Hong Kong in a Chokehold

...Under the Clinton administrations constructive engagement, confrontation was to be avoided at all costs...

...Tung Chee-hwa, who has held the position since July 1, 1997, has not disappointed his masters...

...Heres the deal, an anonymous U .S...

...Chan lasted as long as she did...

...After July 1 we pretend that Hong Kong isnt part of China, even though it is...

...In March, the Bush administration will for the first time submit a report to Congress under the U.S...

...citizenship...

...As this scandal unfolded, the Asian Wall Street Journal substantiated what had long been an open secretthat T ung had put pressure on big developers not to advertise their properties in Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper run by Jimmy Lai...

...The Tung administration is engaged in “negotiations” with mainland officials on formalizing procedures for exchanging criminal suspects...

...policy...

...On the other hand, they have also monopolized the judicial processes of trial and prosecution...

...chinas one country , two systems formula was originally designed for Taiwaninstructively , at ' the moment of Taiwans maximum danger...

...Hong Kong matters for what it says about U.S...

...President Bush should make clear that if Hong Kong is to continue receiving the benefits of separate treatment under U.S...

...On the one hand, Secretary Ip was quoted as saying, the media pledge to safeguard human rights and freedoms...

...This is a planned pause in the strategy...

...He readily casts aspersions on democratic values...

...In 1979, when President Carter broke diplomatic relations with Taiwan, hopes surged in Beijing that the end of the U.S.-Taiwan defense pact would arouse a sufficient sense So, then, if the United States has given up on Hong Kong, what difference does it make...

...It may be, however, that this episode is part of an emerging pattern that Beijing and the Hong Kong government have used effectively on a number of occasions: Identify an objective, launch an attack, withstand any opposition, and then finish the job...

...On a radio broadcast, a Hong Kong deputy to the National Peoples Congress called Tung the Great Helmsman, a reverential moniker for Mao, and accused student protesters of reviving the chaos of the Cultural Revolution...

...Tung and his officials have actively participated in undermining the freedoms and institutions they are supposed to protect...

...It is especially troubling that these empty ii^ promises have become the basis for U.S...

...Lieberthal proposed that an interim agreement govern the cross-Strait situation for a period of five decades, at the end of which, on a date certain, formal talks toward political unification of the country [would] begin...

...When I asked a Clinton official what Washington was going to do for Lee in return, the official was aghast and confused and told me the United States raises democratization with Tung at every opportunity and sees no evidence of Beijings interference in Hong K ong...

...That, of course, was always Beijings intention in tak -ing over the former British colony according to the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a treaty signed in 1984...

...Chans departure makes unmistakably Ellen Bark is a fellow at the Project for the New American Century...

...The only surprise is that Mrs...

...While no crusading democrat, she reliably spoke out in defense of Hong Kongs autonomy, press freedom, and rule of law...

...During the crucial years leading up to Great Britains return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule, the Clinton administration hid behind the British...

...The United States has never made Hong Kong a major issue in its relationship with China...

...For Beijing, the obvious answer was no, and so Chinese leaders select the chief executive of autonomous Hong Kong...

...The deputy asked, Will Hong Kong become another base for international communities to besiege China...

...The Basic Law was part of Beijing’s “united front” campaign, an effort to coopt Hong Kong’s professional and business elite by involving them in a series of appointed committees used to provide cover for Beijing as it went about undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy...

...Hong Kong Policy Act gives the president significant leverage, allowing him to decide whether to continue treating Hong Kong separately from China in matters ranging from textiles to technology transfer...

...For instance, Washington prodded Taiwan to enter into interim agreements with the mainland...

...After the British left, Washington needed another pretext for inaction and settled on the fiction that Hong Kong truly was autonomous...

...Today, after eight years of the Clinton China policy, Taiwan is vulnerable once again...

...Such attacks on government critics are becoming more frequent...

...Its impossible to conclude from the last few years experience that developments in Hong Kong are anything other than disastrous...

...When pressed on the pace of Hong Kongs democratic expansion, he answers, Slowly , slowly...

...But Chinese leader Deng Xiaopings well-worn aphorisms, Hong K ong people ruling Hong Kong and one country, two systems, meant very different things to the Chinese leadership and the rest of the world...

