China Embraces Hong Kong

—Like a Boa Constrictor

All leftists clamor for dialogue, tolerance, free speech and the right to protest—until they are in power.

The most recent example of this contradiction is Communist China that has lowered the boom on the freedoms once enjoyed in Hong Kong. The city once had a free-market economy and autonomy from the communist mainland. Now, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has imposed a new national security law that is as ambiguous as it is suffocating. The law is already spreading terror and suspicion throughout the city.

The CCP unanimously passed and enforced the new legislation for Hong Kong on June 30, 2020. There was no consultation with Hong Kong’s elected legislature. It was rammed through without a shred of transparency or accountability. No one was privy to the contents of the new law. Only after its passage did the CCP reveal what was in the new law.

As with most communist declarations, this new law defines little and implies much. It conceals the real intent employing ambiguities. Everything is left open for interpretation by Communist Party authorities to apply as they wish against the legitimate freedoms and basic human rights of the people of Hong Kong.

One disturbing example of this ambiguity is the lack of definition found in the crime of “endangering national security.” It can mean nothing or everything. Under this broad category, the CCP promises to punish terrorism, subversion, secession and collusion with foreign forces with life in prison. Citizens of Hong Kong may have no idea of what crimes they might have committed; yet they can be arrested and extradited to the mainland where they will be judged. Outside their city, they can further be denied a trial by jury and sentenced to one of China’s “re-education” camps for life!

Beijing set up a new National Security Committee in Hong Kong that answers to the CCP directly with no recourse to the city’s constitutional law, judicial review or the appeal processes. With this new law, the CCP can crush any difference of opinion leaving citizens without means of self-defense.

This law affects permanent and non-permanent residents of Hong Kong and even those “outside the region by a person who is not a permanent resident of the region.” In theory, the Chinese Communist Party claims it can prosecute a U.S. citizen, formerly from Hong Kong, who writes or speaks about the errors of Communist China.

The CCP states that the National Security Committee exercises jurisdiction in “complex” cases, such as those involving a foreign country, or a major or imminent threat to national security. Hong Kong residents can be extradited as suspects to the mainland for trial by communist judges without recourse to Hong Kong’s or any other country’s judicial system. The threat of such radical extradition powers triggered the peaceful demonstrations in Hong Kong in April of 2019. The regime proves the protesters were right. The threat is now law.

Authorities can also spy upon and wire-tap anyone suspected of “endangering national security.” Unlike Western law, communist authorities do not have to demonstrate sufficient probable cause to obtain a wire-tap warrant. For them, a slight suspicion suffices.

Under the new legislation, the CCP assumes the “right” to freeze or confiscate property related to crimes. The new security forces have the absolute authority to enter and search properties for evidence and prevent people from leaving Hong Kong. They need not justify their actions before a judge or demonstrate probable cause or provide search warrants.

To complete the stacking of the political deck, anyone convicted of violating the current security legislation will be prevented from participating in Hong Kong elections.

Indeed, the communist and Hong Kong legal systems are fundamentally incompatible. They truly are. One is based on Communist revolution that justifies any action that benefits the revolution. The other is based on legal principles of justice developed over centuries by Western Christian civilization.

In this way, Hong Kong joins the list of those without the rule of law. The website, TheGlobalEconomy.com supplies an index that measures the levels of human rights and rule of law. The scale rates the best countries at or near zero and the worst at 10. China is rated at 8.8 with only a few countries rating worse. These include Iran, Venezuela, Russia, Somalia, North Korea, Yemen, Syria and Egypt.

This monstrous new national security law is so ambiguous that residents cannot know when, how or if they have transgressed it. It suffocates them by putting them at the mercy of CCP agents alleging trumped up crimes. Marx would have been proud of China’s new national security law that advances the cause of the Revolution. China has embraced Hong Kong like a boa constrictor embraces its victim.