Hong Kong has a unique history and capitalist culture, and to protect
the rights of its residents, the city should become a democracy
independent of Communist-ruled China.To get more
China breaking news, you can visit shine news official website.
By writing those words, I have committed a felony punishable by life in a
Chinese prison. Writing them in the United States makes no difference
under the Community Party’s new National Security Law.
Chinese intelligence agencies almost certainly learned of my crime as
soon as I posted my column on social media. When I wrote my first column
critical of the government six years ago, several anonymous Chinese
Twitter accounts started following my posts.
Needless to say, I will not be visiting China or Hong Kong anytime soon,
though to be fair, the government would probably deny me a visa. My
distaste for the Chinese Communist Party’s totalitarianism dates to the
crackdown in Tibet in the 1980s.Chinese President Xi Jinping’s latest
steps to crush liberty are putting freedom-loving Westerners in a
difficult spot. The Chinese economy will soon be the largest in the
world, but the price of admission is to ignore cultural genocide against
Tibetans, Uighurs and now Hong Kongers.
President Donald Trump was ready to make that trade in return for
lowering the trade deficit and greater exports of food, oil and natural
gas. Some argue that Xi thought January’s trade deal was a greenlight to
crackdown on pro-democracy activists.
Last week, security forces arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai for his
pro-democracy politics. They also arrested Agnes Chow, the former leader
of Demosisto, a pro-democracy activist group. Hong Kong authorities
have issued arrest warrants for six people living overseas. One of them
is a U.S. citizen, Samuel Chu, who has lived in America since 1996.
Carrie Lam, the Communist Party’s hand-picked chief executive, has
delayed local elections for at least a year. Any pretense of the
mainland government respecting the “one country, two systems’’ policy is
out the window.
Xi’s National Security Law equates pro-democracy activities with
terrorism and treason, and the government is ready to enforce it far
beyond China’s borders. Sometimes using secret agents, other times using
public coercion.The government reacted swiftly in October when Houston
Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted support for democratic
protesters. Tencent, the Chinese conglomerate that streams NBA games in
China, temporarily suspended Rockets broadcasts. The China Basketball
Association suspended its partnership.
More recently, China imposed sanctions on Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for his
criticism of Xi and the government’s internment of a million members of
the Uighur minority in re-education camps. Their crime? Believing in
God, according to the teachings of the Quran.
Ever since President Richard Nixon traveled to China in 1972, American
leaders from both parties have tried to sweet talk the Chinese into
forsaking authoritarian communism and adopting capitalist and democratic
reforms. Chinese communists have embraced only capitalism, and then
only in so much that it props up their regime.
The Wall