Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Tracking foreign interference in Hong Kong

By Pepe Escobar : Hong Kong – Posted with permission

Lawyer Lawrence Ma claims the US has been supporting the protests via groups such as the NED
More than a million Hong Kongers joined marches in June to oppose a China extradition law. But some say the US is quickly backing the protests. Photo: Don Ng/ EyePress
Lawrence YK Ma is the executive council chairman of the Hong Kong Legal Exchange Foundation and director of the China Law Society, the Chinese Judicial Studies Association and the Hong Kong Legal Exchange Foundation. He also finds time to teach law at Nankai University in Tianjin.
Ma is the go-to expert in what is arguably the most sensitive subject in Hong Kong: He meticulously tracks perceived foreign interference in the Special Administrative Region (SAR).
In the West, in similar circumstances, he would be a media star. With a smirk, he told me that local journalists, whether working in English or Chinese, rarely visit him – not to mention foreigners.
Ma received me at his office in Wanchai this past Saturday morning after a “dark day” of rampage, as described by the SAR government. He wasted no time before calling my attention to a petition requesting a “United Nations investigation into the United States’ involvement in Hong Kong riots.”
He let me see a copy of the document, which lists the People’s Republic of China as petitioner, the United States of America as respondent nation and the Hong Kong Legal Exchange Foundation as ex parte petitioner. This was submitted on Aug. 16 to the UN Security Council in Geneva, directed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
In the document, Issue II deals with “funded, sponsored and provided supplies to any organizations, groups, companies, political parties or individuals” and “trained and frontline protesters, students and dissidents.”
Predictably, the US National Endowment for Democracy is listed in the documentation: its largest 2018 grants were directed to China, slightly ahead of Russia.
The NED was founded in 1983 after serial covert CIA ops across the Global South had been exposed.
In 1986, NED President Carl Gershman told the New York Times: “It would be terrible for democratic groups around the world to be seen as subsidized by the CIA. We saw that in the ‘60s, and that’s why it has been discontinued.” As the Times article explained about the NED:
In some respects, the program resembles the aid given by the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s to bolster pro-American political groups. But that aid was clandestine and, subsequent Congressional investigations found, often used planted newspaper articles and other forms of intentionally misleading information. The current financing is largely public – despite some recipients’ wish to keep some activities secret – and appears to be given with the objective of shoring up political pluralism, broader than the CIA’s goals of fostering pro-Americanism.

Soft power at work

So it’s no secret, all across the Global South, that under the cover of a benign umbrella promoting democracy and human rights, the NED works as a soft-power mechanism actively interfering in politics and society. Recent examples include Ukraine, Venezuela and Nicaragua. In many cases, that is conducive to regime change.
The NED’s board of directors includes Elliott Abrams, who was instrumental in financing and weaponizing the Contras in Nicaragua, and Victoria Nuland, who supervised the financing and weaponizing of militias in Ukraine that some but not all experts have described as neo-fascist.
The NED offers grants via various branches. One of them is the National Democratic Institute, which has been active in Hong Kong since the 1997 handover. These are some of the grants offered by the NED in Hong Kong in 2018.
At least one Hong Kong-based publication took the trouble of studying the NED’s local connections, even publishing a chart of the anti-extradition protest organizational structure. But none of the evidence is conclusive. The most the publication could say was, “If we analyze the historical involvement of NED in Occupy Central and the sequence of events that took place from March in 2019, it is highly possible that the Americans may be potentially involved in the current civil unrest via NED – albeit not conclusive.”
Issue III of the petition sent to the UN deals with “coordinated, directed and covertly commanded on-ground operations; connived with favorable and compatible local and American media so as to present biased new coverage.”
On “coordination,” the main political operative is identified as Julie Eadeh, based at the US Consulate after a previous Middle East stint. Eadeh became a viral sensation in China when she was caught on camera, on the same day, meeting with Anson Chan and Martin Lee, close allies of Jimmy  Lai, founder of pro-protest Apple Daily, and protest leaders Joshua Wong and Nathan Law in the lobby of the Marriott.
The US State Department responded by calling the Chinese government “thuggish” for releasing photographs and personal information about Eadeh.
The NED and Eadeh are also the subjects of further accusations in the petition’s Issue IV (“Investigation of various institutions”).

