America, why don’t you get your bloodied hands off Hong Kong
Nov 22, 2023
Weaponising human rights against the city and mainland China only becomes more farcical when the US and its close allies are busy violating them.
Another day, another official report from the US government criticising and threatening to punish China for interfering with the affairs of Hong Kong, a Chinese city. This is getting farcical.
The latest annual report is released by the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which reports directly to the US Congress under the Hong Kong Autonomy Act passed when Donald Trump was president. And it came out a day before President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden had their tete-a-tete in San Francisco. A coincidence?
Not likely. It’s one of those petty gestures typical of Washington ahead of major meetings with the Chinese, presumably to put it in “a position of strength”, as they say.
But the timing and incongruity are just too glaring. At the moment, the US is underwriting, arming and militarily advising Israel in carrying out brutal military operations that credible international authorities have warned amount to war crimes, genocide and/or ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people, in the Occupied Territories, which are illegally occupied and recognised as the Palestinian state by most of the world outside the West, or about 140 countries that are member states of the United Nations.
But here we are; America is concerned that China is interfering with one of its own cities while actively enabling Israel to level Gaza.
We all know how evil Chinese communists are. They are committing genocide not by bombing the entire Uygur population and cutting off food, water, electricity and medicine, or destroying their homes and hospitals in Xinjiang. They are so nasty that they have built Uygurs more schools, homes and hospitals instead of demolishing and bombing them.
Xinjiang has one of the highest number of mosques of any single locale in the world; that must be cultural genocide. And connecting the region with one of the world’s fastest and most efficient rail systems. Boy, what unspeakable evil!
It’s so much more humane just to bomb them to smithereens.
Now we know what US officials mean by genocide and ethnic cleansing when they accuse the Chinese of committing such crimes against humanity. You need to get American funding and approval first before you can commit such acts. Sorry but I digress. Interfering with your own city … What a crime!
The commission’s report has accused mainland authorities of undermining Hong Kong’s institutions and its “once-vibrant” civil society, having “completed its transformation into a Chinese – rather than an international – city”. Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing … are not international cities?
Not vibrant! Maybe it’s because Hong Kong’s economy, like many others around the world, is not doing so well. Fewer people are willing to pay for overpriced beer at once-partying prime site Lan Kwai Fong, perhaps?
The commission also said Beijing had appointed loyal judges and leaders to carry out “the strictest interpretation of the national security law”, and were “destroying the legal system”. How would the commission members know? Did they study the legal education, qualifications and case histories of legal officers?
The criticism came after a group of US lawmakers said the White House should sanction local judges and prosecutors. Oh yes, these judicial officers are so unlike their American counterparts such as those far-right judges sitting in top courts, including the Supreme Court, which is for life! Judicial dictatorship, anyone?
Whatever the US criticism, sanctioning or threatening to sanction judicial officers in Hong Kong will definitely interfere with the local legal system and its personnel.
The commission has tabled its own recommendations to sanction local officials responsible for deterring Hong Kong citizens from emigrating. That’s a first. If you read the mainstream US news media, you would think every person and their dog had emigrated.
I suggest US officials turn a critical eye to India and Israel, where they will find plenty of breaches of international law and violations of human rights and dignity, or their own conduct in both foreign and domestic settings.
First published in the South China Morning Post November 17, 2023
Alex Lo has been a Post columnist since 2012, covering major issues affecting Hong Kong and the rest of China. A journalist for 25 years, he has worked for various publications in Hong Kong and Toronto as a news reporter and editor. He has also lectured in journalism at the University of Hong Kong.
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