{"id":46575,"date":"2022-05-12T14:58:55","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T12:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/beck-never-again-war-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-05-12T15:05:54","modified_gmt":"2022-05-12T13:05:54","slug":"zur-nedden-hongkongs-free-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/en\/zur-nedden-hongkongs-free-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong\u2019s free spirit is being extinguished!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hong Kong\u2019s free society is being destroyed by China\u2019s National Security Laws. With the election of John Lee as Chief Executive, a nightmare has come true for Hong Kong\u2019s democracy movement. As security minister, he was respon\u00adsible for the crackdown against the 2019 protests.<\/em><\/h2>\n

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When thousands of people in Hong Kong took to the streets for democracy and freedom in 2019, they also chanted \u201cDown with John Lee!\u201d. The security minister and former police officer responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and arrests. On Sunday, Lee was elected as Hong Kong\u2019s new chief executive \u2014 a blow to the city state\u2019s democracy movement, which has been almost completely intim\u00adi\u00addated and stifled over the past two years.<\/p>\n

This amounts to a nightmare come true for Hong Kong\u2019s democracy activists: As security secretary, John Lee violently crushed the 2019 protests. Now he was confirmed as the new chief executive in a mock election on Sunday. The hardline Beijing loyalist will continue to expand and apply the Chinese Security Law for Hong Kong. Since 2020, 150 people have been arrested under that law and any criticism of Beijing has been suppressed. Experts warn that the creeping erasure of Hong Kong\u2019s liberal spirit shows what communist parties are capable of in free societies worldwide. Hongkongers say that the law renders them \u201cstateless\u201d and enables \u201ccultural genocide\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to all of us starting a new chapter together and building a caring, open and vibrant Hong Kong, a Hong Kong full of oppor\u00adtunity and harmony,\u201d Lee said in his victory speech on Sunday. He was the only candidate and won with more than 99 per cent of the vote. The committee that elected him had been handpicked by Beijing to ensure that only \u201cpatriots\u201d could take office. The European Union\u2019s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the election violated \u201cHong Kong\u2019s democ\u00adratic principles and political pluralism\u201d. Lee will replace his prede\u00adcessor Carrie Lam on 1 July.<\/p>\n

Lam\u2019s five-year term cannot be described as \u201charmo\u00adnious and open\u201d. After the government announced an extra\u00addition law in 2019, thousands called for Lam\u2019s resig\u00adnation in large protests. Hong Kongers, who inherited a free democ\u00adratic society from the former British occupation, saw Lam as an agent of Beijing who would take away their rights. The \u201cChinese Security Act\u201d, passed the following year, confirmed this fear.<\/p>\n

More than 150 people have been arrested since 2020 under this law, which bans \u201csecession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces\u201d. Almost all prominent pro-democracy activists have been detained, others fled abroad or were silenced through intim\u00adi\u00addation. Local free media like \u201cApple Daily\u201d were shut down, its prominent publisher Jimmy Lai arrested on John Lee\u2019s orders. \u201cReporters Without Borders ranked Hong Kong 148th out of 180 in its Press Freedom Index this year, 60 places lower than last year.<\/p>\n

Thousands of residents have left the city of 7.4 million following the 2019 protests and subse\u00adquent draconian restric\u00adtions during the pandemic. In 2021 alone, nearly 100,000 Hongkongers applied for a special exit visa to the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who attach their identity partic\u00adu\u00adlarly strongly to Hong Kong do not recognise their city. Their reality and values have been erased,\u201d says Evan Fowler. He has written a book with one of the leading figures of the democracy movement, Nathan Law. Already in 2018, Fowler fled to London, partly because he no longer felt safe as head of the \u201cHong Kong Identity Project\u201d. He and other critics call the \u201cmainlan\u00addi\u00ads\u00adation of Hong Kong\u201d by China\u2019s powerful neighbour \u201ccultural genocide\u201d. Many people have no choice but to flee. They see themselves as \u201cstateless\u201d. \u201cA liberal, open and in many ways free nation, once home to a burgeoning civil society, has been destroyed,\u201d says Fowler. Today, Chinese patri\u00adotism is instilled in school\u00adchildren, who are taught that \u201cit is the greatest privilege to be Chinese\u201d. Eurasian families, on the other hand, are criti\u00adcized for not being \u201cChinese enough\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is happening in Hong Kong shows the threat of China and the Communist Party to open, liberal and free societies around the world,\u201d says Fowler. The National Security Act under\u00admines liberal values, democ\u00adratic insti\u00adtu\u00adtions and the rule of law. It is a Chinese law that has been intro\u00adduced into Hong Kong\u2019s common law system and this can happen in other legal systems. In Hong Kong, it violates the 1984 Sino-British Decla\u00adration. The freedom of expression and assembly and the high degree of autonomy that were promised for 50 years in 1997 to Hong Kong when it was handed over to China have already been dismantled.<\/p>\n

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