An Open Letter to the President of the United States
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
8 | Tuesday, June 30, 2020 HONG KONG| EDITIONCHINA DAILY COMMENTHK TO THE POINT An open letter to STAFF WRITER Fingers crossed that national the president of security law will be enacted soon To the relief of most Hong Kong people, Ip a petition supporting enactment of the national Kwok-him, a Hong Kong deputy to the National security law being reviewed by members of People’s Congress, suggested on Sunday that the the NPCSC. In the eight-day campaign ended the United States odds of the draft national security law for Hong on May 30, nearly three million Hong Kong Kong being passed by China’s top legislature residents signed the petition supporting the says the US secretary of state before its current session closes on Tuesday national security legislation. Grenville Cross were over 99.9 percent. Popular support for the new law to be enacted is misleading the president about the facts in Those who want the violence to be stopped, and promulgated by the country’s top legislature social unrest to be quelled, stability to be is conceivable and sensible. Hong Kong simply Hong Kong in order to harm China, and his restored and the rule of law to be upheld in can no longer wait for the city’s legislature, para- Hong Kong are keeping their fi ngers crossed lyzed by the opposition camp, to enact national actions are damaging US interests that the proposed law will be enacted sooner security legislation on its own according to rather than later after the NPC announced the Article 23 of the Basic Law. Moreover, the new Dear Mr President, instead of denouncing the rioters move late last month. law targets only an extremely small number of unequivocally, sought to curry favor The yearlong violent rampages and vandalism separatists, terrorists and hostile external forces n these very di cult with the protest movement. Ever perpetrated by rioters including diehard sepa- who threaten national security. The majority of times, people of goodwill the trouble-maker, he endorsed key ratists in the pursuit of their political objectives residents including expats who have no inten- around the world, includ- demands of the protest movement, have helped Hong Kong people realize: Noth- tion of undermining China’s national interests ing in Hong Kong, will including their anti-police agenda, ing other than a national security law enacted have no reason to fret about the law. wish you well as you try Grenville Cross and even bizarrely accused the gov- by the country’s top legislature can stop such The SAR has failed, for two decades, to ful- to guide the United States ernment of having “primary respon- unprecedented madness. fi ll its constitutional obligation to safeguard back to normality. In particular, by con- sibility” for the situation. He must Hong Kong people realize the city they call national security by enacting a relevant law. The I imagine, however, that you will stantly misrepresenting have recoiled in horror when, on July home is teetering on the edge of an abyss as central authorities have no alternative but take Ibe the fi rst to agree that, whatever 22, you praised President Xi Jinping riots and terrorist acts have dominated the city’s it on themselves to legislate for the SAR when your strengths may be domestically, the situation in Hong for acting “very responsibly” over urban landscape for months and police have the national security of China is nowhere more foreign policy is not your forte. the protests, but he has, by mindless uncovered an increasing number of bomb plots seriously threatened and actually undermined Indeed, your former national secu- Kong, Pompeo is trying China-bashing, sought ever since to against law enforcers as well as civilians. than in Hong Kong. rity adviser, John Bolton, in his mem- to harm China, and this row back on your own very sound The logical and natural response of people Foreign governments or politicians are guilty oir The Room Where It Happened, instincts, and this he has done at who want to lead a normal life free from threats, of practicing double standards when they raise describes you as being “stunningly is in nobody’s inter- Hong Kong’s expense. dangers and harm is to give a loud shout: The an objection to Beijing’s move to safeguard uninformed”. He reveals how you ests, least of all the US. Indeed, although COVID-19 has madness must be stopped without further national security while they have installed their were unaware that the United King- resulted in restrictions around the delay! They made their voices heard by signing own safeguards against subversive acts. dom, your country’s closest ally, is a His actions, moreover, world on public gatherings, Pompeo nuclear power, and that you thought has grotesquely sought to make that Finland