HK Observer | Warm hearts, cold justice

Robert Carroll

The sad saga of Chow Siu-shuen, and that of her grandson, Xiao Youhuai – a woman prosecuted for caring for her grandson after his parents abandoned him – has taken a turn for the better. The old lady has not been jailed for keeping him in Hong Kong illegally. She received a suspended sentence, but as the child has no right of abode here she has been forced to leave the region and move to Shenzen to look after him.
It’s a cruel fate for Hong Kong Chinese residents who have close relatives over the border but cannot obtain permission for them to provide support in desperate cases like this one.  The legacy of Hong Kong’s colonial separation from China has caused the greater prosperity in the region to serve as a magnet for poor mainlanders, and has, inevitably, led to strict immigration controls.  That Hong Kong would be swamped by unmanageable levels of immigrants if controls were dismantled is pretty much a given. The current agreement with China drastically limits the number of people allowed to join their relatives in Hong Kong, leading to many years of waiting for eligible applicants, and shuts the door firmly on those who do not meet the criteria. However, in law, shouldn’t there always be room for discretion, and the ability to be flexible in exceptional cases?
This was surely an exceptional case where a basic sense of humanity should have come into play. Apparently, the boy’s parents abandoned him as a baby out of superstition, dumping him in a cardboard box. They also did not want to have the boy returned to them when it became clear that his deportation to the mainland was imminent. Clearly any responsible social worker would have ruled that the parents’ neglect and attitude towards the boy made them unfit to take care of their child. It seems clear that there would have been no other option for the grandmother but to leave him in an orphanage on the mainland: hardly a desirable option, in China or anywhere else, when there is a loving caregiver willing to look after him.
How much better would it have been if the child was allowed to come here legally; or allowed to stay for compassionate reasons? As it turned out, the boy was home-schooled and spent little time outside of his grandparents’ home for fear of being discovered. His escape from life in an orphanage turned into one of virtual imprisonment and social exclusion. With poorly educated grandparents as his only teachers, his education level is years below that of his contemporaries. His predicament, which aroused a blaze of news coverage, brought out the best and the worst in local residents.
As the judge pointed out in court, referring to letters of mitigation when sentencing Chou, Hong Kongers had reached out to the child and old lady with empathy and offers of assistance. One foreigner offered financial support; another, a local Hong Konger, travelled across the border three times a week to help Youhuai with his studies. Earlier in the year, a local school invited the boy to see their facilities and told him that he was welcome to study there. On the other hand, unfortunately, some locals tried to intimidate the poor old lady and Youhuai, who is only twelve, by rattling the security screen of their flat and shouting curses at them.
The immigration department was stuck in a quandary because they had to follow procedure and deport the boy, but if the system has not, and will not allow him back in the future, is that not very cold justice?