Foreign Experiences Teach Students Hard Lessons

Otto Warmbier's plight is a sad reminder that international travel subjects students to the laws of foreign countries. In North Korea, Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for, what the local government considered, illegally removing a propaganda poster. He was returned to the United States in a coma and died.

     No matter how sympathetic students are with the causes that bring protesters to the streets in Moscow, Cairo, or Beijing, they need to remember that by joining a march they risk testing the limited power of diplomacy to release them from arrest or detention. When local governments have strict drug laws and penalties for photographing military guards and installations, ignorance is no defense from local prosecution. The time to write an article, give a speech, or take any other action about international injustices and harsh penalties is when a student is safely home.

     Without offering international opportunities, colleges and universities realize they would fail to prepare students for their future careers. In response to increased study abroad, the U.S. State Department has a one-stop information destination: studentsabroad.state.gov. One of the most important programs offered is STEP, the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program. By enrolling with the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate in the country a student plans to visit, the Embassy/Consulate knows where to issue a warning to leave the country if a coup or civil war is imminent and where to send news of a family emergency.

     At the State Department's general site for international travel, travel.state.gov, students will find information about:

• passports and visas,
• worldwide alerts and travel warnings for particular countries
• what to do in all sorts of emergencies, including lost passports, arrests & detentions, medical problems, and natural disasters.

Parents and students alike are well advised to go to travel.state.gov to learn ahead of time: The State Department's Role in a Crisis.


   

Hong Kong Update

 In January, 2016, protesters again took to Hong Kong's streets, when booksellers and publishers of books that often feature sex stories of Communist Party leaders disappeared. Under the Basic Law that has governed Hong Kong ever since the UK returned the island to Chinese control in 1997, Hong Kong has enjoyed freedoms of speech not granted on the Chinese mainland. The Basic Law governing Hong Kong as one of China's special administrative regions also barred Chinese legal authorities from exercising jurisdiction over Hong Kong's courts, a power that Chinese political pressure seems slowly to be undermining.

     Ten weeks of pro-democracy demonstrations ended in Hong Kong on December 11, 2014, when police cleared the streets and arrested activists in what came to be called the Umbrella Movement. Initially, young activist leaders, Joshua Wong, Nathan Law, and Alex Chow, were sentenced to community service. On August 17, 2017, an appeals court changed what was considered too light a sentence to up to eight-month prison terms that also bars them from running for office for five years. They were released on bail in October, 2017.
 
      As this 2005 photo shows, democracy protests in Hong Kong are not new, but there's been a
shift from violent confrontations with the police. Proponents of non-violent civil disobedience began calling for a new strategy to maintain the democratic measures they expected in 1997.

     Under the terms of the UK's accord with China, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong was to be elected by universal suffrage. John Tsang was the popular choice for Chief Executive in Hong Kong's April, 2017 election, but the electoral college chose Carrie Lam in order to accommodate China, which had announced it would select acceptable candidates to run in the 2017 election.

     During the peaceful 2014 protest demonstration, Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen was among the Occupy Central non-violence supporters who tried to turn themselves into Hong Kong's Central Police Station on December 3, 2014. They were neither charged nor arrested for an illegal protest. The police told them their protest was illegal and asked them to fill out forms providing personal information. The police did not want the Central Station to attract more protesters who wanted to be arrested and, therefore, to become another center for occupation.

      Given heavy censorship and spin on the news, Beijing controls how Hong Kong's protests are portrayed as illegal and influenced by foreigners. It has been said that the mainland Chinese are not sympathetic with Hong Kong protests, because they feel people in Hong Kong already enjoy more freedoms than they do. (For additional information about current affairs in China and Hong Kong, see the earlier blog post, "Let's Visit China.")