Hong Kong chief government John Lee, the hardline pro-Beijing former safety chief who took over from the reviled Carrie Lam in July, devoted a lot of his three-hour maiden coverage handle on Wednesday to swooning over the Chinese language Communist Celebration’s crackdown on democracy.
Lee additionally brainstormed methods for Hong Kong to switch the extremely expert professionals who’ve fled.
Lee was “elected” to succeed Lam in Might, however not in a course of that any free nation would acknowledge as an election. The general public has completely no say in who runs Hong Kong – that was one of many famed “5 factors” raised by the large 2019 pro-democracy demonstrations.
As an alternative, Hong Kong’s chief government is successfully chosen by Chinese language Communist Celebration leaders in Beijing, who make sure the “election committee” in Hong Kong is full of hardcore loyalists. Hong Kongers used to get to vote for his or her legislators, however even that meager ration of democracy was taken away from them final 12 months when Beijing imposed new necessities that solely licensed Communist “patriots” can stand for election.
Lee was subsequently in a position to get “elected” as chief government regardless that he had a mere 34 p.c approval score in public opinion polls and was underneath sanctions from the US for his function within the brutal anti-democracy crackdown, as have been three members of his cupboard. Lee was additionally a driving power behind the trouble to revise Hong Kong’s extradition legal guidelines in 2019, a bid to increase Beijing’s energy that launched the protest motion.
Lee vowed on Wednesday to proceed cracking down on dissent. Human rights teams world wide, and the United Nations, have known as for the repeal of the 2020 “nationwide safety regulation” that successfully criminalized dissent, however Lee pledged to double down by introducing much more “anti-subversion” legal guidelines.
The UK Guardian famous Lee’s anti-subversion proposal would add seven extra “crimes” to the 4 broad actions criminalized by the nationwide safety regulation, together with “treason, theft of state secrets and techniques, international political teams conducting political actions within the metropolis, and native our bodies establishing ties with international counterparts.”
The Guardian counted a minimum of 50 mentions of the phrase “safety” in Lee’s coverage handle, which was “clearly extra ideologically pushed” than any comparable speech delivered by his predecessors, within the estimation of Baptist College of Hong Kong political scientist Kenneth Chan.
Lee known as for requiring public college academics to turn out to be licensed within the nuances of the draconian nationwide safety regulation, to allow them to educate it to their college students. He stated the federal government will implement “Rule of Regulation Schooling” packages to make sure “constant and proper messages on the rule of regulation in the neighborhood.”
Lee’s authoritarian agenda additionally included a ban on the crowdfunding that has supported pro-democracy actions up to now, and more and more tight censorship to close down “disinformation.”
China’s state-run International Occasions approvingly famous Lee spent a lot of his prolonged handle praising the regime in Beijing and dictator Xi Jinping, whereas promising additional “collaboration and integration with the motherland”:
In an almost three-hour handle on the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, Lee first stated that amid the COVID-19 outbreak and a worsening international financial outlook, Hong Kong has been seeing rising challenges, nevertheless, underneath One Nation, Two Methods, there are extra alternatives as town has the distinctive benefit of being backed by the nation and connecting the world. Nationwide key strategic plans such because the 14th 5-Yr Plan (2021-25), the Larger Bay Space (GBA) development and the Belt and Highway Initiative all present alternatives to Hong Kong, he stated.
[…] Lee stated President Xi Jinping’s earlier go to to the Hong Kong Particular Administrative Area (HKSAR) and his speech there have been the blueprint for his coverage handle. He famous that town is now on the important stage of transitioning from chaos to order and prosperity and he’ll lead the governing group to work on town’s development plan.
The Chinese language Communist Celebration’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Workplace rewarded Lee’s loyalty by praising his handle as “a vivid reflection of the historic convergence of a brand new stage for Hong Kong’s growth and a brand new journey of nationwide growth, displaying that Hong Kong will certainly obtain higher and higher growth in working along with the nation.”
“We consider that the brand new HKSAR authorities will faithfully fulfill its pledges, always enhance its governance system, enhance governance capability and improve governance effectivity to create a greater life for the folks of Hong Kong,” the workplace stated.
Not even the International Occasions might gloss over Lee’s admission that the annihilation of Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms prompted an exodus of expertise from the island, with some 140,000 members of the workforce fleeing abroad because the nationwide safety regulation was imposed.
Lee stated his administration would “proactively trawl the world for skills” to handle this mind drain, asserting a two-year no-strings visa for high-salaried workers and prime college graduates, plus $30 billion co-investment fund for “attracting enterprises to arrange operations in Hong Kong.”
Lee additionally introduced a particular rebate for folks relocating to Hong Kong after they buy houses and a $10 billion fund for college analysis groups whose work has the potential to discovered new tech firms.
