Hong Kong Watch testifies to the Australian Senate's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence, and Trade on the crisis in Hong Kong

Yesterday, Hong Kong Watch’s Senior Policy Advisor, Sam Goodman, testified to the Australian Senate’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade alongside the former pro-democracy lawmaker Mr Ted Hui. Briefing members of the committee on the human rights situation in Hong Kong and calling for coordinated action by likeminded countries in the region to respond to the crisis as part of its inquiry into Opportunities for advancing Australia’s strategic interests through existing regional architecture.

You can read Sam’s written testimony below:

19 August 2021

Good morning. Thank you for inviting me to give evidence to your committee on behalf of Hong Kong Watch, a UK-based international NGO which focuses on Hong Kong. I intend to focus my testimony today on the human rights crisis in Hong Kong and how it fits into the wider discussion about Australia’s strategic interests and engagement with regional architecture.  

Since the introduction of the National Security Law last year, over 120 pro-democracy activists, students, former lawmakers, and journalists have been arrested, including four students yesterday. 60 of them have been charged, and one activist has been jailed for nine years under the draconian law.

We have seen Apple Daily, the largest pro-democracy news publication forcibly closed. Civil servants and academics fired. The largest teachers’ union disbanded. Speech therapists arrested. Electoral changes barring pro-democracy parties from standing. The banning of the annual Tiananmen Square vigil and July 1 procession. Civil society groups closed, and the introduction of an Immigration Ordinance which will restrict freedom of movement in and out of the city.

China’s dismantling of Hong Kong’s autonomy and the ongoing crackdown within the city pose a challenge to Australia’s values and undermines its strategic interests within the region for several reasons:

First, it undermines the safety of Australians living within the city;

Second, it has created a wave of Hong Kongers wishing to leave the city some of whom have sought to move to Australia;

Third, it has wider ramifications for China’s policy towards Taiwan and regional security;

And fourth, it reinforces a pattern of belligerent behaviour from Beijing which includes its trade sanctions on Australia.

In response, Hong Kong Watch has called for likeminded partners to work together to coordinate statements, introduce lifeboat schemes, enact Magnitksy sanctions against Hong Kong and Chinese officials, suspend extradition treaties with Hong Kong and China, and encourage governments to support the creation of a UN Special Rapporteur.

We have found the response from actors within the region mixed to say the least. While the Australian Government has moved to suspend its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and introduce a lifeboat scheme for Hong Kongers, others have not been so willing to act for fear of upsetting China.

The most vocal countries on the human rights crisis in Hong Kong within the region have been Taiwan, Japan, and India all of which have ongoing territorial disputes with China. In Taiwan’s case it has offered generous assistance to Hong Kong refugees, even setting up an office for new arrivals. Both Japan and India have also condemned and raised concern about the National Security Law.

We note that the Association of South East Nations (ASEAN) has failed to muster any criticism of the National Security Law. Despite the Australian Foreign Minister attending a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers less than 24 hours before the law came into force. In August 2020 ASEAN Ministers met with Chinese and Hong Kong officials to discuss trade and investment, again the crackdown in Hong Kong was not on the agenda.

One sign of hope has been the increased coordination of statements and action amongst the Five Eyes partners. With several statements issued by the Foreign Ministers of the Five Eyes countries regarding the ongoing crackdown, all countries suspending their extradition treaties with Hong Kong, and four out of five of the Five Eyes countries offering schemes to assist Hong Kongers to resettle.

This inquiry is rightly assessing the importance of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) between Australia, USA, Japan, and India, which some have speculated could form a bulwark against the belligerence of the Chinese Communist State.  Beijing has raised alarm at the forming of such a group, which in my view makes its development all the more important.

Given the shared strategic interests and common concern all four countries have shown towards the human rights crisis in Hong Kong, we believe the QUAD is an important vehicle to coordinate common responses across the region. We would urge Australia to champion the creation of a Hong Kong working group amongst ministers of the QUAD to further assess how the four countries can respond to the crisis in the city.

Xi Jinping’s China continues to bully, to oppress, to divide and rule, and to reward and isolate countries throughout the region. Australia, like Hong Kong, in the last year has been on the front line, facing illegal punitive tariffs and financial coercion.

It is increasingly clear that no one country can stand up to the expansionist ambitions of the Chinese Communist Party with the region alone. It requires a coalition of democratic partners and in particular those who have shared values and shared interests.

When it comes to Hong Kong, we believe that Australia should work hand in hand with its partners in the Five Eyes and through its membership of the QUAD.

Thank you.

Sam Goodman, Hong Kong Watch’s Senior Policy Advisor

You can watch Sam’s testimony on repeat here: Watch Parliament – Parliament of Australia (aph.gov.au)