National Review Online
Friday, May 29, 2020
The 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to the
People’s Republic of China marked the end of Western colonial rule in the
region. Optimistic Western policy hands hoped that the final mending of the
“unequal treaties,” as they were called by the Chinese Communist Party, would
initiate Beijing’s integration into the rules-based world order.
Recent events in Hong Kong put paid to this hope.
The days of China’s “peaceful rise,” when the CCP
steadfastly denied its hegemonic ambitions, are long gone. In light of China’s
clampdown on Hong Kong, the transfer of the autonomous region now appears to
have entailed swapping one imperial government for another. As if to remove any
doubt, China’s National People’s Congress bypassed the Hong Kong Legislative
Council this week and imposed a new national-security law. The law, which bans
all “seditious activity,” effectively nullifies the Hong Kong Basic Law
according to which the territory is guaranteed autonomy from the Mainland until
2047.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded appropriately in
announcing that, under the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act passed last
year, Washington would no longer consider Hong Kong independent of China. The
White House will reconsider the privileges and immunities granted to the
autonomous region, including its preferential trade status, visa exemptions,
and flexible foreign-exchange regime.
Critics argue that the measures will cause undue economic
harm to the region. Hong Kong’s economy will suffer, but the millions of Hong
Kongers who have taken to the streets in protest have demonstrated in no
uncertain terms that they value freedom over GDP growth. Indeed, the rule of
law is what allowed Hong Kong to build a thriving economy in the first place.
The short-term harms from reduced trade and investment pale in comparison to
the disaster of Mainland dominance of Hong Kong. Worse, allowing China to
violate the 1984 Sino–British Joint Declaration, registered at the U.N., will
send a signal that the U.S. is unwilling to stand by a basic element of the
international order.
In any event, the White House ultimately has little choice.
Congress has all but required the administration to decertify Hong Kong’s
autonomous status in this circumstance. The legislation also calls for
sanctions against Chinese officials responsible for Hong Kong’s suppression, a
measure that the White House should undertake as Beijing moves to implement the
law.
We obviously also need a strategy to combat Chinese
belligerence elsewhere. Control of Hong Kong is only one step in China’s quest
to “occupy a central position in the world,” as Chinese president Xi Jinping
has put it. The Hong Kong security law coincides with increasingly aggressive
naval exercises in the South and East China Seas and a sudden military buildup
on the Sino–Indian border. The Chinese have also made clear their intention to
annex Taiwan, and show no signs of rolling back their programs of industrial
espionage and anti-competitive trade practices. The White House must resist
China on all fronts.
The administration should mobilize our allies in the
fight. As Pompeo made his announcement, German chancellor Angela Merkel said
that the European Union has a “great strategic interest” in cooperating with
China. Neither have the British, who designed the transfer of Hong Kong, shown
much interest in pushing back on Chinese aggression. European leaders are
enticed by the economic benefits of cooperating with Beijing, and it will
require a deft diplomatic touch to persuade them to take a more strategically
sound posture.
Hong Kong is the last redoubt of freedom and decency in China’s contiguous territory. The White House should do everything reasonably within its power to try to safeguard it.
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