The founder of Next Media, Chi-Ying Li, was charged with fraud yesterday and his bail application was denied. From four months ago, when about 200 police officers surrounded the Apple building and searched it for nearly nine hours, to the National Security Law’s appointed judge ruling that Chi-Ying Li would be re-interrogated for more than four months, this so-called fraud case highlights the judicial violence of an authoritarian regime that shuts down dissenting voices. From the arrest and prosecution of RTHK editor-director Cai Yu-ling, web host Jess, and campus reporter Deng Ze-min, to the “killing team” of cable TV’s “News Pin”, to the four-month jail term before Chi-Ying Lai is found guilty, the authoritarian regime’s intimidation of the media could not be clearer: either castrate yourself or be killed!
Authoritarian regimes use fear as a ruling tool
The French thinker Montesquieu divided political systems into three categories: republics, monarchies, and dictatorships. Each of these three types of political systems has a set of governing principles: morality, honor, and fear. In other words, an autocratic regime uses fear as the principle and tool of rule, and is made up of layers of fear: citizens are afraid of the police and officials, local officials are afraid of central officials, central officials are afraid of the supreme leader, and the supreme leader is afraid of losing power.
With the handover of sovereignty in 1997, Hong Kong’s political system transitioned from a colonial monarchy to a Chinese Communist dictatorship, and the rules of governance changed from honor to fear. The more nostalgic the people of Hong Kong are of their past glory, the more the rulers fear the loss of their rights, and the more repressive they are, the more the draconian laws of China explode the struggle of the people of Hong Kong to defend their freedom from fear, and unexpectedly the Chinese Communist Party brings out Hong Kong’s version of the National Security Law, pushing the authoritarian regime’s rule by fear to its peak.
In order to deprive people of their freedom from fear, an authoritarian regime cannot do without judicial violence and stifling freedom of speech. Since June of last year, police brutality and indiscriminate arrests, and the government’s indiscriminate prosecution and imprisonment, how can they be sustained in an environment of press freedom and freedom of speech? The struggle of Rui Shui and the struggle of the brothers to climb the mountain dismantled the wave after wave of suppression by the Chinese Communist Party and the Hong Kong Communist Party, and the establishment of a commission of inquiry also became the consensus of the city widely supported by senior figures in the legal, academic and political circles.
The Lao Tzu says, “The people do not fear death, but they fear it with death.” In a protest movement, it is often not fear that is triggered by the dead, but rather the common enemy. However, there are more horrible tortures in this world than death. The 12 Hong Kong people who were sent to China were detained in Shenzhen for more than 100 days, and their families and lawyers were not even allowed to see them. The fear thus formed is exactly what the Chinese Communist Party and the Hong Kong Communist Party want to achieve, and it is also the terror of the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law. Street protests, international protests, and parliamentary protests have been weakened and even eliminated at the same time, not because of the justice and fairness of the law, but because of the fear of ruling Hong Kong by law and ruling people outside the law.
Repression of Outspoken Media Institutions
To maintain the effectiveness of the reign of fear, authoritarian regimes must obliterate the roar or wail of those who resist. If the people have a voice, the fear of white terror, such as judicial violence, will diminish and the will to fight will strengthen. Therefore, all outspoken individuals, all outspoken media, and all outspoken institutions are under the repression of the Chinese Communist Party and the Hong Kong Communist Party.
Under the control of pro-communist legislators, the Legislative Council of Hong Kong has amended its rules of procedure to castrate itself, but since the self-castration was incomplete and not enough to eliminate the protest voices, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) legislated and the Lam Cheng government used the knife to DQ the democratic legislators, turning the Legislative Council into a rubber stamp without any opposing authoritarian voices. The district councils, dominated by the democrats, have become a source of chaos in the eyes of the Chinese Communist Party and the Hong Kong Communist Party, and are bound to become the next target for killing.
The basis for the CCP’s authoritarian rule of fear is nothing more than the barrel of a gun and the handle of a sword, i.e., the military, the public prosecutors (public security, procuratorate, courts), and in Hong Kong, the police and the judiciary. Judicial violence has become as much a tool for fear mongering as police violence, and there is no longer a darkest day for justice in Hong Kong. The day after the three sons were sentenced to prison, another three top executives of Next Media were prosecuted for fraud, and Chi-Ying Lai was refused bail and returned to his scabbard.
The Hong Kong media’s red-baiting and self-censorship have long gone hand in hand, but there are always those who do not ignore their conscience and insist on continuing to speak for the people in the press, news websites, radio, television, and social media, and therefore cannot tolerate an authoritarian regime. The media and KOL, if they don’t castrate themselves, they will be killed. The authorities have become the new normal in soliciting people to block microphones, and I am afraid that blocking newspapers and websites will not be long in coming. When the freedom of speech is banned, it will be the time when the citizens’ freedom from fear will be completely taken away.
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