Briefings - 342. page

On July 3, after the U.K. Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, made comments about “serious consequences” if Beijing breaches the legally binding joint agreement between the U.K. and China over Hong Kong, Geng Shuang, the spokesperson for China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry countered.

Xinhua summarized Geng’s statement as follows: Hong Kong affairs have to do purely with China’s internal affairs; the hope is that the United Kingdom will stop overestimating its capabilities to violently interfere in Hong Kong affairs.

Geng made the following statements in his answer to a reporter’s question on China’s response to Hunt’s comments.

“First, after Hong Kong was returned to China, all the rights and responsibilities that the U.K. had over Hong Kong, as defined in the Joint Declaration of the U.K. and China, were completed. Since July 1, 1999, China has been executing its sovereignty over Hong Kong following its Constitution and the Basic Law of Hong Kong. The U.K. has no sovereignty, administrative rights, or monitoring rights over Hong Kong. It is the self-inflated dream that the U.K. is playing as the ‘guardian’ of Hong Kong.

“Second, it is a sheer lie that the freedom of Hong Kong residents was obtained through the U.K.’s efforts. I remind Mr. Hunt, there was no democracy in Hong Kong under the British rule. It was (China) that guaranteed Hong Kong residents their democracy rights and their freedom.

“Third, the violent rush into the Legislation Council on July 1 is a severe law-violation event that breaks the law and damages the social order. It was like claiming black is white when Mr. Hunt says the Hong Kong government is ‘suppressing.’

“Last, I want to stress that Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affair. We resolutely will not allow any government, organization, or individual to brutally intervene. We hope the British government, especially Mr. Hunt, will not overestimate its own capability and violently interfere in Hong Kong affairs. It will be in vain.”

Source: Xinhua, July 3, 2019
http://www.xinhuanet.com/world/2019-07/03/c_1124706383.htm

A video titled “The ‘Magical Prediction’ of the Hong Kong Police” exposed several facts that indicate it was very likely that the Hong Kong police set up the Hong Kong protesters so they would enter the Legislative Council on July 1.

On the official video in which the police officer condemned the protesters for using metal material to damage the building and then rushed into the building, his watch showed the time to be 5:05. However, the protesters did not enter the Legislative Council until 9 p.m.

The video showed several middle-aged radical “protesters” who pushed a metal cart to break the glass doors, while the policemen inside the door were just calmly standing and watching. When a councilman tried to stop the action, a very radical “protester” simply pushed the councilman to ground. This protester’s face was fully covered, and he wore gloves. All these radical “protesters” later completely disappeared.

There were also some other awkward phenomena. The policemen inside the building set off a gas canister when there was no protester entering the building; then 4 minutes later, around 9 p.m., they just left. Five minutes later, the gate was broken and protesters came in.

Newsweek added other information, saying, “Pro-democracy internet users in Hong Kong are circulating a video they claim proves that Monday’s violent protests were allowed—and perhaps even encouraged—by the city’s police force in order to undermine the credibility of demonstrators.”  They also “suggested that police-directed agent provocateurs may have been active among the protesters, perhaps even leading the attack on the Legislative Council building.”

Sources:
1. Newsweek, July 2, 2019
https://www.newsweek.com/hong-kong-protesters-legco-building-break-police-set-video-officer-statement-watch-1447038
2. YouTube, July 2, 2019

According to the latest statistics that the Ministry of Organization released on June 30, as of December 31, 2018, the total number of members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was 90.594 million. But many people believe that most of the members joined the party for personal gain. The CCP is the ruling party of the country with the largest population in the world. Due to its long-term monopoly on social resources, many people join the party out of concern for their personal future. Meanwhile there are a large number of corrupt officials and other criminals among the CCP officials and party members. Many party members have a very poor image in the eyes of the people. When referring to the CCP’s dismissal of some of its party members in order to maintain the “purity” of the party, some non-party members even joked that, “It is better for the bad guys to stay in the party and not to be expelled. Otherwise they will contaminate the general public.” However, the latest article that Xinhua published claimed that the party attracts two million people to join each year and the quality of its members continues to improve.

Source: Voice of America, June 30, 2019
https://www.voachinese.com/a/chinese-communist-party-members-20190630/4979386.html

Although the current number is still not large, more and more of Hong Kong’s people are moving to Taiwan to find a new life and place for themselves. According to Taiwan’s official data, the number of Hong Kong and Macao residents who obtained Taiwan resident status last year was more than double what it was 10 years ago. Since the umbrella movement in Hong Kong in 2014, the number of Hong Kong people who are migrating to Taiwan has been increasing. When the Hong Kong government recently attempted to revise the “Extradition Law,” millions of Hong Kong residents showed resistance. The number of people who have inquired about migration to Taiwan showed an “explosive growth.”

According to statistics from the Taiwan Immigration Department, there were about 700 Hong Kong residents who obtained Taiwan resident status in 2014. In 2016, the number went up to 1,086 people. For the past two years, the number has held steady at more than 1,000 people every year. Lin Yaozong, head of the Hong Kong immigration company in Hong Kong, said in an interview with Voice of America that, during the umbrella movement in 2014, there was a wave of Hong Kong people migrating to Taiwan. After Carrie Lam was elected as the Chief Executive, the number of applicants dropped. The decline was believed to be due to the fact that many Hong Kong people were waiting to see how Carrie Lam managed Hong Kong. After they discovered that Carrie Lam was only there to repeat the previous system, the desire of Hong Kong’s people to immigrate to Taiwan increased again. After 2018, the Hong Kong people’s immigration to Taiwan accelerated. He said that, especially in the past two months, the popularity of consulting about immigration to Taiwan has risen sharply, showing a “phenomenal growth.”

According to a poll that the Chinese University of Hong Kong released earlier this year, more than 30 percent of respondents said that Taiwan would be the third most popular location if they had the opportunity to migrate, second only to Canada and Australia. The reasons for migrating include that there are too many political disputes and social problems in Hong Kong, along with overcrowded living conditions, high housing prices, a lack of democracy, and an unsatisfactory political system.

Source: Voice of America, July 1, 2019
https://www.voachinese.com/a/hong-kong-taiwan-immigration/4979467.html