HKSARG's decision to transfer Tiananmen dissident to Mainland

In September 2008, the SAR authorities handed Yongjun Zhou (周勇軍) to the Mainland authorities where he was then immediately arrested and detained for previous fraud charges. Zhou lived abroad in the US. He came to Macau (where HK officials found him) on a fake Malaysian passport in hopes of eventually visiting his parents in the Mainland. His girlfriend and lawyer held a conference yesterday (12 Oct 2009).

It was the first time a Tiananmen dissident was transferred back to China without any extradition arrangements with the Mainland Government. The Hong Kong government said that it could not comment on individual cases but that its immigration department "handles all entry applications in accordance with the law and immigration policy having due regard to individual circumstances".

There is no rendition agreement between Hong Kong and the Mainland, which creates difficulty in applying the law from both systems in cross-border crimes. China and Taiwan has reached such an agreement in the 1990 Quemoy Agreement. Put simply, ambiguity exists where the Mainland may have jurisdiction over Hong Kong citizens who have partly committed crimes on the mainland. Hong Kong does have a right under the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance to refuse to hand over PRC nationals.

I believe that this will not be the first case of its kind. It will be listed down in articles and legal journals as another breach of Human Rights by the SARG. My summer internship has involved learning and seeing the Immigration Department make unreasonable one decision against potential refugees after another. This time, he act of handing over, whether in the form of a deportation order or something else, is surely open to challenge, and the CE should give disclosure.


References(all accessed on 13 Oct 2009):

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hrNt5vm0MW0fKqbNZIuhdSp3i_Gg

http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=DjOHAosZ__gC&pg=RA1-PA118&dq=hong+kong+mainland+extradition+law&lr=#v=onepage&q=hong%20kong%20mainland%20extradition%20law&f=false