Beijing’s assault on rule of law

If China’s leaders feel in the least bit abashed by global criticism of their handling of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak they’re not showing it. The roundup in Hong Kong on Saturday of 15 of the city’s most esteemed citizens, all prominent democracy advocates, showed instead, as US Attorney-General William Barr said, “how antithetical the values of the Chinese Communist Party are to those we share in Western liberal democracies”. Among those arrested for their alleged part in last year’s massive student-led pro-democracy demonstrations were, remarkably, the eminent, 81-year-old lawyer and widely admired “Father of Democracy” in the city, Martin Lee, 72-year-old fellow lawyer Margaret Ng, 71-year-old newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai and several former legislators. At any time, arresting Hong Kongers of such stature would be seen as a highly provocative move by Beijing. But when the city is battling coronavirus — which has helped quell the protest movement — that is even more the case.

No wonder the former colony’s last British governor, Chris Patten, declared: “It becomes ever more clear, week by week and day by day, that Beijing is determined to throttle Hong Kong. The world should make clear how this further undermines any residual trust that we still have in the Chinese Communist dictatorship.” Mr Patten accused Chinese President Xi Jinping of seeking to “destroy Hong Kong’s way of life”. Hong Kong pro-democracy leader Joshua Wong tweeted: “When all countries are now busy combating #coronavirus, the authoritarian regime of #China is now clamping down (further) on democracy movements in #Hong Kong.” Mr Lee, who previously has never been arrested, was the main author of Hong Kong’s Basic Law, effectively its constitution as a Special Administrative Region of China. After being released on bail he said: “After months of witnessing youths being arrested and prosecuted while I stayed out of it, I actually felt guilty. I feel proud to walk the road of democracy with these outstanding youths.” That indicates how far Beijing has departed from the views of even the drafters of the Basic Law.

At least if Mr Lee or any of the others arrested do serve jail time it will be in Hong Kong. Last year’s protests erupted when Chief Executive Carrie Lam tried to ram through laws that would have allowed Beijing to extradite anyone to the mainland, thereby achieving the Chinese Communist Party’s ambition to destroy Hong Kong’s legal autonomy. Despite that setback, Beijing remains determined to further undermine Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems”. The arrest of the 15 prominent citizens is seen as part of a wider drive to impose new security laws aimed at further tightening Chinese control. Beijing may have calculated it will be able to get away with the arrests while the world is preoccupied with COVID-19. It must not be allowed to do so. The arrests, like its brazen deception over coronavirus, show, as Mr Barr said, the CCP “cannot be trusted”.