Hong Kong Today, Tomorrow Canada: Why Canadians Should Care About Hong Kong

Hong Kong Today, Tomorrow Canada: Why Canadians Should Care About Hong Kong
Protesters march on a road during a pro-democracy rally against a proposed new security law in Hong Kong on May 24, 2020. The proposed legislation is expected to ban treason, subversion and sedition, and follows repeated warnings from Beijing that it will no longer tolerate dissent in Hong Kong, which was shaken by months of massive protests last year. (Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images)
The Reader's Turn
6/8/2020
Updated:
6/8/2020

The recent passage of the National People’s Congress’s draft decision to impose a new national security law for Hong Kong raised anger among Hong Kongers and people that care about Hong Kong around the world. Following the nearly unanimous passage of the bill, 13 Canadian organizations responded with a joint statement to condemn this utterly vicious attack to further silence dissent within the city of Hong Kong. The joint statement raised severe concerns about the constitutionality of the law and the ambiguous term of setting up a national security bureau, which has been interpreted as a Chinese version of the KGB in Hong Kong.

As the world looks at Hong Kong and determines what should be the next step to take, President Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Chinese-led World Health Organization and remove Hong Kong’s special trading status with the United States. Although some may not like Trump’s style of governance, his actions towards China are undoubtedly correct. China has now become the primary aggression in the world. If the world continues to appease him, it will just want more and more, until it becomes too powerful for the allies to take him.

Sadly, on this matter, Canada does not even dare to “condemn” China for this violation of Hong Kong’s freedoms and liberties. Canada had been very incompetent in its recent response to Chinese aggression, including the two Micheals and now Hong Kong. But our government has acted more like an ally of communist China rather than an ally of the western free world. Canada’s weak action towards Chinese suppression is an invitation for China to further its infiltration into Canadian’s daily lives.

Canada has, for many decades, stood firmly against tyrannies and violations of human rights. Therefore, it is distressing to see that Canada has been weak or even a coward towards Chinese aggression. It is ironic that we teach the story of the holocaust at schools when it is only appropriate for the Canadian government to suck its thumb when the same thing is happening in Hong Kong and China.

Over the last century, the world had held its head high against aggression from all sides. Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, Japan, the Soviet Union had all been brought down by the free world. From the Churchill-Roosevelt cooperation in the second world war to the Thatcher-Reagan philosophy in the 1980s, the western world dismantled the worst of the world’s tyrannies.

Today, the largest and ever-growing China had become the new Soviet Union, which similarly had penetrated into everyone’s lives. Although the time may seem familiar as the cold wars, but the international response had been much weaker. And our government is praising China and dare not criticize Beijing in fear of damaging its trading relationship with China.

The lack of political heavyweights like Churchill, Roosevelt, Reagan, or Thatcher had allowed China to grow larger and more influential than ever before. If our leaders cannot take a principled stance, then it is eminent that a new Cold War or even World war will begin until the west can unite and take firm action.

Canada must hold firmly to our core values and stand up to China! One cannot let China get away with flouting with international treaties and universal human rights standards, which Canadians so proudly enjoy under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is our job to make sure these values enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights can be extended to every man and woman on the globe.

Henry Chan is a member of Saskatchewan Stands with Hong Kong (co-signer of the Canada-wide joint statement on the Hong Kong national security law)