On this episode of China Uncensored,
how to construct a giant mountain
out of a molehill.
Welcome back to China Uncensored,
I’m your host Chris Chappell.
All the Chinese Communist Party wanted
was for the world to look on in admiration
at the once-every-five-years Party Congress.
Nothing like a fake election
to trick the world into thinking
you have democracy.
Of course, to do that,
the Communist Party needed to make sure
all the world’s attention on China
was positive.
So they’ve done things like
shut down factories near Beijing
to ensure blue skies.
They restricted chemical transport along the Yangtze River
to avoid the risk of an embarrassing environmental disaster.
They even hired a bunch of grandmothers
to publicly shame people
into behaving better during the congress.
Yes, Big Granny is watching you.
What I’m saying is,
they’ve basically put the whole country in lockdown.
So as long as nothing happened that would,
I don’t know,
draw a giant spotlight on the Communist Party’s
heavy-handed authoritarianism,
everything would be fine.
As long as they don’t do something stupid,
ike create a major international incident in Hong Kong...
Ah, shoot.
I mean, shoot for the CCP.
I thrive when the CCP does stupid things.
And honestly,
it’s amazing how badly the CCP
bungled Hong Kong last week.
It all has to do with this man,
British activist and friend of the show
Benedict Rogers.
You see, he’s been particularly vocal
about all the bad stuff the Chinese regime
is trying to do in Hong Kong.
Things like sentencing student activists to jail time.
Or purging democratically elected officials.
So when Rogers was planning a trip
to Hong Kong in October,
he started getting threatening messages
from the Chinese Embassy in the UK,
and a warning that he would be denied entry.
Okay, threatening a British citizen.
Surprisingly, it backfired.
Rogers flew to Hong Kong anyway.
But he didn’t make it out of the Hong Kong airport.
He was stopped by security,
and then deported without being given any reason.
And remember how the Communist Party
wanted to make sure absolutely nothing went wrong
during the Party Congress?
Well, cue international backlash.
From the media...
and from the UK government.
“Ben Rogers is an outstanding and articulate
champion of freedom, democracy,
human rights and the rule of law
in Asia and elsewhere,
well known to members
on both sides of the house,
and his treatment was frankly utterly scandalous.
Those responsible have certainly not heard the last of it,
of that I think we can be sure.”
Oops!
And while Chinese officials are used to
inviting dissidents “to tea,”
i.e. summoning them to have a stern talk...
This time the UK said to the Chinese ambassador,
“Your tea time’s got nothing on us.
Can I offer you a scone with clotted cream?”
And then 12 international lawyers wrote a letter
about how Hong Kong’s rule of law
is under threat.
Quick, the CCP needs a distraction.
So, does anyone want to watch
a three and half hour speech
about national rejuvenation?
Whoa, sorry.
I think I was having a Chinese dream.
Back to Benedict Rogers.
He’s decided that in the wake of all this,
he wants to set up an NGO in London
geared toward influencing policy-makers
on Hong Kong issues.
If only the CCP had literally done nothing—
and just let Rogers just visit his friends in Hong Kong
and then leave again—
none of this would have happened.
But it’s too late for making smart decisions.
Now, it’s damage-control time.
State-run media,
give us your spin!
Ha HA!
Decolonization in action!
Yes, this wasn’t about eroding the freedoms of Hong Kong.
It was about decolonizing Hong Kong from the evil British.
Any country that would try to exert control over Hong Kong is evil!
Uh...as long as that country is Great Britain and not China.
Maybe Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam can explain
why the decision to deny entry to Rogers
was totally legit.
“Immigration matters under the Basic Law
are Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy.
But if immigration matters
become matters of foreign affairs,
then under Basic Law,
foreign affairs like defense are matters
for the Central People’s Government.”
So Hong Kong has a high degree of autonomy,
and immigration matters are managed independently
by Hong Kong....
except when the CCP wants to control them directly,
which it can do because Hong Kong
has a limited degree of autonomy?
It’s almost like she can’t get the story straight,
because there is no independent rule of law
in Hong Kong anymore
and decisions are arbitrarily made.
Okay, let’s try someone else.
Maybe Lawrence Ma,
a pro-Beijing barrister in Hong Kong,
can get us out of this train wreck.
He knows how the law works!
He explains that Hong Kong has the rule of law,
and its immigration isn’t just subject
to the whims of Beijing.
He gives an example.
“We have denied entry for people
who come in for political purposes—
for example, in 2006,
a bunch of Falun Gong organisers from Taiwan
wanted to come in for a conference
for cultural purposes—
and we have refused entry.”
That’s just more proof of what Beijing is doing.
That’s the opposite of the point you wanted to make!
Forget it, let’s go back to Carrie Lam.
Is there anything you can say to put out the fire?
“So you certainly can’t exclude the possibility
that Chris Patten could be denied entry on a future visit.”
“Well I can’t exclude any possibility
because immigration matters will change
depending on the case.”
You just said,
that Hong Kong could potentially kick out
even the last British governor of Hong Kong
if he tried to visit.
Cue international media backlash.
Well, certainly this hasn’t come back to bite anyone.
As this editorial from the South China Morning Post says,
“If we really want to make world news,
let’s ban Chris Patten.
Had Benedict Rogers been allowed in,
he would have visited the jailed Occupy youngsters,
criticised the authorities and not attracted global media attention.”
But hey everyone,
the Chinese company Tencent has made a mobile game
that lets you clap for Xi Jinping’s speeches!
Surely that will distract you!
So what do you think about the Party’s
bungled attempts to smooth things over
for the 19th Party Congress?
Leave your comments below.
Once again I’m Chris Chappell,
see you next time.
You know it’s hard to keep track of
how many times the Chinese Communist Party
has bungled its international image.
Wait, no it’s not!
You can just visit China Uncensored.tv
where we upload full half hour episodes of the show
every Friday,
and get the complete rundown.
Why if I were you,
I’d be on ChinaUncensored.tv right now!