As the home of American democracy was stormed on Tuesday, Hong Kong’s democracy was being slaughtered.
From Xi Jinping’s perspective, the timing of America’s Capitol chaos must have been perfect. Absorbed by riots in Washington, D.C., the world missed what Xi’s minions were up to in the former British colony. Taking advantage of this situation, Beijing’s Western-focused Global Times outlet argued that “there is no doubt that the U.S. system is degrading and showing signs of worsening as cancer.”
But we should pay close heed to what the Chinese Communist Party was up to. Because it was to Hong Kong democracy what the November 1938 Nazi “Kristallnacht” was to the Jews of Germany — that is to say, a pogrom-style purge of human freedom. On Tuesday, 53 democracy activists were arrested in raids across Hong Kong. Independent newspapers were also targeted, including the Apple Daily newspaper formerly owned by Jimmy Lai (disclosure: I write a weekly column for Apple Daily). And while Hong Kong police carried out the arrests, Beijing was pulling the strings from behind the scenes.
Hong Kong authorities, now near entirely subservient to Beijing, say that those arrested were involved in a conspiracy to overthrow the city government. This accusation is laughable. The actual reality is that China is trying to neuter those who are organizing to win elections to the Hong Kong legislature. Fervent supporters of the democratic rule of law and of the need to hold China to its word under the Sino-British Joint Declaration (under which China committed to upholding Hong Kong’s democracy until at least 2047), these activists pose a mortal threat to Xi’s interest. Specifically, the Communist Party leader’s interest in seeing Hong Kong brought under Beijing’s total command. A control freak despot, Xi has no qualms about breaking his word (a dynamic to which the European Union would do well to pay heed).
The rest of us should also bear heed to what Xi has done.
Yes, what happened at the U.S. Capitol this week encapsulated disgraceful criminal action (the rioters) and disgraceful leadership (President Trump and the police commanders). But America’s failure is markedly different from what Xi did in Hong Kong. Because Xi sees his action as a striking success — as proof positive of his ability to shred treaty commitments and the most basic of human rights without serious riposte. We should note, after all, that the international community has responded to this most egregious of Xi’s actions with little more than a fleeting whimper of protest.
In turn, we should expect China’s further degradation of human rights in the weeks and months to come. It’s not a good time to be a Hongkonger, a Uighur, or anyone else who Xi decides he doesn’t like.
