US-backed HK political party, Demosistō, collapses as China takes firm steps to prevent second colonization
Photo Credit: (Handelsblatt / Google Images)
Written by: Aidan Jonah
Demosistō, a political party founded by Joshua Wong, has folded just a day after China passed a new Hong Kong Security Law. The party announced this in a statement on Twitter, saying that the loss of Wong, along with Nathan Law and two other organizers led to the decision to disband.
The rise of Wong, the Umbrella Movement, and ties to business tycoon Jimmy Lai
When the Umbrella Movement was launched in 2014, Wong was just 17 years old. The coalition, launched against the now-defunct extradition law, consisted of a variety of civil society, media and political groups. The Grayzone reported that they were supplemented with untold sums of money from US regime-change outfits like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and subsidiaries like the National Democratic Institute (NDI).
Journalist Alex Rubinstein reported that the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, a key member of the coalition that organized, has received more than $2 million in NED funds since 1995. Other groups in the coalition reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars from the NED and NDI in 2018 alone.
An episode of The News with Rick Sanchez on Russia's RT TV network in July 2014, disclosed that six organizations are taking money from and working with NED.
They are the HK Institute of Human Resource Management, the HK Confederation of Trade Unions, the HK Journalists Association, the Civic Party, the Labor Party and the Democratic Party, whose founding chairman is Martin Lee.
They are all members of the Civil Human Rights Front, a coalition which the Hong Kong media, including the South China Morning Post and Hong Kong Free Press, say was the organizer of the anti-extradition law demonstrations.
Jimmy Lai, the billionaire magnate and founder of nativist news network Next Digital and its tremendously popular paper, Apple Daily was a vociferous supporter of these protests. Lai bankrolled these protests, providing all the funding needed for protesters.
Journalist Dan Cohen reported that:
“Leaked emails revealed that Lai poured more than $1.2 million to anti-China political parties including $637,000 USD to the Democratic Party and $382,000 USD to the Civic Party. Lai also gave $115,000 USD to the Hong Kong Civic Education Foundation and Hong Kong Democratic Development Network, both of which were co-founded by Reverend Chu Yiu-ming. Lai also spent $446,000 USD on Occupy Central’s 2014 unofficial referendum.”
Wong rose to become one of the most well known spokepersons for the burgeoning movement. He was described as a “freedom campaigner” in Time magazine, Fortune, and Foreign Policy and had a Netflix documentary called “Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower,” which detailed Wong’s rise from an pro-US imperialism standpoint.
In 2015, Freedom House honoured Wong, Martin Lee, and University of Hong Kong law professor Benny Tai Lee.
Wong soon began to build connections with both imperialist Democrats and Republicans who make up the US legislature and US backed soft-power regime-change advocacy groups. This momentum was used to create a new political party, Demosistō.
Demosistō’s separatist politics & China’s anti-colonial push to retain Hong Kong
Demosistō was founded by Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and other Umbrella Movement organizers in April 2016.
National Endowment for Democracy’s National Democratic Institute (NDI) has maintained a close relationship with Demosistō.
While the general party policy was unclear, the party specifically promised to hold a referendum, in 2026, on whether Hong Kong would separate from China. This clashed with the terms of HK’s 1997 handover from Britain to China.
In this, Hong Kong was promised the continuation of its existing freedoms and separate legal jurisdiction for 50 years under the "one country, two systems" pledge from Beijing. The BBC explained that post-2047, mainland China is no longer obliged to grant the autonomy agreed on with Britain before the handover. China has made it clear that it wishes to retain Hong Kong past this deadline.
To understand China’s case to fully re-introduce Hong Kong into China, a quick look at how Hong Kong was separated from China is necessary. It can be summed up in this manner.
The British declared a colonial war on China in 1839, in retaliation for their refusal to allow opium to be consumed for non-medical usage. By 1842, Britain had forcefully occupied Shangai, and China was forced to surrender. As a result, they were forced to sign the Treaty of Nanking, which ceded control of Hong Kong to Britain.
Further conflicts in the region around opium continued for decades, in which the British colonized further areas of China including parts of the Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island. A “lease deal” was agreed upon in 1898, where control of the already colonized land of Hong Kong was officially given to the British.
There are strong sentiments among China’s political leadership for fully re-integrating Hong Kong into mainland China, directly connected to Britain’s colonial annexation of Hong Kong almost two centuries ago. This has led many to view US’ backed NGOs providing financial support as part of the government’s plan to re-annex Hong Kong, and have it as the modern day equivalent of a colonized territory. With the US’ eschewing direct physical repression, in favour of the neo-colonial method of financial domination, which has been used to re-assert colonial control of newly independent African states.