...Now, Beijings proxies, like Regina Ip, are in the ascendancy...

...Even before taking office, Tung endorsed a Beijing-appointed committees recommenda -tions for stricter laws governing demonstrations and other exercises of civil liberties...

...but some animals are more equal than others...

...to administer Hong Kong must be local residents who clear that under Chinese rule, not only is Hong Kong not autonomous, but its government is actually collaborating to extend Beijings control over more and more aspects of life in Hong Kong...

...She also had a gift for deftly de at-ing Beijings surrogates, who among other things spread rumors that Mrs...

...Hong Kong Policy Act...

...More important, Beijings defenders fail to mention the fundamental illegitimacy of the Basic Law...

...These arrests were particularly controversial because of their timingmonths after the actual protests, and just prior to National Day celebrations on October 1, which suggested a bid to demonstrate loyalty to Beijing...

...The key question here for the community to debate is what is more important to the communitysocial order , inconvenience caused to the public at large, or individual rights, T ung told a formal dinner in January 1997...

...To a Westerner, wrote Steve Tsang of Oxford University in 1996, the idea of Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong within the , I framework of one country, two I systems may imply that after Sj 1997 Hong Kong will be free to run its own domestic affairs with no interference from Beijing as long as PRC sovereignty is acknowledged...

...Hong Kong in a Chokehold One country, one system BY ELLEN BORK As if the world needed further proof that Hong Kong is faring poorly under Chinese rule, the Hong Kong government last week signaled a change in the way it will handle Falun Gong...

...Indeed, the Clinton administration deliberately weakened Taiwan militarily and politically to make it more susceptible to Chinese pressure and thus more likely to negotiate reunification on Chinas terms...

...While expressing her support for Tiiwans ultimate, peaceful reunification with China, Ng objected to the implications of the motion, which was introduced by the head of the largest pro-Beijing political party...

...Dengs views, however, were no secret...

...This has nothing to do with press freedom...

...Beijings sympathizers like to point out that the Basic Law provides for interpretation by the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress...

...State Department last spring reported to Congress that Hong Kong has continued to develop in a positive direction, with the Hong Kong government committed to advancing Hong Kongs unique way of life and the PRC Government generally respecting its commitments...

...Beijings allies in Hong Kong attacked the court, and the Hong Kong government itself issued a fear-mongering projection of the number of immigrants who would ood Hong Kong if the ruling stood...

...Ip likened the media to Napoleon, the pig representing Stalin in George Orwells Animal Farm, who is epitomized by the line All animals are equal...

...The press is also handled this way...

...It matters plenty, for the millions in Hong Kong wh^o ed communism and for Taiwan...

...These negotiations apparently grew out of two incidents when Beijing arrested and prosecuted defendants for crimes committed in Hong Kong...

...After Chen Shui-bian of the traditionally pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party was elected president of Taiwan in March 2000, the mainlands top official in Hong Kong, Wang Feng-chao, warned, The media should not treat speeches and views which advocate Taiwans independence as normal news items, nor should they report them like normal cases of reporting the voices of different parties...

...Can popular elections ensure the selection of such people...

...The charges against the students were ultimately dropped, after much criticism...

...Nevertheless, Hong Kong people were deeply disturbed not only at Beijings brazen interference in their judicial system, but also at the complicity of Hong Kong officials, who neither requested the return of the defendants, nor sought guarantees for the fairness of the proceedings...

...Absurd as these charges sound, they re ect a dangerous new litmus test being applied in Hong Kong: Here the politically correct thing would be patriotismBei -jings version of patriotism, says Liu Kin-ming , general manager of Apple Daily...

...The Court of Final Appeal had struck down a law restricting the rights of some mainland citizens to live in Hong Kong...

...The 50-year period matches the 50-year guarantee China gave Great Britain for the maintenance of Hong Kongs institutions and free market...

...A telling example of this came in June 1999, when the Hong Kong government asked Beijing effectively to overrule Hong Kongs highest court in its fi rst major constitutional decision under Chinese rule...

...However, the U.S...

...Tung himself, who lived in the United States for several years, sidesteps the question of his own U.S...

...Neither defendant had public support in Hong Kong...

