Opinion | China slams US lawmakers' bid to penalize city's officials: What damage can Gallagher Inflict on HK
By Augustus Yeung
The full motive behind the legislation of the U.S. bill is still foggy. Is it designed to "contain" China through Hong Kong as suggested by China's Foreign Ministry, or that it is meant to frustrate the Biden administration?
President Biden is all keyed up to heal the sagging bilateral relations with China –amid the threats of the Palestine-Israel conflict in Gaza, and the nagging Russia-Ukraine war. Gallagher's bill will not be taken seriously.
Both the Hong Kong government and the Chinese foreign ministry have severely slammed Mike Gallagher and his fellow US lawmakers – for pushing the White House to impose widespread "sanctions on 49 [Hong Kong] official, judges and prosecutors", saying that they have chosen to ignore the "facts" behind the unprecedented months-long unparalleled social chaos in the cosmopolitan city of Hong Kong.
Do "facts" really speak for themselves? The complexity of facts does not speak for themselves. Let us first study the responses of Hong Kong (SAR) and China.
Hong Kong has slammed US lawmakers pushing the Biden administration to sanction 49 city officials, judges and prosecutors – calling it a blatant attempt to intimidate those safeguarding national security – and an affront to the rule of law.
The government's strong condemnation followed the announcement earlier of the Hong Kong Sanctions Act – a bipartisan bid by a group of legislators from both the US House of Representatives and the Senate – to expand the list of people penalized over the national security law.
Officials targeted in the bill include the Secretary for Justice, Chief Justice, Commissioner of Police and Committee for Safeguarding National Security secretary general.
Five justices, 17 judges, six magistrates and several prosecutors are named on the list.
"The HKSAR despises any so-called 'sanctions' and shall never be intimated. It shall continue to resolutely discharge the responsibility of safeguarding national security," a government spokesman said – adding the security law had resulted in the city's swift return to normality following the 2019 social unrest.
"Those US politicians insist on turning a blind eye to all these facts, and even clamor for so-called 'sanctions' against the HKSAR personnel who dutifully safeguard national security. The HKSAR government strongly condemns their political grandstanding – rife with ill intentions, which have been seen through by all."
The judiciary also issued a statement strongly condemning any attempt to "exert improper pressure on judges and judicial officials, including any suggestion to impose sanctions".
It said it considered any such moves as a "flagrant and direct affront to the city's rule of law and judicial independence.
The foreign ministry's arm in Hong Kong also said it strongly disapproved of and firmly rejected the bill introduced by "some unscrupulous US politicians" – calling on them to stop "using Hong Kong to contain China".
"They openly clamor for sanctions against judges and other personnel who have duly performed their duties – fully exposing their hegemonic behavior with no bottom lines and despicable intentions – to disrupt and jeopardize Hong Kong," the ministry' office said.
"We advise these individual unscrupulous US politicians to recognize the facts – immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs – and stop interfering in China's internal affairs."
If passed, the legislation would mandate the US president to decide within 180 days – whether to impose sanctions in accordance with laws such as the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, the Hong Kong Human Rights – and Democracy Act of 2019 and the Hong Kong Autonomy Act.
The bill was presented by Young Kim, who chairs the House subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific, and fellow representatives Jim McGovern and John Curtis, Senators Dan Sullivan and Jeff Merkley proposed companion legislation in the Senate.
Kim, a Republican, said the bill aims to "hold the Hong Kong officials accountable for human rights violations" and "stand with [Hongkongers] facing security under Beijing's national security law".
The bill landed after the government announced that US-sanctioned Chief Executive John Lee Ka-Chiu would not attend an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in San Francisco this month due to "scheduling issues", although Lee had received an invitation "personally".
Hong Kong lawmaker Nixie Lam said the US politicians' hypocritical tactics to discredit the national security legislation and rule of law were "doomed to fail". She called on the community to unite and push back against the "unreasonable smears and inference of Western politicians".
The Hong Kong Bar Association issued a strong condemnation of any attempt to impose sanctions on judges, judicial officials and legal practitioners. In a statement, it expressed confidence that Hong Kong's judges "have always and will continue to operate independently and apolitically".
The Law Society also said it strongly condemned any attempt to interference with the administration of justice or challenge the rule of law, judicial independence, and prosecutorial or governance integrity. (Source: SCMP)
Is there another method, or a better way of unravelling the "facts" to the world – instead of relying on the facts and dumbed statistics to tell their own stories?
After the fall of the racist South African Apartheid government, the new administration under Nelson Mandella set up a "Truth Commission", enabling and encouraging all parties involved in the process to confess their crimes against humanity – without criminalizing any of the participants and/or witnesses, although they might have conducted crimes in the past.
These people and the method did an excellent job. And so, the outside world got to fully understand what had been going on, and who exactly was involved in doing what harms in South Africa. But Hong Kong seems to have given up this option.
However, what can Mike Gallagher and his gangsters do to harm Hong Kong?
When the city's total recall was a resounding stonewall to their posture of picking a fight, and the bill they are cooking up is meant to frustrate President Biden at best, and demonize Beijing at all cost – the nicknamed "happy conservative warrior" Mike Gallagher may not get far in gaining much political mileage.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
To contact the writer, please direct email: AugustusKYeung@ymail.com
Read more articles by Augustus K. Yeung:
Opinion | U.S. lawmaker, Mike Gallagher is the source of recent China, Hong Kong problems
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