The Civil Development Forum is calling for international solidarity with the Hong Kong
The Civil Development Forum, joined an international coalition of 46 think tanks and advocacy groups in calling for international solidarity with the Hong Kong people against the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government’s encroachment on their freedoms and autonomy, and the pro-CCP Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) police who have repeatedly violated protesters’ human rights.
“Events in Hong Kong not only threaten the liberties of Hong Kongers, but the principles of liberalism, private property rights, open markets, civil society and judicial independence of which Hong Kong has hitherto been an international bastion.” said Marek Tatała, Vice-president of FOR. “These factors have been essential to both the Hong Kong people’s prosperity as well as the economic interests of all free peoples and nations who deal with Hong Kong.
“The Beijing-based CCP government’s recent actions put these principles and the Hong Kong people’s way of life at risk. The CCP is determined to erode all vestiges of the island’s autonomy, forcing it into a governing and justice system with a contempt for private property rights that has seen widespread intellectual property theft from foreign companies and investors.
“Mainland China’s Chief Justice has also explicitly dismissed the notions of judicial independence from the political system, which underpins much of the commercial and legal certainty behind foreign investment flows into Hong Kong, as an ‘erroneous western concept.’
“We could eventually see investors and business-people working in Hong Kong thrown into prison for expressing views that are critical of the CCP government as is already the case throughout mainland China. This is especially concerning given the CCP government’s history of torturing and killing dissidents, harvesting prisoners’ organs, throwing ethnic minorities into concentration camps, colluding with criminal gangs, and other instances of human rights abuse. Over 4 billion USD in foreign investment flowed into Hong Kong in 2017 alone, and trillions of dollars in projects and businesses remain under the threat of ongoing CCP encroachment despite ardent opposition by the Hong Kong people. These events impact us all.
“What is happening in Hong Kong could be just the beginning unless the international community stands firmly against these actions now. That the Hong Kong SAR government has already taken some backward steps by withdrawing the extradition bill which would have denied Hong Kong people basic access to an independent justice system, and has agreed to conduct an inquiry into human rights abuse by the SAR police, shows that international pressure can be effective. However, these temporary steps do not signal an end to the CCP’s plans to assert control over Hong Kong.
“We are proud to join a coalition of pro-freedom and pro-democracy activists and think tanks from around the world to support the Hong Kong people’s struggle against authoritarianism, and support their wishes to retain autonomy guaranteed to them under the 1997 international agreement which ceded Hong Kong to mainland China under the “one country, two systems” policy.”
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