{"id":854,"date":"2020-08-05T18:00:15","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T23:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/?p=854"},"modified":"2022-11-07T19:09:56","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T00:09:56","slug":"solidarity-with-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/2020\/08\/solidarity-with-hong-kong\/","title":{"rendered":"Left on an Island"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>Why the U.S. Left should care about Beijing\u2019s crackdown in Hong Kong<\/h4>\n<p>The Left in the United States is still <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/archive\/democrats-hong-kong-autonomy\/\">failing<\/a> Hong Kong. The drive for international solidarity has been neutralized by the widespread <a href=\"https:\/\/thegrayzone.com\/2019\/08\/17\/hong-kong-protest-washington-nativism-violence\/\">disinformation<\/a> campaign from so-called \u201canti-imperialists\u201d to smear the entire protest movement as CIA-backed or fascist. This ignores how the movement has been resisting Beijing\u2019s appropriation and perpetuation of colonial paradigms established under British rule. Standing in solidarity with Hong Kong is not about deciding which nation-state is worse; it\u2019s about rejecting this false binary the ruling elites have crafted for us and resisting the spread and adoption of Western colonial frame-works by all states alike, especially China. Rather than remaining apathetic or actively demonizing Hong Kong\u2019s mass movement, the Left needs to offer transnational support by modeling practical democratic alternatives.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pullquote\">Standing in solidarity with Hong Kong is not about deciding which nation-state is worse; it\u2019s about rejecting this false binary the ruling elites have crafted for us and resisting the spread and adoption of Western colonial frame-works by all states alike, especially China.<\/aside>\n<p>The current resistance against the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s (CCP) clampdown on dissent in Hong Kong is a product of long <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/5606212\/hong-kong-history-mass-demonstrations-protest\/\">mounting discontent<\/a>. The handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China can most accurately be understood as a transfer from one capitalist-colonial power to another. The \u201cone country, two systems\u201d framework granted some degree of autonomy to the people of Hong Kong, but it was established behind closed doors by unelected officials with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcclatchydc.com\/news\/nation-world\/world\/article24775333.html\">zero input<\/a> from the people themselves, and built off of the old mechanisms of British oppression. Under the CCP\u2019s rule, the people of Hong Kong knew from the outset that this regime would inevitably tighten its grip over the city and attempt to rule, just as it does in mainland China.<\/p>\n<p>The tightening of the CCP\u2019s colonial grip coincides with the growth of a new mass political consciousness in the city. In 2003, the Hong Kong government attempted to impose an \u201canti-subversion law.\u201d The law would have criminalized acts of \u201ctreason, secession, sedition and subversion\u201d against the central government on the mainland\u2014anticipating the even more draconian national security laws passed last month. Half a million protestors poured into the streets in opposition and the bill was revoked indefinitely. In 2014, the CCP issued a decision requiring candidates running for the highest position in Hong Kong to be pre-screened by the central government. In response, pro-democracy demonstrators occupied the city center while demanding universal suffrage in the elections for chief executive. Popularly called \u201cthe Umbrella Movement,\u201d the seventy-nine days of largely peaceful protest ended with no political concessions from the government.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1009\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1009\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1009\" src=\"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/solidarity-hong-kong-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/solidarity-hong-kong-1.jpg 800w, https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/solidarity-hong-kong-1-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/solidarity-hong-kong-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/solidarity-hong-kong-1-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1009\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters face off against the police in Hong Kong.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Sparked by a now-withdrawn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-china-48572130\">extradition bill<\/a>, peaceful protests that began in early 2019 intensified as the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) <a href=\"https:\/\/hongkongfp.com\/2019\/06\/13\/just-restrained-hong-kong-police-say-150-rounds-tears-gas-20-bean-bag-shots-fired-anti-extradition-law-riot\/\">dispersed crowds<\/a> using excessive force. Demonstrators realized that peaceful marches were ineffective and fought back against the increasingly militarized police. Further abuses of power include <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/latest\/news\/2019\/09\/hong-kong-arbitrary-arrests-brutal-beatings-and-torture-in-police-detention-revealed\/\">brutal beatings<\/a>, firing water cannons and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/hong-kong\/politics\/article\/3031044\/chaos-expected-across-hong-kong-anti-government-protesters\">live rounds<\/a> at protestors, and alleged <a href=\"https:\/\/hongkongfp.com\/2019\/08\/23\/hong-kong-police-accused-metoo-assault-protester-strip-searched-days-arrest\/\">sexual assault<\/a> on detainees. A British colonial mechanism carried over into Chinese rule, the HKPF was designed to mirror the very <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2019\/07\/18\/hong-kongs-police-violence-is-stamped-made-in-u-k\/\">same<\/a> policing tactics employed in the UK. It has become increasingly clear that this movement in Hong Kong embodies mass resistance to the oppression of a state-capitalist regime that willfully ignores the interests of those who interfere with its version of the status quo.