All in the Basic Law

Ma is the author of an exhaustive, extensively annotated book, Hong Kong Basic Law: Principles and Controversies, published by the Hong Kong Legal Exchange Foundation.
Maria Tam, a member both of the Hong Kong SAR Basic Law Committee and of China’s National People’s Congress, praises the book’s analysis of the ultra-sensitive interpretation of the Basic Law, saying “the common law system has remained unaffected, its judicial independence remaining the best in Asia”, with Hong Kong firmly placed – so far at least – as “the third most preferred avenue for international arbitration.”
In the book, Ma extensively analyzes the finer points of the China containment policy. But he also adds culture to the mix, for instance examining the work of Liang Shuming (1893-1988) on the philosophical compatibility of traditional Chinese Confucianism with the technology of the West. Liang argued that China’s choice, in stark terms, was between wholesale Westernization or complete rejection of the West.
But Ma really hits a nerve when he examines Hong Kong’s unique role – and positioning – as a vector of the China containment policy, facilitated by a prevailing anti-communist sentiment and the absence of a national security law.
This is something that cannot be understood without examining the successive waves of emigration to Hong Kong. The first took place during the Communist-Nationalist civil war (1927-1950) and the Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945); the second, during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1977).
Ma significantly quotes a 1982 poll claiming that 95% of respondents were in favor of maintaining British rule. Everyone who followed the 1997 Hong Kong handover remembers the widespread fear of Chinese tanks rolling into Kowloon at midnight.
In sum, Ma argues that, for Washington, what matters is to “make China’s island of Hong Kong as difficult to govern for Beijing as possible.”

Integrate or perish

Anyone who takes time to carefully study the complexities of the Basic Law can see how Hong Kong is an indivisible part of China. Hundreds of millions of Mainland Chinese now have seen what the black bloc brand of “democracy” – vandalizing public and private property – has done to ruin Hong Kong.
Arguably, in the long run, and after an inevitable cleanup operation, the whole drama may only strengthen Hong Kong’s integration with China. Add to it that China, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia and Japan have separately asked Hong Kong authorities for a detailed list of black bloc rioters.
In my conversations these past few days with informed Hong Kongers – mature businessmen and businesswomen who understand the Basic Law and relations with China – two themes have been recurrent.
One is the weakness of Carrie Lam’s government, with suggestions that the outside non-well-wishers knew her understaffed and overstretched police force would not be up to the task of maintaining security across town. At the same time, many remarked how the response from Washington and London to the Emergency Regulations approval of the anti-mask law was – surprisingly – restrained.
The other theme is decolonization. My interlocutors argued that China did not “control” Hong Kong; if it did, riots would never have happened. Add to it that Lam may have been instructed to do nothing, lest she would mess up an incandescent situation even more.
Now it’s a completely new ball game. Beijing, even discreetly, will insist on a purge of anyone in the civil service who would be identified as anti-China. If Lam just continues to insist on her beloved “dialogue,” she may be replaced by a hands-on CEO such as CY Leung or Regina Ip.
Amid so much gloom, there may be a silver lining. And that concerns the Greater Bay Area project. My interlocutors tend to believe that after the storm ends and after carefully studying the situation for some months, Beijing will soon come up with a new plan to tighten Hong Kong’s integration to the mainland’s economy even more.
The first step was to tell Hong Kong’s tycoons to get their act together and be more socially responsible. The second will be to convince Hong Kong’s businesses to reinvent themselves for good and profit as part of the Greater Bay Area and the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative.
Hong Kong will thrive only if plugged, not unplugged. That may be the ultimate – profitable – argument against any form of foreign sabotage.

