At the G7, NATO, and US-European summits, Western countries demonstrated a strong signal to unite against the Chinese Communist regime. This crucial step is a good start, but there is still much work to be done next, and establishing and implementing a set of tools to counter the CCP as soon as possible should be an essential part of the process.
In the face of the Western alliance’s warnings, the CCP continues to put up a provocative stance. Verbally not recognizing that the U.S. and European countries represent the international community, the CCP has once again deployed massive military aircraft to harass in the Taiwan Strait, and has further disrupted Hong Kong to publicly demonstrate to the West.
On June 17, about 500 police officers raided the Apple Daily and arrested five executives, calling the Apple Daily newsroom a “crime scene” and labeling it as “colluding with foreign countries or external factors to endanger national security”. The two executives were still denied bail. The Chinese Communist Party actually openly called the West’s bluff and initiated an ideological confrontation.
Western countries immediately condemned it, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the US State Department, the UK, the EU, the Japanese Foreign Minister, and Amnesty International were all quick to speak out, but could not really stop the CCP’s evil actions. Not only did the CCP demonstrate abroad by persecuting Chinese, but in 2020 two Australian journalists were also harassed by CCP security and forced to flee China; the CCP still holds former Canadians diplomats and others as hostages.
Western countries should not be naive enough to believe that public statements and condemnations alone will make the CCP stop and give up its provocations; they must have real countermeasure tools to truly curb the CCP regime’s repeated and deliberate confrontations.
The facts show that the EU’s freeze on the China-EU Investment Agreement, the series of U.S. technology and economic sanctions, and human rights sanctions have hit the nail on the head of the CCP, making the CCP scare, making the CCP top brass ponder their own situation, and making the evil CCP officials hold their heads up. Western countries need a set of similar tools and levers, especially mechanisms that can act jointly, in order to have an effective restraining effect on the CCP regime.
At present, Western countries have generally recognized that the CCP’s crimes of human rights persecution are expanding and have begun to impose human rights sanctions against the CCP, but the depth, breadth, and joint sanctions are not yet sufficient.
The European Union has followed the U.S. in sanctioning the CCP’s persecution in the Xinjiang concentration camps, but the identification of specific persons and related organizations responsible has not yet fully fit. For example, if the U.S. and all Western countries were to coordinate and deny visas to the individuals and their families, it would be difficult for these criminals to get around; and if the Western countries were to jointly freeze the assets of those responsible, senior CCP officials would lose a great deal of their corrupt gains and would act as a deterrent to more CCP officials. If countries could go further and jointly publish the property seized from the sanctioned officials, the repercussions would undoubtedly be even greater and would embolden CCP officials and cause a significant increase in defections.
While condemning the Chinese Communist Party’s public persecution of media professionals in Hong Kong this time, Western countries should immediately initiate the above-mentioned sanctions against those responsible, including officials of the Hong Kong government, key police officers who carried out the actual implementation, and judges who blatantly violated the law, and may also include Chinese Communist Party institutions in Hong Kong and Chinese Communist Party officials involved in Hong Kong.
The Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of human rights is too numerous to mention. The persecution of various religions, ethnic minorities, and dissidents has intensified, and the CCP’s efforts to maintain stability by blocking speech and suppressing righteous lawyers, whistle blowers, and petitioners have continued to expand. At present, only the U.S. government has imposed sanctions on individual police officers and “610” personnel for persecuting Falun Gong, but the corresponding sanctions in other countries have not yet begun. Western countries need to initiate deeper and broader sanctions as soon as possible to deter CCP officials and those responsible for the persecution and to stop the CCP’s various persecutions.
In addition to human rights sanctions, economic and technological sanctions are also essential tools. Former U.S. President Donald Trump immediately announced the removal of Hong Kong’s special tariff status in response to the Communist Party’s imposition of the “Hong Kong version of the National Security Law”; Trump’s tariff increases on Chinese goods are still in effect, and the new U.S. administration’s extension of technology sanctions against Huawei and the chip industry has played a significant role. The EU’s freeze on the China-EU Investment Agreement had also caused the CCP to put away its war-wolf posture for a time, and it would undoubtedly have more influence if it could ride the wave of success and at least accelerate its coordination with the US.
For the recent war wolves of the CCP embassies and consulates abroad who have been spouting rhetoric and completely disregarding diplomatic etiquette, countries may consider immediate expulsion to force the CCP diplomatic service to retract its bad words.
It is only a matter of time before countries are able to hold the CCP accountable for the epidemic, and any democratic government that does so perfunctorily is guilty of gross negligence and cannot be held accountable to its own citizens. The Chinese Communist Party has so far not admitted to concealing the epidemic or even admitting that the virus originated in China, and it is clear that Western countries will need leverage in the process of recourse. The investments of Chinese state-owned enterprises in various countries should be included in the scope of confiscation, and the overseas assets of corrupt Chinese officials are even more alarming and can be considered as tools of recourse.
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un recently made a public statement about U.S.-North Korea relations, effectively stating the same mindset as the Chinese Communist Party. He said North Korea is ready for “dialogue and confrontation” with the United States. The Chinese Communist Party is in the same boat. The so-called “confrontation” is just a bargaining chip for the “dialogue”. The CCP’s recent crackdown on the Hong Kong media is one example.
If Western countries are prepared to unite to restrain the CCP regime, they need to respond with timely sanctions to remove the CCP’s so-called “confrontation” chips, otherwise, the CCP will keep repeating similar games, leaving Western countries helpless.
The Western summits should have made a good start, but the CCP will not be deterred, and it is urgent that countries establish leverage and tools to restrain the CCP as soon as possible, a key test of every democratic government’s resolve and wisdom in confronting the CCP.
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