Canadian and Chinese flags photographed prior to a meeting with Justin Trudeau and China's President Xi Jinping at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Dec. 5, 2017.FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images
One of the leading experts on the politics of Hong Kong told MPs that Canada and its allies hold more influence in the former British colony than they might realize and urged them to unite to force Beijing to rethink its crackdown there.
Steve Tsang, a Hong Kong-born political scientist at the University of London’s SOAS China Institute, testified Monday before the special Commons committee on Canada-China relations, which is considering how the Canadian government should respond to Beijing’s repressive moves in Hong Kong.
At the end of June this year, Beijing imposed a new national security law on Hong Kong that criminalizes dissent and opposition and violates a treaty the Chinese government signed to respect local autonomy and leave civil liberties untouched for 50 years after Hong Kong was handed over to Beijing.
Prof. Tsang pointed out that that key Western countries alone have more than 3.5 million citizens and nationals in Hong Kong. He said this group, which amounts to half of Hong Kong’s population, represents the bulk of the economic lifeforce in the territory. The departure of this population would greatly damage the Asian financial hub’s future.
Hong Kong’s residents include 300,000 Canadians, 100,000 Australians, 85,000 Americans, 3,000 New Zealanders and an estimated 2.9 million who are a class of British nationality called British National (Overseas).
“If you [add up] the Canadians and the BNO passport holders and the Americans and the Australians and the New Zealanders passport holders together, you are talking about the bulk of Hong Kong’s economic lifeline," Prof. Tsang said.
"If they all leave Hong Kong because of ... Chinese government policy, [Beijing] will have to think hard about this.”
The chill from the new security law is changing life in Hong Kong. Dozens, including leading pro-democracy figures, were later arrested, and newspapers raided. Authorities have subsequently barred some opposition politicians from running for office or re-election. Academics are self-censoring to avoid arrest. One teacher lost their licence for teaching materials that touched on the question of independence for Hong Kong.
Prof. Tsang, who wrote an acclaimed record of the former British colony, A Modern History of Hong Kong, said he thinks Chinese Communist Party leadership remains skeptical that Western countries will actually come to the defence of their nationals in Hong Kong.
“At the moment the Chinese government does not believe any of these governments will stand by their nationals in Hong Kong, who are mostly in fact dual nationals. We have to persuade the Chinese government that yes we really mean it, for them to take it seriously,” he told members of Parliament.
The academic likened the Chinese government under Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping to a “schoolyard bully” and said democracies need to stand up to it together.
“What I am talking about is to make it very, very clear that you really will – and have a plan to – help and protect your nationals in Hong Kong,” he said.
He urged Canada and other democracies that have significant populations in Hong Kong to co-ordinate a joint defence of civil liberties there. “That is one thing that will really get [Beijing] to take notice, more than anything else. Individually none of us will be able to persuade the Chinese government to make any change,” he said.
The Chinese government has previously waved off criticism of its conduct in Hong Kong as interference. Prof. Tsang said that’s untrue. China signed a binding international treaty with Britain, the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, where it pledged local autonomy for Hong Kong for half a century after the 1997 handover, and, he said, it’s normal for countries to press foreign states to live up to their commitments.
“If we don’t do that the Chinese government will get the sense they are not required to honour their treaty obligations and that is not good for anybody, including Canada.”
Last week, Canada’s top diplomat in Hong Kong, consul-general Jeff Nankivell, told MPs that Ottawa has drawn up detailed plans for a mass evacuation of Canadians, if necessary, for the territory.
MPs asked witnesses Monday whether the political defeat of U.S. President Donald Trump will trigger a shift in U.S. policy toward China after four years of criticism and penalties from the Republican leader in Washington.
Adam Nelson, senior adviser for Asia-Pacific at the U.S.-based National Democratic Institute, noted the 2019 Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which enacted sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong leadership, was a “fully bipartisan” effort.
“I have very little doubt … that the focus of continued support on democracy and human rights for both China and Hong Kong and future support for Taiwan will continue to be vibrant," he told MPs.
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