Defend HK the best we can: brutal repression coming in days ahead|Edward Chin
The sinking of Hong Kong officially started at 11:00pm, June 30, 2020, when the NSL (National Security Law) took effect. Hong Kong has lost its glory, and defenders of our traditional core values have either fled, been detained or imprisoned. Most Hong Kongers have told Beijing in peaceful ways that the authorities should leave Hong Kong alone, and honor version 1.0 of “one country, two systems” engineered by Deng Xiao Ping but to no avail. With an extreme makeover given to the electoral system and the vagueness of the NSL, the city’s rule of law is dying out when gradually merging into communist China’s opaque legal system. And worse, professional bodies have also been stripped of their power. Communist Hong Kong and communist China are in full control of the education, medical profession, accounting and judiciary, just to name a few.
The HKICPA (Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants) has recently been notified by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury that the professional body will not be empowered to grant practicing certificates to certified public accountants in Hong Kong soon. The Hong Kong Government intends to transfer the onus to the statutory Financial Reporting Council. The proposed change will take place next year, and it will be passed by the Legislative Council, predictably with no opposition. Another big blow to the city these days has been the government’s proposal to appoint rising stars in the DoJ (Department of Justice) as senior counsels, which will unprecedentedly provide the government’s legal practitioners with a “fast route” to gain the respectable “senior counsel” status. The technicalities of these changes would not matter to the general readers or potential tourists to Hong Kong, but for international businesses that already have a presence in the city, these changes might affect their business decision ̶ pulling out or staying, when the foundations on which this city is built are suddenly replaced.
The amendment to the Immigration Law comes into effect on Aug 1, 2021, exactly 50 days from today. The 2020 Immigration (Amendment) Bill empowers the government to bar a passenger or a crew member from boarding a transportation carrier to enter or leave the city. You will probably see immigration officers carrying guns and batons at the airport soon. The Hong Kong Bar Association raised their concerns in February that the “provisions would result in arbitrary and unjustified immigration detention in circumstances that are incompatible with fundamental human rights and long-standing common law principles”. Airlines are required to submit details of aircrew members and passengers before arrival through an Advanced Passenger Information system.
Now comes the “neutron bomb” that will take down Hong Kong. China’s NPCSC (National Peoples’ Congress Standing Committee) passed the Anti-Sanctions Law on Thursday of this week, which legitimizes the Chinese authorities implementing countermeasures against foreign sanctions. It is believed that the Anti-Sanctions Law can be used as a powerful weapon to “punish” those who impose sanctions on China and Hong Kong, and it can go deep and wide to target individuals and their relatives, and organizations. According to a warning given by some analysts, to make matters worse, communist China would retaliate by politicizing everything, and lobby other nations to stand for its countersanctions. The economic and political implication for Hong Kong is huge, and corporations might just speed up pulling out to avoid any political uncertainty.
Today I would rather try looking into the role of Hong Kong in a more philosophical way. Hong Kong used to give most people a level playing field to run their business and try their luck. Most people have been living on, and a few prospering. Hong Kong has never been just a financial city, but a place abundant in perennial tradesmen and craftsmen as well. Now that Beijing has clearly tightened its grip on the city and implemented the most extreme hands-on approach to everything, the city is almost choked to death literally.
Most of my “inner circle” of friends who are selective are from the finance and business sector, believing in and upholding Hong Kong’s freedoms and core values. My other “business circle” of friends come from many colors - deep blue, blue, apolitical, yellow, deep yellow. Those in finance and businesses seem to agree on a couple of things: the extreme makeover for Hong Kong is far too much to bear, and the NSL and all the changes alluded to earlier are not only silencing the so-called opposition, but everyone. The DNA of Hong Kong is now being changed, and my pro-establishment “business circle” of friends told me quite frankly that they don’t want to see their next generation grow up in a place where there are so many vague red lines and a lack of free speech. Simply put, they don’t want them to live under a tyranny.
Former Chief Executive CY Leung made the “separatists” and “pro-independence figures” famous. In fact, most people aren’t one of them. You cannot just make up stories. But sadly, days ago, even current Chief Executive Carrie Lam mentioned that there are a lot of “foreign forces” in Hong Kong. Now, we might have a clue about why she said that: perhaps she just sides with her bosses from the Party up north in the implementation of the Anti-Sanctions Law that can be used to punish “bad foreign players” who do businesses in Hong Kong and China and those who side with the opposition. With Hong Kong not distinct from the rest of communist China, the refusal to issue visas, denial of entry, visa cancellation, deportation and freezing of assets would be applicable to our city as well. Everyone is on alert now.
With the extreme makeover and abrupt changes in Hong Kong, the exodus of capitals is escalating. Those who chose to leave might not want to come back in the near future. This time, those leaving the city are not confined to the upper middle class. The pro-establishment ones are also doing so: in 2019, a substantial number of them were against the Extradition Bill, and some even took to the streets to voice their protests on June 9 and June 16. We all know the first batch of the eleven Hong Kong and mainland officials who got sanctioned by the US Treasury department under the former Trump administration for aiding Hong Kong’s crackdown and depriving Hong Kong of its autonomy and democratization will work fiercely to punish the “evil foreign forces”, but ironically, this pains their own families as well. Nobody wins in these sanctions.
One pro-establishment business contact looked into my eyes and said this just days ago: “Do you think CE Carrie Lam and these sanctioned officials are still in their right state of mind to administer Hong Kong?” The political differences between the pro-establishment and pro-democracy have got narrowed now, when it comes to the issue of protection of personal and commercial assets and personal security.
It becomes surreal to see that Hong Kongers are caught in the middle when communist China and the West are literally “at war”, and that our voices have not been heard. I definitely see more turmoil in Hong Kong in the coming days, weeks and months. Let’s defend Hong Kong the best we can, even though we all know brutal repression is coming in the days ahead.
(Edward Chin (錢志健) runs a family office. Chin was formerly Country Head of a UK publicly listed hedge fund, the largest of its kind measured by asset under management. Outside the hedge funds space, Chin is Convenor of 2047 Hong Kong Monitor and a Senior Advisor of Reporters Without Borders (RSF, HK & Macau). Chin studied speech communication at the University of Minnesota, and received his MBA from the University of Toronto. Twitter: edwardckchin Youtube: Ed Chin Channel
Facebook.com/edckchin Email:
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