China has Hong Kong in a chokehold and they don’t seem likely to let up anytime soon. Now that prosecutors have been able to charge a sizable number of democracy advocates with subversion, things are clearly not headed in a positive direction. Demosisto co-founder Joshua Wong and ousted University of Hong Kong Associate Law Professor Benny Tai are among the 47 “criminals” who have found themselves charged.
Legislative Council members Claudia Mo and Jeremy Tam are joining them, in addition to others. Eastern District Councilor Andrew Chiu was charged the day after his Power for Democracy party elected to cease all of their activities and adhere to the Basic Law and the National Security Law.
Was this good enough for the Chinese puppets who have decided to run Hong Kong into the ground? Of course, it wasn’t. The democracy advocates are in hot water because they had the nerve to try and win seats on the Legislative Council. South China Morning Post was able to obtain documentation of the group’s accusations.
They are said to have violated the National Security Law“by organizing, planning, committing or participating by force or threat of force or other unlawful means”. These actions are alleged to have subverted the power of the state government. If these candidates are allowed to hold a Legislative Council majority, this makes it much harder for China to successfully ram their agenda down their throats.
It won’t surprise anyone to learn that the charges were filed on the same day that Hong Kong Legislative Council President Rita Fan made a remark about China being able to improve upon the current electoral system. She has this crazy idea that an election committee should be able to pick candidates.
As a former member of China’s Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Fan is uniquely qualified to make such statements. “Why have we seen the chaos in Hong Kong? That’s because non-patriots with ill-intent and those who want to use foreign powers to destroy Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability were elected. They then created trouble in Legco and district councils. That made Hong Kong an unfavorable place to live and work,” she said.
International reaction to the arrests was swift. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab made some obvious connections about the Chinese squashing dissenters. The United Kingdom has promised to apply pressure to the Chinese if any of the arrested parties are found to have a British passport in their possession.
The European Union is demanding their release and the United Nations are currently preparing their response. Their human rights chief has already been harshly critical of China in recent weeks. American human rights lawyer John Clancey could be charged, which would lead to more involvement from United States officials.
If Clancey ends up in court, we are sure that the current administration is going to get more involved as well. All they can do is lobby for the release of any Americans who have been arrested but this can be a powerful tool. On the other hand, foreign governments tend to figure out how to get around any sanctions that are offered up in these instances, so this is something that Biden will need to remember.
In the meantime, the Chinese economy remains in shambles. Local debt is on the rise and ex-foreign minister Lou Jiwei is issuing dire warnings. No matter the changes in the domestic economic and social situation, or the global economic downturn, soaring government debt and global trade frictions will all create huge uncertainties and severe challenges for China’s fiscal sustainability,” he said.
These warnings need to be heeded but they are currently falling on deaf ears. Those who allow their local debt to soar now are going to be facing some huge uncertainties once the global economy is able to reopen. Hopefully, the people of Hong Kong will become more and more interested in their own liberation because China is simply not willing to provide it.
