China’s 67-year-old Communist Party Leader Xi Jingping promised to uphold “one nation, two systems” approach in the once British Crown Colony of Hong Kong. Xi got heavy handed watching 23-year-old pro-Democracy protester Joseph Wong lead a band of pro-Democracy activists resisting Beijing’s attempt to strip Hong Kong or its civil and human rights. When the Chinese Communist government took back its 99-year lease of Hong Kong July 1, 1997, former Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin promised that Hong Kong would enjoy the same freedom enjoyed under British rule. Twenty-three years later, with growing protests led by Wong and others, have now seen Beijing’s puppet government led by 53-year-old Carrie Lam crack down on protesters. While Lam backed down Sept. 3, 2019 from implementing a controversial extradition law, it was only a matter to time for Beijing to step in.
Xi watched as Wong and other pro-Democracy protesters fought like tigers to preserve Hong Kong’s civil rights, only to watch Xi get more heavy-handed. While Wong has been arrested often since joining the pro-Democracy movement, it’s unprecedented when 71-year-old media mogul Jimmy Lai got arrested. Lai was arrested Aug. 8 on Hong Kong’s new pro-Beijing National Security Law, banning protesters from interfering with Beijing’s communist government. “Jimmy Lai is being arrested for collusion with foreign powers at this time,” Mr. Simon, an executive at Mr. Lai’s New Digital media firm. Local Hong Kong police entered Lai’s building, searching offices for evidence of subversion and insurrection. Hong Kong authorities confirmed that seven others in Lai’s firm were also arrested. Lai is the highest profile Hong Kong citizen arrested under the new law.
With Hong Kong unique language-and-culture AKA Cantonese, Mandarins on the mainland looks down the Cantonese society. Mainland China’s dominant Mandarin disparages Hong Kong for its Mandarin superiority. Lai’s arrest fires a warning shot to Hong Kong’s pro-Democracy movement that Beijing has run out of patience. Xi waited patiently over the last year watching Hong Kong become a lawless protest zone, with Hong Kong authorities doing little to stop the street violence. U.S. and British officials warned Beijing to back off, reminding the communist government about its commitment to “one nation, two systems” rule. Lam walked a tightrope placating Beijing, at the same time, tolerating violent pro-Democracy protests, always with the backdrop of the April 9 to June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre where Chinese tanks rolled over peaceful protesters in a bloodbath.
Watching Lai, a former billionaire clothing manufacturer and pro-Democracy newspaper publisher, get arrested represents a new level of Beijing’s crackdown in Hong Kong. When riots got out of hand last year, the CCP branded Lai the “riot’s mastermind” who “has spread waves of hatred and negative information about the Chinese mainland day and night.” It was only a matter of time before Lai was arrested and charged with subversion, fomenting riots and insurrection. Lai warned, June 30 after the new security law passed in his Apple Daily newspaper, that Hong Kong would become just as corrupt as Beijing. “Spells the death knell for Hong Kong,” Lai said about Beijing’s new security law. “Without the rule of law, people who do business here will have no protection,” Lai warned, telling foreign investors to stay clear of Hong Kong with the new security law in force.
Lai told the French AFP new service that he was prepared to go to prison. “I’m prepared for prison, if it comes. I will have the opportunity to read books I haven’t read. The only thing I can do is to be positive,” Lai said, continuing the fight against Beijing’s crack down on Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s news security law includes crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, punishable by life in prison. Charging pro-Democracy activists with secession, subversion, terrorism and colluion, leaves little room for activists like Wong. Instead of the past extradition treaty, Hong Kong’s new law enables authorities to arrest, prosecute, try and incarcerate agitators in Hong Hong without extradition. Lam conspired with Xi’s government to undermine the pro-Democracy movement, even though she exercised restraint when it came to protesters.
Lai’s arrest sends a loud message to Hong Kong’s elite that there are no sacred cows immune to the government crack down on pro-Democracy agitators. “The new security law punishes anything China considers subversion, secession, terrorism and colluion,” warning pro-Democracy protesters that the crackdown’s in force. “Jimmy Lai is being arrested for collusion with foreign powers at this time,” Mark Simon said. While releasing Lai on bail, Hong Kong no longer has the tolerance for free speech it once had before Bejing rule. Lai wants to continue the fight against’ Beijing’s heavy-handed authority but knows it’s a losing proposition. Lai has resigned himself to either serving a lengthy prison sentence or continuing the fight for democracy, something Beijing sees as foreign interference. Lai s sees the sacrifices made by young Joseph Wong and wants to do his part for Hong Kong’s freedom.