Anachronism: Chinese President Xi Jinping urges Taiwan to follow Hong Kong model for unification


Chinese President Xi Jinping urges Taiwan to follow Hong Kong model for unification
Teddy Ng   Lawrence Chung
 China Morning Press
2 Jan, 2019

Xi calls on Taipei to start work on adopting ‘one country, two systems’ to bring island back into the China fold
Message comes a day after Taiwanese leader says self-ruled Taiwan will not cede ground on sovereignty
 “Chinese people will not fight Chinese people,” he said.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, however, rejected Xi’s claim that the one country, two systems model was the way to resolve cross-strait conflicts.
“I must reiterate here that Taiwan will never accept one country, two systems, and the majority opinion in Taiwan is also against it,” she said just hours after Xi’s speech.
And on matters of unification, she said, only talks held at the government level carried any weight.
Taiwan and the mainland have been divided since the Nationalist, or Kuomintang, forces were defeated by the Communists in a civil war and retreated to the island. In the seven decades since, relations across the strait have often been tense, raising fears of military confrontation.
On January 1, 1979, Beijing stopped decades of regular artillery bombardment of Taiwan-controlled islands off the mainland, and in a public letter to the Taiwanese known as the “message to compatriots in Taiwan”, called for an end to military confrontation across the strait.
A day before Xi marked the anniversary of the letter, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, said Taipei would not give any ground on sovereignty and Beijing should appreciate that the “Republic of China, Taiwan” had existed for a long time.
But Xi said Taiwan must be united with the mainland, adding that the division was a trauma for the Chinese nation that people on both sides should overcome.
“The Chinese dream [of national rejuvenation] is the common dream of compatriots across the strait,” he said, using a slogan to promote China’s aspirations to be a strong power by the middle of the century.
“No one and no force can change the fact that Taiwan is part of China, and the historical and legal fact that both sides of the strait belong to one China.”
Xi said the differences in political systems between the two sides should not be obstacles to unification, and could be resolved through one country, two systems – an approach adopted for Hong Kong and Macau to ensure the two cities’ political and economic systems remained intact after handover.
 “The introduction of one country, two systems is originally for taking care of the conditions of Taiwan and protecting the interests and benefits of Taiwan compatriots,” he said.
“The social system and lifestyle of Taiwan compatriots will be fully respected, and their private property, religion and legitimate interests will be fully protected after peaceful unification, and on the condition that national sovereignty, security and development are guaranteed.”
Xi said the mainland welcomed exchanges with all political parties and organizations in Taiwan based on the one-China principle and the 1992 consensus – an agreement reached by both sides that there is only one China but each side can have its own interpretation of what that means.
The Chinese president’s call comes amid a prolonged suspension in contact between Beijing and Taipei. The mainland suspended communication after Tsai took office in 2016 and failed to recognize the consensus, which Beijing insists is the foundation for any direct links.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen tells Beijing it ‘must’ respect island’s sovereignty, people’s choices
In addition, Beijing has staged military drills near the island, wooed away some of Taipei’s diplomatic allies and cut the number of mainland tourists allowed to make the trip across the strait.
But it has also made it easier for Taiwanese people to work and do business on the mainland.
Xi also said the mainland would step up economic cooperation and youth exchanges with Taiwan, and urged people in Hong Kong to support reunification efforts.
Martin Lee Chu-ming, founding chairman of the Democratic Party in Hong Kong, was skeptical of Xi’s call to apply one country, two systems in Taiwan.
“One country, two systems is valid for 50 years in Hong Kong. How long will it last for Taiwan?” he said.
People in Taiwan were concerned about the mainland authorities’ growing influence on the city, such as attempts to advance national security legislation, he said.
“Taiwanese people who look at Hong Kong will see the changes over the past 20 years.”
Lee said he was also concerned that Xi’s “democratic consultations” would end up with mainland officials dictating directives without consulting or respecting the views of the Taiwanese.
Ip Kwok-him, a Hong Kong deputy to the National People’s Congress, said “one country, two systems” was the way forward for Taiwan.
“One country, two systems means the government needs to make sure both socialism and capitalism do well. Look at Taiwan’s economy – it’s in a mess under Tsai ... while mainland China’s economic power has been very strong,” he said.
Ip added that in the recent elections in Taiwan, several DPP candidates were defeated by KMT rivals.
“It shows that the people in Taiwan also want the island’s economy to do well,” he said, adding that Hong Kong had shown that “one country, two systems” could succeed in a capitalist economy and that the city was “thriving with the mainland’s support”.
“Under the ‘one country, two systems’ principle, Taiwan will maintain its autonomy, and there is much room for discussion under this principle,” Ip said.
Lau Siu-kai, vice-chairman of The Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, a semi-official think tank, said that while Taiwan might be able to negotiate its own terms within the one country, two systems framework, the model was not popular with people living on the island, especially in light of the situation in Hong Kong.
Lau noted that Xi did not say in his speech that one country, two systems worked well in Hong Kong.
“Knowing that many Taiwanese have mixed or even negative feelings about how one country, two systems works in Hong Kong, it is understandable that Xi didn’t mention it,” he said.
Additional reporting by Choi Chi-yuk, Kristin Huang and Tony Cheung

