Several former opposition lawmakers-cum-fugitives from the law have been trying to undermine the upcoming Legislative Council election before appreciative, if not financially supportive, audiences in the West. Rather than wishing Hong Kong success, they prefer to pull it down. By any definition, this is colluding with foreign governments, even treason by the standards of those very same Western countries.
So, they are, of course, being portrayed as heroes in the West.
Nathan Law Kwun-chung managed to get himself invited to the so-called Democracy Summit organized by Washington. This is not about being inadvertently used as a pawn of the West, but active betrayal of his own country by turning himself into a tool of the United States.
The chairman of the now-disbanded secessionist party Demosisto, Law was a lawmaker who fled Hong Kong. He was among 26 opposition figures who were charged with organizing or taking part in an unauthorized assembly last year.
At the Washington summit, he claimed Hong Kong has become “a police state”. That is, of course, a complete lie. The city will hold a new LegCo election this month with an expanded franchise, from 70 seats to 90. The reformed electoral model may not be American or European, but it is one that is uniquely suited to the circumstances of Hong Kong.
If there is democratic backsliding, it’s not in Hong Kong, but in the United States. According to a new survey of young Americans aged 18 to 29 by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, more than half said they believe US democracy has either “failed” or is “in trouble”.
In the coming LegCo election, we will see how real democracy works for those who have the people and the country’s true interests in their hearts over fake Western-style democracy. And those fugitives and failed politicians can eat their words
About 35 percent thought there could be a second US civil war in their lifetimes, while a quarter said there could be a US state seceding within their lifetimes. And 39 percent described the country as a “democracy in trouble” and another 13 percent called it a “failed democracy”.
Of the more than 2,100 young Americans questioned in the survey, only 7 percent said they believe the US was a “healthy democracy”, while another 27 percent considered it a “somewhat functioning democracy”.
Law claimed Hong Kong was once the freest city; well, yes, under Chinese rule, after its 1997 return to the Chinese motherland. There was no democracy and few elected seats until almost the very end of British rule. Law couldn’t even lie properly. Of course, his purpose at the summit was not to speak the truth but to sing the tune that the Americans have taught him. He definitely sang well for his new masters.
Fellow fugitive ex-lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung is facing charges for urging local voters on social media to either cast invalid ballots in the coming LegCo election or boycott it. He said he wanted to see the highest number of blank votes in the history of the city’s elections.
What utter hypocrisy; a self-styled “democrat” telling people not to vote! He lied to the court about attending an international conference and fled Hong Kong while out on bail late last year as he faced a raft of charges related to the anti-government riots he took part in back in 2019.
Now in Australia, he shamelessly provoked the Independent Commission Against Corruption into issuing a warrant for his arrest because it would supposedly help spread his views about the upcoming LegCo election.
No, it won’t. Smart Hong Kong voters will see a coward and a traitor who is intent on making trouble even after fleeing justice from his native home.
Speaking of the prestigious Harvard Kennedy School, another failed former opposition figure, Dennis Kwok Wing-hang, has managed to get himself a comfortable research fellowship at the school’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.
Good for him; perhaps he can make good use of his time, such as reading the center’s authoritative Understanding CCP Resilience: Surveying Chinese Public Opinion Through Time, whose research spans 2003 to 2020.
“We find that first, since the start of the survey in 2003, Chinese citizen satisfaction with the government has increased virtually across the board,” the survey said.
“From the impact of broad national policies to the conduct of local town officials, Chinese citizens rate the government as more capable and effective than ever before. Interestingly, more marginalized groups in poorer, inland regions are actually comparatively more likely to report increases in satisfaction. Second, the attitudes of Chinese citizens appear to respond (both positively and negatively) to real changes in their material well-bein.”
So much for Western democracy and electoral legitimacy. But I doubt Kwok would even bother, because it doesn’t fit the narrative about China and Hong Kong that he has been trying to push.
He said in a lecture at the Ash Center: “I think Hong Kong has fallen, and ‘one country, two systems’ doesn’t exist anymore.” He claimed Hong Kong was the canaries in the coal mine.
He was right about the last part. The riots and failed destruction of the city by the opposition, secessionist forces and Western forces that supported and financed them were the proverbial canary in the coal mine.
That was why Beijing had to intervene by introducing the National Security Law for Hong Kong to restore order, and also to overhaul Hong Kong’s election system to make sure only those loyal to Hong Kong and the rest of the country could run for public offices.
In the coming LegCo election, we will see how real democracy works for those who have the people and the country’s true interests in their hearts over fake Western-style democracy. And those fugitives and failed politicians can eat their words.
The author is a veteran journalist who has specialized in covering Hong Kong and Chinese mainland social and political issues.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.