當年今日
關於我們

In this year, some things are certain|Lee Yee

蘋果日報 2020/12/30 09:37


2020 has been a year where everything is uncertain. Yet, there are a few things that are certain in 2020.
The severance of the relationship between China and the U.S. is certain. Although Biden has repeatedly voiced against the direction toward a cold war, that he would cooperate with China, and that he has not said a word about what is happening in Hong Kong, many of the anti-China bills were passed in Congress by a large number, or even unanimously. The anti-China sentiments in the U.S. society brought about by the pandemic, coupled with the last policies protecting Taiwan and supporting Hongkongers’ fight for freedom rapidly pushed by Trump at the conclusion of his term, an anti-China sentiment has been formed both in Congress and the U.S. society. It will not be easy for Biden to change. Moreover, if Trump and his more than 70 million supporters refuse to concede, the bipartisan fight around the election will continue to play out in the next four years of Biden’s term. He will be forced to implement a touch China stance in his policies.
China’s anti-America policies are also certain. In the fifth Plenary Session of the Chinese Communist Party held not long ago, it was proposed that the total national economy in 2035 should be doubled, meaning that China is confident that the scale of its economy will surpass that of the U.S. before 2035. The “trend of the intensification of anti-globalization” was mentioned in the fifth Plenary Session, and that “some countries are heavily engaged in unilateralism and protectionism, clearly signaling the weakening of the traditional international cycle. Under this circumstance, there is a need to focus and rely on domestic development, and to realize economic development in the domestic market.” That is, China is preparing to no longer rely on globalization to develop the economy. It was also stated that China “has unique political, institutional, development, and opportunity advantages. There are still many favorable conditions for socio-economic development. We have full confidence, stamina, and power of writing…a new chapter.”
Seeing that Biden’s chances of winning the election had greatly increased, China had not stopped its expansion activities. It has escalated its military harassment against Taiwan, increased the stationing of its troops along the Sino-Indian border, and imposed economic sanctions on Australia. Even if it meant for the Chinese citizens to lose power in the cold, it still insisted on putting pressure on Japan along the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands.
Biden said that he would unite with the other allies to resist China, but the reality is that under the force of China resistance formed by the other countries, it is not up to the U.S. to decide whether or not to cooperate. Under the global besiegement, China is full of confidence that it will not rely externally for its development that it will fight the Western world all alone. Whether it really has the power to do so, we are at least seeing the shadow of the Mao era’s ambition of “catching up with the U.S. in 15 years”.
Under China’s arrogance, and with a global besiegement around China, Hong Kong throwing itself fully towards one country, two systems is an irreversible trend. Even if one country, two systems is not entirely dead, it is already rotten and turned into one country, two systems of socialism with Chinese characteristics in Xi Jinping’s era. This is also certain.
Other than suppressing resistance in the name of epidemic control, the political settling of the scores and the merging of the three powers have also been sped up. Will the current system remain unchanged? Is society stable? The foundation lies in the rule of law. The wording of the provisions of the National Security Law is vague and unclear. “Incitement”, “collusion”, and “hate” an be interpreted so differently. In particular, the presumption of guilt shows in “No bail shall be granted to a criminal suspect or defendant unless the judge has sufficient grounds for believing that the criminal suspect or defendant will not continue to commit acts endangering national security” (Article 42) means that the presumption of innocence in the common law no longer applies.
When the general Hong Kong public cannot be certain if they will break the law, it is a reason for the recent resurgence of emigration. The U.K., the U.S, Australia, Canada, etc., have successively introduced new immigration policies and sent lifebuoys out to Hongkongers. This phenomenon did not occur even after June 4th. This shows that western countries are also aware that one country, two systems is rotting.
In 2015, veteran actor Robert De Niro spoke at the commencement ceremony of the Tisch School of Arts. As usual, he congratulated the graduates with “Tisch graduates, you made it!”, but then he followed it with “And you’re f*cked!” It was because studying arts is the most hopeless major, and that the graduates will have a hard time after graduation. They will be rejected constantly. However, he said, “The good news is that that’s not a bad place to start. Now that you’ve made your choice, or rather, succumbed to it, your path is clear. Not easy but clear. You have to keep working, it’s that simple.”
“You’re f*cked” is perhaps good news, because it is certain. The question is how to keep going. The words of pianist Fou Ts’ong who just passed away were enlightening. He said, “first is to be human”, then an artist, a pianist; “perhaps the most important thing is courage, to insist that black is black, white and white, to be the same inside and out is difficult. Because this society is teaching you to lie every day…”
(Lee Yee, a prominent political commentator in Hong Kong who embarked on a career of writing and sub-editing in 1956, has been contributing unremittingly political commentaries to the local press.)
Click here for Chinese version
We invite you to join the conversation by submitting columns to our opinion section: [email protected]
Apple Daily reserves the right to refuse, abridge, alter or edit guest opinion columns for accuracy, length, clarity, and style, and the right to withdraw and withhold columns based on the discretion of our editorial page editors.
The opinions of the writers do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial board.
---------------------------------
Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE
To download the latest version,
Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play