On 03 Nov 2021, No COVID Lies <bob7duncan@gmail.com> posted some
news:slv0fk$f8f$32@news.dns-netz.com:

> The fools actually expected China to honor the deal?

Twenty-six years ago today, Hong Kong was handed over to China on a
promise.

Beijing made the commitment, under an international treaty, to protect
Hong Kong�s freedoms, the rule of law, human rights, way of life and
autonomy for at least fifty years. Over the past decade, and especially in
the past few years, Beijing has completely broken its promises, torn up
the treaty and dismantled Hong Kong�s freedoms. It has turned Hong Kong
from one of Asia�s most open cities into one of its most repressive police
states.

The erosion of Hong Kong�s freedoms began a decade or more ago, but
Beijing dealt a hammer-blow to whatever was left of liberty when it
imposed a draconian National Security Law on the city, with no debate, no
discussion and precious little warning.

In the three years since this law was introduced, all of Hong Kong�s major
independent media has been forced to shut down, over 60 civil society
organisations � including political parties, trade unions, student unions
and human rights groups � have disbanded, books have been banned and the
legislature has been transformed from a vibrant centre of debate into a
zombie quisling puppet show.

According to legal scholar Johannes Chan, by late May this year, 251
people had been arrested for national security offences. Someone was
arrested every 4.2 days. They include legislators, journalists, students,
academics and political activists. Nearly four in five of those charged
are denied bail, and some have spent over two years in jail awaiting
trial. The conviction rate is 100%.

This has chilling echoes of the legal system in mainland China. This week
I hosted two remarkably courageous men who served several years in jail in
China. Both are foreign nationals. Peter Humphrey, a British citizen, is a
former Reuters journalist and due diligence investigator with almost half
a century of experience in China, while Marius Balo is a Romanian
theologian. Peter and his wife spent two years in jail in Shanghai, and
Marius served eight years, for crimes they did not commit.

On Monday they testified in Parliament to the Conservative Party Human
Rights Commission, and Peter made the point that in China �police,
prosecutors and judges are all part of the same family � the Communist
Party�. The police do not conduct investigations with any detective or
forensic procedures.

�They rely on extracting confessions from detainees while being
interrogated day by day locked inside a cage,� Peter told our hearing. In
addition, witness statements are coerced, prosecution witnesses are not
cross-examined � or even required to appear in court � and, in Peter�s
words, �no contradictory evidence is allowed�. Forced televised
confessions are often used, and no defence witnesses are called to court.
No wonder the Chinese system achieves an almost 100% success rate in
convictions.

This is the legal system into which Hong Kong has morphed. A city that
until recently prided itself on the rule of law is becoming part of the
Chinese Communist Party�s family. That is why the authorities have denied
Hong Kong media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai the right to choose his own lawyer,
and blocked British barrister Tim Owen, KC from representing him, despite
rulings by the Court of Final Appeal that Mr Owen should be permitted to
act for Mr Lai.

There are three sobering lessons in all of this.

First, the mendacious regime in Beijing simply cannot be trusted to keep
its word. Its promises in any treaty are not worth the paper they are
written on.

Second, there are huge risks to doing business in China. Not only
financial risks, but physical, moral and ethical risks. If you try to do
due diligence, especially now with a new espionage law that takes effect
today and that interprets corporate due diligence investigations as
spying, you could end up in jail for a long time. Peter Humphrey�s case is
a trail blazer � the recent crackdown on Mintz, Bain and other corporate
investigators signals worse to come. Yet if you cannot do due diligence,
you are highly likely to be unwittingly using forced labour or prison
labour in your supply chains, and turning a blind eye to corruption.

Third, China only respects strength. If we continue the policy of the past
few decades, of kowtowing, naively thinking that trying to befriend the
dictators in Beijing will soften their hearts, we will only embolden
Beijing�s increasing repression against its own peoples and aggression
beyond its borders.

We have to show strength. That means speaking out for our citizens when
they are jailed, defending international agreements when they are
violated, promoting our values when they are attacked and ensuring there
are consequences for Beijing�s crimes.

Rumours abound that Foreign Secretary James Cleverly may visit Beijing
soon. I have reservations about this, but for me, the more important
debate about such a visit is not whether or not it should happen, but what
are the conditions and objectives of it. If he uses the visit to deliver
very clear, robust demands seeking the release of British citizens in jail
in China � including Mr Lai in Hong Kong � and spells out what the
consequences will be if the current trajectory of repression, aggression,
slave labour and atrocity crimes continues, then I have an open mind. If
he sacrifices human rights as he kowtows at the altar of Xi Jinping, then
he will have betrayed Britain.

As we mark the anniversaries of the handover of Hong Kong and the
imposition of the security law, let us reflect on our relationship with
the regime in Beijing with a sober and informed mind. Can we trust them?
On the basis of the evidence, the answer is no. And so we must stand up to
them. Failure to do so will not only be a betrayal of our values � it will
be an invitation to them to further assault, infiltrate, intimidate,
influence and threaten us. That�s not an invitation I think we should give
on this anniversary, as we survey the carnage of broken promises.

Benedict Rogers is co-founder and Chief Executive of Hong Kong Watch and
author of �The China Nexus: Thirty Years In and Around the Chinese
Communist Party�s Tyranny�.

kevin
1 day ago

Anyone surprised? It's scary that the geniuses in charge ignore the
obvious in order to gain financial success. The Chinese government has had
a agenda for the past three decades and the people representing the free
world are sell outs.

https://news.yahoo.com/twenty-six-years-since-hong-080000718.html

On Mon, 3 Jul 2023 09:53:51 +0200 (CEST), Yes liberals are stupid
<fools@msnbc.com> wrote:

>On 03 Nov 2021, No COVID Lies <bob7duncan@gmail.com> posted some
>news:slv0fk$f8f$32@news.dns-netz.com:
>
>> The fools actually expected China to honor the deal?
>
>Twenty-six years ago today, Hong Kong was handed over to China on a
>promise.
>
>Beijing made the commitment, under an international treaty, to protect
>Hong Kong’s freedoms, the rule of law, human rights, way of life and
>autonomy for at least fifty years. Over the past decade, and especially in
>the past few years, Beijing has completely broken its promises, torn up
>the treaty and dismantled Hong Kong’s freedoms. It has turned Hong Kong
>from one of Asia’s most open cities into one of its most repressive police
>states.
>
Softly softly catchee Monkey.
Only people born yesterday would believe the word of a Communist.

Given Zionland's invasion of the West Bank, they all live in the USA.