Speak out for Hong Kong
China is crushing Hong Kong under its heel, and Canada should be doing more to push back.
The draconian national security law imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong this week is a fatal blow to the promise that the territory could keep its civil and political freedoms until 2047.
That’s what China signed up to when Britain handed sovereignty over Hong Kong to Beijing in 1997. Under the principle of “one country, two systems,” the territory was to keep its special status and all the rights that went along with that for another 27 years.
The new security law, which took effect on Wednesday, puts paid to all that. It is both vague and all-encompassing. Essentially, it gives authorities the power to treat dissent as a crime and allows China’s security forces to operate directly in Hong Kong.
It criminalizes secession, subversion, and activities that could be interpreted as collusion with “foreign forces.” It allows for closed courts in cases that involve risks to public order, and opens the door for anyone in Hong Kong (not just citizens) to be extradited to the mainland and face charges in China’s party-controlled courts.
It adopts the kind of broad language about national security that has long been used to outlaw political dissent in China. It will make it a lot more difficult, and certainly much more dangerous, for pro-democracy activists to continue protesting China’s attempts to have its way with Hong Kong, as they’ve been doing for the past year.
No wonder some activists disbanded a prominent pro-democracy organization as soon as the new law took effect, to avoid being charged and disappearing into China’s murky and politicized legal system.
Canadians have learned something about how that system operates over the past year and a half. The ordeal of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, imprisoned in retaliation for the detention of Chinese telecom executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver, has been a stark reminder of how China’s courts can be used as political tools.
Now that same system is coming to Hong Kong, which until recently managed to keep alive a robust legal system and a semi-democratic political structure. The new law undermines all that. It’s a threat not only to Hong Kong’s political freedoms, but to its prosperity as well. People doing business there now run the risk of facing trumped-up charges if they fall foul of powerful interests.
Canada has a special interest in Hong Kong since 300,000 of its residents are Canadian citizens, the biggest foreign community in the territory.
So far, Canada has voiced its “serious concern” at the crackdown on political dissent, and Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland has said Canadian citizens living there are “welcome to come home” if conditions become untenable.
On Friday, Ottawa went further. It announced it will treat exports of sensitive goods, including military items, to Hong Kong in the same way as it does those to China. And, importantly, it suspended an extradition treaty with Hong Kong.
These are good moves, but Ottawa can do more in conjunction with other countries concerned about China’s disregard for human rights and its increasingly aggressive assertion of what it sees as its interests around the world.
The United States has already said it will no longer give Hong Kong different and special treatment than it extends to China as a whole on trade issues. And moves are underway in the U.S. Congress to impose sanctions on Chinese officials involved in the crackdown, and to give refugee protection to anyone who falls foul of the new security law.
Britain, given its historic relationship with Hong Kong, is going further to uphold the guarantees made to residents of the former colony under the handover treaty signed by London and Beijing.
The Johnson government says it’s prepared to give as many as three million people in Hong Kong who hold British National (Overseas) passports the right to live and work in Britain, with the possibility of a pathway to full citizenship.
Canada should listen to groups in this country aligned with pro-democracy forces in Hong Kong. It should be prepared to provide refuge and residency rights for people there who risk arrest or prosecution under the new security law.
Canada could also guarantee that anyone arrested or charged in Hong Kong for political activity won’t find that a barrier if they apply to come to this country. It could heed the appeal of groups such as Hong Kong Watch in Britain and Alliance Canada Hong Kong in this country to extend a lifeline to pro-democracy activists who may need it.
Naturally, China will condemn any such moves as interference in its internal affairs. But the more countries that speak up for Hong Kong, the more difficult it will be for Beijing to single out any one of them for special retribution.
All this is a tragedy for Hong Kong, whose flourishing civic culture and vibrant economy are threatened as never before.
Canada should speak out more forcefully for the people of the territory. And it should be prepared to welcome more of those who want to make a new life here.
Canada has a special interest in Hong Kong since 300,000 of its residents are Canadian citizens