Hong Kong update: emergency powers
But what the initial extradition-law threat highlighted for Hong Kong’s people was that unless they are able to elect their own leaders, they will be directly at the mercy of a Beijing-appointed chief executive, who will — a la Lam — serve Beijing’s imperatives of grinding away Hong Kong’s freedoms. As it is, Hong Kongers did not choose Carrie Lam as a leader, nor do they have any institutional way to get rid of her. Beijing calls the shots.
So, per Lam’s latest move in the name of “calm,” protesters here can now face criminal penalties of up to than $3,000 and a year’s imprisonment simply for wearing the masks they have used to defend themselves against tear gas and the possibility of arrest.
And, having invoked emergency powers, Lam is now in a position to do almost anything. As the New York Times sums it up: “Under the emergency powers, Mrs. Lam has a wide discretion to create new criminal laws and amend existing laws — all without going through the legislative process.” Newspapers can be censored or shuttered, web sites closed down, property seized, searches carried out galore, and so forth.
Such powers are enormously dangerous in the hands of a chief executive who clearly jumps to the tune of Beijing, and has shown no interest whatsoever in defending the rights and freedoms promised to Hong Kong.
An executive the people have not chosen assumes emergency powers against the people who are protesting her rule and China’s domination. Emergency powers are the way of dictators nearly everywhere for clamping down in a manner not allowed by law under ordinary circumstances.
I believe that China will do whatever it thinks it has to do to keep control of the people of Hong Kong, and that it has no interest in preserving the rights they previously enjoyed. I cannot understand why it was ever thought it likely that China would act any differently.
I cannot understand why it was ever thought it likely that China would act any differently.
Word.
Me, too. It was only a question of “how long?”.
A: a bit more than 20y
I wonder if the College Campuses will explode with demands that universities divest from Chinese companies and refuse to do business with them?
Yes, that was rhetorical. The answer will be a resounding “no”. The same idiots who bitched about Apartheid could care less about free people becoming enslaved.
It is amazing how eager so many of the human race are to be slaves.
Perhaps they have an insight into their own deep natures, and what it is that they require to survive in the world, that is not immediately obvious to casual observers.
Maybe one day before too long, there will be available a Star Trekian “tricorder” style device which we can simply point at people, and which will reveal their personality traits and innate dispositions, and alert you, if having anything to do with a particular person ultimately constitutes nothing more than an act of self-sabotage.
Of course the mere prospect of the availability of such a tool, much less its use, will make the fleeting and spurious gay ram culling controversy, look like one sparkler set off against an atomic blast. Because, you know, unconditional inclusion, acceptance, welcome, and all that crap.
“a Star Trekian ‘tricorder’ style device”
Aristotle’s Politics, I think it’s called.
The dream was: Open up China to free trade, global trade, let them get a market economy going and join the world — and they will accept the (US dominated) “world human rights”.
It maybe could have worked, but was never likely. 50%? 20%? 5%? No likelihood was ever given by the proponents.
But the USSR imploded fairly peacefully. Why not China?
Well, Tiananmen square, and thousands of unarmed Chinese civilians murdered by the Chinese goons should have been a big wake up call.
The Chinese Party is now full of crony-capitalist millionaires, and billionaires. I was hoping, tho not quite expecting, these rich commies to prefer peaceful evolution into corrupt democracy. There were a few peaceful transfers of power, to Hu, and from Hu.
But Xi is moving back to “Leader for Life” / dear Leader (like NoKor).
Plus, there are 30-60 million men who know they will NOT have wives. That’s a pretty big potential army, and in any case a fear inducing group when they start blaming the rich commie leaders for their empty, wage-slave only lives.
Reps on colleges actually should be starting a big Disinvest in China campaign. Including suggesting boycotting companies that have been supporting the murderous commies.
As far as I’m concerned, what’s happening in Hong Kong is right now the most important story in the world. I’m so moved by and so very afraid for these people.
This is their new anthem. Well worth watching the video. This is heart. This is courage:
Glory to Hong Kong
We pledge: No more tears on our land,
In wrath, doubts dispell’d we make our stand.
Arise! Ye who would not be slave again:
For Hong Kong, may Freedom reign!
Though deep is the dread that lies ahead,
Yet still, with our faith, on we tread.
Let blood rage afield! Our voice grows evermore:
For Hong Kong, may Glory reign!
Stars may fade, as darkness fills the air,
Through the mist a solitary trumpet flares:
“Now to arms! For Freedom we fight, with all might we strike.
With valour, wisdom both we stride!”
Break now the dawn, liberate our Hong Kong,
In common breath: Revolution of our times!
May people reign, proud and free, now and ever more,
Glory be to thee, Hong Kong!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulera9c18F0
How do you say, “Ich bin ein Hong Konger!” in Chinese?
American presidents used to say things like that.
Huxley:
According to CNN, “Trump promised Xi US silence on Hong Kong democracy protests as trade talks stalled”
It’s been sad for me to watch the events unfolding in Hong Kong since as neo wrote, “I believe that China will do whatever it thinks it has to do to keep control of the people of Hong Kong. . . .” which means, like the students in “Les Miserables”, the revolt is doomed. I can see why it happened though – it may be the only chance they have. Wait any longer and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) strengthens its hold even more and dissent then would be impossible
Yet, I hope. The protestors learned from the 2014 protests and have changed the strategy to that of “be water” (after something Bruce Lee said) instead of staying stationary. So as the police approach, the protestors melt away with the a front line group trying to slow the police to allow the others to escape. They’ve decentralized the decision making process so that no one person can be identified as a leader. To do this, they’ve cleverly used modern technology (such as using Apple’s AirDrop to pass messages, digital copies of posters, police movements).
