Resistance rising to China’s overreach

The emphatic weekend verdict by the people of Hong Kong is a pronouncement much bigger than that city. It is a vote of ‘‘no confidence’’ in Beijing from some of the people who know it best.

And it wasn’t the weightiness of local district affairs that brought more than 71 per cent of eligible voters to the ballot box, to at least treble the number of prodemocracy district councillors, pending final results. Just under 3 million voted in such strength and with such force because the great majority of Hong Kong’s people share the protesters’ fear – that this is their last chance to protect their remaining liberties from the encroachments of Beijing.

To do so, they overlooked or forgave the worst excesses of the protesters – the 70-year-old street cleaner murdered with a brick, the man set alight for defending Beijing in an argument, the bows and arrows fired into the police ranks. And, in effect, the Hong Kong people laughed off the Beijing narrative – that the protesters are ‘‘anarchists’’ and ‘‘terrorists’’ sponsored by Western governments.

The implications are global. Of the places in the world where free speech can still be practised, Hong Kong is the one most familiar with the Chinese government’s tactics and techniques. They’ve seen the China of President Xi Jinping ignore the Basic Law that is supposed to guarantee the city’s freedoms. They see close up how people are treated in mainland China. And they are afraid.

‘‘What we badly need is dialogue,’’ says Anson Chan, chief secretary of Hong Kong’s government under both British rule and later under Chinese mainland rule. ‘‘Patriotism has to be earned, and the only way you can get that is to go back to the Basic Law and Deng’s promise. Noone in Hong Kong wants to overthrow Beijing; it’s about clawing back HK’s autonomy and civil liberties.’’

Fundamentally, the Chinese Communist Party cannot cope with liberty. At home or abroad. It has grave difficulty with anything – cultural identity, religion, speech – that it is not wholly confident it can control.

Not content to be the dominant trading partner for more than 120 countries, Beijing wants to control their internal debates about China, stifle free inquiry in their universities and cement governments worldwide into the China-funded patronage network of its Belt and Road.

‘‘The West has a simple and naive view of the Chinese Communist Party,’’ says Chan. ‘‘It’s very pervasive and it has relentless machinery and tentacles. I don’t think they will stop. For liberal democracies everywhere, are you prepared to see your values supplanted by those of mainland China?’’

Beijing’s overreach is producing the beginnings of a resistance in much of the world. Australia was one of the earlier developed democracies to wake to China’s intrusions. The Turnbull government’s ban on Huawei and its foreign interference laws were the clearest signs. But now Australia is being tested again.

Test one: Foreign interference laws are feebly enforced so far. The transparency register of foreign agents is a joke to date.

Test two: The man seeking asylum in Australia as a Chinese spy, Wang Liqiang, should be given it. Why? Because if you reasonably fear persecution if returned to your country of citizenship, the law says you are entitled to protection.

Test three: The apparent effort by Chinese intelligence to plant an agent of Beijing’s influence in the Federal Parliament exposes Australian vulnerability afresh. The alleged target, Melbourne car dealer Bo ‘‘Nick’’ Zhao, went to ASIO with his dilemma and was found dead in a Melbourne motel room in March. The cause of death is now a matter for the coroner. But we are left with the impression Australia’s security agencies didn’t protect him terribly well.

Canberra needs to do better. It can start with a searching investigation of the Zhao case and a serious follow-up, not a cover-up, on the findings.

Test four: Knowing that it is possible Beijing aims to infiltrate an MP into parliament, Australia needs to require all new MPs and senators to go through a security check. Only then will the cloud of suspicion lift, and the public be reassured.

A noted pro-democracy figure in Hong Kong, former legislator Martin Lee, said recently: ‘‘The people of Hong Kong are waging a desperate, last-gasp effort to keep their liberties. Australia should heed their lesson and stand up now.’’