Sunday, July 05, 2020

China's new security law is ridiculously, and scarily, broad and aggressive

China's new Hong Kong security law has elicited almost universal condemnation. It is so broad and, so comprehensive and draconian, that it could be used (and probably will be) against any comment anywhere in the world that even vaguely criticizes China and the ruling Communist Party of China. Hong Kong as we knew it is effectively no more.
In a mind-boggling feat of doublespeak, Hong Kong's "chief executive" Carrie Lam, says that the law is to "protect the life and property, basic rights and freedoms, of the overwhelming majority of our citizens", and that the new law bans organization and collusion against the Chinese state, but not mere criticism of it. But the first few arrests under the law suggest otherwise: one was of a young person holding a handwritten sign saying "Hong Kong Independence", and local Hong Kong authorities have openly confirmed that their interpretation is that even the verbal utterance of a "Liberate Hong Kong" chant would now qualify as a crime.
Worse, the law also applies to such offences outside of Hong Kong and Chinese territory, and could effectively criminalize much peaceful international advocacy, whether in the UN, the European Parliament, right here in Canada, even on Facebook. Hell, what I am writing now probably qualifies! It is not the first law designed to affect actions outside a country's own borders - the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Canada's own Magnitsky legislation are other examples - but, unlike those examples, which have considerable safeguards built in, the new Chinese law has no such safeguards, and can be interpreted as broadly as suits their purposes. Any support for Taiwan's status as an independent state would also qualify as sedution and criticism of China under the new act, as would criticism of the despicable Chinese treatment of their Uyghur minority population.
A senior Chinese diplomat recently commented, publicly, that, "The era when the Chinese cared what others thought is in the past, never to return". This is an astounding comment to have on the public record, but this is the new, bold China. If there was any doubt about that, this new law has well and truly dispelled it.

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