generalspeaking

 

This is China undoing the legacy of Britain's imperial colonialist past. In countries like India and the vast number of countries forming the British Commonwealth of countries that Great Britain colonized reaping benefit of their natural resources and gifting them with a democratic ideal, it is Hong Kong alone that prospered while under British rule even as the rest of China was mired deep in poverty, that now sees its democracy in end-stage jeopardy. Beijing has deemed it due time to return the former British colony to full Chinese rule. And since China is ruled by the Communist Party of China, Hong Kong too must fall under its complete legislative aegis.

It is, after all, what most countries would do; asserting their full sovereignty over all their territory. The fly in the ointment here is that Hong Kong has long been a territory apart, independent from Beijing's full authority, a giant of industry and trade and proud of its accomplishments, guided toward them by British oversight. The 1997 agreement to return Hong Kong to China held within it a promise to respect Hong Kong's democratic autonomy for a fifty-year period. China had no wish to crush its golden egg. 

Protest as they may, the people of Hong Kong, clinging to their vision of the past, and their devotion to Democracy, are now firmly in Beijing's orbit, clasping it tightly and never more will it be allowed the illusion of being differently-oriented and separate in its ideology to the rest of China. And as long as protests continue the firmer will Xi Jinping's resolve be to squelch that dream denied. Another exodus has been complicated by the global presence of the viral pandemic, courtesy of China.

The control of the pandemic in China has given Beijing ample cover for its crackdown on Hong Kong; the world's attention diverted by the presence of a virus hungry for human casualties, and it has found them everywhere across the globe. And there is China, the world's largest producer of medical protective gear and personal protection equipment the world is now so heavily dependent on, as well as several highly effective vaccines the world is clamouring for. Criticize Beijing's largess?

All of which has sounded the death knell for the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong, leading from the overhaul of Hong Kong's electoral system. Removing 'choice' of candidates; outlawing any deemed insufficiently loyal to the concept of China's full and complete ownership of Hong Kong, that priceless engine of mercantile commerce. Pro-democracy candidates henceforth reduced to nonentities may no longer aspire to election in Hong Kong. Imprisonment or exile their choice.

 

The Chinese Communist Party is determined to ensure that 'harmony' exists throughout China. And with the world's largest population base, how better to establish harmony than to erase choices and impose the monoculture of Chinese Communism under its iconic president? The purpose is honourable; "to safeguard national security". What nation doesn't have that top of agenda? Any who threaten China's security are, ipso facto, 'terrorists'. 

 

"We will resolutely guard against and deter external forces' interference in the affairs of Hong Kong", stated the country's premier, Li Keqiang, speaking to the National People's Congress in Beijing as China prepares to put in place a decision to improve Hong Kong's electoral system whereby Beijing will ensure that "patriots:" only are elected to govern the territory. It is more than obvious that opposition politicians are "unpatriotic", therefore disqualified from politics, much less capable of holding public office.