Agnes Chow is a petite, soft-spoken 23-year-old who may soon disappear into the gulags of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). She was born a British citizen living in Hong Kong, the freest city in China. Then, in 1997, Britain handed the city and its inhabitants to China under a treaty that would keep it free for at least 50 years. It has since become clear that China never intended to honor it.
By the time Chow was 15, she began speaking out against China’s reneging on her future. Last June she joined millions of Hongkongers during a summer of peaceful demonstrations against a proposed law that would expose dissenters like Chow to extradition from Hong Kong and secret communist trials. The protests succeeded. The law was withdrawn, and elections ousted almost 80-percent of the pro-Beijing communists from Hong Kong’s government.
Despite the successes of last summer’s demonstrations, Beijing unilaterally imposed a National Security Law (NSL) that went into effect on July 1, 2020. The language of the NSL is broad enough to criminalize virtually anything that the CCP doesn’t like.
Hours before the NSL went into effect, Chow disbanded Demosisto, the pro-democracy organization that she co-founded. Nevertheless, on August 10, she was arrested for “suspicion of collusion with foreign forces under the National Security Law.” By this, China made clear that the law not only squelches free speech going forward, it punishes retroactively.
Chow’s arrest puts on notice everyone who has ever participated in a protest, supported democracy through social media, or even visited pro-democracy pages online. On July 6, Facebook, Google and Twitter publicly announced a temporary suspension in answering China’s demands for information on dissidents.
America’s tech giants are not saying how many users they betrayed to the CCP before the suspension. Nor are they willing to tell the CCP to pound sand permanently. Their access to the vast communist market may require the blood of a few customers. The National Basketball Association has already thrown the Hong Kong protesters under their tour bus. They recently enacted new rules that allow players to display social justice messages on game jerseys. But kowtowing to pressure from Beijing, they have banned the use of #StandWithHK. Google, Facebook and Twitter may yet choose the same course.
For the Hong Kong protesters, the threat of arrest is more ominous in light of China’s booming organ-harvest business. An independent tribunal has been collecting evidence that the Chinese government makes over a billion dollars per year by killing political prisoners and transplanting their organs into people from all over the world.
The Chinese government itself corroborated this accusation in 2012 when state media loudly announced that it would phase out the harvesting of organs from executed prisoners. But, they have not. Instead, it has been credibly reported that the execution is sometimes omitted, and the prisoner taken straight to the operating room. Such barbarism practiced on hardened criminals would be unconscionable. That it could be done to political prisoners like Agnes Chow is too horrible for words.
I do not want to write even this much. But it is our human duty to know the true plight of the Chinese people. They have been oppressed by an atheistic, Marxist regime for decades. Now with the oppressive NSL, an additional 7.4 million Hongkongers have been claimed by these butchers.
What can you do? Knowing is the first thing. As more people become informed, it will affect the decisions we make from Washington to Silicon Valley.
In Washington, Treasury and State departments have already begun placing sanctions on the communist government. These sanctions will not only pressure the CCP, they will also cost money on Wall Street. International financiers do not want sanctions. As with the NBA, Nike and others, they would rather keep the profits coming than stand for the people of Hong Kong.
By understanding what’s at stake and vocally supporting sanctions against China, you can help our government stand firm and do the right thing. You can also add pressure to the tech giants who hold the lives of millions in their hands. Do not let the spotlight move away from their actions. Hold them accountable for the trust you have given them.
Not only should large corporations rethink doing business with China, their criminality should give every American pause. Consider what you buy and whom you support. Financial pressure from the world can be a lifesaver for millions.
International ignorance of China’s crimes allows it to have favored nation status when it should be treated like the pariah it is. China may never treat its people justly. But a healthy fear of losing international approval can go a long way towards helping people like Agnes Chow escape the most unspeakable crimes.
Also published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, August 21, 2020.
No comments:
Post a Comment