<\/p>\n<p>The ongoing movement was forced into a hiatus as the COVID-19 pandemic swept through the city and its residents went into lockdown. To no one\u2019s surprise, Beijing officials took advantage of this dormant period by heightening \u2018security\u2019 to chip away at the city\u2019s pro-democracy camp. Increasingly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-china-52702076\">aggressive actions<\/a> toward pro-democracy lawmakers signaled what was to come\u2014the CCP\u2019s tolerance for the movement had reached a breaking point, and it was intent on further suppressing Hong Kong\u2019s autonomy.<\/p>\n<p>The CCP planned to put a full stop to the Hong Kong protests with legislation to criminalize forms of dissent and much of the movement\u2019s political activity. This contentious move even excluded Hong Kong lawmakers from knowing any details of the new <a href=\"https:\/\/lausan.hk\/2020\/beijings-new-national-security-laws-and-the-future-of-hong-kong\/\">national security laws<\/a> until after they were passed on June 30. These new laws <a href=\"https:\/\/lausan.hk\/2020\/hong-kongs-new-era-of-terror\/\">contained<\/a> the same clauses and rhetoric as the proposals shelved back in 2003. Furthermore, these security provisions revoke local government\u2019s jurisdiction and give Beijing complete oversight of all \u201cnational security\u201d affairs in Hong Kong. In effect now for only a few weeks, the laws have already banned popular <a href=\"https:\/\/hongkongfp.com\/2020\/07\/06\/security-law-hong-kong-police-warn-politicians-against-displaying-now-banned-protest-slogan\/\">protest chants<\/a>, censored <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/hong-kong\/education\/article\/3092043\/national-security-law-hong-kong-schools-told-remove-books\">school textbooks<\/a>, and have given the HKPF grounds to arrest protestors for raising <a href=\"https:\/\/hongkongfp.com\/2020\/07\/06\/security-law-hong-kong-police-arrest-8-at-blank-placard-silent-protest\/\">blank placards<\/a> in silence. This crackdown on dissent reinforces the CCP\u2019s determination to uphold its political power\u2014which translates into the expansion of capital\u2019s power. The laws make this repression possible by guaranteeing that any individual who threatens China\u2019s political and financial stability can be punished to any degree the state sees fit. Despite these pressures, Hong Kong protestors self-organized an unofficial primary election to consolidate candidates for an uphill chance to win a majority in the Legislative Council later this year\u2014though the results may be disqualified by Beijing.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"half\" \/>\n<p>The increasing acts of aggression by Beijing, matched and intensified by belligerent language from the Trump administration in Washington, reflects a new Cold War rhetoric\u2014a polarized world-view that obscures a global, neoliberal consensus of oppression of everyday working-class peoples. \u2018Neither Washington nor Beijing\u2019 doesn\u2019t simply signal that both states are equally bad. Instead, it recognizes that imperialism is a world-system not limited to the boundaries of nation-states, that Hong Kong protesters and their supporters are in a position to reject new rising imperial actors that reinforce a global system of inequitable relations first wrought by the West. Hong Kong\u2019s decades-long history of being a key site for facilitating the West\u2019s foreign direct investment to China, at the expense of the livelihoods of millions of working people, means that the city\u2019s current plight should be an issue of major importance for both the U.S. and Chinese Left.<\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s loud condemnation of the Hong Kong protest movement as \u201cforeign interference\u201d is hypocritical. Beijing willingly accommodates U.S. support when it suits their needs. The most blatant example of this is the longstanding <a href=\"https:\/\/lausan.hk\/2020\/state-department-train-hong-kong-police\/\">exchange<\/a> between U.S. law enforcement and the HKPF. The HKPF has for years been a beneficiary of weapons and other riot control technologies from U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-hongkong-protests-usa-teargas\/u-s-company-supplying-tear-gas-to-hong-kong-police-faces-mounting-criticism-idUSKBN1WQ2M1\">firms<\/a>\u2014many of which are also used against Black protestors and their allies today in the U.S. With police abolition rapidly becoming a global clarion call, Hong Kong should serve as a concrete example in extending a campaign, first begun in the U.S.: preventing the spread and adoption of U.S.-style policing and <a href=\"https:\/\/madeinchinajournal.com\/2019\/10\/25\/preventative-policing-as-community-detention-in-northwest-china\/\">counter-insurgency<\/a> methods by other countries.