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Beijing Pushing “One Country, One System” on Hong Kong

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By Josephine Kingswell

May 31, 2020
8:08 pm
Los Angeles, CA

"If you’ve been waiting for an invitation, this calligraphy is it. Commissioned by Facebook, this is a hand-lettered design for a poster. Quote is Facebook mine "

- Massimo Vignelli

To retreat China deeper into Mao’s communist empire, Beijing appears to be reinitiating their Hong Kong take-over in broad daylight. “China has replaced One Country, Two Systems with One Country, One System”, said President Trump in the White House’s Rose Garden, criticising China on several fronts. “This is a tragedy for Hong Kong… China has smothered Hong Kong’s freedom,” he said. China is proposing a new security legislation which would make it illegal to undermine Beijing’s authority within Hong Kong. The measure would also allow Beijing to install its own security agencies in the territory for the first time. Exactly what will be outlawed under the new law–due to be enacted in September–is unclear. It’s expected to criminalise: Secession–breaking away from China Subversion–undermining the power or authority of the

To retreat China deeper into Mao’s communist empire, Beijing appears to be reinitiating their Hong Kong take-over in broad daylight.

“China has replaced One Country, Two Systems with One Country, One System”, said President Trump in the White House’s Rose Garden, criticising China on several fronts.

“This is a tragedy for Hong Kong… China has smothered Hong Kong’s freedom,” he said.

China is proposing a new security legislation which would make it illegal to undermine Beijing’s authority within Hong Kong. The measure would also allow Beijing to install its own security agencies in the territory for the first time.

Exactly what will be outlawed under the new law–due to be enacted in September–is unclear.

It’s expected to criminalise:
Secession–breaking away from China
Subversion–undermining the power or authority of the central government
Terrorism–using violence or intimidation against people
Interference–activities by foreign forces against Hong Kong.

On Friday, President Trump spoke out with unprecedented clarity about China, referencing the “malfeasance” of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its “cover-up of the Wuhan virus”.

Trump cited the CCP’s trampling of human rights and people’s basic liberties–human values that we often take for granted in America and Europe.

When Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, China solemnly pledged that they would honour its independent values of freedom. That promise, like many others, has been tossed to the piling mound of lies told by the communist regime.

Britain said this week that if China goes forward with the law, it will offer up to three million British National (Overseas) passport holders in Hong Kong a path to UK citizenship.

Amid Beijing’s progressive attack on freedom in Hong Kong, Trump is taking action, unlike his predecessors in the White House.

He says he is first “terminating” U.S. membership in the corrupt World Health Organization after their mismanagement over COVID-19.

Second, he is cutting off visas for graduate students with links to the Chinese Liberation Army, to prevent theft of American technology and intellectual property. Washington is expected to revoke more than 3,000 Chinese graduate students’ visas, according to media reports.

China’s long standing dream is to beat America and its allies. That’s why they are so keen on sending their students to learn from the free world, to bring masterful knowledge back to China. Perhaps in the future, America would eliminate all visas to Chinese nationals, who harmfully displace both American and Asian-American students.

Third, the President moved closer to delisting Chinese equities from U.S. stock exchanges. Experts say Chinese companies are well-known for their non-transparency and corruption and carry unhealthy risk.

Finally, Trump turned to Hong Kong. He threatened targeted sanctions against officials who are involved in eroding the territory’s autonomy.

Trump stopped just short of fully removing Hong Kong’s separate trade status and revoking its low-tariff trade with the U.S. He did vow to change its privileges–maintaining future leverage against China.

The State Department will also revise its travel advisory for Hong Kong in light of “increased danger of surveillance” from China, said Trump.

Is America still hesitant about putting stronger political pressure on the CCP?

“United States policies are not premised on an attempt to change [China’s] domestic governance model,” said a report sent to Congress by the Trump administration last week.

Without changing China’s governance, can things improve? If the CCP is forced to play defense within its own territory, it will likely lose its ability to be aggressive with America and the rest of the world.