Anyone who wonders about the CCP’s view of human rights should look closely at what has happened to the once free and vibrant city.
Anyone who wonders about the CCP’s view of human rights should look closely at what has happened to the once free and vibrant city.
T en U.S. congressmen, both Republicans and Democrats, spent the weekend in Britain trying to persuade politicians there that the two countries must jointly respond to aggression by China.
Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairman of Congress’s new Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, led the delegation. He and some of his British counterparts have criticized the U.K. for being weak on China and naïve about its tactics and goals. Gallagher’s message that President Xi Jinping aims to “subordinate and humiliate” the West comes days after the release of a congressional report on the rapid deterioration of human rights and the rule of law in Hong Kong.
Anyone who wonders what the complaints are about should look closely at what’s happened to the once free and vibrant city.
Since the introduction of a draconian National Security Law (NSL) in the former British colony in mid 2020, freedoms have been suppressed. The judges in Hong Kong’s legal system are now political appointees who rule however the government wants them to rule. Anyone who dissents in even the mildest way is now subject to arrest — and it’s not an idle threat. The number of political prisoners in Hong Kong has soared to over 1,400, and many high-profile individuals who were active in the pro-democracy movement are still imprisoned.
Most of these non-violent political prisoners have been held without bail for the past two years. Entrepreneur and journalist Jimmy Lai was recently sentenced to five years and nine months on made-up charges relating to a lease dispute. He faces another trial — and a possible life sentence — under the NSL in September. Letting Lai, his six jailed Apple Daily newspaper colleagues, and 47 other defendants go free would send a strong signal to the world that China is serious about engagement.
No free, prosperous city in modern times has been squelched so quickly and thoroughly as Hong Kong. Most independent newspapers and trade unions have been forced to shut. NGOs have closed up shop and lawyers have fled. Some 144,000 Hong Kongers have resettled in the United Kingdom and that number is expected to increase in coming years. The city has suffered its first population drop since the Japanese occupation during World War II.
Increased international scrutiny of the CCP’s tactics in Hong Kong is not in China’s interest. Allowing more freedom in Hong Kong would help the authorities there in their campaign to woo foreign money and talent back to a financial center shriveled by three years of quarantine restrictions and tarnished by the continuing political crackdown.
As it stands, scores of political prisoners remain in custody and denied bail, contrary to China’s promises to uphold the common-law presumption of innocence that existed during the British colonial period. They have been waiting for years for trials, effectively judged guilty without a chance to have their day in court. Trials take place in front of handpicked judges because China has also reneged on its promise to maintain the practice of jury trials.
Washington needs to show China that human rights are once again moving to the center of Sino–U.S. relations. That link was broken by President Clinton, who separated trade and human rights, essentially giving China a green light to strengthen repression even as it negotiated to join the World Trade Organization. Rather than trade leading to more democracy, the overly optimistic policies of the Clinton years have led us to a dead end.
It is time for Washington policy-makers to realize that human rights are not simply a peripheral aspect of foreign policy but a central one that distinguishes the United States from autocracies. People around the world need to see the U.S. putting respect for the dignity of all individuals at the core of its foreign policy. This is in America’s national interest.
Repairing its broken promises to the international community and to the people of Hong Kong by releasing non-violent political prisoners would be a way for China to demonstrate “win-win cooperation” and go a long way toward reducing the risk of confrontation. China has everything to gain and seemingly little to lose by releasing political prisoners.