"The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act" Dennis Kwok

"We also explained in detail to the US lawmakers the kind of massive arrests and excessive use of force by our police force, which resulted in the apprehension of a large number of innocent civilians and left quite a number of protesters severely injured.

We also talked about the inhumane treatment to which some of the arrested protesters were allegedly subjected and the “white terror” imposed by the central government on certain business corporations such as Cathay Pacific Airways, where a number of employees, including pilots and a flight attendant, were sacked over incidents related to the anti-extradition bill protests.

Both Republican and Democratic members of the US Congress are pushing for the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

One of the most important provisions of the bill is that HKSAR government officials who are found suppressing Hong Kong’s democracy, human rights or citizens’ freedoms could have their assets in the US frozen and be denied entry to the US.

We agree that the passage of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act through the US Congress will help in our citizens’ fight for democracy and in defending our human rights and freedoms."  Dennis Kwok

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"Give me liberty or give me death?"  This sounds like that sentiment.

Would such an Act do anything material for Hong Kong?  Probably not.  Trump says that he hopes the CCP will settle the HK matter in a "humane way."  IOW he doesn't intend to do anything except use the HK crisis as leverage in his extended bargaining with China.

OTOH, this Act would do a lot for the conscience of the people of the US.  We need to do something that is actually selfless since we seem to have lost the knack for standing up for the "little people" in places like Yemen and Palestine against tyranny.

If such an Act were passed (probably over Trump's opposition) or maybe not since he claims to not give a damn about trade with China, then Canada should follow our lead in this.  British Columbia is packed full of mainland Chinese who have stashed their wealth there and who look forward to taking refuge in Victoria and/or Vancouver.

Palmerston, that mean old bastard, said that countries do not have friends.  They merely have interests.  Well, maybe so, but I would say that such an Act would be in our long term spiritual interest.  pl

http://www.ejinsight.com/20190902-the-hong-kong-human-rights-and-democracy-act/

Comments

[turcopolier]

walrus
You think I am a neocon?

[Babak Makkinejad]

Same one, less patient.

A dragon was sleeping in Asia. She was rather rudely awakened by being trampled upon, and much later, was fed by the jobs of the United States. Now everyone is afraid and complaining.

[Babak Makkinejad]

You guys fed China and used her as an ally against USSR. Now she is eating your lunch and all of a sudden you have found religion; Liberty, Human Rights etc. You would be more credible if you applied the same standard to Saudi Arabia.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Jack has not made any case against China or CPC based on alleged violations of any treaty with the US. Which one has been broken by China?

[Babak Makkinejad]

If Taiwan declares declared independence, China will invade Taiwan.

You want to take down CCP, which US city are you willing to give up?

[Babak Makkinejad]

CCP is the best government that China has had in 2500 years. Likewise, the Russian Federation is the best government that Russians have experienced since Yaroslavl the Wise. Ditto for Islamic Republic of Iran. You do not like all 3. I suggest you have real issues inside of yourself.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Go to the Widow Maker and see if you will like her better.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Very good. I agree.
But like Rhett told Scarlett: "men like war..."

[walrus]

Col. Lang, a Neocon? Of course not! What I am trying to explain is that if you get what you want, which I presume is for the CCP to vanish, you may not like what replaces it.

Hong Kong has been taught democracy by the British and it sort of works there provided you are connected, but HK is not, I think, China.

Am I right that You scoff at the idea that Islamists will ever embrace democracy? Simply add the Chinese to the list.

[Babak Makkinejad]

All:
US Ambassador (Ret.) Chas Freeman
https://chasfreeman.net/the-state-of-sino-american-relations-and-their-global-context/

[catherine]

China Ex-Food and Drug Chief Executed
By ALEXA OLESEN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, July 10, 2007; 2:24 AM

BEIJING -- China on Tuesday executed the former head of its food and drug watchdog who had become a symbol of the country's wide-ranging problems on product safety.
Zheng Xiaoyu's execution was confirmed by state television and the official Xinhua News Agency
Zheng was sentenced to death in May for taking bribes to approve an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths and other substandard medicines. Cao was given a death sentence last month with a two-year reprieve for accepting bribes and dereliction of duty.
Such suspended death sentences usually are commuted to life in prison if the convict is deemed to have reformed''

[Fred]

Walrus,

They are already killing 60,000 Americans a year with fentanyl. What do you suggest we do, pay another decades worth of extortion in the hope the central government puts a stop to it?

