Time is running out to help Hong Kong: activists
Tell MPs to ‘have the courage to enact sanctions’
OTTAWA • Hong Kong democracy activists and human rights groups warned Canadian MPs that time was running out to help people in the territory as China uses new national security legislation to clamp down on human rights in the city.
MPs heard the testimony just one day after the arrest of Jimmy Lai, owner of the Apple Daily, Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy newspaper.
The paper responded to the arrest with a front-page photo of the arrest and the headline “Apple Daily must fight on.” The tabloid also dramatically increased its print-run to 500,000 copies.
The sweeping security law imposed on June 30 punishes anything China considers as secession, subversion, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.
Aileen Calverley, cofounder of Hong Kong Watch, a U.K.-based watchdog group, said that the basic freedoms Hong Kong’s residents have enjoyed for decades are now disappearing.
“For Hong Kong it’s five minutes to midnight. We hope the Canadian government will play its part and have the courage to enact sanctions,” she told the MPs.
Gloria Fung, president and co-ordinator of the Canada-Hong Kong Link, which is a coalition of several organizations, said the security law is already stifling free expression and foreign media are feeling the pressure as well.
“A lot of international media people in Hong Kong have already been exercising self-censorship or relocating their offices to Taiwan,” she said.
Under the agreement that handed Hong Kong over to China from Britain in 1997, the country was supposed to live under the principle of one-country, two-systems for at least 50 years, but Fung said that agreement is being eroded right now.
She said that if China can break that commitment without sanction, it will break any agreement it has made with the international community.
“When China can break the promises to Hong Kong it can do the same to other countries around the world, including Canada,” she said.
Cherie Wong, the executive director of Alliance Canada Hong Kong, told MPs that protests and rallies her group has organized in Canada have been disrupted by
IF THERE IS ONE WORD THAT OFTEN CHARACTERIZES CHINA’S RESPONSE, IT IS RETALIATION.
pro-China groups that she believes are being supported by Chinese diplomats in Canada.
She said she has received threats and has had personal information exposed online.
“It has become clear that there is a co-ordinated campaign to infiltrate and influence Canadian society and this is part of the Chinese Communist Party’s global authoritarian agenda.”
All of the groups told MPs that the government should be imposing sanctions on China for its actions in Hong Kong and look at offering help to those looking to immigrate to Canada to escape persecution.
“It is a very urgent policy and I think Canada has to have a policy to help those who want to escape,” said Calverley.
Canada has denounced China’s moves in joint statements with other western countries. It has also suspended the export of sensitive military materials to Hong Kong and has suspended Canada’s extradition treaty with the territory.
The Canada-China committee was one of the House of Commons committees not meeting during the pandemic. Conservative MP Garnett Genuis said that was a mistake, but he is glad they’re now focusing on the situation in Hong Kong.
“This powerful testimony that we are getting, better late than never, will hopefully be a huge wake-up call.”
The national security legislation in Hong Kong includes the possibility it could be used to prosecute people outside of Hong Kong or China and Genuis said it is a gross overreach and an attempt to silence global criticism.
“The Chinese government now presumes they can hold people accountable, prosecute people for what they say in Canada.”
Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, said the law and the fact it’s already being used to arrest activists and journalists is a clear indication China is fundamentally changing Hong Kong.
“The aim of Chinese authorities is to govern Hong Kong through fear from this point forward.”
Neve also said the Canadian government has to be more aggressive about China’s influence operations in Canada. He said people who feel harassed often don’t know where to turn and the government isn’t even collecting information in a centralized way.
“Even though this issue has been in front of this government for several years, we haven’t seen even the simplest steps taken.”
Two Canadians, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, have been jailed in China for more than 18 months after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition warrant.
Neve urged the government to act, but said they should also be aware there will be a response.
“If there is one word that very often characterizes China’s response, it is retaliation.”