China says its new Hong Kong national security law is about national security and national security alone. It’s a great lie.
Although no more is needed, we gained yet more proof of that lie on Thursday. The evidence came with Beijing banning 12 candidates from standing in this September’s legislative elections. Defending the decision, China’s lackey government in Hong Kong said that “there is no question of any political censorship, restriction of the freedom of speech, or deprivation of the right to stand for elections as alleged by some members of the community.”
This is totally absurd.
The only reason these candidates are being denied the right to stand for office is the same reason the national security law was introduced in the first place. Namely, China cannot accept their pursuit of democracy in place of subjugation under the Chinese Communist Party. There’s also the not-so-insignificant Chinese belief that were these candidates allowed to stand, they would be elected with resounding victories. Considering Xi Jinping’s desire to corral Hong Kong into conformity with the mainland’s one-party state, he rightly fears that any victory by the pro-democracy camp is a personal threat to his rule. Remember, Xi sees the protest and pro-democracy agitation of Hong Kong’s population as a virus that might cross over into the mainland. And if that happens, he worries the CCP would face an existential threat.
The facts of the present are clear, however.
Aside from the obvious moral disgrace of this injustice, China’s action is clearly illegal. Denying Hong Kongers the right to stand in elections simply because it fears what they believe, China’s regime is in overt breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. Governing the transfer of Hong Kong to Chinese authority, that binding treaty, which Beijing happily signed in order to receive Hong Kong, requires China to respect Hong Kong’s democratic legal system and Hong Kongers’ rights until at least 2047. That’s 27 years away.
Amazingly, China even claims that it has done nothing to undermine the one country, two systems principle. That arrogant disdain for what’s obviously going on here speaks to the fact that China won’t change course. It is on a path to pursue Xi’s despotic “Chinese dream.”
The rest of the world should not sit idle. While U.S. sanctions on the Chinese officials responsible for repression in Hong Kong are important, more must be done. The European Union, for one, must start translating its weak rhetoric into stronger policy reality. If China knows that its actions in Hong Kong will proffer negative consequences for its interests elsewhere, Xi will have to think twice about how far and fast he moves to drag Hong Kongers under his boot. If nothing else, that might give Hong Kongers a little respite.
