Biased senators with hatred|Comment HK|chinadaily.com.cn

Grenville Cross says three meddling US politicians have embarrassed themselves by taking the sides of radicals

Although there are many politicians in the United States who do not wish China well, the US Senate has more than its fair share. Impervious to reason and blind to reality, some senators are prepared to do whatever they can to undermine China. Although it is now fashionable for them to feign concern over Hong Kong, it is simply a pawn in their overall plan.

Although the US has cultivated its own proxies in Hong Kong, ready to wave its flags and confront Beijing, it cares nothing for its long-term welfare. It encourages conflict and disunity, and then lionizes the aggressors. In this, the Senate has played a pivotal role, and its hard core has recently been in overdrive.

In 2018, for example, Senator Marco Rubio, co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, nominated three political agitators, Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Alex Chow Yong-kang, for the Nobel Peace Prize. In his submission to the Nobel Prize Committee in Oslo, Rubio praised their “peaceful efforts to bring political reform and self-determination to Hong Kong”.

This, however, was a shameful attempt to trick the committee into awarding the prize to unmeritorious individuals, whose activities were anything but peaceful. What Rubio concealed was that the trio had recently been convicted of violently invading a restricted area at government premises, which left 10 security guards injured, with one having to take 39 days of sick leave. Although the Court of Appeal described their crime as “a large-scale unlawful assembly, involving violence”, this was not disclosed. The committee, fortunately, got wind of what was afoot, and Rubio’s nominations received short shrift.

However, Rubio is by no means alone. Senator Ted Cruz, a member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has also seen an opening for himself in China baiting, as he showed while visiting Hong Kong last week. Absurdly dressed in black from head to toe, to “express solidarity with the protesters”, he then fired off crude insults in all directions. Having just been to Taipei, where he toadied up to its political leadership and condemned what he called the “the brutal repression of Hong Kong”, he showed himself in his true colors, as an irresponsible fantasist. The chief executive’s decision to cancel her meeting with him made eminent good sense, and can, despite his bombast, have come as no surprise.

In 2016, when Cruz was seeking the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, Donald Trump, the ultimately successful candidate, nicknamed him “Lyin’ Ted”, just as he called Marco Rubio, a political lightweight, “Little Marco”. Trump explained that Cruz was “the biggest single liar I have ever dealt with”, adding that “he is a nasty, nasty guy”. In 2018, moreover, during the Texas senatorial election, Cruz’s Democratic Party opponent, Beto O’Rourke, said the “Lyin’ Ted” moniker had “stuck, because it’s true”. The late Senator John McCain, Cruz’s long-time Senate colleague, even described him as a “wacko bird”, and “crazy”.

After Cruz’s behavior last weekend, people can now see why people in the US hold him in such contempt. He announced that it was “very much in America’s interest to support freedom fighters in Hong Kong”, by which he presumably meant the thugs who have thrown petrol bombs at the police, vandalized MTR stations, torched trains, terrified people from elsewhere in China, and damaged their businesses. Having initially claimed to have seen no evidence of the protesters’ violence, he then made the outrageous claim that undercover agents from Beijing might be responsible, for which, of course, he produced no proof.

It is certainly possible that this particular lie was served up to him by the chief of the US Consulate General’s political desk in Hong Kong, Julie Eadeh, who was discovered recently consorting with political agitators in a hotel lobby, but it is so ludicrous that it probably came from the Civic Party itself. Instead, therefore, of praising Beijing for not intervening in Hong Kong, despite huge provocation and violence, as many countries have done, Cruz trotted out a conspiracy theory which, even for a fantasist, was bizarre.

Quite clearly, “Lyin’ Ted” is a walking disaster, who will hopefully not return. If the people who know him best despise him so much, he clearly cannot expect to be taken seriously by anyone in Hong Kong, let alone the chief executive.

Accompanying Cruz was the youngest US senator, 39-year-old Senator Joshua Hawley. Not to be outdone by Cruz, he announced that Hong Kong is sliding toward becoming “a police state”, and accused the police of using excessive force. Given the great restraint and courage the police force have displayed in the face of violent attacks by crazed mobs, Hawley’s comments were as false as they were irresponsible. However, with a con man like “Little Marco” and a fantasist like “Lyin’ Ted” as his mentors, it is perhaps unsurprising that this political neophyte should be churning out such drivel. The poor man has been brainwashed.

If, however, Hawley truly wants to understand Hong Kong, he should study its Basic Law. He will discover not only that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights applies in Hong Kong, but also that it has an independent judiciary, and that its common law legal system enjoys constitutional protection. He will also see that Hong Kong’s capitalist system and way of life are guaranteed until 2047, although his reckless conduct may yet imperil its prosperity and stability.

If, moreover, Hawley checks the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index 2019, he will discover that, whereas Hong Kong came 16th out of the 126 countries and jurisdictions surveyed, the US could only reach 20th position. Instead, therefore, of maligning Hong Kong, he should be looking at what is wrong with the US, and how it can catch up.

The great pity, however, is that, despite their manifest flaws, Rubio and Hawley are co-sponsors of US legislation designed to penalize Hong Kong, and to strip it of its special trading status, which Cruz also backs. They are bent on mischief-making, not justice, and none of them will allow the truth to interfere with their anti-China agenda.

People like Rubio, Cruz and Hawley reflect the very worst of American politics, and Hong Kong cannot expect fair treatment at their hands. If they seek to harm Hong Kong, alternative trading arrangements will be unavoidable. Hong Kong will survive, but it must never cave in to blackmail from people like this.

(HK Edition 10/18/2019 page12)