The Five Eyes intelligence sharing network is at it again, damning the Hong Kong elections while their own democracies are on the verge of collapse, perhaps with the exception of New Zealand.
The prime ministers of the UK, Australia and Canada, and US President Joe Biden, are facing severe criticism from their electorates over their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Immediately after the Legislative Council election on Dec 19, the foreign ministers from the four countries and the secretary of state for the US issued a joint statement expressing their “grave concern over the erosion of democratic elements” of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s electoral system. They complained about the reduction of directly elected seats and a vetting system that would restrict the choice of candidates.
They failed to take into account that with the new system, the Legislative Council is expanded to 90 seats (up 20) with all members duly elected by their peers and geographical constituents. And that the vetting process is necessary in any country, weeding out undesirable elements in the law-making course of action.
They noted that most of Hong Kong’s opposition remain in jail, on remand, pending trial, or are fugitives from justice overseas. But a Hong Kong SAR government spokesman said that any law enforcement action taken by the law enforcement agencies was based on evidence, strictly according to the law, and has nothing to do with their political stance, background, or occupation. The spokesman said that the Five Eyes’ joint statement contained allegations contrary to facts and without basis, and that any external or internal destructive force and political conspiracy trying to interfere with the HKSAR’s democratic development in accordance with the Basic Law would not succeed.
The Five Eyes’ foreign office heads were not in Hong Kong when the HKSAR suffered severely from riots and mayhem, when the LegCo chambers were trashed and desecrated; when innocent residents, young or elderly, were beaten up by the rioters; when arson was the order of the day, and one innocent citizen was set alight by a rioter. There were also several illegal assemblies, as well as an illegal “primary election” aimed at helping the opposition to grab control of the local legislature. But the reports from the foreign intelligence agents stationed in their Hong Kong consulates reported that they were merely peaceful protests.
The Five Eyes’ foreign ministers urged China to act in accordance with its international obligations to respect protected rights and fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong, including those guaranteed under the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
Judging by the timing of the foreign ministers’ joint statement one day after the Dec 19 LegCo election, the draft would have been penned about a month before the election to allow for amendments and approval from the five governments. In other words, they had already conspired with preconceived ideas about the outcome of the LegCo election.
When deciding on their policy on the Hong Kong SAR and China as a whole, the Five Eyes’ foreign ministers are either stupid or badly misinformed by their intelligence agencies. Giving the foreign ministers the benefit of the doubt relating to their stupidity, the core problem appears to be misinformation.
The alliance of the Five Eyes goes back many years, but the lead appears to come from the US’ vast array of spy networks operating under the auspices of the departments of State, Defense and Homeland Security. In all, the US has at least 16 spy agencies with the CIA providing intelligence to the country’s policymakers and is effectively running the Five Eyes.
The Pentagon is spending $23.1 billion (excluding another $20 billion for military intelligence) of American taxpayers’ money on its spy networks which, according to former CIA director and former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, lie, cheat and fabricate stories to achieve their own ends.
This system of lying by the CIA is filtered through the Five Eyes network to their respective foreign ministers who accept their reports blindly and without question. And so, the so-called Xinjiang and Hong Kong issues are nothing but big CIA-generated lies!
It is time for the Five Eyes’ foreign ministers to question the reports they receive from their intelligence agencies and use simple common sense to judge the validity of the information being passed onto them. And the ministers should also look at their own democratic systems before passing their systems onto others.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
The author is a former chief information officer of the Hong Kong government, a media and PR consultant and veteran journalist.