Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute x Project Citizen Foundation on Anti-Extradition Bill Movement – Public Sentiment Report

When releasing the Public Sentiment Report, Robert Chung the President of HKPORI emphasized the following points abstracted from the report:

1. Starting from a small mistake, the Anti-Extradition Bill Movement has gradually developed into an anti-CE cum anti-police cum anti-authoritarian movement. The entire government has sunk into a governance crisis never seen before, and whether it will develop into an anti-Beijing cum anti-communist movement is yet to be seen.
2. Carrie Lam has clearly misunderstood symbolic meaning of passing the Extradition Bill, and Hong Kong people’s subsequent demands on her to withdraw the Bill and to investigate the police violence. To the people of Hong Kong, the issue at stake is the gradual encroachment and erosion of Hong Kong’s core-of-the-core value – freedom.
3. Most Hong Kong people actually do not care too much about what books were being sold at the Causeway Bay Books, whether Falun Gong is a subversive religion or not, and whether the co-location arrangement is a national pride or not, most Hong Kong people just want to live freely and if they have committed an offense, be trialed fairly and openly.
4. The lesson of modern history is that freedom and rule of law are best guaranteed under democratic institutions. Therefore, as the movement continued, people’s demand gradually shifted to the pursuit of universal suffrage.
5. Due to the nature of the communist regime itself, Chinese leaders may find it difficult to resolve the dilemmas of communism versus capitalism, paternalism versus egalitarianism, liberty versus responsibility, unity versus diversity, and humanism versus patriotism.
6. The Anti-Extradition Bill Movement in Hong Kong is not simply a movement of Hong Kong people protesting against a specific bill or against a local government, its police force, or even against a regime, it is a clash between liberalism versus paternalism. From 1919 to 1949 to 1989 to 2019, the history of China and Hong Kong has been punctuated by exclamation marks each followed by a semi-colon. The Hong Kong experience will provide an important reference on the future development of the world.