In a grand pageant of rubber-stamping this week, 2,895 delegates to the National People’s Congress in Beijing passed the “Patriots governing Hong Kong” law. With not one vote in opposition, this is the authoritarianism of a soaring sort that could make even Kim Jong Un proud.

The law means that the Communists will have a veto over who gets to contest Hong Kong elections. That makes the law formal destruction of the city’s democracy and a breach of China’s promised obligations under international law. The Sino-British joint declaration, which the Communists signed, is quite clear. Under that binding treaty, the Communists promised to respect Hong Kong’s democratic character until at least 2047. I know that Communists don’t tend to be very good at maths, but it would appear to be 26 years until 2047.

Of course, the Communists don’t care about facts, morality, or the rights of their people.

They only care about power. That is to say, their own raw and unconstrained power over the lives of everyone else. Albeit accidentally, this was best emphasized by chief executive Carrie Lam. A supplicant drone for Xi Jinping and the Standing Committee, Lam helpfully clarified that the Patriot Law serves “to insist on and improve the ‘one country, two systems framework.’”

Only a fool or a fanatic could accept such an explanation. Lam is both.

The truth is obvious. There are no longer two systems, there is only the Communist system with Xi as the all-powerful God-king. The Communists themselves admit as much. When Beijing’s city office said that the law would “dispel the political haze….” it showed its hand. This is what the Communists think of democracy and the rights of people: a “political haze” or fog that must be purged to ensure the clear advance of those who know better. Those that the Party has deemed know better than the people of the city themselves. The only real haze is the smog that now sits atop Beijing.

But the rest of us must see through the Communist political haze.

What Beijing has done here is not simply to subjugate millions of people. It is to prove that its own word, however solemnly offered in the 1984 Sino-British joint declaration signing ceremony, is totally untrustworthy. This should be of great concern to governments the world over. Consider a few examples.

As the European Parliament now debates whether to ratify Chancellor Angela Merkel’s trade deal with the Communists, parliamentarians must wonder whether any Communist commitments on forced labor are worth the paper they are written on? This bears note because a top-line demand of parliamentarians is China’s follow-thru on pledges that it would end forced labor.

As ASEAN nations listen to a slightly kinder and gentler diplomatic message from Beijing, they should hold the Communists to what they say, and what they actually do in the South China Sea. Their sovereignty and the survival of that sea’s energy and fishing stocks depend on it.

As the U.S. climate tsar John Kerry engages with the Communists towards reducing carbon emissions, he should judge carefully whether commitments given will be commitments delivered (he should also take notice of the hundreds of new coal plants that Xi is bringing online each year). The American people won’t easily forgive painful economic costs born of domestic carbon reduction policies. At least not if the Communists only pretend they are also taking action.

As African governments seek a more equitable, contract law-rooted relationship with the Communists, they should consider whether Beijing truly has mutual cooperation at stake. Or whether, instead, Beijing is leveraging its investments to impose its political authority over Africa.

As Saudi Arabia seeks Chinese investment and technical support for its economy and nuclear program, Riyadh should consider whether China might share that information with Saudi Arabia’s nemesis, Iran. Again, Beijing has proven that its word is worthless.

The point here is quite simple. What the Communists have done and are doing to Hong Kong is only a reflection of what they will do to the rest of the world. And when it comes to the rest of the world’s interests, there are no Communist patriots.

(Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner foreign policy writer)

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