National security woes today, and more blows in the offing

  

 Predators seeking to catch victims in their web

abound in Hong Kong... 

 

...and so does continued resistance and dissent!

 

There was so much to take in and report this past Tuesday that I ended up not writing about political activist Tony Chung's rearrest by national security officers as he was making his way to the U.S. Consulate General here in Hong Kong (and also that of two other members of the Studentlocalism group).  Unlike with his earlier arrest on July 30th though, he's been denied bail as well as actually charged under the still new security law this time around; which makes the 19 year old's case, and plight, all the more serious now.   

 

What thus far is only the second case of an individual being charged under China's security law for Hong Kong which came into effect on July 1st (after Tong Ying-kit, who was arrested on the first day of the national security law's existence) sees Tony Chung being accused of: secession, money laundering and conspiracy to publish seditious material.  Seeing as the first charge carries a maximum penalty of lifetime imprisonment, it's obviously the most serious.  And at first glance, being accused of having organised, planned, committed or participated in "acts with a view to commit secession or undermine national unification between July 1 and October 27" does look to be pretty heavy stuff.     

 

But when you look at what he's actually done, things start looking really farcical.  For what you've got here for the most part is a teenager's advocating independence for Hong Kong on not much more than Facebook posts!  The following are a couple of choice paragraphs from a BBC report on this matter:   

According to Joshua Rosenzweig, the head of Amnesty International's China Team, "a peaceful student activist has been charged and detained solely because the authorities disagree with his views".

Consider it another way. Mr Chung is 19 years old. What views were you expressing when you were 19? What opinions were others expressing? Should you have been threatened with life imprisonment for them?

What mades these views from the BBC even more eye-opening is that I often have found this particular media outlet to be one of the more biased against the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement.  (How I wish that I could embed links to Tweets here but since I can't, here's posting its URL here: https://twitter.com/ataraxisfinch/status/1313783797800894465).  But, as with many Hong Kongers, I guess they're belatedly waking up to the harsh reality of living in Hong Kong under China's security law for it, with the previously cited article concluding as follows:-

In just a matter of months, the pro-Beijing camp in Hong Kong has made use of the new national security law to erode the harbour city's once vaunted freedom of speech. It is nothing short of a disaster for the vast majority of residents who voted for the pro-democracy block in the most recent local elections.

As a document, the proposed law was frightening, but now people are seeing the reality: state security agents grabbing teenage activists from cafes and taking them away perhaps for the rest of their lives. On the ground in Hong Kong, the shocking reality of the new legal regime is becoming clear.

Add the following development and the future is looking really bleak indeed for Hong Kong: The Hong Kong police is planning to launch a new hotline for gathering national security-related intelligence from members of the public.  Put another way: they want to encourage people to inform on one another; and, in so doing, are going to tear to shreds any trust that people have for family members and friends, never mind strangers in their midst.  

 

Alternatively put: I fear that a Cultural Revolution is coming to Hong Kong; brought about by a man who personally suffered during the Chinese Cultural Revolution but seemed to have emerged from it having learnt the wrong lessons.  For instead of "never again", Xi Jinping seems to think and act more in terms of "make sure you are the one with power to oppress others rather than be oppressed (once more)".   

 

So what are we to do about it?  It's going to be hard to do but we're going to have draw from inspiration on those freedom fighters who (eventually) prevailed, like Nelson Mandela, and such as Invictus, the Victorian poem that inspired him and kept his spirit defiant for so many years, whose concluding lines are as follows:-

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.