The old adage that there is none so blind as those who will not see is turning into a metaphor for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), especially with regard to its views on Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Today marks a key date for Hong Kong — the fifth anniversary of the “831 Decision” on democratic reforms in the territory. Aug. 31, 2014, was the day the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress adopted a decision that set the limits for the 2016 Legislative Council and 2017 chief executive elections, dashing hopes that the voting rights of Hong Kongers would be expanded and universal suffrage allowed.
The lead-up to that decision and its announcement triggered the Occupy movement, followed by the “Umbrella movement” protests in Hong Kong.
More protests are expected in the territory today, even though rally permits were rejected by police, and despite arrests in the past 48 hours of key players in the Occupy movement and other pro-democracy activists, including Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), Andy Chan (陳浩天), Agnes Chow (周庭), Rick Hui (許銳宇) and Civic Passion lawmaker Cheng Chung-tai (鄭松泰).
All were arrested on charges of rioting or other offenses in connection with this summer’s protests that the Hong Kong government has tried to brand as riots, and while the police yesterday denied that the arrests were timed with today’s anniversary, such statements ring hollow.
As Wong’s Demosisto party said, the arrests were clearly aimed at painting “a picture that the anti-extradition movement was pushed by some masterminds behind the scene, as to neglect the residents’ five demands.”
The CCP has been desperate for someone to blame for the unrest in Hong Kong, regardless of the protests having been avowedly leaderless and widely representative of the territory’s residents.
The idea of a leaderless movement for change has always been beyond the CCP’s comprehension, hence its vicious response to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, to the silent Falun Gong protest in Beijing in 1999, Charter 08 and so many others.
This blinkered view has long extended to its perceptions of Taiwan as well, going back to the run-up to Taiwan’s first direct presidential elections in 1996.
That Taiwanese would prefer their hard-won democratic system to Beijing’s historic imperative of “longed-for reunification” is not just incomprehensible, it is clearly anathema to the CCP’s leadership.
That Taiwanese feel a kinship for the protesters in Hong Kong and support their calls for greater democracy is not evidence of the involvement of “black hands,” but legitimate support for human rights, and recognition that Beijing’s promises, even its signatures on international treaties, cannot be trusted.
Unfortunately, this means that Taiwanese and other international visitors to China would be advised to be as paranoid as the CCP. They should take only burner phones and clean electronic devices with no history links to Internet accounts or photographs that could be used against them by Chinese authorities.
The disappearance last week of Morrison Lee (李孟居), a 44-year-old Hsinchu native who stopped in Hong Kong before heading to China and then to Indonesia on a business trip has raised concerns that he could end up like Lee Ming-che (李明哲), who went missing in China in 2017 for several weeks before Chinese authorities announced he had been arrested on subversion charges.
According to friends, Morrison Lee had voiced support on Facebook for the Hong Kong protests; his family has not heard from him since he traveled to Shenzhen on Aug. 20.
Lee Ming-che was convicted by a Chinese court for Internet postings he made in Taiwan.
The CCP is blinded by its own ideology. That means Taiwanese, Hong Kongers and everyone else have to keep their eyes wide open.
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