Let me get this straight. As a close participant of last year’s movement, I fully support all forms of sanctions over Hong Kong by the international community, whether it is to cancel our privileged economic status or re-consider all aspects of Hong Kong as a separate custom territory from China.
The reason is simple: by announcing the new national security law over Hong Kong, China’s CCP has spelled the end of “one country, two systems” and shattered any hopes on finding democracy in Hong Kong. If CCP is ready to ruin Hong Kong politically, then they must also bear the risk of Hong Kong losing all of its previous privileges, such as Hong Kong’s status as a key global financial center - which was only there in the first place because of Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy and rule of law.
It baffles me when Hong Kong’s pro-democracy politicians are asking for otherwise. In an article in New York Times, Jimmy Lai, owner of Apple Daily (aka the only opposition newspaper left in HK), asked the US government not to completely remove Hong Kong’s special status. He claimed that such action will make Hong Kong more dependent on China. Meanwhile, other pro-democracy political leaders kept telling foreign press the need to maintain HK’s special status. It might sound comforting at first, but such narrative completely contradicts what Hong Kong people have been through in the last year or so.
When we say “if we burn, you burn with us” on the street, it means exactly that – Hong Kong has been waiting for democracy since 1997, it was promised to us and written in the Basic Law. Almost half of fifty years were gone and we are still seeing ZERO signs of real democracy. We have had our peaceful protests over the years – last June we have had 2 millions people demonstrating on the street peacefully demanding for universal suffrage – and mind you Hong Kong only has a population of 7.5 millions. So when we said such words, it means that we were ready to escalate the level of protest in demand for democracy.
For us, it was of course a means to an end – the means being to demonstrate a strong stance for CCP that we are ready to sacrifice all of Hong Kong if CCP is unable to fulfill their promise. The end being achieving real democracy. The onus was always on Beijing to fulfill their promise and move towards a better future for Hong Kong. Since last year, we have had many sacrifices fighting this battle. Many young people have risked their lives and future fighting for freedom. I myself for one is under trial for riot and I’m not afraid if that’s what it takes.
When our government and CCP decided oppression is the way out, the onus is not on us to beg for mercy. In fact, I am glad that the international community is finally taking action against such oppression and imposing sanctions over Hong Kong. By oppressing Hong Kong in such manner, Beijing simply does not deserve Hong Kong anymore – whether using it as a financial hub, a trade hub, it’s unique currency and equity…etc. You may call it a showdown – if Hong Kong means nothing to China economically, then we loses out on everything – but we have already lost so much to back down at this point. Also from the very beginning, this is the bet we were willing to take, hence the slogan. However, if Hong Kong really is that special, then getting rid of its special status will hurt China fundamentally. There’s simply no future for Hong Kong if CCP and its ideologies continue to dominate.
I want to make sure everyone knows that there’s no fairy tales in Hong Kong anymore. If Hong Kong continues to prosper despite what Beijing had done to it, then it’s the biggest joke to human rights and all that I have learnt about democracy in the last twenty-six years. In our battle against China’s authoritarian regime, Hong Kong people will stand strong and unite as one.
I am glad that the U.S. is ending its special relationship with Hong Kong, and I hope that other countries such as Australia, Britain, Canada, the EU and others will soon follow to impose further sanctions over Hong Kong.
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