<\/p>\n<p>The CCP\u2019s defense of its repression echoes a familiar logic, though in fake \u201canti-imperialist\u201d garb. It\u2019s claimed defense of \u201csovereignty\u201d and \u201cstability\u201d is in reality a protection of capital\u2019s interests, be it the <a href=\"https:\/\/socialistresistance.org\/china-bureaucratic-capitalist\/4188\">bureaucratic capital<\/a> of Chinese state firms or Western investments in banks like HSBC. In truth, Washington\u2019s elites have no intention of subverting \u2018Chinese sovereignty\u2019 (itself a fascistic legal concept bolstered by Beijing-appointed political advisors in Hong Kong borrowing ideas from <a href=\"https:\/\/tocqueville21.com\/le-club\/the-restructuring-of-hong-kong-and-the-rise-of-neostatism\/\">Nazi jurists<\/a>). Within the ranks of ruling class economists and politicians there is a consensus of inter-imperial cooperation that happens across global institutions, from the <a href=\"https:\/\/mg.co.za\/article\/2017-03-31-00-brics-joins-the-reigning-world-order\/\">IMF<\/a> to joint U.S.-China oil drilling <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chevronchina.com\/en\/businesses\/chuandongbei.aspx\">projects<\/a>. Even Trump and his far-right cronies <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/administration\/503817-trump-says-he-held-off-on-sanctions-over-xinjiang-camps-because-of\">ignore<\/a> the situation in Xinjiang and Hong Kong whenever the trade war ebbs. The fluctuating, inconsistent relationship between Trump and Xi suggests that Trump\u2019s strong anti-China <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/07\/14\/trump-hong-kong-china-sanctions-361636\">response<\/a> earlier this month may be a short phase, easily subject to change with shifting economic and political winds.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pullquote\">The CCP\u2019s defense of its repression echoes a familiar logic, though in fake \u201canti-imperialist\u201d garb. It\u2019s claimed defense of \u201csovereignty\u201d and \u201cstability\u201d is in reality a protection of capital\u2019s interests, be it the bureaucratic capital of Chinese state firms or Western investments.<\/aside>\n<p>Left support of the protest movement has been neutralized by far-right outlets and journalists that sow disinformation by cherry-picking narratives, to establish <a href=\"https:\/\/thegrayzone.com\/2019\/11\/22\/hong-kong-opposition-unites-washington-hardliners\/\">a false depiction<\/a> of a complex resistance movement, in order to protect the interests of capital. These perspectives view any state they deem sufficiently opposed to the U.S. empire, no matter how openly right-wing and authoritarian, as \u2018anti-imperialist\u2019 and worthy of critical support. While they pose as being staunchly anti-imperialist with their binaristic, \u201canti-hegemonic\u201d worldview, the truth is that they are only selectively critiquing imperialism. These inconsistencies, represented by publications like Grayzone, completely whitewash the history of U.S.-China inter-imperial collusion in order to demonize any struggles against authoritarian capitalism, making it all the more imperative to <a href=\"https:\/\/usbeketrica.com\/article\/la-gauche-francaise-soutient-elle-vraiment-hong-kong\">combat<\/a> these false narratives and deplatform their purveyors. This disinformation includes conspiracy theories which suggest that U.S. funding completely determines and directs certain mass movements; thus discrediting and delegitimizing these struggles against state violence. Furthermore, these writers apply the same logic to invalidate other struggles from launching <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenjaminNorton\/status\/1282380068065628161\">smear<\/a> campaigns against domestic, Black-led community organizations like Black Visions Collective, to women <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenjaminNorton\/status\/1284622418821156864?s=20\">speaking<\/a> up against gendered violence in Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>The growing prominence of these narratives directly threatens international workers\u2019 solidarity by sowing confusion among the Left and as a by-product, has provided an excuse for people and organizations to remain neutral or stay silent on international repression. In reality, every mass movement has its flaws\u2014especially those struggling to rise up and find their identity after years of social and political atomization induced by decades of neoliberal policies. In the U.S., that the Left may find itself on the same side as liberals and even some conservatives in the mass opposition to Trump doesn\u2019t mean that this struggle is illegitimate. Similarly, the Hong Kong movement does include elements from across the political <a href=\"https:\/\/newpol.org\/localisms-contradictions-in-hong-kong\/\">spectrum<\/a>, but this does not invalidate the struggle against Beijing\u2019s state violence. Much as U.S. law enforcement and establishment Democrats will \u201ctake a knee\u201d and then turn right back to brutalizing protestors, the loud consensus of bipartisan congressional support for Hong Kong translates into no real solidarity with Hong Kong beyond sanctions that only accelerate Beijing\u2019s repression. The appearance of reactionary, xenophobic, U.S.-flag-waving elements in the protests should be <a href=\"https:\/\/lausan.hk\/2020\/chin-wans-right-wing-localism-threatens-hong-kongs-future\/\">condemned<\/a>, but rejection of such elements is no excuse for supporting or remaining silent about the Chinese state, which has courted U.S. interests on a scale much larger than pro-U.S. intervention Hong Kong protesters, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2019-08-08\/china-warns-u-s-after-diplomat-meets-with-prominent-protesters\">Joshua Wong<\/a>, can hope to ever achieve.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pullquote\">In the U.S., that the Left may find itself on the same side as liberals and even some conservatives in the mass opposition to Trump doesn\u2019t mean that this struggle is illegitimate. Similarly, the Hong Kong movement does include elements from across the political spectrum, but this does not invalidate the struggle against Beijing\u2019s state violence.