US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, since taking office in January, has said more than once that US relations with China will be competitive, cooperative or confrontational when necessary, but the US will always try to deal with China “from a position of strength”.
Some people see Blinken’s “triple-pronged approach” of confrontation, competition and cooperation as parallel tactics. But Washington’s underlying China policy remains to be engaging China in the “fiercest rivalry”, which is exactly the same as the Trump administration’s China policy. At the high-level bilateral dialogue between the US and China at Anchorage, Alaska, on March 18-19, Blinken demonstrated such inclination when he hurled the usual groundless accusations at China in his opening speech in front of reporters. The hostile posture was there for all to see.
The so-called international alliance of democracies the Biden administration has been peddling among US allies seems to have made some progress. Prior to the Alaska dialogue, Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Japan, where the two sides issued a joint statement full of anti-China diatribes. After the Alaska dialogue, the US lost no time in staging yet another anti-China chorus with allies such the European Union, Great Britain and Canada, accusing Beijing of human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Of course such public hyperbole is never complete without some sort of sanction against China; and Beijing was well prepared to retaliate in kind. The Xinjiang cotton episode was dwarfed in strategic significance by the National People’s Congress’ (NPC) decision to improve the electoral system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).
The NPC decision has attracted a barrage of cries of foul play, most notably that “Beijing is tightening its control over Hong Kong.” What the China-detractors didn’t realize is that they just gave the best reason why the NPC decision is absolutely correct and necessary. Beijing has stated numerous times that Hong Kong affairs are China’s internal affairs and part of the country’s core interest that no external forces are allowed to meddle in with any excuse. That is why the NPC Standing Committee enacted the National Security Law for the HKSAR last June to prevent further interference by the US-led Western anti-China forces in Hong Kong’s internal affairs. For the same purpose, the NPC approved the decision on improving the electoral system of the HKSAR, which will prevent those with separatist ambitions and matching track record from infiltrating Hong Kong’s governance institutions but especially the Legislative Council through loopholes in the existing electoral system. Naturally, Washington and London will never stop attempts to keep their dirty hands in Hong Kong affairs however they can, and there are three possible ways to that.
One is to disrupt Hong Kong’s financial market from the outside and undermine the city’s status as an international financial center. For example, the US has not objected to the Hong Kong dollar peg regime adopted in the 1980s so far, but when Washington says no more, Hong Kong may risk being kicked out of the global US dollar clearing system. In that case, Hong Kong will have to trade and settle payments through some other currencies, such as the euro, yen or British pound. As a matter of course it will hurt many American businesses as well, but containing China is a consensus of both the Republican Party and Democratic Party.
Another way or channel is for external hostile forces to join hands with their local cronies in sabotaging Hong Kong from the inside. They can and are already using the internet as a platform to wage endless smear campaigns against Beijing and the HKSAR government with generous help from dominant social media companies based in the US and controlled by the US “military-industrial complex” as practically all mainstream media are. A perfect example can be found in the yearlong “black revolution” in 2019, when American social media giants such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube helped the anti-China propaganda machine cum rumor mills in Hong Kong as well as “opinion leaders” everywhere to spread all kinds of lies by censoring objective reports, especially by those they consider “pro-Beijing”, about what was really happening in Hong Kong. Such “collaboration” continues to this day and will no doubt expand in the near future. The National Security Law for Hong Kong can and will prevent criminal attempts from the inside but cannot bring those shielded by internet-based social media to justice in Hong Kong or the Chinese mainland. Therefore, it will be a never-ending battle of truth against lies.
Still another way or channel is more destructive than the other two. It will see Washington activate “sleeper operatives” it planted inside the executive and legislative branches of the HKSAR government as well as the judiciary to disrupt or even corrupt the policy-making process with any foul play they can think of.
In the years leading up to Hong Kong’s return to the motherland, measures were taken to ensure the smooth transition of jurisdiction to China with an arrangement called the “through-train”, which allowed many “loyalists” to remain in the public offices they occupied under British rule after July 1, 1997. Some of them were principal officials of the regional government who wielded significant power. Such personnel preparation is even deeper in the judiciary, where many judges at all levels were previously appointed by the British government to sustain the legal system it transplanted in Hong Kong more than one and a half centuries ago. Those “elites” who are loyal to Western forces have done their bit in adversely affecting the exercise of “one country, two systems” in Hong Kong over the years; and chances are they will continue to serve the interests of their Western “masters”.
When the anti-China, disruptive forces in Hong Kong led the “charges” on the SAR government and the central authorities back in the day, the “loyal elites” still hidden inside the establishment and the judiciary did what they could to help, administratively, legally or judicially, such as voting separatists into important public offices, the LegCo and the District Councils. Now that the anti-China, disruptive forces are exposed and on their way out, thanks to the National Security Law, those “loyalist elites” will have to take over sabotage missions.
That is why efforts to ensure “patriots administrating Hong Kong” must not be relaxed anyhow even after the electoral system has been significantly improved.
The author is a senior research fellow of China Everbright Holdings.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.