The Biden administration granted temporary visa relief to Hong Kong residents currently on U.S. soil on Thursday. It means that Hongkongers will not face deportation for at least another 18 months.
This follows China’s introduction, in 2020, of a new national security law governing Hong Kong. China has used that law to gut the city’s free press, throw innocent citizens into prison, and otherwise attempt to harass innocent people into blind obedience.
Biden’s action is positive, but it doesn’t go far enough.
First off, Biden should be staking out a more public position on this issue. While the White House’s statement does condemn China over its trampling of human rights in the former British colony, this announcement would have been far more powerful had it come from a presidential public statement. There would be significant symbolic value in the leader of the world’s most powerful democracy challenging the despotism of the world’s most powerful autocracy. After all, even the closest U.S. allies are unsure as to how far they should challenge China on its unlawful global conduct. These allies need reminding that the United States will not equivocate in the face of what China is doing.
The White House should also loop its action into a more forensic identification of China’s policy.
We need to remember that China has not simply shredded Hong Kong’s democratic rights. It has shredded its credibility as an international partner that can be trusted to keep its word. Note, after all, that China’s recent actions are in fundamental breach of the 1984 Sino-British joint declaration. A binding treaty under international law, the declaration commits China to uphold Hong Kong’s democratic rights and one “country-two systems” framework until at least 2047. China either cannot do math or values treaties as worthless stacks of paper.
So why isn’t Biden using this announcement to make the broader case? Why isn’t he saying something along the lines of, “If China is willing to break this treaty, why won’t it break its trade agreement with the European Union, or break its pledge not to use Huawei’s access to 5G networks for espionage, or break its promise to reduce carbon emissions?” China recognizes the sensitivity with which many nations view its action. Biden should thus make China pay an international cost for what it is doing.
Top line: What is happening in Hong Kong is not an isolated incident. As with the Chinese Communist Party’s genocide against its Uyghur population, its Hong Kong policy is an innate consequence of a regime that craves absolute control at any cost. Helping Hongkongers avoid that tyranny, Biden should also use their suffering as a crystallizing example of what China’s ambitions risk to the world’s better future.
