It has recently come to light that June 4 student leader Zhou Yongjun (周勇軍) was sent to the Mainland by the Immigration Department after he arrived in Hong Kong on forged papers. EastSouthWestNorth has a comprehensive account of the intrigue.
The precise details of what Zhou has done to offend the Mainland authorities, or the coincidences (if any) relating to the name on the forged Malaysian passport he used, will likely never be known. What is more evident, however, is the continued willingness of the Immigration Department to accede to political diktat emanating from the Mainland.
At present there is no extradition instrument allowing for the transfer of suspects, fugitives or prisoners between Hong Kong and the Mainland: see, for instance, this speech (warning: PDF) by then-Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung in 2005. While there is a mechanism of reciprocal notification between the Public Security authorities in the Mainland and the Hong Kong Police (see this PDF from the Department of Justice), this is merely an administrative system which is not to affect any person’s legal rights, nor does the mechanism cover persons who are not HK or Mainland residents. Given the policy statement (reproduced in the EastSouthWestNorth post above) that the Immigration Department’s usual practice with persons arriving in the territory on false papers is to return them to their place of departure, there is the unmistakable suggestion of “special treatment” (if not outright foul play) by the Immigration Department.
This is, sadly, not only consistent with that Department’s previous measures in denying entry to such menaces to civilised society as Danish sculptor Jens Galsciot, Wang Bingzhang and Harry Wu. Indeed, it goes further than any of these previous cases by delivering the “politically undesirable” into the tender mercies of the Mainland authorities.
As with so many other supposed guarantees relating to “One Country, Two Systems”, this latest incident reflects a mentality of “One SAR, Two Systems”: the normal rules are for the plebeians, but invariably give way when faced with political demands from Up North.
