China, Hong Kong November 22, 2019
Hong Kong’s opposition unites with Washington hardliners to ‘preserve the
US’s own political and economic interests’
While claiming to fight for “self-determination,” Hong Kong opposition
leaders are collaborating with regime-change neoconservatives in Washington
to “preserve the US’s own political and economic interests.” A new DC
lobbying front has become their base of operations.
By Ajit Singh
The U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy
Act on November 19, without any opposition. Despite loudly proclaiming to
protect “human rights” and “democracy,” a closer look at this legislation
reveals the imperial agenda underlying Washington’s actions in Hong Kong.
Behind its humanitarian cloak, the Senate bill advances the threat of
economic sanctions in order to impose Washington’s foreign policy interests
on China and the region, while turning up the heat on North Korea and Iran.
At the same time, the bill pledges to “safeguard United States businesses in
Hong Kong.”
The legislation is a long-term project of neoconservatives and leading Hong
Kong opposition activists like Joshua Wong, a protest poster boy who has
been present in meetings in Washington to develop the sanctions legislation
since November 2016.
In fact, the act was passed in the immediate wake of a lobbying junket to
the U.S. by prominent Hong Kong opposition figures, including Wong.
The September visit highlighted the opposition’s close bond with
Washington, as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) – the engine of
the U.S. regime change machine – recruited Hong Kong opposition leaders onto
the board of a new DC-based anti-China front called the Hong Kong Democracy
Council (HKDC).
“I credit Senator Rubio’s unwavering leadership in demanding action from the
full Senate for today’s passage of S1838 by unanimous consent,” HKDC
managing director Samuel Chu declared.
While claiming to be struggling for Hong Kong’s “self-determination,” the
opposition is openly coordinating with Washington, and aiming at nothing
less than surrendering Hong Kong to the U.S.’s geo-strategic agenda.
Joshua Wong testifies before Congress in support of the Hong Kong Human
Rights and Democracy Act on September 17, 2019
Hong Kong activists and Congress push legislation to advance U.S. regional
interests
As part of an international tour to build support for the Hong Kong
protests, Wong and several prominent opposition figures traveled to
Washington in September to lobby Congress to “take action” against China.
As Dan Cohen reported for The Grayzone, Wong has been previously “trumpeted
in Western media as a ‘freedom campaigner,’ promoted to the English-speaking
world through his own Netflix documentary, and rewarded with the backing of
the U.S. government.”
Testifying on Capitol Hill before the Congressional-Executive Commission on
China (CECC), headed by neoconservative Senator Marco Rubio, Wong and others
lobbied U.S. lawmakers to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.
The legislation would amend the Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, which governs
U.S. relations with Hong Kong. The new act would direct the U.S. government
to regularly assess and certify “whether Hong Kong is sufficiently
autonomous from China”.
Yet according to the act, the question of Hong Kong’s autonomy appears to
directly correspond to how closely the city toes the line of Washington’s
foreign policy agenda.
First, the bill requires the U.S. government to closely scrutinize whether
Hong Kong “enforce[s] sanctions imposed by the United States” against North
Korea and Iran in particular, along with any other country that Washington
deems “present a threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economy
of the United States.”
Second, the legislation requires the U.S. government to closely scrutinize
whether Hong Kong enforces U.S. export control laws and trade policy in
relation to China, aiming to “safeguard United States businesses in Hong
Kong from economic coercion and intellectual property theft.”
If the U.S. government finds that such “fundamental freedoms and autonomy in
Hong Kong” are being undermined — i.e., that Hong Kong is not sufficiently
advancing the interests of U.S. foreign policy, in terms of sanctions
against Officially Designated Enemies and the Trump administration’s trade
war with China — the new act provides legal justification for the U.S. to
impose sanctions on China.
By working with Washington to pressure Hong Kong into aligning with U.S.
foreign policy or face an escalation in economic warfare, the opposition has
discredited it own claims to be fighting for “autonomy,” or
“self-determination.”
Indeed, its willingness to sacrifice the city’s independence to Washington’s
imperial interests in the region has been laid bare.
Tacitly endorsing lethal Hong Kong street violence
The Senate legislation also exposes Washington’s tacit endorsement of the
increasingly violent actions of protesters.
Hong Kong opposition lobbyists have worked with Washington to “strengthen
the bill” by removing the requirement that protesters be “peaceful” in order
to apply for U.S. visas without obstruction. This provision makes it
abundantly easier for violent protesters to flee to the U.S.
