'We must stand up to the thugs and bullies in Beijing - or Taiwan will fall', Benedict Rogers
China’s latest hostile actions are indicative of its aim is to advance authoritarianism. The direction of travel is clear
The revelation that China has hacked Parliamentarians and the Electoral Commission is shocking, though for anyone following China closely, not surprising.
I have been trying to sound the alarm about the threats the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime poses for at least a decade. As a result, I have been the target of threatening letters sent to my home and my neighbours. Just days before a visit to Vancouver three years ago, I received an anonymous – but ominous – email saying “See you at the Sheraton” (where I was booked to stay), an indication that I was under surveillance.
The British Government’s response to China’s latest hostile activity perhaps represents the beginnings of a turning-point. The Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden’s robust language was welcome. The problem is, it is still not being matched by robust action.
Sanctioning two hackers and a front company and summoning the Chinese ambassador are welcome steps, but they won’t leave Beijing quaking in their boots. As Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP said, the government’s measures resemble “an elephant giving birth to a mouse”; or as Stewart McDonald MP put it, the government had “turned up at a gunfight with a wooden spoon”.
It is not enough to wake up to the threats the Beijing regime poses – we must stand up to it.
Let us be clear: Xi Jinping’s aim is to assert China’s global dominance and advance authoritarianism around the world. The latest illustration of this was seen in Hong Kong last week, when the city’s pro-Beijing puppet legislature unanimously passed the most repressive security law in its history, further cementing Xi’s iron grip over the city.
The new security law represents an all-out assault on whatever was left of Hong Kong’s liberties, autonomy and the rule of law. Fast-tracked through the legislature North Korea-style, with no opposition and precious little debate, this law comes on top of the draconian National Security Law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing four years ago. That law led to the forced closure of almost all independent media, the shut down of over 66 civil society organisations, an end to freedom of protest and the expulsion of the pro-democracy camp from the legislature.
Most pro-democracy politicians have either been jailed, exiled or threatened into silence. Hong Kong’s political prisoners include 47 former legislators and activists whose only “crime” was holding a primary election to choose candidates for the legislature.
The most high-profile trial underway is that of 76 year-old media entrepreneur and British citizen Jimmy Lai, founder of the now defunct Apple Daily, charged with conspiring to collude with foreign forces and publishing seditious materials. He has already been in jail for over three years, and may well die there.
The total dismantling of Hong Kong’s freedoms and autonomy illustrates that the “one country, two systems” model for peaceful unification with Taiwan is completely dead. Taiwan looks at what has happened to Hong Kong and says “no thanks”. That means the only way Xi will take Taiwan is by force – ultimately militarily, but likely combined with an economic blockade. That makes the world ever more dangerous.
All this threatens our freedoms at home too. Offences detailed in the new security law will apply to “anyone” outside Hong Kong – intensifying the extraterritoriality that already existed in the National Security law. I have already been threatened with a jail sentence, and in the work I do, I am in violation of this absurd law every day of my life – and so is anyone who criticises the CCP.
So, as I say, statements alone are not enough. Given Xi’s ambitions, and the threat to our freedoms which the Prime Minister and his deputy have finally acknowledged, a wholesale re-think of our China policy is now long overdue.
For a start, we need to drop the Sir Humphrey language of “epoch-defining challenge” and “robust pragmatism” that sounds strong yet is meaningless and incomprehensible. Let’s call the CCP for what it is: an extremely grave threat to our security and liberty.
As China’s economy slows, Xi’s expansionist ambitions are likely to grow. Now is the time to take serious steps to de-risk investments, reduce strategic dependency, decouple economically and diversify our supply chains.
As the threats to Taiwan increase, we must deter an invasion by making it clear to Xi that we stand with Taiwan – one of the region’s most vibrant democracies – and that the consequences of military action would be dire for China.
Today is the third anniversary of China’s ridiculous sanctioning of seven Parliamentarians, two other individuals and at least four entities, including a legal chambers and the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission which I co-founded and helped lead.
If the tyrants in Beijing and Hong Kong are not made to feel consequences for their actions, they will be emboldened to further intensify repression with impunity and threaten our freedoms.
Too many red lines have been crossed. We must stand up to these thugs and bullies and defend freedom itself before it is too late.
This article was published in The Telegraph on 26 March 2024.