The Fate of Authoritarian System (Lee Yee)
As the Legislative Council (LegCo) election date is getting closer, the Hong Kong pro-CCP government pondered what tactic to use – the DQ (disqualifying candidates) tactic or the postponement tactic? Then came the latest rumor: the election will be postponed for a year due to the epidemic.
Only the mentally-challenged would believe that excuse.
Although many pan-democratic camp (pan-dems) candidates cannot make up their minds on which direction to go within their response to the confirmation letter, the government is still wary of the DQ tactic: if it excavates what the candidates did or said in the past and uses that to mass DQ them, people would be appalled by it and reaction from the international side would be strong; if it accepts their writings in the confirmation letter and let them through the gate, then it is extremely likely the pan-dems would win the election. So DQ wouldn’t work, postponement it is then.
The postponement tactic is actually directly in breach of the Basic Law Article 69 which sets the term of office for four years. Of course, when such unrefined law like the National Security Law (NSL), which blatantly violates the Basic Law, can be so speedily passed and immediately implemented, then the Basic Law has long become garbage in the eye of the CCP, who can now stamp and approve all the dirty deeds with the National People's Congress (NPC) seal and fool itself that everything is legal.
But this could be another miscalculated blunder in the making. Postponing the election for a year would actually attract more criticism from the international society than the DQ tactic, because although DQ is against human rights, it is not unlawful to do so; however, the postponement has obviously violated the constitution. Maintaining the regulations of a constitutional system is the most basic rule a civilized government required to follow. The western politicians are the most stubborn about this.
Despite the news of last year’s anti-ELAB movement being closely followed worldwide, apart from the US, the western countries did not react too much on the parliamentary levels; hiding Wuhan virus from everyone which led to a global pandemic had also not caused any actions except Trump who flared up plenty of times, and some minor mutterings from some western countries with no real action; The noise surrounding the China-US trade war escalated, but many western countries were reluctant to get involved or ban Huawei as they wanted to maintain a relationship with China. But then when Hong Kong NSL was launched, and all hell broke loose. Within a month, the US stepped up its anti-China action and gradually revealed its sanctioning measurements. The Five Eyes and even the pro-China EU have all halted their extradition treaty with Hong Kong. The UK became the first country that banned Huawei.
Halting the extradition treaty is due to the NSL claims that criminals can be sent to China to go on trial, which was a different scenario when the treaty was signed. The NSL has indicated that Hong Kong’s judicial system is no longer independent from China. Last year, 65% of China’s foreign investment was via Hong Kong. Foreign investors chose Hong Kong as a base because they believed Hong Kong had judicial independence. However, with the implementation of NSL, it is no longer the case.
Right now, there are increased actions against the NSL from western countries daily and this sanctioning circle is growing. China has to utter gibberish like “angry”, “sternly refute” to different countries every day.
The CCP and Hong Kong pro-CCP camp thought postponing LegCo election is just a trivial matter, but Pompeo said he would pay extra attention to Hong Kong’s LegCo election in September; UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has also told Wang Yi, China’s Foreign Minister, the same in a call.
Yan Zeya, a Taiwanese author said yesterday on Facebook, “I hope Taiwan and Hong Kong would break this misconception, that the left-wing in the West are pro-China, and the right-wing are anti-China. Take the New Zealand Prime Minister as an example. She is from the Labor Party, left-wing, but not pro-China. How the left and right are divided in a country depends on internal affairs and its economy, but has nothing to do with foreign policies. Its attitude towards another country is not distinguished by left or right, but hawk and dove. Some country’s hawks ally with the right, some with the left, some do not ally with any side. Furthermore, if there are more than one hostile countries, then the same country could be a hawk to country A, and a dove to country B.
NZ Prime Minister Ardern clearly indicated during last week’s China Business Summit, that the NZ government differ from China on some issues, including Hong Kong NSL, the situation of Uyghurs in Xinjiang and Taiwan joining the WHO. She emphasized, that these subjects are extremely important to the Kiwis (New Zealand people).
Lately, the China policies of the US and western countries are becoming more aligned – they are all becoming the eagle. The catalyst of this drastic change is indeed Hong Kong NSL; and the postponement of the LegCo election would only exacerbate the anti-China and anti-Hong Kong actions.
Once a rule is broken, one would keep breaking it; to use a lie to cover a lie, it must be a bigger lie; to fix the loophole by breaking rules, the hole would only get bigger; to use mistake to mend another mistake would only create a bigger mistake. And this, is the fate of the authoritarian system.
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