James Harden apologizes as controversy grows: 'We love China'

James Harden apologizes as controversy grows: 'We love China'

Houston Rockets star James Harden has offered an apology as the controversy over general manager Daryl Morey's tweet of support for Hong Kong protesters continues to grow at a crucial time for the NBA in China.
Harden spoke while standing with teammate Russell Westbrook at a practice in Tokyo on Monday, three days after Morey posted a now-deleted tweet that read: "Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong."
"We apologize. You know, we love China. We love playing there," Harden said. "For both of us individually, we go there once or twice a year. They show us the most important love."
The incident has come at a particularly awkward moment for the league, whose players have often been outspoken about social issues in the United States.
China has teams playing preseason games in the U.S. this week, the Rockets are about to play two games in Japan and the Los Angeles Lakers -- with one of the biggest global sports stars, LeBron James -- are set to play the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday in Shanghai and Saturday in Shenzhen, China.
"We appreciate them as a fan base," Harden said. "We love everything there about them, and we appreciate the support that they give us individually and as [an] organization."
The strong reactions to Morey's tweet underscore Beijing's sensitivity about foreign attitudes toward the ongoing Hong Kong protests that have lately grown into violence in the semiautonomous territory. China has accused foreign parties in the United States and elsewhere of encouraging the demonstrations.
The protests were sparked by a proposed extradition law that would have allowed suspects to be sent to China to face trial. Activists saw that as a threat to the legal rights that Hong Kong residents have under the current "one country, two systems" framework.
Nets owner Joe Tsai, a co-founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, posted a 736-word open letter on his Facebook page late Sunday night saying that Morey stepped on what he described as "a third-rail issue'' when it comes to China and Hong Kong.
"By now I hope you can begin to understand why the Daryl Morey tweet is so damaging to the relationship with our fans in China,'' Tsai wrote. "I don't know Daryl personally. I am sure he's a fine NBA general manager, and I will take at face value his subsequent apology that he was not as well informed as he should have been. But the hurt that this incident has caused will take a long time to repair.''
The NBA, when it weighed in on the controversy Sunday night, said it hopes the league can help to unify people and cultural divides while maintaining an openness to a flow of ideas. Fostering strong relationships with China has been a priority for the league for at least three decades. The NBA has a China office and just announced plans to add a gaming team in Shanghai to the NBA 2K League, and officials in both countries say as many as 500 million Chinese fans watched at least one NBA game last season.
"We recognize that the views expressed by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable," the NBA said in a statement. "While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA, the values of the league support individuals' educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them."
China's official basketball association, headed by Hall of Famer and Rockets great Yao Ming, said it would suspend cooperation with the team, calling Morey's tweet "improper remarks regarding Hong Kong" to which it expressed its "strong opposition." Chinese state television and Tencent -- a major media partner with ESPN and the NBA in China, with a streaming deal that is worth $1.5 billion total over the next five years -- then said they would not be showing Rockets games.
"We have great respect for the history and culture of China," the NBA said in its statement, "and hope that sports and the NBA can be used as a unifying force to bridge cultural divides and bring people together."
Morey attempted to clarify the matter Sunday.
"I did not intend my tweet to cause any offense to Rockets fans and friends of mine in China," he said in a tweeted statement. "I was merely voicing one thought, based on one interpretation, of one complicated event. I have had a lot of opportunity since that tweet to hear and consider other perspectives."
