The world watched (and continues to watch) as ethnic Uighurs – a Muslim minority concentrated in China’s western Xinjian Province – were purged of their language, vestiges of their faith and sent to as many as 500 “re-education camps” (see above map) to be force-integrated into mainstream government approved Chinese political culture. As many as three million “detainees.”
Most believe that “re-education” was simply a euphemism for forced labor in prison-like concentration camps. The world screamed, China denied, and those camps just rolled along. Tales of torture and random brutality spilled out. The new rising forces in our traditional world power enemies are autocrats with intense personal power, eliminating opposition, who impose their vision where dissent might arise, while finding ways to do away with term limits on their highest office. Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China Xi Jinping.
Our annual trade imbalance with the People’s Republic has stayed pretty much in the $300 billion a year range (plus or minus) even during the trade war and the pandemic. About $5 billion worth of PRC good enters the U.S. every day, despite tariffs, sanctions and highly strained relations. And still these autocrats oppress and repress in ways reminiscent of the height of Mao’s China and Stalinist Russia.
In 1997, Hong Kong formally left the British Empire to joint the PRC as a special administrative zone, pledged to adhere to a British legal system until 2047. One nation, two systems. But President Xi could not wait. As my March 12th Hong Kong Gone blog detailed, the PRC has taken away political liberty and free expression from the form British Crown Colony, severely contracted and restricted the local governing body and which candidates were acceptable to China, sending police and military forces to stamp out dissent, creating new laws against free speech and subjecting violators to unfriendly courts and sometime length prison terms. The trials of anti-repression activists and protest participants, even for relatively minor infractions, have been accelerating, and on April 16th, the sentences for some of those minor offenders were announced.
“A Hong Kong court Friday [4/16] sent five leading pro-democracy advocates, including media tycoon Jimmy Lai, to prison for up to 18 months for organizing a march during 2019 anti-government protests that triggered an overwhelming crackdown from Beijing… A total of nine activists were given jail terms, but four of them, including 82-year-old lawyer and former lawmaker Martin Lee, had their sentences suspended after their age and accomplishments were taken into consideration.
“They were found guilty earlier this month of organizing and participating in a massive protest in August 2019, at which an estimated 1.7 million people marched in opposition to a bill that would have allowed suspects to be extradited to mainland China for trial. The protest was not authorized by the police… Their convictions and sentencing were the latest blow to the city’s flagging democracy movement amid an ongoing crackdown by Beijing and Hong Kong authorities on dissent.
“The court suspended the 11-month prison sentence of Lee, who is known for his advocacy of human rights and democracy, for two years because of his age… Lai, the founder of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily tabloid, was sentenced to a total of 14 months in prison Friday for charges related to the demonstration on Aug. 18, 2019, and a separate unauthorized march on Aug. 31, 2019…
“Beijing had pledged to allow Hong Kong to retain civil liberties not permitted in mainland China for 50 years after the former British colony reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, but recently has ushered in a series of measures, including the national security law and electoral reforms, that many fear are a step closer to making Hong Kong no different from cities on the mainland.
“Under the new rules, Hong Kong residents can be held liable for any speech or action deemed secessionist, subversive, terrorist or perceived as colluding with hostile foreign political groups or individuals. The electoral changes mean that just 20 out of 90 Legislative Council members will be directly elected, and Beijing will retain even tighter control over the body that picks Hong Kong’s top leader…
“Most opposition figures in Hong Kong have now been jailed, intimidated into silence or have sought asylum abroad, and authorities have decreed that only those considered to be true Chinese patriots will be allowed to hold office in future… Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific regional director, Yamini Mishra, said the sentences handed down Friday underlined the government’s intention to ‘eliminate all political opposition’ in Hong Kong… ‘Having arrested the majority of Hong Kong’s most prominent dissidents using the repressive national security law, the authorities are now mopping up remaining peaceful critics under the pretext of bogus charges related to the 2019 protests,’ Mishra said.” Los Angeles Times, April 16th.
China is openly challenging the United States as the premiere superpower on earth. The evidence is clear: Her military exploits in the Spratly Islands, her massive flotillas of military aircraft increasingly moving closer and closer to Taiwan, her Belt and Road initiative to lure smaller developing nations into a uniquely powerful aggregation of trade infrastructure that clearly favors China and her ignoring human rights violations to cement Xi’s power remain unchecked by trade sanctions and verbiage… with the firm knowledge that the United States is unlikely to initiate military confrontation.
I’m Peter Dekom, and as President Joe Biden moves to counter these rising autocrats, the question remains if he can accomplish this challenging feat with only a carrot and no stick.
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