...Under the Basic Law, the constitution drafted by a Beijing-controlled body, Hong Kong would be run by a chief executive designated by Beijing...

...citizenship...

...The demand subsides...

...It was just this kind of pressure that Margaret Ng rejected during a legislative debate last May on a matter of nationalistic sensitivitya motion opposing T aiwans independence...

...The motion, she said, suggests that reunification means that on political issues, we can no longer speak our own minds but must toe the line...

...Suffice it to say that nothing required Beijing to override the courtor the Hong K ong government to ask it to...

...Chan was scheming to topple her boss, Hong Kong chief executive and Beijing apparatchik Tung Chee-hwa...

...Intent on establishing an entity to which the mainland and Taiwan would both belong, Lieberthal suggested coming up with a new name, such as da zhongg^uo [greater China] to refer to the two parts of China together...

...The Court of Final Appeal episode was a devastating example not just of Beijing’s willingness to hobble Hong Kong’s courts, but of Hong Kong officials’ willingness to collaborate...

...It will be interesting to see whether the Bush administration takes its obligation to Congress more seriously than its predecessor...

...The court promptly caved in, issuing a statement reiterating its judgment but emphasizing the authority of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress in Beijing to interpret the Basic Law...

...Speaking in Singapore, Mrs...

...We are Chinese and we were brought up in Chinese traditions and values, he told President Clinton in 1998 after the president emphasized Tungs American ties, which include his chil -drens U .S...

...W e have to outdo each other in exhibiting our loyalty or patriotism for fear that insuffi -cient enthusiasm will be branded as treachery...

...The phrase interim agreements was coined by K enneth Lieberthal, a Sinologist from the University of Michigan, before he joined Clintons National Security Council in 1998...

...In retrospect, it seems obvious that Washington never intended to stand up to Beijing over Hong Kong...

...Tung and his team have been similarly obliging to Beijing on civil liberties...

...Those who can be entrusted to administer Hong Kong must be local residents who love mother China and Hong Kong, Deng directed...

...State Department called “speedy and closed,” were not revealed, and his Hong Kong lawyer was barred from the proceedings...

...Very likely, Beijing chose these cases carefully...

...This is the situation the Bush administration has inherited...

...A few months later, a mainland man was tried in southern China for the murders of five women in a Hong Kong apartment during an occult scam...

...policy toward China and its implications for the future of Taiwan...

...But Regina Ip, secretary for security in the Hong Kong government, warned Thursday that the group is targeting the central government for attack and therefore must now be watched closely by local authorities...

...Last September, however, police arrested students for protests over the immigration issue...

...Over the next few months, a battle brewed...

...In 1998, Beijing executed Cheung Tze-keung (a.k.a...

...So, then, if the United States has given up on Hong Kong, what difference does it make...

...All this legal wrangling was complicated, as it was no doubt intended to be...

...Confrontation with Beijing was inevitable...

...The committee in charge of drafting the Basic Law had “enough Hong K ong members to make their participation appear to be meaningful but not so many as to concede control,” Mark Roberti writes in The Fall of Hong Kong...

...the “Big Spender,” for his spectacular bets at Macao casinos), one of Hong Kong’s most notorious gang bosses, for crimes including the kidnappings of two of Hong Kong’s wealth - iest men...

...Beijing has warned that the media will be judged on their patriotism, and that coverage of Taiwan in particular will be closely scrutinized...

...Secretary Ips move comes just two weeks after the resignation of Anson Chan, Hong Kongs top civil servant...

...As Tung came under attack, Wen Wei Po, a mainland-funded Hong Kong paper often considered an authoritative source of Beijings positions, launched a back Tung insert in its pages and charged that Tungs critics were conspiring to bring him down...

...And we still insist that Taiwan is still part of China, even though it isnt...

...Bad outcomes were acceptable, even normal...

...So far, it is true, as government officials say, that the laws have been little used...

...Nevertheless, the U.S...

...F inally, Beijing summoned Hong Kongs secretary for justice, Elsie Leung, who emerged from a meeting with Chinese officials saying the judgment should be rectified...

...A spokesman for the Chinese leadership called the courts decision a mistake which needed to be changed...

...Hong Kongs media have the responsibility to uphold the integrity and sovereignty of the country...

