Responding to the first day’s enforcement of China’s new Hong Kong security law, the Trump administration should take robust action in support of human rights. China has crossed a Rubicon of international law, and it deserves a fitting diplomatic riposte.
But what to do?
The most meaningful action might be to tie the plight of innocent Hongkongers to the conduct of Chinese foreign policy, namely, by expelling one Chinese diplomat from the United States for every so many Hongkongers charged under Beijing’s new law. Such action would directly tie China’s injustice to a diplomatic counterpunch.
The expulsions would presumably take place over a period of time, generating media and international attention. This would serve the broader interest of identifying the true nature of the Chinese Communist Party as an authoritarian bully with no regard for the rights of its own people, Uighur or Hongkonger, let alone others.
As the South China Morning Post notes, the law is being used in deliberately vague ways so as to both detain and terrorize Hongkongers as they engage in protest. This is vintage authoritarianism, designed at once to scare and silence even as it subjugates. Nearly 400 protesters have been arrested on Wednesday, and while only a few have been detained specifically under the tyranny law, authorities are likely to later charge those they cannot effectively prosecute under preexisting laws.
Yet, it’s clear that Beijing is fearful of the international scorn its tyranny is attracting. Speaking to reporters, Zhang Xiaoming, the deputy mainland official responsible for Hong Kong, attacked foreign critics saying, “What does this have to do with [them]? … The time that the Chinese people have to please others has passed.”
What this has to do with the world is that this law is in utter and unrepentant breach of China’s commitments under the 1984 Sino-British declaration. Governing Britain’s handover of its former colony to China, that legally binding treaty commits Beijing to respect the democratic and judicial rights of Hong Kong until at least 2047. Yes, 2047. China has patently breached its treaty commitments with this law. We shouldn’t discount the way in which China’s action here affects broader international relations. After all, if Xi Jinping is able to get away with this breach, what message will he take from this experience for the negotiation of new treaties?
An obvious one: It’s easy to smile, sign a treaty, then break it as soon as that becomes preferable. Which, incidentally, is exactly what China intends to do on climate change issues and everything else. Sadly, this bad behavior is already being abetted by the impotent British and European response to this breach.
The U.S. should take a stand to the contrary. If it doesn’t, our new Cold War foe will find fuel for all the other malevolent goals it proffers to the world.
President Trump should thus direct Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to establish a Hong Kong working group in the State Department. That group should closely monitor those who are charged under China’s tyranny law. Each time, say, 50 are charged, a Chinese diplomat should be expelled. That way, at least, Xi will know that what he does in Hong Kong will negatively reverberate for him across the world.
Hopefully, other democratic nations will follow in America’s footsteps.
