[Newsweek] In international politics, few things are certain during these uncertain times. But I can predict one: the relationship between America and Hong Kong is in the throes of major change.
On May 22, China's leaders will convene for their annual People's Congress, during which they will discuss the status of Hong Kong and whether to push forward with their rebuffed attempts to impose upon that special jurisdiction the laws and circumscribed rights of mainland China. If they do so, America and Britain will push back—with lasting consequence.
Hong Kong has become ground zero for the ideological clash between democracy and heavy-handed Chinese communism. This tug-of-war was on global display last summer, when over two million Hong Kongers—26 percent of the entire population—peacefully took to the streets of Hong Kong, in sweltering 100-degree heat, to protest Beijing's overreach with a proposed extradition bill that would impose China's laws on Hong Kong. The people of Hong Kong have completely lost faith in their embattled leader, Carrie Lam, and their police force. Peaceful protestors have been brutalized, pro-democracy figures have been illegally arrested and the Hong Kong Legislative Council's day-to-day operations have been tampered with by the Chinese government. During the most recent attempt to conduct a Legislative Council meeting in Hong Kong, in a scene that is reminiscent of an event that might take place in a failed state, fist fights broke out between the pro-China members and the pro-democracy members. |