China’s top communist, President Xi Jinping, aspires to dominate the world order — and if you want a preview, take a look at China’s assault on the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong. On Friday, according to Reuters, Chinese state television reported that “Hong Kong authorities had issued arrest warrants for six pro-democracy activists who fled the city and are suspected of violating a national security law that came into effect on June 30.”
One of those activists is Samuel Chu, born in Hong Kong, but a naturalized American citizen for more than two decades. Chu is the managing director of a Washington-based nonprofit called the Hong Kong Democracy Council, or HKDC, which set up shop last year with the self-described mission of “promoting democracy and human rights in Hong Kong.”
That’s entirely in keeping with the agenda of liberty, justice and universal suffrage that China itself, under international treaty, guaranteed for Hong Kong, for at least 50 years following the 1997 British handover.
So, Chu has been calling for his own country, America, to seek ways to persuade China to honor its promises for Hong Kong. China’s communist rulers have now decided to treat such campaigns, not only in Hong Kong, but anywhere around the globe, as a threat to their “national security,” potentially punishable by up to life in prison.
That’s the context in which Chu sent out a press release on Friday, saying “Today I woke up to media reports that I am a wanted fugitive. My alleged crimes? ‘Inciting secession’ and ‘colluding with foreign powers’ under Hong Kong’s National Security Law.”
Chu, went on to explain the Orwellian implications:
“Except I am an American citizen and have been for almost 25 years. If the reports are true, the Hong Kong police are issuing an arrest warrant against an American citizen for advocating and lobbying my own government.”
Fortunately for Chu and for so many in America who have stood with Hong Kong, the U.S. has no extradition agreement with mainland China, and is suspending its longstanding extradition agreement with Hong Kong. Britain, Canada, Australia, Germany and New Zealand have already done so.
But China’s deeper game is to try to deter global support for Hong Kong’s democracy movement and isolate its people, while China attempts to engulf and dismantle their vibrant free society. Already, under the label of coronavirus restrictions, Hong Kong has been largely closed to non-residents since March. On Friday, Hong Kong’s Beijing-appointed chief executive, Carrie Lam, postponed for a full year the Sept. 6 general election — in which pro-democracy candidates had been hoping to win a majority in the legislature. Hong Kong’s tally of more than 9,000 people arrested in connection with democracy protests by now includes such prominent advocates of liberty and justice as newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai, and patriarch of the Hong Kong democracy movement, Martin Lee. Beijing treats such courageous figures as reprobates, to be destroyed.
Under the new law, mainland security agents are now operating officially in the territory, protest slogans have been banned, pro-democracy books have been pulled from public shelves for “review,” and Communist-China-style “patriotic education” is in the works.
Chief Executive Lam now chairs a new Committee for Safeguarding National Security, which reports directly to the central Chinese government in Beijing, and includes a National Security Adviser designated by Beijing. Under the new law, Hong Kong’s police force will now include a “department for safeguarding national security,” with its head appointed by the chief executive in consultation with Hong Kong’s new Beijing-run Office for Safeguarding National Security.
The bottom line is clear. Under Xi’s reign, the word of China’s government is worthless. China’s communist regime approaches freedom and democracy as threats to be stamped out — and their ambitions are in no way limited to Hong Kong.
Which brings me back to Samuel Chu, who ended his press statement with an urgent message, not solely a warning, but a rallying cry:
“Let me be very clear — I might be the first non-Chinese citizen to be targeted, but I will not be the last. If I am targeted, any American or citizen of any nation who speaks out for Hong Kong can, and will be, too. We are all Hong Kongers now.”
Claudia Rosett is a foreign policy fellow with the Independent Women’s Forum. This article is excerpted from a longer piece originally published on PJMedia.
