{"id":10290,"date":"2020-07-01T07:03:10","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T14:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=10290"},"modified":"2020-07-01T07:03:10","modified_gmt":"2020-07-01T14:03:10","slug":"how-china-scammed-hong-kong-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=10290","title":{"rendered":"“How China Scammed Hong Kong”, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Yi-Zheng Lian,\u00a0<\/span>Mr. Lian is a former chief editor of the Hong Kong Economic Journal, Opinion, July 1, 202o<\/p>\n

It pays to play the long game against people who want to be free.<\/em><\/p>\n

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A police officer in Hong Kong on Tuesday standing guard near protesters opposing Beijing\u2019s new national security legislation for the city. The law criminalizes, among other things, threats to China\u2019s national unity, including calls for Hong Kong to become independent from the mainland.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Vincent Yu\/Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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After many years of rejecting the people of Hong Kong\u2019s persistent demands for genuine universal suffrage and other rights, China made its position clear again on Tuesday with the legislative equivalent of a cracking head bash.<\/p>\n

It chose the eve of July 1, a triple anniversary \u2014 of the birth of the Chinese Communist Party (1921), the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China (1997) and a break-in of the city\u2019s legislature by pro-democracy activists (2019) \u2014 to pass a draconian national security law that will forever harm Hong Kong\u2019s political freedoms and hobble its economic relations with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China with its own, supposedly independent, executive, legislative and judiciary branches. Yet the new law was proposed in Beijing, drafted in Beijing and promulgated in Beijing.<\/p>\n

It went into force as soon as it was gazetted<\/a> on Tuesday night \u2014 which was also the first time its contents were released to the public.<\/p>\n

The law<\/a> criminalizes acts of secession, the subversion of state power, terrorism and \u201ccollusion with foreign or external forces to endanger national security.\u201d Some offenses in each of these categories are punishable with life imprisonment. Property damage alone might amount to terrorism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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CHINA PASSES A SECURITY LAW IN HONG KONG<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n
For the official text of the legislation, in Chinese, see here<\/a>. For an unofficial English translation by Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency, see here<\/a>.<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Especially severe cases may be referred to the Supreme People\u2019s Court of China, to be tried by another court of its choosing under the mainland\u2019s law of criminal procedure<\/a>, which allows for capital punishment in some cases. The death penalty was abolished<\/a> in Hong Kong in 1993, and no execution had taken place since 1966.<\/p>\n

The new law trumps any local laws that are inconsistent with it. A national security commission will be set up in the city, joined by a Beijing-appointed adviser, to oversee the law\u2019s implementation. Its work will not be made public, nor will that be subject to judicial review.<\/p>\n

The Hong Kong chief executive is to appoint special judges to hear national security cases. The city\u2019s Secretary of Justice may deny a defendant a trial by jury. The ultimate power to interpret the law rests with Beijing.<\/p>\n

Articles 37 and 38 appear to mean that the law is applicable worldwide \u2014 and universally: not only to permanent residents of Hong Kong and entities based in the city while they are abroad, but also to \u201ca person who is not a permanent resident\u201d of Hong Kong who commits an offense from \u201coutside.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Though the law is being called \u201cnational security\u201d legislation, its true, bespoke purpose is to suppress the decades-old pro-democracy movement in the city \u2014 which has grown more vocal in recent years as repression from Beijing has increased, with some younger people calling for outright independence for Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

Leaders of political organizations that China has previously accused of promoting separatism promptly announced<\/a> their groups\u2019 dissolution<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Politically astute Hong Kongers are only too aware of the Chinese government\u2019s propensity to bring bogus charges against its political opponents.<\/p>\n

So are some foreign governments. Washington had already announced a spate of sanctions<\/a> against officials deemed to violate the mainland\u2019s obligations to Hong Kong. On Tuesday, it barred defense exports to Hong Kong<\/a> \u2014 and said it would begin to cancel the city\u2019s preferential trade status<\/a>, arguing, correctly, that Hong Kong can no longer be considered to operate with significant autonomy from the mainland.<\/p>\n

The European Union\u2019s Parliament recently passed a (nonbinding) resolution urging member states to bring China before the International Court of Justice<\/a> if the law was passed. Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain has pledged to help some three million eligible people from Hong Kong live and work in his country<\/a>. The government of Taiwan has said that it would grant asylum<\/a> to some Hong Kongers on humanitarian grounds.<\/p>\n

But even foreign politicians sympathetic to the plight of Hong Kong<\/a>today bear some responsibility for it \u2014 if only by dint of their wishful thinking about Beijing\u2019s original intentions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n