(Beijing, Hebei Province—Nov. 24, 2020) On April 4, 1990, Yang Shangkun, the President of the People’s Republic of China at that time, promulgated the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. He decreed that as Article 5 proclaims: “The socialist system and policies shall not be practised [sic] in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and the previous capitalist system and way of life shall remain unchanged for 50 years.”
Unrest in Hong Kong during 2019, however, induced President Xi Jinping to change that timeline and in turn, Hong Kong national security law “overruled” Article Five. Following a ruling from Beijing, CCP officials forcibly removed four democrat legislators from office in Hong Kong, citing their lack of patriotism as a threat to national security.
In the article, “Beijing’s Authority Is Sweeping over Hong Kong,” Charles Parton, wrote:
In the words of the Hong Kong Bar Association, this violates “a basic tenet of the Rule of Law that no person shall be deprived of their rights without due process.”The Hong Kong government was insulted rather than consulted: earlier it had ruled that the four could continue to serve, but would not be eligible to stand for election next year. However, the CCP demanded immediate ejection. With the resignation of 15 further democrats in sympathy, whatever simulacrum of democracy Legco [Legislative Council] gave Hong Kong has been shattered.…[Nevertheless, more is] at stake than even Hong Kong’s seven million, or Tibet’s six million, or 12 million Uyghurs. The CCP’s next target is Taiwan. Forced unification threatens to be the biggest human rights travesty of the decade, with 23 million people potentially losing their freedoms. Democracies need quietly to let the CCP know that imposing “one country, one party system” on Taiwan will lead to their breaking off diplomatic and economic relations, to the detriment of all.
It really matters that China technically breached the Joint Declaration with Hong Kong, Parton stressed. The effect of this breach on the freedoms and lives of Hong Kong people also matters. “If China fails to adhere to the spirit and letter of international law in this area,” Parton questions, “how can it be trusted in others? And without law and trust, the world descends into a struggle of the strongest….”
To read the official English translation of the Hong Kong national security law:
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| Hong Kong Free Press. |
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