The storm over the legislative amendments has appealed to the international community for help. The new hope is that the United States will pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, verify Hong Kong's degree of autonomy every year, and consider whether to sanction officials and change the treatment of an independent customs territory, thereby promoting "soliciting speculation." Since the case of Ho Chi Ping and Meng Wanzhou, Hong Kong has quietly been involved in the whirlpool of great power competition. It has been accused of covering up illegal transactions for North Korea, being involved in the Iranian oil tanker incident, and being suspected of exporting military technology. This "Hong Kong card" is playing out. . The chaos in Hong Kong is a game between multiple forces. It is difficult for "speculators" to reach the point where both sides will be destroyed, but the scars left behind will never be erased. It now appears that there are signs of a decline in democracy, sounding the alarm for civilized society.
The emergence of democratic backsliding
First, there is a crisis of confidence in the social system. The semi-democratic parliament is inherently lacking in credibility, but it is absurd for the Legislative Council Bills Committee to have twin troubles and weaken the remaining legitimacy. The police are law enforcement agencies that use force legally, but there are constant questions about police brutality and indiscriminate arrests. Even if there are subsequent verdicts such as the Seven Police Cases and the Zhu Jingwei Case, the public's grudge against police power will not be able to let go in a year or so. Even the courts are not immune. First, someone tampered with the jury list with political motives, and later someone accused the court of letting demonstrators go. It can be expected that trials of political incidents will be entangled outside the court, openly shaking the judicial system.
Second, fake news is rampant. In the post-truth era, there are no authoritative sources of information. People spread information that satisfies their own emotions, and most of them cannot tell whether it is true or false. Rumors spread about the torture in Xinwuling, the eye injuries suffered by female demonstrators, and the infiltration of mainland armed police. Regarding the mystery of the death of the demonstrator at Prince Edward Station, even though RTHK and the fire department have refuted the rumors, the information is still opaque. Many citizens are eager for the truth and choose to believe the rumors. Although the media uses live broadcasts to record live events, now that image editing and editing technologies have become popular, and in the future, artificial intelligence-generated images such as "deepfake" will be added. Faced with the trend of countering fake news with fake news, no matter the camp, it is difficult to resist fabricated and fictitious rumors. .
Put down labels and get rid of sick society
Third, identity politics is heating up. The wave of equal rights that originally originated from uniting disadvantaged communities has evolved from diversity and tolerance to polarization and confrontation, and has evolved into clear-cut tribalism. Both sides on the front lines of the protest are "bottomed", the database is open to anyone, and their privacy is treated as if it were nothing. Political censorship is pervasive, employees who express their opinions online are fired, and restaurants and shopping must be boycotted by yellow and blue merchants. White terror spread to campuses, police officers' children were boycotted, and students who violated power were accused. Living in a sick society that hates each other, how can there be room for people to put down their labels?
Community dialogue may be able to ease the tense atmosphere, but judging from the experience of the yellow vest movement, after the national debate reshaped the consensus, although most of the demonstrators left the scene, sporadic conflicts have not ended to this day. The anti-amendment movement has no platform, guerrilla-style regional actions are likely to continue, and endless protests will not restore Hong Kong. Social trauma has not yet healed, and civilizational regression is the first to emerge. Regime changes sometimes occur, but the decline of democratic culture cannot be reversed in one generation.
Ray Poon
Co-Convenor (Research), Path of Democracy