was a part of Russia. betray a crass igno- political capital out of it. After the He says you even confused former rance of both the legal police in Hong Kong decided it was Afghan president Hamid Karzai unsafe, on public health grounds, with his successor, Ashraf Ghani. Le niceties and the factual for any gatherings on June 4, he World needs to relearn Monde, moreover, has disclosed how, announced that Beijing was denying at your meeting with the three Baltic situation in Hong Kong, the people “a voice and a choice”, and presidents in Washington, D.C., in and you are being badly “so much for two systems”. However, 2018, you mixed up the Baltics with after the police in the UK likewise what ‘one country, two the Balkans, which left them dumb- served. banned any gatherings of more founded. than six people under the corona- Although your primary focus has virus regulations, with John Apter, always been on the US economy, it tion for the enactment of the national chairman of the Police Federation, systems’ is all about appears, ga es apart, that you are security law. The o cials were, he explaining that, although the right to being woefully served by the US claimed, “responsible for, or complicit protest is important, “we are not in omorrow is the 23rd anniversary of the Department of State. Instead of pro- in, undermining Hong Kong’s high normal times”, there was not even a inauguration of the Hong Kong Special viding you with thorough briefi ngs degree of autonomy, as guaranteed whimper of concern from Pompeo, Administrative Region. According to Mr on foreign a airs, it is feeding you in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Dec- whose hypocrisy is almost as brazen Shih Wing-ching, Hong Kong should con- fake news, and this is damaging US laration”. Once again, he was wholly as his bias. siderT 2020 as the year of the second return of Hong interests worldwide. By any yard- unaware that the Joint Declaration Quite clearly, Pompeo’s hatred of Kong to China. In an RTHK interview that aired stick, this is a sad situation, for which said nothing about national security, China is visceral, and this has warped earlier, he said that the fi rst return of Hong Kong the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and specifi cally excluded “defense his judgment. As you know, on May to the motherland cannot be said to be successful. Ho Lok-sang 27, he told Congress that Hong Kong must bear responsibility. a airs” from its ambit, for obvious Hong Kong needs a second return to China. He is The author is a senior research fellow at Pan Indeed, far from watching your reasons. Under China’s Constitution, was no longer autonomous from right. But why was the fi rst return of Hong Kong to Sutong Shanghai-Hong Kong Economic Policy back, Bolton has revealed how, national defense is always an issue China, which could jeopardize its China not successful? Research Institute, Lingnan University. during your historic meeting with for the country as a whole, just as it special trade relationship with the The European Parliament on June 19 condemned Kim Jong-un in Singapore in 2018, is in the US, and the Joint Declara- US. What, however, he failed to tell China’s new national security law for Hong Kong as economic outlook continued to deteriorate fol- Pompeo told him you were “so full of tion never suggested otherwise. Since Congress was that, in Hong Kong, a “comprehensive assault” on the territory’s freedom lowing six months of street protests, and that s—t”. Such candor not only belittled Hong Kong has been unable to enact basic rights and freedoms remain and demanded that the EU prepare sanctions. This persistent unrest put the city’s business reputation your e orts to improve things on the its own national security laws for 23 intact, underpinned by the ICCPR, shows that many members of the European Parlia- and environment at risk. Although the outbreak of Korean peninsula, but it also exposed years, largely because of the threat that it is blessed with an independent ment do not know what the “one country, two sys- COVID-19 led to a reprieve, the protesters returned the antediluvian mindset of this Cold of violence, Beijing has naturally had judiciary and fi rst-class legal and tems” principle is all about. Most observers would as soon as there were signs the epidemic was under War throwback. to rectify things, given the current fi nancial systems, and that China is understand why the US criticized the National control. In particular, by constantly mis- threats to “one country, two systems”. doing all it can to protect “one coun- People’s Congress Standing Committee proposal to It is sad that so many youngsters were arrested representing the situation in Hong You, of course, would never coun- try, two systems” from those who introduce the national security law in Hong Kong.