By Holden Chow
The Central Gov released its White Paper focusing on safeguarding the national security of the HKSAR. It reminds us of the chaos in the past, in particular 2019, when there was no measure on safeguarding national security, HKSAR was plunged into the abyss of violence. A lesson for all of us.
As White Paper rightly points out, we should persist with safeguarding national security and should not underestimate the national security risk and its dire consequences given the geopolitics and ill-intentioned moves by anti-China foreign powers.
A case in point is Jimmy Lai. He has been the mastermind of the anti-China movement since long time ago, from supporting the illegal Occupy Central movement, to stirring up conflicts between HK and Mainland, to orchestrating the riots in 2019. Without any national security law, Jimmy Lai can blatantly commit all sorts of crimes endangering national security, for the purpose of suppressing China, and overthrowing the Chinese regime.
Finally, justice is seen by the public. The verdict plus sentencing on Jimmy Lai handed down by the High Court this week was welcomed by the Hong Kong public. Jimmy Lai was the mastermind of 3 counts of serious offences, one of them is the offence of conspiracy to print, publish, sell, offer for sale, distribute, display and/or reproduce seditious publications, contrary to sections 10(1)(c), 159A and 159C of the Crimes Ordinance, Cap. 200; the other two counts are offences of colluding with foreign powers contrary to Article 29 of the National Security Law of Hong Kong ("NSL")
One would agree that these are serious crimes of a grave nature in endangering national security.
The sentencing on Jimmy Lai is reasonable and appropriate. 20 years of imprisonment reflect the grave nature of his crime. Calling for sanction upon Hong Kong was such an ill-intentioned move against China.
The verdict and sentencing demonstrated the importance of safeguarding national security, also serving the purpose of deterring people from committing crimes endangering national security.
One would recall in 2019, Hong Kong was plunged into the abyss of violence and chaos. Jimmy Lai, with his Apple Daily serving as a tool of propaganda against China, orchestrated the entire movement, inciting all sorts of hatred against the HKSAR Gov and the Central Government, encouraging the mayhem within the city. There was arson and vandalism everywhere; individuals were beaten, or even killed by those thugs supporting the riots, due to their differing opinions against the protest.
Back then, there was no national security measure against such ill-intentioned moves. By abusing Hong Kong as a platform without any national security protection, notorious anti-China politicians from home and abroad joined hands to overthrow the Chinese regime.
Fortunately, NSL was enacted in 2020, which has saved our city since then. Indeed, as the White Paper rightly pointed out, national security is the core condition and cornerstone for prosperity, safety and welfare of the people in any nation. This is particularly true against the backdrop of the growing geopolitics and the unscrupulous actions taken by US politicians against China.
Take a look at Venezuela, US troops boomed there and stormed into the residence of President Maduro, arrested him on the spot, who was the president of another sovereign country, what's the point of having international law then? Turned out that Maduro was actually betrayed by his staff, national security operations were compromised. Without the ability and power to safeguard national security, any country can end up with such a chaotic scenario.
When Secretary of State Marco Rubio plus a bunch of foreign politicians made false accusations against our Court's verdict and trampled our rule of law, that only exposed their double standard again.
Aldrich Ames, in the 90's, was arrested by the US Gov, found guilty of espionage, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Jonathan Pollard was found guilty of disclosing US Government secret information to Israel and was sentenced to 30 years of imprisonment.
When it comes to their own national security, the US Gov and its courts never pull any of their punches. Sentencing is absolutely heavy, with enough deterring effect. But when it comes to Jimmy Lai, they changed their attitude in a split of second. This is how ridiculous they are, and this is their hypocrisy.
For the final sentencing of 20 years of imprisonment, the High Court has actually taken into account Jimmy Lai's old age and already reduced a portion of the imprisonment. This is based on the Hong Kong common law principle, demonstrating humanity and sufficient leniency. Bearing in mind that Jimmy Lai has never shown any remorse at all about his crime against China
We cannot stress more that no attempt of foreign interference can ever shake our unwavering committment of safeguarding national security, protecting One Country Two Systems.
Holden Chow is a Member of the Legislative Council, Vice Chairman of DAB
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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