Dear readers, we'll be off on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday in
the United States. The newsletter will return as usual on Tuesday.
Best wishes,
Ishaan and Ruby
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Mourners light candles at a vigil May 15 to commemorate
a protester who died last year during anti-government demonstrations in
Hong Kong. (Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)
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China's Communist
Party will impose a sweeping national security law in Hong Kong by
fiat during the annual meeting of its top political body, officials said
Thursday, criminalizing "foreign interference" along with
secessionist activities and subversion of state power.
The move is the boldest yet from Beijing to undercut Hong Kong’s
autonomy and bring the global financial hub under its full control, as it
works to rewrite the “one country, two systems” framework that has allowed
the territory to enjoy a level of autonomy for the past 23 years.
After steadily
eroding Hong Kong’s political freedoms, Beijing signaled that
the national security law will be a new tool that allows it to directly
tackle the political dissent that erupted on Hong Kong’s streets last year.
The months-long and sometimes violent protests began last June and fizzled
out only over public health concerns related to the coronavirus outbreak.
The new tactic marks an escalation in Beijing’s crackdown in the former
British colony and the clearest indication that it views Hong Kong as a
restive region to be brought to heel after last year’s protests.
The city’s future has become a point of contention in the intensifying
rivalry between China and the United States; on Wednesday, Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo said Washington was “closely watching what’s going on” in
Hong Kong. Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong have directly appealed to
Washington for intervention, frequently waving American flags on the
streets, and see themselves as the last bastion of resistance against an
increasingly assertive Beijing under President Xi Jinping.
“Beijing has opted for the most risky route,” said Ho-Fung Hung, a
professor of international relations at Johns Hopkins University. “It will
show the world that ‘one country, two systems’ is, if not already over,
almost over.” He added: “It will be very difficult for anyone, especially
the United States, to say Hong Kong is still autonomous and viable.”
On Thursday, China
made clear it was asserting control over Hong Kong through “improvement” of
its governance.
“We will ensure the long-term stability of ‘one country, two systems,’ ” Wang Yang, head of the Chinese
People’s Political Consultative Conference, said at the opening of the
annual meeting of China’s top political advisory body. The meeting is the
first part of the Two Sessions political gatherings, which will
continue Friday with the National People’s Congress (NPC), the rubber-stamp
parliament.
“We will continue to support the improvement of the implementation of
the systems and mechanisms of the constitution and Basic Law,” Wang said in
a report to the meeting.
Later Thursday, representatives from Beijing’s Hong Kong and Macao
Affairs Office met with Hong Kong delegates to China’s legislature to
explain the details of the national security law. The law, a direct
response to last year’s protests, will ban secession, subversion of state
power, foreign interference and terrorism, said Stanley Ng, a Hong Kong
deputy to the NPC, who attended the meeting.
The legislation could pass as early as next week and will bypass all of
Hong Kong’s usual processes.
Similar laws were proposed in 2003 and would have allowed authorities to
conduct searches without warrants. But they were abandoned after mass
protests and never picked up locally again.
The Hong Kong dollar weakened sharply against the U.S. dollar as the
reports emerged.
Beijing blamed last year’s unrest on secessionist forces and foreign
influence. A government proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China
touched off the unrest, but the movement grew into a broader and sometimes
violent rebellion calling for full democracy and opposing China’s efforts
to chip away at Hong Kong’s firewall with the mainland.
President Trump has sharply stepped up denunciations of China over his
claims it failed to warn the world of the coronavirus dangers in the
outbreak’s early weeks. But his comments on Hong Kong were less direct.
“I don’t know what it is because nobody knows yet,” Trump told reporters
as he left the White House on Thursday. “If it happens, we’ll address that
issue very strongly.” He did not elaborate.
The shift will have far-reaching effects. Under the agreement Britain
signed with China before it handed back Hong Kong in 1997, the territory is
supposed to enjoy its relative freedoms until at least 2047 under the “one
country, two systems” framework.
This arrangement helped Hong Kong to flourish as a global financial
center even after returning to Beijing’s overall control, and has allowed
the United States and other nations to treat the city differently from
China. It also allowed Hong Kong to run its own affairs, except foreign
affairs and defense.
But under Xi’s
leadership, the Communist Party has encroached on Hong Kong’s autonomy with
stunning speed.
In recent months, Beijing has installed a tough new representative in
Hong Kong, called for patriotic education to instill more allegiance to
China, and promoted a bill that would make it a criminal offense to
disrespect China’s national anthem.
