Gloom in Hong Kong - Another blunt example of unfulfilled Chinese hollow promises
Freedom of expression was snatched from the people of Hong Kong with the enactment of the draconian National Security Law in June 2020.
Every year, 01 July is a day marked with mutually contrasting emotions for the citizens of Hong Kong and the dreaded Chinese Communist Party (CCP). On one hand, the CCP would leave no stone unturned in making this day memorable with unending celebrations throughout China to mark the anniversary of its formation in 1921. At the same time, in the not-so-distant neighbourhood, citizens of Hong Kong would rue this day which marked the loss of their freedom and all democratic institutions which defined Hongkong all these years. Since that forgettable day in 1997, when the former British colony was handed over to Beijing, 01 July had been the high point of a series of annual protests and rallies in remembrance of Hong Kong’s once-flourishing civil society.
But unfortunately, even this freedom of expression was snatched away from the Hongkongers. With the enactment of the draconian wide-reaching National Security Law on Hong Kong in June 2020, Beijing has dramatically broadened its powers to investigate, prosecute and punish anyone whom it believed to be anti-CCP.
At the time of taking over Hong Kong in its folds in 1997 under the terms governed by the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984, China had promised to preserve the unique characteristics of Hong Kong including permitting the former colony to keep its capitalist system and enjoy many freedoms like a high degree of autonomy in domains of executive, legislative, and independent judicial powers not found in mainland Chinese cities for another fifty years. However, these promises have fallen flat. In the last two years since the National Security Law took force, Beijing has unleashed a stampede of actions to bring Hong Kong into political subservience to the Chinese Communist Party by arresting activists, seizing assets, sacking officials, detaining newspaper editors, and rewriting school curriculums.
The electoral process in Hong Kong is the one that has taken the largest beating in the last few years. While the Basic Law of Hong Kong envisions the ultimate aim of allowing citizens of Hong Kong to elect their leader by a popular vote, the reality is far removed from this. Since the June 1997 handover, there have been no free and fair elections by universal suffrage in Hong Kong for the Chief Executive, who is the head of the government. Beijing has further curbed Hong Kong citizen’s limited voting rights by another overhaul of the electoral system in 2021 to make it easier for pro-Beijing candidates to be appointed as Chief Executive and as Legislative Council members.
In a brazen display of authoritarian force, China unilaterally decided that only ‘patriots’ with unquestionable loyalty and respect for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can stand for elections in Hong Kong. Consequent to this, in completely stage-managed elections, only one candidate, John Lee ran for the Chief Executive post and was elected unopposed. Needless to say, Lee has proved his loyalty to the CCP as the Security Chief over the last many years brutally curbing any opposition to Beijing by Hong Kong citizenry – and was hence ‘selected’ by political masters as the rightful heir to the throne!
Another shameful act relates to the blatant modification of the school curricula. Hong Kong schools have been forced to re-write their textbooks so as to teach children that the city was never a British colony. The new books in school now reflect Beijing’s version of the city’s history to brainwash the minds of the next generation in their tender and impressionable age. These changes to the school curriculum are the latest move by the government to crack down on dissent and increase control of the political leanings of Hongkongers in the long term.
The CCP is not sparing the children in mainland China as well. The Internet is flooded with the pictures of new textbooks for primary and pre-primary children with obscene images of girls being molested and their skirts being lifted by their classmates. In other pictures, boys have been depicted with outlines of male genitalia on their pants. Such humiliating images are bound to pollute the minds of innocent children. These incidents have caused heavy protests from parents. To make matters worse, all such crass images have been published in school books by none other than a Chinese state-owned publisher clearly proving the hand of the CCP behind the episode.
Coming back to the National Security Law, the unlawful implementation of the law by the CCP has left Hong Kong citizens aghast. Over the last two years, all the promised rights made to the former British colony have got blown up in thin air. Using the unjust provisions of the law, the CCP has wreaked havoc on anything closely resembling even a faint dissent. Multiple newspaper agencies have been closed down and public protests have been made untenable due to harsh backlash by police. This includes the infamous and unlawful broad daylight raid by 500 police officers on two occasions on the headquarters of Apple Daily, a popular pro-democracy and anti-Beijing newspaper.
Hong Kong’s leading pro-democracy figures, including activists and politicians, have been forced into exile or dumped into jails without any option of a fair trial. Lakhs of citizens are opting to permanently move out and settle in democratic countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Even schools, universities, libraries, movies, and internet access have been impacted in the most negative manner. The city looks totally transformed and has been stripped of its very identifying characteristics. Continuous torture being meted out by CCP-backed functionaries has now become the new normal, taking Hong Kong to an era where it is, more and more, resembling part and parcel of mainland China.
It is not as if all these atrocities being levied by CCP on Hong Kong have gone unnoticed. These measures have drawn strong international condemnation from a number of countries. The United States imposed sanctions on Chinese officials who were responsible for systematically undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy, drastically reducing defence exports to Hong Kong, and most importantly, revoking its special trade status. Australia, US, Canada, and New Zealand also suspended their extradition treaties with Hong Kong citing the unjust National Security Law. Multiple world leaders have also raised questions about Hong Kong’s status as a global financial hub in the future and urged CCP to roll back the National Security Law and also revert back to status quo-ante with regard to the promises made by CCP in Jun 1997.
However, as is the norm with China every time, all these pleas have fallen on deaf ears and CCP continues to implement its unreasonable and unjustified policies unabashedly. Only time will tell if the international support to Hong Kong will force China to mend its ways or the innocent citizens will continue to live a life of fear, gloom, mistreatment, and uncertainty in the years to come at the hands of the CCP.