Leslie Fong

Opinion | In US bill on Hong Kong democracy, the real target is China. City should speak out against foreign meddling

In a hearing on Capitol Hill last week, Joshua Wong and two other Hong Kong activists urged the US Congress to punish the city’s leaders for stifling freedoms

But given the bipartisan consensus that China poses the greatest challenge to US supremacy, its decision to pass the bill was a bygone conclusion

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Joshua Wong arrives to testify before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China about the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, on September 17. Photo: AFP

Leslie Fong

Published: 2:15pm, 29 Sep 2019Updated: 2:17pm, 29 Sep 2019

It is tempting to dismiss as a farce the spectacle of Joshua Wong and two other activists urging the United States Congress last week to punish Hong Kong for stifling freedom and democracy – but that would be missing the point.

No doubt their testimony before a Congressional panel was pure political theatre, but that does not mean one should not reflect on what the episode was really about, and what it portends for China and Hong Kong.

Ostensibly, the hearing was called to deliberate on the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which enables the US Congress to assess the city’s status under American law annually, and sanction leaders there who undermine democracy. The penalty for that is removal of certain tariff privileges which the United States grants Hong Kong as a separate customs territory, and therefore distinct from China.

Only those who refuse to see will fail to discern that the real target is China. This exercise is not about Hong Kong and it would be naive to think that Congress cares about the city, which it regards as just the battering ram. If the concern is genuinely about human rights and freedom, then Hong Kong should await its turn in a long list of abusers, starting with Saudi Arabia.

No? Well, here was what Congressman Jim McGovern, a Democrat representing Massachusetts, said in his opening remarks at the hearing: “It is time we put the Chinese government on an annual notice that further erosion of autonomy or a crackdown on Hong Kong will cause the city and, by extension, mainland China, to lose its special trade arrangement with the US.”

So, let’s get real, Hong Kong is just collateral damage. But what constitutes a crackdown? Forceful action by Hong Kong police against vicious black-clad and masked rioters who throw petrol bombs and destroy public property? Erosion of autonomy? Who decides?

Answer: the US Congress, of course. And therein lies another takeaway from the hearing – the arrogance of an America that arrogates to itself the right to sit in judgment of another country’s governance.