Hong Kong demonstration. Photo: GETTY
he residents of Hong Kong continue to demonstrate against Chinese rule. Since its handover to China in 1997, residents of the former British colony have experienced first-hand what living under Communist China is like.
Hongkongers have generally been spared the brunt of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule, thanks to the “one country, two systems” principle agreed upon between Britain and China. They have nevertheless experienced enough over the past 22 years to develop a near-total distrust of China’s communist rulers.
Hongkongers have seen their freedoms steadily and deliberately curtailed as their overlords in Beijing gradually turn Hong Kong into a totalitarian haven like the rest of China.
Like Hongkongers, Filipinos have experienced China’s heavy-handedness as well. China invaded reefs, shoals, and fishing grounds that, according to the United Nations (UN) belong to the Philippines. They destroyed thousands of square miles of undersea coral. Giant clams, and endangered sea turtles are regularly harvested by China’s fishing militia which operates directly under Beijing’s control.
China prevents Filipino fishermen from fishing in Philippine waters. And Communist China refuses to adhere to a UN tribunal ruling that unanimously dismissed their South China Sea claims as having no legal basis, and therefore illegal.
But unlike Hongkongers, who number just around 7 million, there are over 100 million Filipinos in the Philippines and tens of millions more living abroad. They will warn the world about the dangers of Communist Chinese hegemony. The CCP is bent on taking away the freedom and democracy that Hongkongers and Filipinos now enjoy. But people who have experienced freedom and democracy will not willingly give those up, no matter how high the cost. Published 7/28/2019
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