...Last summer, an aide to the chief executive pressured professors at two university polling projects to stop polls showing Tungs deep unpopularity...

...They even hand down their own verdicts...

...For Western consumption, China offered guarantees of Hong Kongs autonomy and freedom, including an independent judiciary, a free market, civil liberties, freedom of the press, and even a democratic legislature...

...The pres -sure from the Clinton administration, combined with its refusal to sell Taiwan major defense systems, soured relations between Taipei and Washington, further emboldening Beijing, which issued harsher and harsher threats across the Strait...

...Recently , the message has been sharpened...

...In 1999, the director of Radio Television Hong Kong was removed from her post following the stations broadcast of a brief commentary by Taiwans unofficial represen -tative as part of a regular Sunday morning program featuring prominent figures...

...that we are robbed even of silence, but are expected to take on the old mainland Communist culture of biao tai [expressing the right attitude...

...The many setbacks for institutional integrity include the abolition of the elected middle level of government and the packing of the lowest level of government, the elected district councils, with members appointed by the Tung administration...

...The changes, Tung insisted, were merely technical...

...Margaret Ng, a pro-democracy legislator, has seen it many times: There is a public outcry...

...Hong Kongs top law enforcement official, secretary for security Regina Ip, issued a ludicrous but troubling criticism of Hong Kongs journalists for their coverage of the student arrests...

...Leung admonished the people of Hong Kong for their arrogance, saying , We shouldnt as a matter of course believe the Hong Kong system is the best...

...law, China must allow the people of Hong Kong to run their own affairs through democratic elections and an independent judiciary...

...official told the New York Times shortly before Hong Kong was returned to China...

...It refused to criticize violations of the Joint Declaration, an agreement between China and Great Britain, claiming it had no standing to do so...

...Banned as an evil cult in the Peoples Republic of China, this eclectic spiritual movement has been mostly free to meet and march in Hong Kong...

...Such an interpretation is totally unacceptable to Beijing...

...of vulnerability within the Nationalist government to make it more susceptible to overtures from the mainland, writes Robert Cottrell in The End of Hong Kong...

...If the past tells us anything, American weakness in defense ,„ of Taiwan has only encouraged China to il hold out promises of freedom and auton-^^ omy it has no intention of honoring...

...Last year, the administration aggressively used Martin Lee, Hong Kongs leading democratic politician, in its campaign to win passage of permanent normal trade relations for China...

...It matters plenty, and not just for the millions of Hong Kong people now ruled by a Communist party they or their parents ed...

...Alone among the 60 members, Ng abstained from the motion, although a number of pro-democracy politicians absented themselves from the chamber for the vote...

...The exact charges in Cheung’s trial, which the U.S...

...Above all, the purpose of the Basic Law was to circumvent the Joint Declaration’s guarantees on democracy and judicial independence and to provide the basis for an anti-subversion law...

...No matter how egregious the Chinese provocation, writes P eter Feaver, formerly of the Clinton National Security Council, the United States always has a choiceconfront or accommo -dateand accommodation prolongs the game, leaving open the chance that the Chinese will moderate their behavior...

...Even before the handover, Chinas deputy premier, Qian Qichen, warned the media not to spread rumors or lies or publish personal attacks on the Chinese leaders...

...The Hong Kong government asked the high court to clarify its ruling . Later, the government acknowledged that Secretary Leung had had private contacts with the chief justice regarding the governments request...

...If only that were true...

...By insisting on what one country , two systems should really mean, the new administration can help the people of Hong Kong achieve what they were promisedand, in the process, let Beijing know President Bush wont buy into a bad deal for Taiwan...

...Pretending Hong Kong is in charge of its own affairs allows the United States to avoid confronting Beijing...

...If Taiwan would only bow to Beijings sovereignty, then the Beijing government would promise to concede a very high degree of administrative autonomy to the Taipei authorities...

...There are others...

...The two systems, Communism on the main -land and capitalism on Taiwan, could then co-exist within a single country...

...If you don t subscribe to that, you dont love China, you don t love Hong K ong...

...In the process the court had articulated its power to invalidate laws adopted in Beijing if it found them inconsistent with Hong Kongs Basic Law...