President Ji needs to go
Someone needs to say it. The movement needs to start. President Ji needs to go.
China is being embarrassed by his leadership. The most populous nation in the world is a critical international player and needs to take a credible role in the world. I have had the privilege of going to China several times. It is a great nation full of creative and friendly people. It has millennia of culture behind it. And the present leadership is making a mockery of his own people. Now the whole world is paying a price for dishonorable leadership. In an age when the word ‘evil’ is just too definite for many to even use, President Ji fits the definition at its nastiest.
The Chinese people endured decades of the most totalitarian and vicious leadership during the last century. Then, change began to take place. Human and economic progress began to occur on a larger scale. Prosperity and increasing freedom meant a new standard of living and prosperity for many. And, just as it seemed that China could adopt international norms of economic and political behavior, President Ji consolidated power. The time since has been a nightmare for his own people and massive deception of the international community.
And we are to blame – he has not been held accountable from the beginning. A combination of financial and political factors have allowed him to proceed, terrorizing his own people and intimidating others. International leaders have failed to hold him accountable. Countries who wanted cheap goods overlooked the blatant power grab both internally and externally. The gross violations of human rights have been disregarded. National leaders ignored the self serving investments made in developing countries. The successful attack on basic human and financial rights in China had given him carte blanche to do as he pleased.
For several years the world has ignored the crushing devastation that this regime has forced on the Uighur Muslim population. Turning a blind eye to the Uighurs enabled increased repression of the Tibetan culture and of Christians across China.
Earlier this spring we had the coronavirus spectacle – the lying, the suppressing of facts about the spread of a deadly disease, the disappearance of good people, the concealing of evidence, the shipment of defective products, the amateurish attempts to blame others, the willingness to prosper off other countries’ misery, and the crushing of internal dissent.
Taking advantage of the international focus on COVID, President Ji has chosen to attack the fundamental freedoms that have existed in Honk Kong. In these last weeks we have watched the malicious manipulation of both the Basic Law agreement and the so-called "one country, two systems" principle. The 1997 handover agreement established the provisions that protect the unique freedoms for Hong Kong: freedom of expression, of assembly and speech, the continuation of the common law system, judicial independence and other democratic rights. On July 1, President Ji is using an obscure Annex provision of the Agreement to destroy both the intent and content of the Agreement.
The proposal to immediately execute this security law threatens to destroy the unique freedoms that are an essential element of Hong Kong’s unique past and present.
The proposed National Security Law will establish a Beijing controlled national security office, a Beijing supervised national security Commission, and will give Beijing the power to both interpret law and appoint special security judges. Penalties for the newly prescribed crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign entities will involve jail terms of five to ten years. Charges under similar laws have been used within China by the government to oppress dissidents. Hong Kong will be obviously be subjected to the same repression of democratic aspirations. Even as the Bill was passing democratic movements and leaders were going into hiding.
Quiet diplomacy will not work and Ji sees it as a sign of weakness. He and his agents may be impacted by sanctions but that will not be enough to stop the oppression.
Isn’t it time the international community, including his UN friends, turn their back on President Ji and speak of him as he is? Shunning him will have results.
President Ji - a leader with no respect for his people or outsiders, the persecutor of Uighurs, Christians, Tibetans, a leader without integrity, one allowed to mislead and misuse both his resources and the international community, while deliberately destroying global communities and stability.
He is exposing a great and historic people to ridicule and shame…and endangering the rest of the world.