"Their purpose was to break my determination, to make me accept their power. They sometimes used this kind of military training on detainees they don't like. The armed police in China have strong bodies, but very simple minds," Tang writes.

Tang Zhishun believes people will have their comeuppance

Tang Zhishun, an engineer turned activist, was also disappeared for more than a year in detention.

He reflects back on his experience with a hint of optimism.

"The policemen would say they held no personal grudge against me, but they acted with such cruelty, tortured me the way they did, as if knowing that it was not personal would somehow change anything. I believe justice comes for everyone one day, and those who have done wrong will get the punishment they deserve."

These survivors refuse to have their spirits broken by this extralegal arrangement and are determined to continue fighting. Wonder what the authorities will think of next...