China: Imposing its rule on Hong Kong
The Chinese Communist Party is prepared to “break any international treaty” to force its will on Hong Kong, said the Taipei Times (Taiwan) in an editorial. When the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, Beijing agreed that Hong Kong would be governed under the “one country, two systems” framework, which granted a high degree of autonomy to the city until 2047. Under the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the city is supposed to implement a national security law to replace old colonial legislation. But when Hong Kong authorities proposed such legislation in 2003, half a million people poured into the streets in protest, and they haven’t attempted it since. Now Beijing says it plans to unilaterally impose a national security law that will ban treason, secession, and subversion, and allow mainland security forces to act on Hong Kong soil. Under this legislation, pro-democracy activists would be jailed, and anyone who has ever protested would be barred from office. The rule of law will become “a farce” in Hong Kong as it is in China.
It’s “right and natural” for China to safeguard national security in Hong Kong, said the People’s Daily (China). The absence of such legislation rendered local authorities powerless during last year’s protests against a bill that would have allowed Hong Kongers to be extradited to the mainland. For months, the city suffered “violent crimes exhibiting a nature of terrorism supported by foreign interfering forces.” The law Beijing has drafted “targets only the small minority of people committing crimes.”
It will not affect the “rights and freedoms enjoyed by the majority.”
We must tread carefully, said Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post. Protesters rushed into the streets this week, sparking violent clashes with police. Such escalation just makes Beijing more resolute and more fearful “that foreign powers are working with local forces to seek independence.” If we negotiate, we may yet mitigate the law’s scope. But with its hysterical overreaction, the U.S. has made our position worse, said Alex Lo, also in the South China Morning Post. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo openly said that Beijing had robbed Hong Kong of its autonomy. Legally, if that’s the case, the U.S. must end its preferential treatment of Hong Kong’s financial sector—abandoning the city in the name of protecting it. “With friends like Pompeo, Hong Kong’s opposition doesn’t need enemies.”
Britain has “a moral obligation here,” said Edward Lucas in The Times (U.K.). There’s not much this former colonial power can do to prevent China from slashing Hong Kongers’ rights, but we can “raise the cost paid by the bullies of Beijing for their victory.” We should sanction Chinese officials, shift manufacturing away from China, and emulate Australian measures to “prevent penetration of our elite institutions by Chinese influence peddlers.” A global coalition is needed. We may “flinch at President Donald Trump’s fitful and splenetic Beijing bashing,” but to deter future acts of Chinese aggression, we must have “America on our side.”