How many evil deeds are done in the name of national security?|Chung Kim-wah
On the day the National Security Law(NSL) was enacted, most Hong Kong people knew well that no matter how lofty the argumentation of the law was presented to be, no matter how many political watchwords were attached to it and no matter how sensible it was said to be, it is just a means to an end – suppression of dissent. The US State Department declared sanctions last week against 14 Vice Chairmen of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, who voted for this so-called law. One of them even remarked that a “struggle for the rule of law” has to be staged. Getting “the rule of law” married with “struggle”, Beijing has a way with placing an alternative interpretation on the rule of law. Intertwining the rule of law with a nation, patriotism or unconditional support for a regime is never the true nature of the rule of law.
Since the passage of the NSL, either those lacking in social network or immature and inexperienced teens have been arrested and prosecuted by the lackeys of the regime. Some carried nothing lethal but a loudspeaker and were just members of a mini political group involving no renowned political activists. As to Jimmy Lai, the founder of Next Digital, he was armed with nothing but a belief and perseverance that has lasted for decades. The democracy and freedom Jimmy Lai has been fighting for, which are promised even in the Basic Law and written clearly in the Sino-British Joint Statement, are also what Hong Kong people have been intending to fight for.
If a country fails to guarantee the security of its nationals, is it still legitimate for it to talk about national security? The security of the nationals rests with the fact that they are able to freely put into practice their constitutional and political rights, which are unequivocally listed side by side with various social and basic human rights in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China and the Basic Law. Reinterpreting “national security” as something overriding with a strange definition coming from nowhere has just exposed to public view that the regime does not walk the talk!
People in power deem driving forces enemies
Being secretive about everything, those at the helm are actually a good-for-nothing syndicate that deem the forces driving them to move forward enemies, and feels secure only when being flanked and worshipped by a bunch of brown-nosers and lackeys. That is the cowardice they wanted to gloss over on the pretext of “national security”. Not safeguarding the security of its nationals but posing a threat to their safety instead and putting on a fig leaf – “national security” – just makes the country, which praises itself for being civilized, regress to primitiveness.
The response from the international community, which is as loud and clear as it is relentless, needs not even a prompt. What has prompted it and driven the attention of the foreign forces was the evil deeds perpetrated in the name of “national security” and continually bullying its own nationals. What the State Council Secretary said – “his(Jimmy Lai’s) only crime is speaking the truth about China’s authoritarian Communist Party government” – hit the bull’s-eye!
The backdrop with a regional flag of the Hong Kong SAR in it against which a meeting between Nathan Law and British government officials was held has explained everything. Irrespective of how fiercely and loudly the wolf warriors yell at people and the fact that they accuse others of interfering in China’s internal affairs at every turn and of being provocative, and their denouncing Nathan Law, among others, for jeopardizing national security and colluding with foreign forces, more and more people and governments in the international community have reckoned they should hold the arrested and those being put on a political label of jeopardizing national security dearer.
Regardless of how ancient a civilization and how long the history of it is, if it fails to excel itself, it will just follow the beaten track and become a primitive territory that stops itself from turning into a modern civilization. Why has the impression of the Chinese people and government on the civilized and developed countries all over the world been worsening over the past few years? Why is the regime in Beijing, which has control over colossal economic potential but falls foul of counterparts everywhere, not considered part of the civilization of the international community? Because few young people have intended to fight for democracy and autonomy? Because the boss of a newspaper has followed Taiwan president’s Twitter account? How preposterous it is to ascribe the so-called jeopardized “national security” to all of this! How many more evil deeds are going to be done in the name of “national security”? Sigh!
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