A week ago today, thousands of lawyers donned black suits and marched silently through Hong Kong. They did so to protest Mainland China’s decision to bar two elected legislators from serving in their local legislature:
[The legislators’] specific offense (at least in the eyes of Beijing) was to unfurl a banner proclaiming ‘Hong Kong Is Not China’ and to pronounce the country’s name in a derogatory manner during their swearing-in.
(TIME, November 13, 2016)
I have been sounding alarms for years about China as a more formidable and foreboding superpower than the Soviet Union. I’ve written many commentaries to this effect, including “Gap Between Rich and Poor In Communist China Is Sowing Seeds of Resentment and Terminal Unrest,” December 22, 2005, “Punishing China for Its Brutal Crackdown in Tibet? Hardly!” July 28, 2008, and “China Buying the Global Influence Russia and US Fighting For,” October 19, 2016.
Therefore, you might think I marched (virtually) in solidarity with those lawyers in Hong Kong. But I did not.
This … reminds me of the British who ruled Hong Kong as colonial despots for 150 years. Then, when the time came to return the territory to China, they suddenly decided that – for the sake of humanity and all that is fair and just – the people of Hong Kong must have democracy!
(“U.S. Ports Now Have Arab Harbormasters… So What!” The iPINIONS Journal, February 21, 2006)
As one who lived under British colonialism, I appreciate why its colonial rule is preferable to China’s communist rule. My national/racial pride is such, however, that I have little sympathy for Chinese residents in Hong Kong who consented to be governed by British colonialists, but are refusing to be governed by Chinese nationalists. Besides, the issue here is not between colonialism and communism; it’s between national unity and regional secession.
Frankly, solidarity with Hong Kongers who want independence from China is tantamount to solidarity with Texans or Californians who want independence from the United States. Therefore, one can hardly blame Chinese President Xi Jinping for acting pursuant to the same principle that compelled U.S. President Abraham Lincoln to preserve the union … by any means necessary. No matter the peculiarity of any state (or territorial) law, federal (or NPC Standing Committee) law supersedes it. Period!
Hence President Xi’s Lincolnesque warning:
All activities that intend to divide the country will certainly be firmly opposed by all Chinese people. We will never allow any one, any organisation, any party to split off any tract of territory from China anytime, or in any way.
(South China Morning Post, November 11, 2016)
Perhaps the extraordinary length to which British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher went to preserve the United Kingdom is more instructive:
Twenty-five years ago, the British considered the Falkland Islands so vital to their sovereignty that they dispatched their armada to assert dominion over them. They did so because the islanders were poised to pledge allegiance to neighboring Argentina. Never mind that the Falklands were little more than a bleak and desolate cluster of islands situated 8,000 miles away.
(“Recognizing (or Regretting) Kosovo Independence,” The iPINIONS Journal, February 17, 2008)
Let’s face it, more countries recognize Hong Kong as part of China today than those that recognized the Falklands as part of the UK back then. This is why, instead of marching in solidarity with those lawyers last Tuesday, I would’ve been more inclined to march in solidarity with the pro-China Hong Kongers who took to the streets on Sunday to denounce them.
And, as alluded to above, I cannot overstate how damning it is that pro-democracy protesters are accusing China of using British colonial law to suppress their (belated) cries for freedom. The irony is too precious for words.
But there’s no escaping the inconvenient truth that these protests amount to nothing more than a self-hating, Stockholm Syndrome-like preference for the British over the Chinese. Indeed, you’d be forgiven for thinking that these Hong Kongers don’t want democracy so much as a return to British colonial rule.
Related commentaries:
Gap between rich and poor…
Punishing China…
China buying influence…
Arab harbormasters…
Kosovo…