Delegates from Hong Kong, including Carrie Lam, the city’s chief
executive, arrived in Beijing on Thursday for the Two Sessions.
Wang said Beijing supports the Hong Kong deputies’ efforts to “avoid
violence in Hong Kong and to restore order.”
But as news of the proposal spread, calls were issued for more mass
protests in Hong Kong.
“The arms of tyranny have reached Hong Kong,” said Ted Hui, a
pro-democracy lawmaker who was a regular participant in protests last year.
“Darker days are coming.”
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Talking Points
• For more
background on what’s fueling the clash between Beijing and Hong Kong,
my colleagues Siobhán O’Grady and Miriam Berger explain how the events of the last year
have led to this point and examine what could happen next.
• The powerful
Cyclone Amphan tore through India and Bangladesh, killing
more than 85 people as it flattened tens of thousands of homes.
About 3 million people were evacuated from their homes ahead of the storm's
arrival, but as both countries battle rising numbers of novel coronavirus
cases, some evacuees feared they might contract the virus during
hours stuck inside emergency shelters.
• One of the most
critical defenses against the coronavirus: Wash your hands with soap and
water. But access to clean water is dramatically uneven
across the world. About a third of Nigeria’s population — 60 million people
— must leave home to find it, according to aid groups and government
statistics. To make matters there worse, report Yagazie Emezi and Danielle Paquette,
“venturing out to the nearest pump has meant risking exposure to the virus
or a clash with police.”
• Like much of the
agriculture in the developed world, British fruit and vegetable growers are
dependent on migrant workers. But with the coronavirus
disrupting movements across Europe, British growers say that even with special
charter flights to bring workers in from Eastern Europe, the pool has dwindled because of travel restrictions,
and because workers are afraid to come to the United Kingdom, which has the
highest death toll in Europe. Prince Charles this week urged British
workers furloughed by the pandemic to get out into the fields and “pick for
Britain.”
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Top of The Post
By
John Wagner, Mark Berman, Marisa Iati, Adam Taylor, Steven Goff, Michael
Brice-Saddler, Kareem Copeland, Felicia Sonmez and Colby Itkowitz ● Read more »
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Viewpoints
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By
Elena Conis, Michael McCoyd and Jessie A. Moravek | The New York
Times ● Read more »
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Keeping the faith
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Devotees during the communal Friday prayers at Jamia
Mosque in Rawalpindi, Pakistan on May 15. (Photo by Saiyna Bashir for The
Washington Post)
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As Friday prayers began in the main mosque last week, worshipers filled
the front courtyard. Late
arrivals squeezed into the back and into overflow areas, disregarding the
tape on the stone floor showing people where to stand to maintain social
distance. It wasn’t just in Rawalpindi. Despite a rising
number of coronavirus cases
throughout Pakistan, officials in other major cities — Islamabad, Karachi
and Lahore — described similar scenes during the holy month of Ramadan,
which ends Saturday.
The large religious
gatherings reflect the conflict between Pakistan’s powerful imams, who
successfully lobbied the government last month to allow congregational
prayers, and health officials, who warn that country’s fragile health
system could be overwhelmed if current trends continue. The
number of coronavirus cases in this country of 230 million has
quadrupled in the past month, jumping from 12,000 to over 48,000. And the
rate of new infections is steadily rising: The number of cases increased
30 percent in just the past week. More than 1,000 people have died.
Yet the country’s Supreme Court ruled Monday that the coronavirus “apparently
is not a pandemic in Pakistan,” and government officials,
including Prime Minister Imran Khan, have suggested the economic costs of
prolonged restrictions outweigh the health costs of increased infection. The same influential religious
leaders who called for the easing of restrictions for Ramadan are now
demanding they be done away with completely for Eid, a
holiday that marks the end of the holy month. — Susannah George
Read on: Pakistan’s coronavirus cases quadruple during the holy
month of Ramadan — and show no signs of slowing
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1,000 Words
No organized sport escaped Britain’s March 23 lockdown. More than 2,600
golf courses were shuttered and the British Open Championship, scheduled
for July at Royal St. George’s Golf Club in England, was canceled for the
first time since World War II. But as of last week in England and this week in Wales,
club golf is back — at least for those who don’t mind
golfing alone, or sharing their play with just one other person outside
their household, along with adhering to other social distancing
restrictions. (Phil Noble/Reuters)
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Afterword
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