Before June last year, no one expected Hong Kong to end up where it is today. All Hong Kongers wanted was to maintain the rule of law and the territory’s autonomy in accordance with the promise that everything would remain unchanged for 50 years after the 1997 handover from the UK to China.
Up to 2 million people took to the streets to protest a bill that would allow the extradition of people suspected of crimes from Hong Kong to China, demanding that local people be judged based on local law.
Lawyers, medical staff, accountants and public servants took turns demonstrating, and they were joined by university and secondary-school students. Unexpectedly, the Hong Kong government in its response resorted to illegal means and violent suppression, which caused things to deteriorate fast.
In July, mainland China intervened, implemented the Hong Kong National Security Law and took control of Hong Kong. Anyone the government sees as causing problems was promptly arrested and detained, frightening everyone as the “red terror” descended on Hong Kong.
Some intellectuals and young people have since left, while others remain in the territory, and all are in for difficult times.
It is astonishing that the situation has deteriorated so fast, but it does not necessarily mean that Hong Kongers are beyond help. The butterfly effect triggered by these events is rippling around the world, and communist China is starting to pay the price for wrecking Hong Kong. The final outcome is undecided, but Hong Kong’s youth have not bled for nothing.
Hong Kong is a free, globalized territory, and the brutal treatment of Hong Kongers has exposed communist China’s bloody ways to the world.
Young Taiwanese have seen young Hong Kongers viciously attacked by police.
The Hong Kong Police Force might have a long, outstanding tradition, but it now brutally attacks 12-year-old girls shopping for stationery. These gangster methods fill people with contempt, and young Taiwanese are frightened by the situation young Hong Kongers find themselves in. If this is unification, then unification with China is an impossibility to Taiwan’s young.
Wishful Japanese believed in mutually beneficial coexistence with China, but the brutal treatment of Hong Kongers and the arrest of Hong Kong democracy advocate Agnes Chow (周庭), who is very popular in Japan, have exposed the true face of communist China, and Japanese have realized that without a strong defense, they could one day be treated the same way.
What about the US? Based on the values of liberty and democracy, the US cannot remain on the sidelines. It has canceled Hong Kong’s special trade status, imposed sanctions on Hong Kong officials, and further economic sanctions can be expected.
In Europe, where Germany holds the rotating EU Council presidency, German Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas earlier this month told Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) to his face that China should rescind the National Security Law and implement universal suffrage for Hong Kong Legislative Council elections.
The biggest bone of contention between China and the world over Hong Kong is the implementation of international treaties and post-World War II self-determination: China completely ignores the Sino-British Joint Declaration, walks roughshod over post-World War II self-determination and intervenes everywhere it can.
Such imperialist-communist aggression lies hidden behind the Hong Kong issue, and the civilized world must address it.
Hong Kong arouses sympathy, but there is no call for despair. The civilized world will not abandon Hong Kong.
Mike Chang is an accountant.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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