SAYING that human rights are universal should be an uncontroversial statement. In Hong Kong, though, such a statement could easily see this paper censored, myself arrested and me, my family and close friends put under surveillance.
In what was previously a small island of democracy in a sea of totalitarianism, the Chinese Communist Party has gone to extreme lengths to silence dissenters and democrats. Scotland and the UK have a long-standing relationship with the people of Hong Kong – and such an attack on their freedom is an attack on ours.
Later today, the House of Commons will debate human rights abuses in Hong Kong. It is sad that we have to keep returning to this subject but it is important we do so – the UK must not forget the democracy activists in Hong Kong. Yet we must acknowledge the situation has continued to deteriorate there, especially with the introduction of a new national security law which greatly curtails democratic rights, liberties and freedoms.
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Last Friday, we saw the arrest of pro-democracy activist Chow Hang Tung for “promoting unauthorised assembly”!. What was this unauthorised assembly? The annual vigil that takes place every year remembering the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. The Chinese state banned it in Hong Kong last year for Covid-related reasons and used the same excuse this time round. To emphasise the repression, the police closed Victoria Park, the site where the vigil takes place.
Why though should it choose to ban a remembrance event? Sometimes 1989 might seem like a lifetime ago but it was a year which saw the collapse of the communist Soviet system. Protests broke out across eastern Europe clamouring for democracy and human rights.
Regimes which seemed indestructible in 1988 were gone by 1990. The Berlin Wall, a visible symbol of the Communist repression, was torn down and Berliners re-united. The world seemed to be heading towards a better, more liberal democratic future and China was no exception. Hundreds of thousands headed to Tiananmen Square from April through to June that year in the hope the regime would listen and support more liberal reforms.
The state responded with tanks and bullets. No-one knows how many died that day, with the figure being potentially as high as 10,000. The brutality of the regime was laid bare, and democrats in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan have remembered that date, June 4, ever since.
The vigil then is not just a memorial; it is a symbol of democracy, demonstrating that the light of freedom will not be extinguished no matter how hard autocrats try to stamp it out.
And how hard they are trying to stamp it out! Ever since the UK handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, the Chinese state has sought to weaken, undermine and destroy the “one country, two systems” model agreed to by both sides.
Protests such as the 2014 Umbrella Revolution and the 2019-20 Anti-Extradition Movement highlighted the tightening noose around Hong Kong’s democracy. Names such as Benny Tai and Joshua Wong became famous around the world as they and thousands of others stood up and protested for their rights.
They and thousands of others have since been arrested and imprisoned. The controversial passage of the national security law in June last year has greatly eroded the rights and liberties of Hong Kong citizens at a worrying pace. More than 100 pro-democracy activists have been arrested under the law and have been awaiting trial since July 2020.
THE Chinese state does not care for the rule of law; it cares only for its own power. It does not govern; it terrorises and represses. The democracy movement faces extinction – it is up to the international community to help it survive and thrive.
To try to be fair, the UK Government has not completely abandoned the citizens of Hong Kong. It has publicly accused China of breaching its obligations under the Joint Sino-British Declaration. In response to the national security law, it suspended the UK’s extradition treaty with Hong Kong and extended arms exports to the city. The UK Government also introduced the BNO (British National Overseas) visa which, if everyone entitled takes it up, could see 2.9 million Hong Kongers and their dependents move to the UK.
That China continues to dismantle Hong Kong’s autonomy demonstrates the current impotence of “Global Britain”. There are things the Government can do, and that are within its control.
I have urged the UK Government to demonstrate leadership in co-ordinating action on China. It should co-ordinate with our allies in the US, Canada and the EU to implement Magnitsky sanctions against those guilty of human rights abuses in Hong Kong.
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At the UN, it should push for the creation of a Special Rapporteur for Hong Kong as suggested by former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al Hussein. The BNO scheme, as good as it is, must be expanded to include Hong Kongers born after 1997.
To ensure UK investors are not passively supporting human rights violations, the rules around UK investment in companies complicit in human rights abuses in Hong Kong (and elsewhere) should be reviewed.
Perhaps also an entities list to regulate UK investment going to companies complicit in human rights abuses should be introduced as it has been in the US? There are numerous actions the UK Government can take to defend democracy in Hong Kong.
We are not naïve – we recognise that China is a sovereign state with a complex internal balance of power. It is not all-powerful though. Left unchecked, it will continue to repress its citizens and deny them democracy and human rights. Democrats and human rights defenders around the world stand ready to support democracy in Hong Kong. Our liberal democratic allies will support us if we ask them to.
It is time for the UK to show that an attack on one democracy is an attack on all democracies. Otherwise, the light which burned so brightly in Hong Kong will be snuffed out.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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