By Raymond Chung, Carmen Wu and Lau Siu Fung
2021.10.18
The move comes amid warnings that the CCP is seeking to repeat its actions in Hong Kong on a global scale.
Customers sit and browse through titles at independent bookstore Bleak House Books in Hong Kong on the shop's last day of operations before closing due to difficulties in operating under the Beijing-imposed national security law, Oct. 15, 2021.
A Taiwan-owned bookstore in Hong Kong said it has no
more in-store copies a historical book arguing that the eight-nation
invasion of China at the turn of the 20th century was justified, amid
reports in media backed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that
it had removed the book from its shelves.
"The
Eight-Nation Alliance Was a Just Cause," penned by Canada-based author
Liu Qikun and published in democratic Taiwan, was reportedly "removed"
by Eslite bookstores in Hong Kong, the CCP-backed Global Times newspaper reported.
The pro-CCP South China Morning Post cited an Eslite employee as saying the book was sold out, but may not be fully restocked due to "the current situation."
The
book "glamorizes the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance,"
the Global Times reported, and was unavailable in Hong Kong branches of
Eslite on Monday, although copies were still listed on the chain's website, according to The Standard newspaper.
The
controversy comes amid a citywide crackdown on dissent that has seen
dozens of former opposition politicians and high-profile journalists
detained under a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by
the CCP from July 1, 2020.
Pro-Beijing
lawmaker Elizabeth Quat told journalists she had received hundreds of
complaints that the book was on sale in Hong Kong, and that publications
that "villify and distort" the CCP's version of history wouldn't be
tolerated.
Chao Cheng-min, who heads the China Times
publishing house that published the book, said there was a reason that
the book was published in Taiwan in the first place.
"Taiwan
has freedom of the press and of publication," Chao told RFA. "We have
always respected different views among our writers, and believe that
readers can make up their own minds."
"But we also respect the different laws and customs in our different regional markets."
Hong Kong seen as a warning
Author Liu Qikun was designated an "ultra-rightist" during the
political purges of the 1950s under late supreme leader Mao Zedong, and
later fled to Hong Kong. He emigrated to Canada in 1988 and has written
in favor of constitutional democracy in China since retiring from a
career in software development.
The disappearance of
the books from Hong Kong bookstores came after warnings from
high-profile commentators regarding the CCP's global ambitions in recent
days.
U.S.-based historian Miles Yu said that what is happening in Hong Kong should be a warning to the rest of the world.
"It's
not just a tragedy for the people of Hong Kong, but the for the whole
world ... and shows that the CCP isn't a credible regime," Yu told a
Christian foundation event on Hong Kong, at which he shared a platform
with former Trump administration secretary of state Mike Pompeo.
"I
think Pompeo had the right attitude towards China, which should be to
distrust and verify," Yu said, citing China's abandonment of the
promises made in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, a
U.N.-registered bilateral treaty governing the handover of the city from
the U.K. to China in 1997.
"Hong Kong is major
example of that," he said, warning that the CCP will be seeking
political domination of its neighbors in Taiwan and southeast Asia next.
Pompeo
told the California-based Hong Kong Freedom Beacon Inc. foundation on
Oct. 17 that "appeasement was not going to work" in the face of the
CCP-backed crackdown in Hong Kong, a conclusion that led the U.S. to
pass a raft of legislation and executive measures from November 2019,
removing the city's special trading status and imposing requirements
for political reviews and sanctions on officials responsible for the
national security crackdown.
"It appears now
destined to be just another communist city ... when the CCP knocked down
and smashed Hong Kong's freedoms, it also shattered any illusions
anyone might have about the regime's trustworthiness," he said.
"But the world is still watching," he said, to enthusiastic applause.
Wider Chinse goals
Veteran journalist Ching Cheong said Pompeo had reversed the
mistakes made by previous U.S. administrations in their dealings with
China over many years.
"Just look at how many
promises the CCP has failed to keep, or broken, since the regime came to
power in 1949," Ching said. "I think there are eight or 10 major
instances of this."
Joanna Chiu, a journalist and
author who has reported on Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement for many
years, recently told the Tom Lantos Congressional hearing on Hong Kong
that the city's seven million people may never hold a large protest
again.
"My research examines how Beijing’s bid for control over Hong Kong is part of a wider picture," Chiu told the Oct. 14 hearing.
"The
same set of party and state agencies, such as the United Front Work
Department and Ministry of State Security, responsible for putting
pressure on civil society groups and political entities in Hong Kong,
has a similar mission all around the world," she warned.
The
national security law criminalizes speech and actions deemed to amount
to secession, subversion, terrorism, or collusion with foreign powers,
and enabled the setting up of a national security office under the
direct control of Beijing to oversee the implementation of the law, as
well as a Hong Kong headquarters for China's feared state security
police, to handle "special cases" deemed important by Beijing.
It
also bans speech or actions anywhere in the world deemed to incite
hatred or dissatisfaction with the CCP or the Hong Kong government.
Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
No comments:
Post a Comment