It was no accident that Hong Kong officials chose Feb. 28 to conduct a mass arrest of 47 pro-democracy advocates. Feb. 28 is an important national holiday in Taiwan, called 228 Peace Memorial Day, which commemorates the thousands of innocent Taiwanese who were massacred by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) security forces on Feb. 28, 1947.
Beijing wanted Hong Kongers to associate the arrests with the massacre.
The message is clear: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is prepared to use 228 as a “model” to terrorize Hong Kongers into obedience and silence.
The treatment of the 47 suspects by Hong Kong’s police and judicial authorities has been nothing short of shocking. During successive days of interrogation, the defendants were reportedly allowed only brief periods of sleep, and were not given food nor allowed to wash or change into clean clothes.
Denied even basic hygiene, some defendants fainted or were taken to hospital for treatment after feeling unwell.
Hong Kong barrister Johannes Chan (陳文敏), chair of public law at the University of Hong Kong, has said that the Hong Kong government, including the Department of Justice and the Correctional Services Department, are duty-bound to protect the fundamental rights of the 47 arrested individuals.
“During the interrogations, things have happened that would be considered remiss in a third world country. It is utterly deplorable,” he said.
Chan added that it is difficult to overestimate the extent of the crisis in Hong Kong: It has been reduced to the status of an authoritarian “fourth world” territory — and has actually been part of the “third world” for some time.
The term “third world” generally refers to developing nations. Mao Zedong (毛澤東) once said that he aspired for China to become the leader of the third world, but this idea has clearly had its day, since China has become a neo-totalitarian rising world power.
The majority of third world nations gradually transitioned into democracies; only a small number maintained authoritarian systems of government, taking on different forms such as the military junta in Myanmar or the monarchy of Saudi Arabia.
China, on the other hand, together with North Korea, Iran, Cuba and Syria, have broken away from the third world to become “fourth world nations,” united by their total rejection of the rule of law.
In addition to the absence of the rule of law, the other hallmarks of fourth world nations are the complete eradication of freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of religion. In such countries, the ruling party exerts strict control over society and every aspect of peoples’ lives, just as George Orwell described in the novel 1984.
German-American political theorist and philosopher Hannah Arendt, in her book The Origins of Totalitarianism, wrote that totalitarianism is defined by four unique characteristics:
First, rule is based on fear.
Second, the regime’s power extends into every corner of society and even into the private sphere, including the family and personal thought.
Third, an extensive, comprehensive and inhuman bureaucratic machinery is used to rule over the population.
Fourth, an ideology is used to explain the purpose of the state and to rationalize the appropriation of absolute power.
According to this definition, Hong Kong is already living under the black cloud of totalitarianism.
In contrast, people living in third world countries, which most Hong Kongers would have previously looked down upon, mostly enjoy freedom from fear, and universal suffrage is realized. In most third world countries, the military and the police serve the country, as opposed to a political party or political force.
The situation in Hong Kong can be contrasted with India’s, despite its democracy also having many shortcomings.
Before leaving his post in 2003, then-US ambassador to India Robert Blackwill lauded the South Asian nation, saying: “India is a pluralist society that creates magic with democracy, rule of law and individual freedom, community relations and [cultural] diversity. What a place to be an intellectual! I wouldn’t mind being born 10 times to rediscover India.”
India is the world’s largest democracy and its voters are the most enthusiastic of any democratic nation.
The Indian writer Ramachandra Guha, in his book India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy, said that India has a voter turnout higher than that of the US and, even though the Communist Party of India — which aims to overthrow the government by means of Maoist guerrilla war — is extremely active at the village level, on election day there is always a joyful, festive mood, and it feels like a grand occasion.
In 1952, Mohandas Gandhi’s youngest son, Devdas Gandhi, speaking to an American friend, said that a general election is a mighty event, much more impressive than he could have ever imagined, and that universal suffrage is a beautiful starting point, as there is no better way to increase the resolve and improve the education of Indians.
Hong Kongers can only dream of enjoying such freedoms. A US-based Hong Kong friend recently commissioned me to send their friend — who worked in media, but was at the time languishing in a Hong Kong prison — some books from Taiwan. My friend repeatedly reminded me to send only literature and religious books — nothing about politics — and not to sign or write anything on the inside cover of the books, lest it be confiscated by the prison wardens.
This is how quickly things have deteriorated in Hong Kong, where, just eight years ago, I was able to publish a collection of political essays critical of the despotic CCP regime.
Yu Jie is a Chinese dissident writer who lives in exile.
Translated by Edward Jones
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