[different clue]

The major countries of the world are currently in a "no immigrants, please" frame of mood. But Hong Kongers are considered to be high-quality people of high-quality culture and talents. If twenty or so most-major countries decided to all admit a bunch of Hong Kongers who see no future for themselves under the inevitable One Country One System future, could the ones and their families who have no future ( or even acceptable present any more) there all be rescued and removed to more hopeful places?

And the Hong Kongers who accept the One Country One System future could all stay.

Here is an example of the kind of event which makes people feel they have to do and say something, even knowing it will do no good.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/cz75gj/hong_kong_police_beat_and_broke_this_teenagers/

Only an assisted voluntary evacuation will spare the targets of this sort of thing from more of this sort of thing. Because as Walrus points out, the China authorities will either wear out and wear down the uprising, or they will crush, smash and exterminate it. And misleading the Hong Kongers to think we even can do anything to actually save them in place would implicate us in misleading them the way we mislead the 1956 Hungarians into thinking we would materially assist and support their uprising.

But rescuing those Hong Kongers who see "somewhere else" as the only hope of a future is something we can do. ( Unless the ChiCom regime would shoot down or torpedo every rescue vehicle. In which case, I have no ideas).

And if doing that enraged the ChiCom regime into severing all economic contact with the US, that would set us free from that particular part of the Forced International Free Trade-Rape system. If it lead to the destruction of International Free Trade-Rape all over the world, that would be a very major achievement. Naturally , Trade Creeps and Free Trade-Rape supporters would be upset over such an outcome.

[HK Leo Strauss]

It seems everyone is a Chickenhawk now.

[Pacifica Advocate]

Slavery was alive and spreading rapidly at the time of the Civil War.

I'll agree that WWII was The Good War, but we wouldn't've had to fight it if we had stayed out of WWI.

The Indian Wars were a disgrace, and none of the others should have happened.

[jd hawkins]

"Our own government and media is far more dangerous to us than the Chinese".

An absolute truth!

[b]

Joshua Wong does not risk his life. He knows very well that nothing can happen to him but maybe a few weeks in jail followed by U.S. green card and a free ride into Yale.

[b]

It does and it is stupid to do so.

[CK]

According to the dictionary, the two are the same thing,
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/label . Labelling one a "commie sypm" 60 years ago was almost as efficient as labelling one a racist last year.

[Babak Makkinejad]

The English taught Hong Kong the Rule of Law and not Democracy. For most of its existence, it was a Crown Tyranny.

[turcopolier]

Babak

You are willing to say that Canada is a "good country? because it is an unimportant country on the world scene.

[turcopolier]

David Martin

Which "guys" are you referring to?

[turcopolier]

PA

So, your justification of the Northern invasion and conquest of the South rests on the "rapid spread of slavery" rather than the indissolubility of the Union. If that were not so you would have mentioned the Union. Yes, it was spreading as part of a constitutional and political struggle over the matter. Considering the number of casualties in that war, are you really sure that slavery was sufficient justification for massive armed resistance to secession especially considering that there was nothing in the constitution than or now that says that the Union is eternal? I maintain that slavery in the US would have died out because of the evolving economics of agribusiness in staple crops. Slaves were important capital goods and had to be maintained in working order. They had to be fed, medicated, clothed and housed. Machines are inherently cheaper and that would have finished slavery in the US in the later 19th Century. I agree about WW1 and most of our other wars. Would you not have resisted NOKO aggression in Korea? Without the Indian Wars there would have been no USA. I suppose that is unimportant to you.

[turcopolier]

b

Do you have any evidence that the leaders of the HK resistance are US agents?

[Fred]

"Supply chains create efficiency by eliminating self-sufficiency; this makes those dependent on them vulnerable to their interruption. Coercive measures .... that involve the manipulation of information and state exploitation of ... are ever more common."

That insight applies to much more than just US-China relations. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor comes to mind, as does the phrase "trust and safety council", "hate speech", and the latest "Do something!" along with the ever unchallengable, which was also in the ambassadors comments, "climate change". Yep, a whole lot of elimination of self-sufficiency is coming our way. I think we still call that "progress".