The protestors are not fighters though and they have no guns. I think their only hope for there not being a bloodbath is that the CCP fears the economic consequences if they overtly subdue the protests with force (hence I believe the rumors that many Hong Kong Police are now mainlanders brought over by the CCP). Also, another deterrent may be the threat by the protestors that they are willing to destroy Hong Kong (“if we burn, you burn”).
As a note, “May Glory Be To Hong Kong” was posted on LIHKG with the composer using a pseudonym and it’s amazing how quickly it became popular. Another example of the clever use of technology. Here’s a link to an English version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koOAJHt9UO8
Hong Kong People – Add Oil!
“I cannot understand why it was ever thought it likely that China would act any differently.” neo
Wishful thinking grounded in denial of reality. That plus Nixon ignoring reality to egotistically create a Presidential ‘legacy’. Businessmen saw China as an incredible economic opportunity and the liberal media loved the “can’t we all get along” optics.
“It is amazing how eager so many of the human race are to be slaves.” DNW
It is not slavery they aspire too but a permanent juvenile state where there’s no personal responsibility and accountability and where a benevolent nanny State allows them to pursue a hedonistic lifestyle. How in their heart of hearts they must envy the life Trump led before he betrayed them.
Tom Grey,
It could never have worked because Deng sold the CbhiCom leadership on the Lenin’s strategy; “the capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will eventually hang them”
The people of Hong Kong will be the most visible of sacrifices upon communism’s altar. Only willful moral cowardice and mendacious America haters will fail to acknowledge the inherent truth of the ChiComs.
Ann,
Thank you for citing that most credible of ‘news’ sources. sarc/off
I figured I wasn’t the only person who would connect Hong Kong to JFK’s famous declaration at the Berlin Wall.
And to some—especially as U.S.-China tensions rise—the crisis in Hong Kong is starting to resemble the ideological struggle of an earlier era, when the Berlin Wall was erected in the early years of the Cold War and U.S. President John F. Kennedy came to free West Berlin to famously declare: “Ich bin ein Berliner.”
…
But if Hong Kongers’ grand dream of transforming mainland China—rather than ending up like it and living under greater repression—has any chance of coming true, it needs to start happening fast. Beijing has been chipping away at the former British colony’s freedoms and rights, despite a promise in 1997 that Hong Kong’s freewheeling mix of laissez-faire capitalism, social freedoms, and an independent judiciary could continue until 2047 under a “one country, two systems” formula. Over time, Hong Kong protests have flared and ebbed—but by early 2019, the pro-democracy movement seemed a spent force. That is, until the second week in June, when the streets erupted with startling ferocity and mind-boggling numbers—organizers claimed up to 2 million protesters at one point.
“Ich Bin Ein Hong Konger”
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/07/16/ich-bin-ein-hong-konger-protests-china-west-berlin/
You can see and hear JFK’s stand on that windy day in Berlin @ 9:50 here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56V6r2dpYH8
Ann: I don’t know what Trump should or shouldn’t do. It’s not 1963. As much as I admire the Hong Kongers, I’m not so bold myself as to risk nuclear war with the Chinese over Hong Kong.
But the US let the Soviets put down Hungary and Czechoslovakia brutally. I’ve forgotten, if I ever knew, why we made a stand over Berlin. Maybe because we were parties to a clear treaty protecting Berlin, as opposed to the others then and Hong Kong today.
After my Patton remark in a previous topic, I watched “Patton” again. (Coppola was the first credit screenwriter!) It holds up well.
In a scene close to the end Patton makes a plea to his superiors that they allow him to march on Moscow, while our troops were still in Europe, and finish things.
Of course, he was denied. Patton was making a cold, ruthless, military calculation. The last thing America and the rest of the world wanted then was more war.
But without the USSR there would have been no Communist China. And without them both, how many millions would not have died or had their lives blighted by those horrific systems?
Patton had a point.
Geoffrey, you quoted Neo:
and then commented,
I always thought that the visit to Mao was the worst of Pres. Nixon’s actions. Downright immoral in almost the worst way. It “gave face” to China despite her (Mao’s) mass murderings to the tune of something like 45 million by the time he died. (Figure from a piece on Volokh — URL below, at WaPo, blast Eugene! I won’t buy WaPo, even less so now!, nor turn off my AdBlocker. Same for the NYT.) Thus she became acceptable in the parlors of the civilized nations, and even ended up with one of the five permanent seats on the UN Security Council U.S, U.K., France, USSR/Russia, PRC (but originally Taiwan). BAH!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/08/03/giving-historys-greatest-mass-murderer-his-due/
Well said, Geoffrey.
.
(Nixon again: And I abhorred wage-and-price controls. Watergate … at the time sounded awful and I was again mortified. But compared with what the Dems have done since and are doing now, it’s a nothingburger. Nowadays, they say it’s not the burglaries, it’s the coverup. And since then, I’ve read that the burglaries were nothing new, even in Presidential politics — not that either of those would be an excuse.)
. . .
Everyone please take a dramamine or something to suppress queasiness, but Jacobin, which says on its “About” page, that “Jacobin is a leading voice of the American left….”, has an interesting couple of book reviews discussing Deng Xiaoping and Mao at
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/01/deng-xiaoping-china-mao-communist-party
Deng, of course, was the ruler at the time of Tiananmen Square.
I do hope that nobody here thinks I believe anything I read in such a leftist rag. I don’t even believe the “mainstream” news media, whether in print or pixels. And Fox only with some salt. So the Jacobin piece is strictly FWIW as some sort of sidelight. (Their complaint is that Deng wasn’t Left enough.)
Hillary, a lot of Americans knew and respected Barbara Jordan, and Hillary, you’re no Barbara Jordan.