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China legal expert Jerome Cohen deplores ‘outrageous’ case of Hong Kong 47

蘋果日報 2021/03/19 23:23


Hong Kong was the starting point of a trailblazing journey in China that distinguished law professor Jerome Cohen undertook at a time when Americans were not allowed to set foot in the closed country.
Now 90 years old, the New York University academic says he is depressed by the plight of the city that hosted him in the 1960s as he studied Chinese criminal procedures by interviewing refugees.
A long-time critic of human rights in China, he feels pessimistic about the near future of Hong Kong, as the vibrant and dynamic place he once knew is gone.
“This isn’t the death of Hong Kong, but the end of the free society,” Cohen told Apple Daily as he observed how education and the media were being constantly eroded.
The national security law foisted on Hong Kong by Beijing in June 2020 is a prime culprit in the deteriorating situation. Cohen said that he had been following the authorities’ crackdown very closely, singling out the High Court’s decision in February to refuse bail for Next Media founder Jimmy Lai.
Cohen questioned why the judge, Madam Justice Anthea Pang, did not give reasons for her judgment.
“She listed out all the factors to be considered and denied bail, without giving how she applied the factors,” he said. It was “a very bad precedent.”
The professor was also outraged by the prosecution of 47 pro-democracy activists and politicians, who had to answer for their participation in an unofficial primary poll in 2020. “Just having one judge for 47 cases is scandalous. Why don’t they have five? Was it because only one judge has the confidence of the Communist Party?” Cohen asked.
He predicted that Hong Kong would be reduced to a Mainland business city like Beijing and Shanghai. Hongkongers could still live a decent life if they kept their noses clean about politics, he said.
On a broader level, Cohen said that he was happy to see United States President Joe Biden’s “deliberate” China policy as the first high-level meeting with Beijing in his term played out in Alaska.
“Unlike Trump, who was willing to use all issues as bait for Beijing to cooperate,” the current team of White House experts could set a balanced China policy, he explained. “A balanced China policy is much harder to implement than an absolute anti- or pro-China policy.”
To Cohen, the Huawei case was “one of the hot potatoes” that Biden should prioritize. He urged the U.S. Department of Justice to determine as soon as possible whether to extradite Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, now under house arrest in Vancouver.
“While Ms Meng is leading a good life on bail in Canada, China locked up two innocent Canadians, the ‘two Michaels,’ for over two years as retaliation,” Cohen said, frowning at the Chinese’s violation of international law and human rights with their hostage diplomacy and the slowness of the Canadian judicial process.
In the long run, however, Cohen saw the pendulum eventually swinging back from the extreme. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping will not last forever. He has made the world more suspicious of China, thus it’s more difficult for him to achieve China’s objectives.”
As a near-term action, Cohen advocated the Biden administration “opening the door for Hong Kong people.” He supported concrete improvement of immigration policy and financial aid for those who could not afford the process.
“The U.S. would benefit terrifically, as talents from Hong Kong live and work here,” Cohen said. The U.S. policy could also create a ripple effect for other Western countries, such as Australia and Canada, to follow suit, he suggested.
A united open-door policy by multiple countries could deal Xi a tremendous blow, he said. “What could be more embarrassing than having hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong people leaving?” Cohen said that he was sure Xi would stop it by imposing exit controls.
He also acknowledged the limits of the U.S. Magnitsky Act, signed into law in 2012 with Russia in mind. It authorizes Washington to sanction those deemed to be human rights offenders. “We all know who should be sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act. It should be Xi Jinping. But that’s impossible,” he said.
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