Dear members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China,
In response to the recent statement by the so-called “Five Eyes” alliance (sans New Zealand) condemning Hong Kong for arresting 55 individuals for subversion under the National Security Law, and an appeal to support the United States, which imposed fresh sanctions on another six Chinese individuals, we would like to submit a different point of view.
Hong Kong was shocked to its core when rioters first stormed the Legislative Council on July 1, 2019. This barbarous act was then followed by riots in the streets all over Hong Kong, which lasted for months and turned life upside down for millions of Hong Kong people. Not only did Western media fail to condemn any of the violent crimes committed against innocent civilians, the destruction of public property, and looting of shops and commercial premises, they turned the tables by manipulating the world into believing the false US-led narrative that the perpetrators were the victims.
If one were to apply the same standards to compare the US with Hong Kong, one would be demanding international sanctions on the US for the murder of unarmed demonstrators, as well as calling for the release of all the arrested individuals in the US. After all, they were “patriots” of their own country and were fighting for what they believed in — “freedom” and “democracy”
Since then, rioters and instigators have been arrested en masse. Facts and evidence were presented in courts, and if found guilty they will face sentencing. Hong Kong courts have upheld the belief that violence is never a justifiable means to achieve an outcome, no matter how noble they believed their causes to be. All perpetrators of violence must face the legal consequences of their actions. These are internationally accepted principles that no country in good conscience can deny.
Some of those who had been charged and were out on bail have decided to skip bail and became fugitives of the law. We would like to highlight the fact that the act of jumping bail alone would automatically make them criminals. They should face trial and answer for the crimes that they committed. If any country wishes to harbor criminals, we have nothing further to say.
Any country that criticizes Hong Kong for arresting lawbreakers is essentially disrespecting the internationally accepted principles of law and order, and is guilty of double standards in light of what happened in the US recently.
This brings us to the scene of the storming of the US Capitol on Jan 6 by a crowd of hardcore Donald Trump supporters who were attempting to overturn the result of the US presidential election.
US authorities had identified these people as rioters and made more than 100 arrests and are pursuing over 1,000 people. For a one-day romp on Capitol Hill, casualty numbers were quite high, as four civilians died along with a police officer. US officials warned of “significant felony cases” tied to sedition and conspiracy.
Over nine months of rioting in Hong Kong, police have arrested about 10,100 people; around 2,400 had been charged and are out on bail awaiting trial. Some are under appeal or released. But in nine months of rioting, not a single protester was killed.
If one were to apply the same standards to compare the US with Hong Kong, one would be demanding international sanctions on the US for the murder of unarmed demonstrators, as well as calling for the release of all the arrested individuals in the US. After all, they were “patriots” of their own country and were fighting for what they believed in — “freedom” and “democracy”. However, Western governments were quick to condemn the riot as “an attack on democracy”.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the Hong Kong riots “a beautiful sight to behold” in 2019. However, she found it hard to swallow when the same thing happened in the US. She threatened prosecution of anyone found to be accomplices to the mob violence and insurrection.
The US has to date slapped “sanctions” on 34 mainland and Hong Kong individuals over the arrest of the rioters. We find the “sanctions” both irrelevant and pointless because in retaliation, China sanctioned 28 US individuals. Closing Chinese consulates was also pointless because Beijing would shut down US consulates in a diplomatic tit-for-tat.
We therefore humbly ask all IPAC members to see beyond the falsehoods peddled by the media and to focus on the facts. As US President Joe Biden said in his inaugural speech, “defend the truth and defeat the lies.” Riots are riots. They happened in Hong Kong, in the US, and also in some of your own countries. In any riots, there are always a small number of people who try to justify their actions. But as you would all agree, a far bigger part of the population always becomes the victims of the rioters’ callous actions. Please accept that law and order must be maintained in any country, and that instigators and perpetrators must face the consequences of their unlawful actions. Failing that, you are brutally violating and undermining the meaning of true freedom.
Yours sincerely,
A group of concerned Hong Kong residents
Jan 22, 2021