In an interview with France 24 on December 10, Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, described the situation in Hong Kong as “like being handcuffed by the Chinese regime” in the face of the recent crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong and the exile or imprisonment of pro-democracy activists abroad. He called on countries to join forces to defend core values such as democracy and freedom.
Since the announcement and implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law on June 30 this year, four members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council from the democratic camp have been stripped of their membership, triggering the resignation of democratic legislators in general, and prominent figures such as Lai Chi-ying, Wong Chi-fung and Chow Ting have been returned to scabbard or sentenced to prison, and the pro-democracy camp has suffered a comprehensive crackdown. In an interview, Chris Patten said, “Hong Kong used to be one of the cities that enjoyed freedom in the international arena, but now it has been handcuffed by the Chinese regime, and the recent arrests of many pro-democracy figures reflect this situation.
Peng pointed out that the relevant examples show that the Chinese side violates “one country, two systems” and directly interferes in Hong Kong affairs. He believes that this is just the usual behavior of Beijing. You can’t trust the Chinese Communist Party,” he said, “it’s just a repeated violation of China’s promises and international rules. …… It’s a pattern of behavior of the Chinese regime, war-wolf diplomacy, the Sino-Indian border conflict, threats to Taiwan and the violation of commitments with neighboring countries in the South China Sea.”
In response to claims that it was the anti-amendment protest movement in Hong Kong last year that forced Beijing to push through national security laws to suppress Hong Kong, Peng said, “After Xi Jinping came to power, he had already begun to deploy to tighten control over Hong Kong because at that time the CCP began to realize that ‘globalization would pose a challenge to its rule,’ bringing about democratic freedoms He continued, “The Chinese Communist Party has begun to deploy greater control over Hong Kong. He continued, “The Chinese Communist Party sees Hong Kong as a symbol of these values, which they hate and see as a threat. It’s not a conflict between China and Hong Kong, it’s the CCP and those who support these values.”
On another note, Patten disagreed with voices accusing Britain and the European Union of not supporting Hong Kong enough. He spoke of the joint statement issued earlier by a total of 39 countries expressing serious concern over China’s suppression of Hong Kong’s autonomy and human rights violations against Uighur Muslims, and the UK’s lowering of immigration thresholds for Hong Kong people holding British National (Overseas) passports (BNO). In the interview, Patten emphasized that “when China keeps trampling on these Western values and does not have to take responsibility for these actions, we will all eventually suffer the evil consequences, so we must stand up and guard these values.”
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