Hong Kong authorities
Could start a new crackdown.
Are things getting worse in Hong Kong?
Or is it part of the CCP’s internal power struggle?
Welcome to China Uncensored. I’m Chris Chappell.
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One year after the Chinese Communist Party imposed a harsh
national security law on Hong Kong, things are looking pretty good...for the Party.
The Communist Party is well on their way to remaking Hong Kong in their image.
Stifling freedom of the press.
Crushing democracy.
And molding the impressionable minds of Hong Kong’s youth with “patriotic education.”
Here’s one of the biggest signs of how Hong Kong has changed
under the national security law. Hong Kong used to be the only place in China
where people could commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre.
And they did every year, even last year during the coronavirus.
As part of the deal to give Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China,
the UK made the Chinese regime promise
to leave Hong Kong’s freedoms intact for 50 years after they took over the territory.
Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen vigil
was seen as a test of whether the Communist Party was actually honoring their promise.
Here’s a thought. If a country you’re making a deal with has to promise *not* to take away
people’s freedoms...maybe that’s a sign you shouldn’t make a deal with that country.
Because here’s what happened. This year, under the national security law, Hong Kong had no vigil.
Police locked down the park and arrested one of the organizers.
And it wasn’t just that the vigil was stopped. Some people tried to open a
Tiananmen massacre museum. Then they had to shut it down because the police started
investigating them. For...licensing issues. Sure.
But hey, why do you need a Tiananmen massacre museum when you can have a museum about the
glorious Communist Party instead?! One that will definitely not mention the Tiananmen massacre.
So the Chinese Communist Party promised to leave Hong Kong’s freedoms intact for 50 years
and they made it for...less than 24 years.
And that’s why you should never trust a Communist. They’re always missing their Marx.
Hong Kongers see the writing on the wall...literally.
Which is why many are starting to leave.
But for those who are staying, there is another sign many Hong Kongers are
watching to see how bad the Communist Party’s crackdown is going to get.
That canary in the coalmine is the bright yellow t-shirts of Hong Kong’s Falun Gong practitioners.
And that canary is in danger. I’ll tell you why after the break.
Welcome back.
Like Hong Kong’s Tiananmen vigil, Hong Kong’s Falun Gong practitioners
have been a symbol of the city’s freedoms for more than 20 years.
Falun Gong, sometimes called Falun Dafa, is a Chinese spiritual practice.
In the late 1990s, there were between 70 to 100 million people practicing Falun Gong,
according to the Chinese government.
But under former Chinese leader and shriveled
toad Jiang Zemin , the Chinese Communist Party banned Falun Gong.
And the Party began a long campaign to eradicate it. Including arresting
and torturing, and even killing Falun Gong members for their organs.
But Hong Kong supposedly has freedom of speech and religion.
And in Hong Kong, Falun Gong is a legally registered organization.
So Hong Kong became the only place in China where Falun Gong was allowed.
Falun Gong practitioners would set up booths around Hong Kong
to raise awareness about the Communist Party’s persecution
just across the border in mainland China. Many of these booths were aimed at Chinese tourists.
They also called out the Communist Party in general.
These banners say “Heaven will destroy the Chinese Communist Party,
Heaven will bless the Chinese nation” and “Loving the country does not mean loving the Party.”
The Chinese Communist Party did not like this. But they couldn’t officially do anything
about it, since they were supposed to leave Hong Kong’s freedoms alone. So instead
they used proxy groups to target Falun Gong.
The biggest one of these was the Hong Kong Youth Care Association. It was part of the
Communist Party’s United Front, which are groups that are controlled by the Communist
Party. United Front groups do stuff on behalf of the Party while posing as regular organizations.
For example, the Hong Kong Youth Care Association set up anti-Falun Gong banners next to the Falun
Gong booths and monitored, harassed, and even assaulted Falun Gong practitioners.
This went on for almost a decade. Then suddenly at the end of last year, the Hong Kong Youth
Care Association disbanded. They just packed up their banners and left. It’s not clear why.
But that doesn’t mean Falun Gong’s troubles in Hong Kong are over.
Because now pro-Beijing Hong Kong lawmakers
are calling on the Hong Kong government to outlaw Falun Gong, under the national security law.
Legislator Elizabeth Quat said “external forces are making use of ‘religious groups’
and ‘media organisations’ as a disguise for extending anti-China forces in the
city.” She also said that Falun Gong was one of these organizations and should be outlawed.
Separately, Elizabeth Quat has said the BBC
should be banned in Hong Kong because it produces fake news to smear China.
Wait, Elizabeth Quat said that “external forces” are using “religious groups”
and “media organizations”? Clearly the CIA is using Falun Gong and the
BBC to subvert Hong Kong! Why didn’t we realize this before?
So, Quat seems like a very reasonable person who
is not at all bootlicking to appease the Communist Party.
But Quat wasn’t the only one. Other pro-Beijing lawmakers accused the Hong Kong government of
being “weak” in the past about “handling” Falun Gong and urged authorities to ban the group.
