The arrest warrants issued by the Hong Kong Police Force for eight individuals who fled the city after the 2019-20 upheaval received wide international publicity simply because they had been branded as “pro-democracy activists” by their Western patrons.
But they are not. During all the protests, demonstrations and riots in 2019-20, democracy was barely mentioned. At that time, Hong Kong had a fully elected 70-member legislature (50 percent by geographic constituencies and 50 percent by functional, peer-based constituencies).
The eight individuals are wanted not for promoting democracy. They are wanted for allegedly continuing to commit offenses that seriously endanger national security — including incitement to secession, subversion, incitement to subversion, and collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security — after the National Security Law for Hong Kong (NSL) was implemented in June 2020.
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But of course, the wanted eight were paramount in promoting secession before they fled overseas. This, of course, is totally impractical. Hong Kong has no natural resources except for its extremely entrepreneurial people. Water supplies from the mainland would stop, shipping would be diverted to mainland ports, some 600 international treaties would have to be renegotiated, tourism would become nonexistent because airlines would not be able to land, etc, etc. Hong Kong could never be an independent state.
With the introduction of the NSL, the wanted eight sought safe havens in various countries, notably the Unitd Kingdom, the United States and Australia, that supported their objectives. Ironically, the UK recently introduced national security laws that mirror Hong Kong’s laws. These countries fail to recognize the great threat they pose to China’s national security. They are harboring fugitives under the guise of democracy and are blinkered as to the underlying reason the eight are on the wanted list.
The people of Hong Kong are fed up with the rhetoric and hypocrisy of the West and fully support the chief executive when he wound up his news conference
Every country has national security laws, and only recently, France introduced new laws aimed at curbing foreign-agent activities, including inciting local protests.
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The UK, US and Australian governments have severely criticized the Hong Kong SAR government for placing a bounty on the wanted eight, again citing democracy. But that was not the reason for the bounty, as the eight are wanted for criminal acts, including alleged collusion with foreign governments and inciting secession.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu knows the difference between democracy and criminal acts and, on July 4, he hit back, saying that what overseas politicians and officials say will not, in any way, “change our strong belief in the need to uphold our protection of national security. … I know that they have been doing things for their own political reasons, for their own political gains”.
The people of Hong Kong are fed up with the rhetoric and hypocrisy of the West and fully support the chief executive when he wound up his news conference with: “I am not in any way troubled by any attempt to sabotage our action. … I’m not afraid of any political pressure put on us because we do what we believe is right. And safeguarding national security is the duty of the people of respective countries, particularly I, as the chief executive, have the constitutional duty to safeguard national security.”
The author is a former chief information officer of the Hong Kong government, a PR and media consultant, and a veteran journalist.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.