<\/aside>\n<p>Rejecting both Beijing and Washington is thus the bare minimum we can do as U.S. Leftists to hold accountable <em>all<\/em> enablers of U.S. imperialism abroad, especially the Chinese state. Apologizing for the PRC is not an anti-war position; on the contrary, it is an amplification of the jingoistic intransigence of the new Cold War dynamic that only reinforces the power of nation-states at the expense of workers and other marginalized people. From China to the U.S., state violence is connected globally. The U.S. Left must recognize that the political freedom of the people of Hong Kong is inherently interlinked with the struggles of other oppressed peoples. Global uprisings against state violence have come to the fore over the last year and a half. Movements such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2020\/07\/03\/us\/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html\">Black Lives Matter<\/a> in the U.S., uprisings in <a href=\"https:\/\/lausan.hk\/2020\/revolution-everywhere-conversation-between-hong-kong-and-lebanon\/\">Lebanon<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2020-05-19\/protests-over-food-shortages-erupt-in-chile-amid-virus-lockdown\">Chile<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lausan.hk\/2020\/against-emergency-hong-kong-and-philippines\/\">opposition<\/a> to Duterte\u2019s regime in the Philippines, protests against Israeli annexation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2020\/06\/thousands-palestinians-protest-israeli-annexation-plan-200622173919963.html\">Palestine<\/a>, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2019\/09\/deaths-reported-fresh-protests-indonesia-west-papua-190923071714912.html\">West Papuan revolt<\/a> against Indonesia are only a fraction of the ongoing struggles against state violence in the world. The next step is to build actual international solidarity with other oppressed peoples under the threat of these authoritarian regimes.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of focusing on demonizing some Hongkongers\u2019 last-ditch effort to look to the U.S. Congress for bipartisan support, the Left can help model practical alternatives. Organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Labor Notes, and Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance can connect movement activists and organizers locally to skill-share with those in Hong Kong. Labor Notes\u2019 first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.labornotes.org\/asia\">Asia Regional Conference<\/a> last year, which connected U.S. labor activists and Asian trade unionists, is a good example. Lausan Collective helped organize an online <a href=\"https:\/\/lausan.hk\/2020\/webinar-medical-workers-unions\/\">exchange<\/a> between unionized medical workers in Hong Kong and the U.S. last month. Progressive Chinatown organizations can organize with Hong Kong diaspora groups to help counter the rampant pro-CCP propaganda disseminated in Chinatown circles. The newly-reformed DSA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dsausa.org\/statements\/a-new-international-committee-un-nuevo-comite-internacional\/\">International Committee<\/a> can help shift the discourse within the Left and provide educational and material resources to Hongkongers. Philippines solidarity organizations like Anakbayan and the New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP) face a common threat with Hong Kong diaspora groups when it comes to China\u2019s growing intimacy with the Duterte regime and influence in the South China Sea. There are countless avenues for international solidarity that can even help model and shift the discourse in Hong Kong, but the Left must be vigilant in countering pro-CCP narratives to develop these possibilities.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"half\" \/>\n<p>The Western Left has largely refrained from commenting on Hong Kong. But Hongkongers have clearly demonstrated their need for international support: with whatever semblance of a democratic ballot they can find, risking arrest to turn out <em>en masse<\/em> even in mostly <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy-com.ezproxy.princeton.edu\/2019\/11\/25\/what-happened-hong-kong-elections\/\">symbolic<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/07\/13\/world\/asia\/hong-kong-elections-security.html\">elections<\/a>; and facing rampant police brutality over a year of painful street clashes. The right has, for its own reasons, supported the Hong Kong protests while most of the Left has demonized or ignored the movement from the start. If the Left claims to oppose imperialism and capitalist oppression, it must lend its support to Hong Kong. It is time for us to reclaim international solidarity, because the fight against U.S. imperialism is far too important to be falsely contained as merely one side of what is the same coin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lausan Collective members <strong>Andi W.<\/strong> and <strong>Promise Li<\/strong> make a case for why the Left needs to stand in solidarity with Hong Kong. It is not about deciding which nation-state is worse; it\u2019s about rejecting a false binary the ruling elites have crafted for us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[35,36,32,34,33],"class_list":["post-854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-anti-imperialism","tag-asia","tag-hong-kong","tag-imperialism","tag-international-solidarity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hong-kong.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempestmag.org\/test02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}