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Wall Street Journal calls on Biden to speak up for Hong Kong

蘋果日報 2020/12/13 19:24


The Wall Street Journal on Friday appealed to President-Elect Joe Biden to speak up for Hong Kong, describing the prosecution of Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai as another example of “China’s lie” to the rest of the world.
In a piece attributed to its editorial board titled “Hong Kong’s Freedom Fighters,” the WSJ called on Biden’s administration, which will move into the White House on Jan. 20, to speak up for Hong Kong protesters and suggested the U.S. issue visas and green cards to those in the former British colony who were being persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party.
“China continues to arrest and punish Hong Kong’s brave freedom fighters, and it’s important that the world not forget them. The Trump Administration is speaking up, and let’s hope the Biden crowd does too,” the piece started.
The WSJ has been increasingly vocal about Hong Kong affairs, especially after Beijing’s imposition of a sweeping national security law that the editorial described as “the Communist Party’s ferocious effort to stop all criticism.”
The paper cited Lai’s arrest as an example of China’s crackdown. “Any dissent now is a crime in the city. The national security law allows a defendant to be tried in secret or transported to Chinese courts and jail. The political pressure from Beijing will be enormous on Hong Kong’s courts, which are supposed to be independent, to convict Mr. Lai,” it read.
In another editorial published on Dec. 2, the newspaper said the Chinese Communist Party had been continually sending Hong Kong’s pro-democracy figures to jail.
“It’s no coincidence [Lai] was detained the same day three other pro-democracy champions — Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam — pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison for participating in 2019 protests against a proposed extradition law,” the Dec. 2 piece said. Wong, Chow and Lam were convicted earlier this month for inciting others to participate in an illegal assembly and were sentenced to between seven to 13.5 months in jail.
Following the convictions, the U.S. Department of the Treasury took punitive measures against about a dozen Beijing legislators for eroding Hong Kong’s freedoms and introducing the national security law in late June. Since August, the U.S. has imposed sanctions against 29 mainland Chinese and Hong Kong officials, including the city’s leader, Carrie Lam, who has told local media that she was forced to store piles of cash at her residence because no bank dared open an account for her or her family.
“We trust Joe Biden is paying attention. No doubt he’s not eager to start trouble with China. But Chinese leader Xi Jinping has his own priorities,” the Dec. 2 editorial read, adding that Xi was testing to see whether Biden’s administration “will look the other way on China’s behavior in Hong Kong and elsewhere.”
The piece said that the Trump administration, especially Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, had spoken up for Lai.
“The most powerful message the U.S. can send to China is moral,” it added. “This is particularly true with regard to Mr. Xi, who demands that the world accept China’s lies about everything from the origins of the coronavirus to his incarceration of more than a million Uighurs.”
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