In response, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Security Chris Tang said the government
will “look closely into” whether Falun Gong is in breach of the national security law.
But he refused to comment further.
So if we’re using Falun Gong’s presence in Hong Kong as a barometer for how bad the
Chinese Communist Party’s repression of Hong Kong will get, this is bad... but not the worst. Yet.
Pro-Beijing lawmakers are trying to pressure the Hong Kong government to ban Falun Gong,
but the government isn’t committing to anything.
But there are signs it could get worse. Recent articles in Chinese state-run media
are trying to connect Falun Gong to what they are calling “terrorist attacks” in Hong Kong,
including the man who stabbed a Hong Kong policeman before killing himself on July 1st.
There’s no evidence that the man had any connection to Falun Gong. Chinese state media
are basing their accusation on the fact that the reporter who accidentally filmed the
attack during a livestream is tied to a media company linked to Falun Gong practitioners.
Now, that might sound like Chinese state media are being ridiculous. But actually it’s really smart.
Because if reporters who livestream events can be held responsible for those events,
think about all those media who livestreamed the Hong Kong protests!
They’re all responsible for the protests! Lock ‘em up!
Wait a minute...
we livestreamed the Hong Kong protests. Don’t lock ‘em up!
By the way, this Global Times article is not just about Falun Gong. It also attacks
lots of Hong Kong Christian organizations for supporting the pro-democracy movement,
which could mean that a bigger religious crackdown is coming to Hong Kong.
Now in some ways, a Falun Gong ban in Hong Kong seems like just a matter of time.
People were worried about it last year, as soon as the national security law was passed.
But Hong Kong authorities spent the past year targeting people directly involved
in the 2019 protests, and left Falun Gong alone.
At this point, every prominent Hong Kong activist is now either in jail or in exile.
So Hong Kong authorities may be looking for a new target.
Especially now that authorities have forced pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily to shut
down. Because the Hong Kong edition of the Epoch Times, which was started by Falun Gong
practitioners, is now the only local media that actively opposes the Chinese Communist Party.
They’ve already been attacked several times in the past year.
First, thugs wrecked their printing press.
Then thugs attacked a local reporter with a baseball bat.
The Epoch Times says they won’t back down.
But it turns out the Falun Gong issue in Hong Kong could be more complicated. And
a ban might not happen yet. Because of factional infighting within the Party.
More after the break.
Welcome back.
The Falun Gong issue in Hong Kong could be more complicated than it looks on the surface.
That’s because of a power struggle within the Chinese Communist Party.
That’s according to SinoInsider, a China political risk consultancy .
You know what that means. It’s time for another installment of everyone’s
favorite communist soap opera, General Hostility .
Previously on General Hostility: Hong Kong is a battleground
between Chinese President Xi Jinping and former toad leader Jiang Zemin.
Xi tried to go after Jiang and his cronies’ wealth
in Hong Kong. Jiang tried to force Xi to crush Hong Kong protests with violence.
Neither side succeeded. Who has the upper hand now?
In the deadly political battle between Xi Jinping and Jiang Zemin , Hong Kong has been a stronghold
for Jiang’s faction. But Xi might use the Falun Gong issue in Hong Kong to his advantage.
According to SinoInsider, in the debate between Hong Kong Secretary for Security Chris Tang
and pro-Beijing lawmakers, Tang was speaking for Xi’s faction
when he refused to commit to banning Falun Gong.
While the pro-Beijing lawmakers trying to start a
crackdown on Falun Gong were speaking for Jiang’s faction.
Basically, for years Jiang’s faction has been trying to get Xi Jinping
to take over responsibility for the crackdown on Falun Gong,
which Jiang started. Meanwhile Xi has been resisting that. He wants to use the threat
of exposing the true extent of the Jiang faction’s actions against Falun Gong to keep them in line.
Xi has also been slowly dismantling Jiang’s power base.
That includes things like eliminating the 610 Office,
which Jiang used to persecute Falun Gong and accumulate power.
If that carries over to Hong Kong, it would explain the sudden disbanding of the Hong Kong
Youth Cares Association last year, which was also used to persecute Falun Gong.
Meanwhile, the Jiang faction wants to use unrest in Hong Kong to undermine Xi Jinping’s ability
to get a record third term as Party leader, which he will try to do next year.
Xi obviously wants to prevent that. Because Xi wants to be presitator for life.
According to SinoInsider, if Xi succeeds against Jiang, he may increase the suppression of Falun
Gong in Hong Kong, but he wouldn’t outright ban the group before he gets a third term next year.
But if Jiang comes out on top, then the ban on Falun Gong could happen a lot quicker,
because Jiang’s faction would use that to blame Xi for a harsher Hong Kong crackdown.
Their ultimate goal is to weaken Xi enough to get rid of him altogether.
That’s intense. General Hostility always keeps me on the edge of my seat.
The Chinese Communist Party just celebrated its 100th birthday.
But with the power struggle between Jiang and Xi getting worse by the day,
will the Party make it to 101? Find out next time on...General Hostility.
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I’m Chris Chappell. Thanks for watching China Uncensored.