"I Am Safer in Hong Kong": Vicente Sotto between the Philippine Islands and British Hong Kong, 1907-1914

In 1907, Filipino politician, lawyer and newspaper editor Vicente Yap Sotto was elected Mayor of Cebu in absentia, having already fled to neighboring Hong Kong to avoid prison for ‘abducting’ seventeen-year-old Aquilina Vasquez. Sotto was no stranger to the court: he was repeatedly condemned by the American regime for printing controversial newspaper reports and was once imprisoned at Fort San Pedro for defending Filipino independence. For five years, Sotto lived in relative peace, writing to local newspapers in Hong Kong to express his views regarding the Philippine Islands under the American regime. In 1911, he started an English-Spanish fortnightly, The Philippine Republic. Following this, the American authorities would thrice request his unsuccessful extradition, triggering a series of debates in British Hong Kong regarding the status of the Philippine Islands, the future of the Filipinos and Anglo-American relations. This study follows the extradition proceedings of Vicente Sotto to reveal the early twentieth century as a vibrant period of trans-imperial interaction and debates: issues surrounding the early American administration of the Philippine Islands spilled over to British Hong Kong, resulting in broader racial and political discussions that demonstrated Hong Kong’s wider ties to an unfolding Filipino independence movement.