John Cushnahan: Stormont MLAs should all sign Chris Patten’s global list of politicians who condemn China’s actions in Hong Kong

The latest incident on August 10 involved the arrests of leading democracy activist, Agnes Chow and media tycoon and also leading democracy activist and critic of China, Jimmy Lai.

Mr Lai is the owner of Hong Kong daily newspaper Apple Daily. His two sons were also arrested.

Prior to this another one of the key figures in the pro-democracy movement, Benny Tai, who was a Professor of Law in the University of Hong Kong was sacked from his job because of his political activities; four young activists aged between 16 and 21 were arrested for allegedly “inciting secession online” and 12 pro-democracy candidates were disqualified from standing in the forthcoming elections to the Legislative Council which is Hong Kong’s mini parliament.

The current Hong Kong government disqualified these 12 pro-democracy candidates from contesting the legislative election on the grounds that they were deemed unable to perform the duties of a lawmaker.

One of the main reasons cited for their disqualification was because they “had objected in principle to the National Security Law and its promulgation”.

According to the Hong Kong government, candidates must not only not oppose this law — they must also promote and support it.

The National Security Law has been widely condemned by the world’s leading democratic governments because it effectively ended the autonomy of Hong Kong, suppressed human rights, free speech and political dissent.

However, an even more serious development took place last Friday (July 31) when the pro-Beijing Hong Kong government postponed the elections that had been scheduled for September 6 for 12 months on the pretext of concerns over the resurgence of Covid 19.

The real reason was somewhat different.

In November 2019, pro-democracy candidates swept the boards in the District Council Elections.

Hong Kong authorities are fearful that this will be repeated in the Legislative Council elections in the wake of what has happened since then given the size of the demonstrations that were organised by pro-democracy supporters and the resentment that has been caused by the passage and implementation of the National Security Law.

They are fearful that democracy campaigners could win a first ever majority in the 70-seat legislature. Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing supporters want to use the year long delay to use the National Security Law to introduce measures including further disqualifications to guarantee a pro-China majority.

This objective has been fully understood by the international community who are only too well aware that since the outbreak of Covid 19, elections have been able to take place in 49 countries without any serious health consequences including Japan, Singapore and South Korea all of which had more serious problems with this virus than Hong Kong.

Increasingly concerned about recent developments the five foreign ministers of the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States on Sunday August 9 issued a joint statement of condemnation stating that “moves to disqualify candidates and delay the elections have undermined the democratic process that has been fundamental to Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity”.

They added “We support the legitimate expectations of the people of Hong Kong to elect Legislative Council representatives via genuinely free, fair, and credible elections”.

These five counties along with two fellow EU Member States, Germany and France, had earlier also suspended their extradition treaties with Hong Kong.

Given the continuing crisis in Hong Kong, absolute clarity is required as to where all leaders of democratic parliamentary institutions stand on this issue.

This is not the case in Northern Ireland following a meeting that First Minister, Arlene Foster accompanied by Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill had with China’s Consulate General in Belfast, Madame Zhang Meifang.

The Chinese consulate subsequently reported that at the meeting the two leaders of Northern Ireland’s Executive said “the Northern Ireland government cherishes friendship with China, understands and respects Hong Kong’s national security legislation...” Their attempts to distance themselves from these remarks have not been convincing and have only added to the confusion.

Action should be taken to prevent China exploiting the reported remarks by Ms Foster and Ms O Neill allegedly on behalf of the Northern Ireland Executive. China will use these for propaganda purposes to justify their actions in Hong Kong.

There is a simple and effective way of dispelling any doubt as to how the Northern Ireland Assembly feels about what is happening in Hong Kong — MLAs should express solidarity with their fellow pro-democracy parliamentarians in Hong Kong by condemning China’s actions and add their names to the former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten list of almost one thousand cross party international parliamentarians worldwide who have already done so.

And in an act of all island parliamentary solidarity, TDs and senators in the Oireachtas should be asked to join with them in expressing their total opposition to China’s attempts to crush democracy and human rights in Hong Kong.

• John Cushnahan is a former Alliance Party leader, Fine Gael MEP and European Parliament Rapporteur for Hong Kong 1997-2004

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