After a quarter century of mounting pressure by the mainland Chinese government, Hong Kong has over the last few years rapidly lost the free and democratic character that for so long distinguished its institutions from those of the mainland.
Hong Kong is now run by autocrats who place bounties on the heads of pro-democracy Hong Kong activists, champions of freedom whom the autocrats accuse of “violating national security.” Violating national security is the catchall pseudo-crime that any critic of Chinazi tyranny is said to commit by opening his mouth.
According to the South China Morning Post:
Eight opposition figures [currently living in Western countries] wanted by Hong Kong police over alleged national security violations should be treated like “rats in the street,” the city’s leader has said, urging everyone to avoid all contact with them. . . .
The force on Monday announced a HK$1 million (US$127,873) reward for information leading to each arrest of the eight opposition activists, who are currently living overseas.
“We should treat the people wanted by police, especially those who violated the national security law, as rats in the street that should be avoided for our sake,” Lee said at a press appearance during a trip to Guiyang in Guizhou province.
At the same time, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee says that all are welcome to participate in forthcoming district council elections who “have a mind to participate in district affairs to carry out constructive works.” Constructive works like what? Filling potholes?
One must read this kind of official Chinese-government pronouncement with the help of a doublespeak codebook. The political “constructive works” Lee is talking about have nothing to do, for example, with building or rebuilding the freedoms and democratic rights that have been torn down by the mainland government of which Lee is the puppet. Here, “construction” means “making sure Hong Kong freedom and democracy stay destroyed.” It means building the kind of submissive serf-society that the mainland government demands.
Lee says: “The government will only ban one type of people from the district governance, which is people who destroy Hong Kong’s interests [i.e., who resist tyranny], do not uphold the Basic Law [i.e., who resist tyranny] and do not swear allegiance to the government [i.e., who resist tyranny].” This means that Lee’s government is banning from office anyone worth having in office.