Speaking at the 44th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday, Cuba welcomed the adoption of the new Security law on behalf of 52 other countries, including Venezuela, Palestine and Nicaragua.
Full list of countries which signed Cuba’s joint statement.
“Non-interference in internal affairs of sovereign states is an essential principle enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and a basic norm of international relations,” said the Cuban representative.
The joint statement said, “In any country, the legislative power on national security issues rests with State, which in essence is not a human rights issue and therefore not subject to discussion at the Human Rights Council.”
As a result the current HK government took measures the Demosistō party, which advocates for the separation of Hong Kong from China yet again.
Nathan Law was disqualified for improper oath-taking in October 2016, after winning a Legislative Council election months earlier. Demosistō’s replacement candidate, Agnes Chow Ting, was blocked by officials from running in the special by-election, who argued that the party’s call for self-determination was unconstitutional.
In May 2018, Demosistō declared that it would withdraw from electoral politics entirely as a result. Jimmy Lai and Nathan Wong have been arrested by police multiple times since this announcement.
Demosistō struggled to maintain their presence on the political scene, having only 30 members at the time it quit electoral politics, until the group quickly folded upon the imposition of the new Hong Kong security law.
How Wong and Demosistō colluded with US neocons to push sanctions against China
Wong has consistently met with regime-change loving neocons including Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, and was one of the crucial pushers of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.
The legislation amended the Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, which governs U.S. relations with Hong Kong. The new act directs the U.S. government to regularly assess and certify “whether Hong Kong is sufficiently autonomous from China”.
The bill requires the U.S. government to closely scrutinize whether Hong Kong “enforce[s] sanctions imposed by the United States” against North Korea and Iran in particular, along with any other country that Washington deems “present a threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.”
Second, the legislation aims to “safeguard United States businesses in Hong Kong from economic coercion and intellectual property theft.” It requires the U.S. government to closely scrutinize whether Hong Kong enforces U.S. export control laws and trade policy in relation to China.
If the U.S. government finds that such “fundamental freedoms and autonomy in Hong Kong” are being undermined, the act provides legal justification for the U.S. to impose sanctions on China. In reality this means that if Hong Kong is not supporting U.S. foreign policy, in terms of sanctions against US enemies and the Trump administration’s trade war with China, China will be sanctioned.
The Hong Kong Free Press reported that lobbyists also worked to remove the requirement that protesters be “peaceful” in order to apply for U.S. visas without obstruction. This provision makes it abundantly easier for violent protesters to flee to the U.S.
In September 2019, Wong and other “pro-democracy” HK organizers also joined the Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC), which is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.
As reported earlier by The Canada Files, Allen Weinstein, a former acting president of NED and one of the authors of the study that led to its creation, said in a 1991 interview that "A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
After the security bill passed, the US Congress was forced to freeze $2 million in planned payouts to HK protest groups and shut down US Agency for Global Media, the shell group that funneled the money.
How does the Security law work?
A report from The Nation Pakistan detailed how the law works.
With the passage of the law on safeguarding national security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), several new departments and units will be established to handle national security cases.
The law clearly defines the duties and government bodies of the HKSAR in safeguarding national security; the four categories of offences - the act of secession, subversion, terrorist activities, and collusion with a foreign country or external elements to endanger national security - and their corresponding penalties; jurisdiction, applicable law and procedures; office of the central people's government for safeguarding national security in the HKSAR; and other contents, according to Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday.
The Hong Kong government will, in accordance with the requirements of the National Security Law, establish the Committee for Safeguarding National Security to be chaired by the chief executive as soon as possible, said Chief Executive Carrie Lam in a statement to usher in the passage of the law by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) on Tuesday.
According to the law, the central government office for safeguarding national security has the power of jurisdiction in the HKSAR, and the office is beyond the administration of this government.
The Hong Kong government must provide the necessary convenience and coordination to the office while the office executes its duties. Observers said this makes the central government the ultimate authority in the SAR when handling national security cases, and such authority has been forced upon by foreign forces and local separatists due to last year's massive turmoil.
The central government office, rather than Hong Kong law enforcement departments, will handle cases under the following three conditions: involvement from foreign forces with the HKSAR government being deemed unable to handle the case, the HKSAR government failing to properly enforce the law, and the national security is seriously threatened, the law stipulates.
"Dedicated units in the Hong Kong Police Force and the Department of Justice will be responsible for implementing relevant legal provisions stated by the National Security Law," Chief Executive Carrie Lam said in a statement. According to the law, the new committee includes a national security advisor that will be designated by the central government to assist, advise and supervise the chief executive to handle national security affairs in Hong Kong.
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