The degeneration of Hong Kong’s political environment continues apace with the firebombing of the home and offices of the pro-democracy newspaper owner Jimmy Lai, well-known for refusing to kowtow to the communists who run the People’s Republic of China.
No one should be under any illusion that such an attack could have taken place without the blessing of the PRC mandarins sitting in Beijing. The PRC gained control of the former British colony in 1997 after 150 years of British rule that made Hong Kong a sophisticated financial hub.
The perpetrators and their bosses, however, should be aware that—appeals to Middle Kingdom sentimentality notwithstanding—they share Planet Earth with the rest of us. Firebombing a newspaper in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris is likely to get world attention.
Specifically, the U.S. Congress should swing into rapid action and pass and send to President Obama’s desk a bipartisan and bicameral group bill called the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.” The bill, worked out by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, would fix one aspect of the present law that governs U.S. relations with Hong Kong, the U.S.-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992.
The fix, much sought by pro-democracy leaders in the city that Britain ceded to China in 1997, would require the president to certify that Hong Kong is indeed autonomous before exempting it from any new law, agreement or arrangement applicable to the People’s Republic of China. It also reinstates the State Department’s annual reports on Hong Kong.
The world has already closely followed pro-democracy marches in Hong Kong over the past few months, as students and residents there have asked Beijing to give Hong Kong the “high degree of autonomy” that the PRC promised Hong Kong, Britain and the world. What Hong Kong people want to do is be able to elect their own local leader, not choose from a handful of PRC toadies blessed by Beijing, which is the plan now.
We are thankful that one was hurt in yesterday’s attack, in which masked aggressors threw Molotov cocktails at Lai’s own home and the offices of his Apple Daily newspaper. But this act deserves a world response.
People close to Lai, reached by telephone, said they and he are unfazed. Thought they do not invite comparisons with the terrorism that took place in Paris last week, in which 12 people were killed, this pro-democracy figure merits the support of a Je Suis Jimmy Lai response.
