Deciding that their coronavirus public relations catastrophe means China’s international reputation can’t get much worse, the Chinese Communist Party on Thursday moved to annihilate Hong Kong’s freedom.
Like Daenerys’s dragon in Game of Thrones, the Chinese dragon aims to turn Hong Kong as we know it to ashes.
Following recent escalations, China is taking the final step to immolate its Hong Kong treaty commitments with Britain. Xi Jinping is doing so by announcing the introduction of legislation to proscribe sedition, foreign influence, terrorism, and subversion on Hong Kong soil. While Hong Kong’s constitution requires such legislation to be introduced, it is the city’s responsibility. And that hasn’t happened because Hongkongers recognize that China will use such legislation as an excuse to crush dissent and, ultimately, any semblance of democracy. Still, it is Hong Kong’s responsibility and right — not China’s.
Which explains why, as the South China Morning Post reports, Beijing’s legislation will not require assent or confirmation by the Hong Kong legislature.
But let’s be clear, China’s effort to ram through legislation is the death blow to its commitments under the Sino-British joint declaration. That 1984 accord is a binding treaty between Britain and China, requiring China to respect Hong Kong’s particular political rights and legal system until 2047. Two specific elements of the treaty stand out here.
First, the agreement that Hong Kong “will be vested with executive, legislative and independent judicial power, including that of final adjudication. The laws currently in force in Hong Kong will remain basically unchanged.”
Second, the commitment that “the current social and economic systems in Hong Kong will remain unchanged, and so will the lifestyle. Rights and freedoms, including those of the person, of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of travel, of movement, of correspondence, of strike, of choice of occupation, of academic research and of religious belief will be ensured by law.”
Seeing as Beijing views sedition as any action in criticism of Xi and the Chinese Communist Party, this law will be the end of Hong Kong’s freedom. This extends to even mocking criticism. Calling Xi a clown, for example, will get you disappeared in China.
None of this is surprising, of course. Communist China is today defined by slavery, racism, territorial theft, Monty Python-esque absurdity, and local, regional, and global imperialism. It is a regime that says one thing, such as pledging to reduce carbon emissions, then does the exact opposite (such as building hundreds of new heavy pollution coal plants). But for all its Western sympathizers, moments such as this one crystallize the Chinese Communist Party’s true nature.
The party is a pure incarnation of Mao Zedong’s adage that “Every communist must grasp the truth, political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the party.” Just as Mao starved his people at the altar of his sick ideology, Xi seeks to suffocate global democracy at the altar of Chinese Communist Party power.
What is happening in Hong Kong should matter to us. Correspondingly, it demands global repudiation and international consequences.
America must lead here. The United States should declare that Hong Kong is now just another Chinese outpost of oppression, and its people just more victims of that vicious regime. In turn, the U.S. should push its allies to issue a direct statement rejecting this action and imposing common visa restrictions and sanctions on top officials in Beijing. The European Union talks a lot about human rights. Well, now is their chance to stand with America in advancing them. If President Emmanuel Macron of France and the EU quietly complain but then quickly return to Beijing sycophancy, they will prove their political union is now the world’s saddest joke.
And seeing as its treaty has now been immolated by China, Britain has no excuse for not taking action. As with their attitude towards Russia, the British elites need to abandon the understanding that communist money matters most.
Going forward, the U.S. government should publish regular reports, driven by intelligence community products where necessary, outlining by who and how Hong Kong’s freedom is being trammeled — and holding those individuals to account.
As a first step, President Trump should issue a clear statement that the U.S. stands with those Hongkongers who will surely now return to the streets. Their struggle for freedom is the same that brought America into being. It matters.