Sunny Cheung, an opposition activist who testified before Congress alongside
Wong, cheerfully declared that “this strengthened version [of the U.S.
congressional bill was] the achievement of Hong Kong’s various lobbying
groups.”
In recent weeks, Hong Kong protesters have murdered a 70-year old street
cleaner with a brick, and attempted to kill another resident who disagreed
with them by setting him on fire.
Hong Kong rioters have used molotov cocktails and flaming arrows and even
developed bombs using propane tanks.
By offering impunity to those who commit such extreme violence, Hong Kong
opposition lobbyists and the U.S. government have signaled their tacit
approval of these ghastly acts and many more to come.
HKDC press conference with Joshua Wong, Denise Ho in Washington on October
29
Hong Kong activists unite with NED and U.S. regime change establishment
The opposition’s symbiotic relationship with Washington was further
underscored by the establishment of a brand new Hong Kong lobbying
organization in Washington.
The Hong Kong Democracy Council has brought leading Hong Kong activists
together with prominent members of Washington’s foreign policy establishment
with the aim of “pushing the US to uphold its commitment to Hong Kong’s
basic freedoms and autonomy and to preserve the US’s own political and
economic interests in Hong Kong.”
This nakedly imperialist language further highlights how far the Hong Kong
opposition has strayed from its stated mission to preserve “autonomy” and
“self-governance.”
HKDC was launched on September 16, 2019, with Wong and other Hong Kong
opposition figures attending the opening reception.
The organization features a number of prominent Hong Kong activists as board
members. These include:
•Anna Yeung-Cheung, founder of New Yorkers Supporting Hong Kong (NY4HK).
•Joseph Ng, a senior software engineer at U.S. weapons manufacturer Leidos,
formerly known as SAIC, whose top client is the US Department of Defense.
•Samuel M. Chu, son of the Rev. Chu Yiu Ming, a veteran and leading
pro-democracy organizer in Hong Kong who was the co-founder of Occupy
Central that led to the Umbrella Movement in 2014.
In addition, the advisory board features leading movement figures such as:
•Nathan Law, who along with Wong and other activists co-founded the
political party Demosistō in 2016.
•Lee Cheuk Yan, a long-time Hong Kong politician and member of the
Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1995 to 2016
•Alex Yong-Kang Chow, former secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation
of Students during the 2014 Umbrella Movement.
•Jeffrey Ngo, Chief Researcher and standing committee member for Demosistō
This group of leading Hong Kong activists, politicians and Demosistō party
members advocating “self-determination” have joined with leading figures of
Washington’s regime-change establishment.
The majority of HKDC’s advisory board is made up of members of the NED, the
Open Society Foundations of anti-communist billionaire George Soros, the
Council on Foreign Relations, and Freedom House.
These figures include:
•Michael C. Davis, a global fellow at the U.S. government funded Woodrow
Wilson International Center and previously the Reagan-Fascell Democracy
Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy (2016-2017).
•Larry Diamond, senior consultant at the International Forum for Democratic
Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy, and author of the recently
published Russiagate tract, Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage,
Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency. During the so-called Arab
Spring, Diamond worked to influence the Middle Eastern and North African
uprisings in support of US geo-strategic interests, while co-opting
progressive political space through now-defunct projects like the “Free
Arabs” web magazine.
•Sharon Hom, Executive Director of Human Rights in China (HRIC), long-time
grantee of the NED. Hom testified before Congress alongside Joshua Wong and
Denise Ho in support of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.
•Jerome A. Cohen, Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations,
which as The Grayzone has detailed, is one of the most prominent think tanks
promoting U.S. foreign policy interests.
•Andrew J. Nathan, a member and former chair of the board for the NED-funded
organization, Human Rights in China, and a member of the board of the NED.
•Thomas E. Kellogg, former Director of the East Asia Program at the Open
Society Foundations of anti-communist billionaire George Soros. At OSF, he
oversaw the expansion of the Foundation’s work in China and also launched
its work on Taiwan and North and South Korea.
•Annie Wilcox Boyajian, Director of Advocacy at Freedom House, which as The
Grayzone has previously noted is “a notorious right-wing lobby group almost
entirely bankrolled by Washington that is heavily invested in regime-change
operations against foreign adversaries.”
The tight coordination between the Hong Kong opposition and the regime
change-obsessed U.S. foreign policy establishment is now undeniable.
Far from righteous freedom fighters struggling for “self-determination,”
leaders of the Hong Kong opposition have mobilized behind a singular goal of
handing over their city to Washington’s imperial agenda.
ajit singh
Ajit Singh
Ajit Singh is a Canada-based writer and lawyer. He tweets at @ajitxsingh.