It wasn't clear if Morey's new tweets or the NBA's statement would be enough to salvage the various relationships. Chinese athletic apparel company Li-Ning also released a statement, saying that it is upset with Morey's tweet.
A statement posted on the league's Weibo account in China was translated to say that the league is "extremely disappointed in the inappropriate comment."
"He has undoubtedly seriously hurt the feelings of Chinese basketball fans," the statement read, in language similar to what is sometimes seen in Chinese state media. The NBA later clarified that it put out one statement -- in English.
China's relationship with the Rockets has been especially close because Yao played his entire NBA career with the team. Yao was appointed as the basketball association's president in February 2017, in what was presented as a step toward reform for an organization that in the past was led by government bureaucrats.
Several NBA players -- including major current and former stars such as Stephen Curry and Kobe Bryant -- go to China annually to promote their individual brands, and the World Cup held in China earlier this summer saw countless fans attend in NBA jerseys.
"I have always appreciated the significant support our Chinese fans and sponsors have provided," Morey tweeted. "And I would hope that those who are upset will know that offending or misunderstanding them was not my intention. My tweets are my own and in no way represent the Rockets or the NBA."
Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta denounced Morey's tweet Friday, saying that the Rockets are not a political organization.
Fertitta told ESPN's Tim MacMahon that he felt compelled, due to the reaction to Morey's tweet, to publicly clarify that the Rockets do not take political positions, but Fertitta stressed that he has no issues with Morey.
"I have the best general manager in the league," Fertitta said. "Everything is fine with Daryl and me. We got a huge backlash, and I wanted to make clear that the organization has no political position. We're here to play basketball and not to offend anybody."
The statements from Morey and the NBA caught the eyes of lawmakers, including no fewer than three U.S. Senators: Ted Cruz of Texas, Rick Scott of Florida and Brian Schatz of Hawaii.
"We're better than this; human rights shouldn't be for sale & the NBA shouldn't be assisting Chinese communist censorship," tweeted Cruz, who said he is a lifelong Rockets fan.
Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro, a former U.S. Housing Secretary from Texas, tweeted "China is using its economic power to silence critics -- even those in the U.S."
After Morey's tweet, even the Chinese government's consulate office in Houston issued a statement saying it "expressed strong dissatisfaction'' with the Rockets.
"We have lodged representations and expressed strong dissatisfaction with the Houston Rockets, and urged the latter to correct the error and take immediate concrete measures to eliminate the adverse impact,'' the consulate general's office said in a statement Sunday.
The consulate did not specify what exactly it is seeking from the Rockets, and there was no immediate follow-up statement after Morey's attempt to clarify his thoughts.
The Communist Party's official newspaper, People's Daily, said in a commentary that Morey's position was "hurtful to Chinese basketball fans and is also an affront to the Chinese people.''
People's Daily noted that multinational corporations that tested the line on Hong Kong have "paid a heavy price.'' Cathay Pacific lost two executives after China warned the Hong Kong airline that its employees would be barred from flying over or to the mainland if they joined the protests.
After being criticized by Chinese social media users, fashion brands Givenchy, Versace and Coach apologized for selling T-shirts that showed Hong Kong, as well as the Chinese territory of Macau and self-ruled Taiwan, as separate countries.
Two G League exhibition games between affiliates of the Rockets and Dallas Mavericks, scheduled for later this month in China, have been canceled, according to The Athletic.
Still scheduled are the Lakers-Nets games in China. Also still scheduled are Guangzhou Loong Lions games against the 76ers on Tuesday in Philadelphia and against the Wizards on Wednesday in Washington.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.