Foreign sanctions against Hong Kong are only courtesy

01 view

Written by: Commentary Editing Room

2020-11-14 07:00

Last update date: 2020-11-14 07:00

On Wednesday (11th), the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress made a decision to specify how members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council would be disqualified. On the same day, the Hong Kong government announced that four incumbent members who had previously been ruled ineligible for election would immediately lose their posts, while other pan-citizens Members also responded with the general remarks. One of their reasons was that they wanted to get international attention and put pressure on China.

Sure enough, the incident has aroused widespread concern in Western countries, and individual countries have also claimed to impose sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials. However, since the introduction of the "Hong Kong National Security Act" this year, Western sanctions against China have long been common, but the central government is obviously not afraid of these. Sanctions will not change the pace of their Hong Kong policy because of sanctions. It can be seen that the so-called sanctions are a diplomatic courtesy.

Western countries have repeatedly expressed concern about the situation in Hong Kong. Among them, the United States has already sanctioned several Chinese and Hong Kong officials on the grounds of threatening Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedom. The Chinese and Hong Kong officials related to the District National Security Act, the U.S. security advisers and the State Department have subsequently repeatedly stated that the disqualification of members has strangled freedom and should be held accountable.

On the other hand, the British Foreign Office also pointed out that it was considering sanctions against relevant officials. The European Union did not mention sanctions but also urged China to withdraw its decision.

British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab made another voice on November 12, saying that this was the third time China has violated the Sino-British Joint Declaration.

The British side later stated that the UK had summoned the Chinese ambassador to the UK regarding the Hong Kong incident, and said it would carefully consider whether to sanction officials.

In a sense, confrontation with the central government can indeed attract foreign eyes and win its sanctions as expected by the protesters. However, the results of so many sanctions seem to be inconsistent with what they said.

The protesters have been propagating that the goal of seeking sanctions is to make the central government or Hong Kong officials make concessions to them out of fear, but the reality is that more and more Western sanctions cannot change China’s determination to exercise full governance in Hong Kong and restore political order. Determination.

Officials in charge of the Hong Kong government should have long understood that they are at risk of being sanctioned. Those who continue to stay at their posts naturally cannot refuse to cooperate with the central government for these reasons.

Western sanctions are of course detrimental to the Hong Kong economy, but they may not have much effect in affecting the local political situation. On the contrary, they are now even gradually becoming a foreign diplomatic statement of courtesy. Countries that impose sanctions may want to embarrass China by this, but I am afraid behind it. Nor does it really expect to have any effect; the Chinese side also does not take these sanctions seriously, and only expresses its opposition on diplomatic occasions.

If this continues, the deterrent power of foreign sanctions will be completely consumed, just like the "wolf is coming" story.

Many protesters have gradually understood that the facts are not as good as expected, and they have lost their excitement when talking about relevant news recently.

Rather than saying that they hope to make Chinese and Hong Kong officials back down, they now continue to advocate sanctions out of retaliation.

The irony is that the pan-democratic legislators who are supposed to be the rational representatives of the opposition still miss the so-called "international line" and refuse to consider pragmatically how to restart communication and consultation with the central government. This is undoubtedly disappointing.

If these politicians really hope that Hong Kong's democracy can make progress, they should at least recognize that they are striving for a return to dialogue with the negotiating object, instead of continuing to dream of a dream.

The democrats and the central government should interact well

Democrats will stay in office next year as the key

Democrats should return to the political mechanism to solve problems

Democrats should stay in the Legislative Council

Legislative Council Democrats U.S. Sanctions 01 Viewpoint