Abstract
This edited volume brings together scholars of different origins to discuss issues related to law, politics, democracy, and constitutionalism in the Taiwan Sunflower Movement and the Hong Kong Umbrella Movement in 2014, including rule of law, democratic theory, civil disobedience, and social movements. Besides bringing the two movements together into a broader perspective of relations with China, the book offers philosophical discussions about democratic rights and civil disobedience.
This book contains 12 chapters, with three chapters on the Taiwan Sunflower Movement (Chapters 1 to 3), three chapters on Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement (Chapters 4 to 6), four comparative chapters (Chapters 7 to 10), and two concluding chapters (Chapters 11 and 12).
The first three Taiwan chapters discuss the constitutional and legal issues involved in the Taiwan movement (Wen-Chen Chang’s chapter), its justifications as ‘constitutional contestations’ in a democratic context (Brian Christopher Jones and Yen-Tu Su’s chapter), and the movement as part of a process of democratic transition towards civic constitutionalism (Jiunn-Rong Yeh’s chapter). Apart from examining the political and social features of the movement, these chapters also provide an important perspective on its constitutional, political and legal character.
The three Hong Kong chapters trace the origins of the Umbrella Movement as a struggle for democracy. Albert Chen’s chapter highlights the constitutional contradictions inherent in the project of ‘one country, two systems’. Fu Hualing’s chapter points out the basic contradictions between China’s constitutional power and its manner of interpretation; Hong Kong’s political passions and support for Western-style rule of law; and a relatively passive Hong Kong judiciary in dealing with China’s preferences in its handling of sensitive political matters. Daniel Matthew’s chapter deals with how the movement, through interrupting the everyday reproduction of urban space by corporate power, re-narrated the nomos of Hong Kong.
The subsequent four comparative chapters address issues common to the two movements. Both movements are challenges to a form of unpopular sovereignty (Cheng-Yi Huang’s chapter). Both Taiwan and Hong Kong feel the immense impact of the rising economic power of China (Chien-Huei Wu’s chapter). As movements of civil disobedience, both movements faced the possibility of legal prosecution, and there was much debate about whether citizens should have the right to civil disobedience (Chih-Hsing Ho’s chapter). Han Zhu’s chapter studies the opinions of the middle class and activists in mainland China towards the two movements. It reveals that mainland opinion – affected by mainland frames of ‘foreign forces’ and a more sceptical view about democracy – was not very sympathetic towards these two movements.
The two concluding chapters by Brad Roth (Chapter 11) and Jacques deLisle (Chapter 12) bring together the two movements in the context of China, and wider implications are discussed. Both movements are ‘civic defiance’, resisting and protesting the increasing control of China. Both involved citizens asserting their democratic rights, wrapped in a larger context of constitutional contestation, in defiance of China’s political control. The major difference was that Taiwan’s movement largely took place in a democratic context, with less constitutional and political control from Beijing, while Hong Kong faced many more constitutional, political and legal constraints. Both movements saw an intertwining of politics and law, bottom–up civic disobedience action, appealing to higher principles and international opinion. These are some of the striking similarities and differences between the two movements.
The book does a good job of teasing out the various tiers of issues and concepts, related to law, constitution, democracy and politics, involved in the two movements, ranging from political theory about democratic rights, constitutionalism and civil disobedience, to potential conflicts between concepts such as rule of law, order, and right to protest, to practical politics such as China’s political-economic influence, public opinion, and conflicts over democracy between China and Taiwan and China and Hong Kong.
For a reader unfamiliar with the region or the two movements, the book provides a good introduction to the background facts and basic controversies (especially those related to law and constitutionalism) in the two movements. It also situates the two movements nicely in the context of the rising influence of China, and discusses how the expanding political and economic influence of China impacted both cases. It helps readers understand the complicated issues involved, and how these movements touched on broader principles of democratic rights, constitutionalism and civil disobedience.
For readers who are more familiar with either one or both of these movements, the book provides food for thought on various issues and fronts. Though the issues are complicated and multi-tiered, the various chapters effectively address a number of them, at both abstract and practical levels. At the abstract level, it deals with the potential tensions between abstract principles such as citizens’ rights (including the right to protest and the right to democratic election), the rule of law, constitutional and statutory constraints, law abidance, and political and social order. At the practical level, it addresses how the ‘China factor’ imposed an overriding framework shaping events and developments. The China factor includes the country’s constitutional structure and principles (including the impact of the Republic of China’s constitutional principles on Taiwan) and its economic influence. It involves dealing with bottom–up civil protests, in a democratic (Taiwan) or non-democratic (Hong Kong) context, which appeal to higher principles but are technically ‘illegal’. In this light, the book offers useful insights to readers of different disciplines and academic interests.