The New York Times - USA (2020-08-01)

A10 Y THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONALSATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2020

WASHINGTON — The Trump

administration announced sanc-

tions Friday on a powerful gov-

ernment entity and two senior of-

ficials who have helped manage it,

citing systemic human rights

abuses against predominantly

Muslim ethnic minorities in the

Xinjiang region in China’s far

northwest.

The sanctions, imposed by the

Treasury Department’s Office of

Foreign Assets Control, name the

Xinjiang Production and Con-

struction Corp, an economic and

paramilitary organization that

plays a central role in the develop-

ment of the Xinjiang region, and

two associated officials, Peng

Jiarui and Sun Jinlong. The order

is designed to prevent them from

accessing American property and

the financial system, as well as to

ban any economic transactions

between them and American com-

panies and citizens.

“The United States is commit-

ted to using the full breadth of its

financial powers to hold human

rights abusers accountable in Xin-

jiang and across the world,”

Steven T. Mnuchin, the Treasury

Secretary, said in a statement.

The sanctions most likely will

have little or no practical impact

on Mr. Peng, the deputy party sec-

retary and commander of the de-

velopment group, and Mr. Sun,

one of its former political commis-

sars. It was not immediately clear

what effect they would have on

trade and international commerce

done by the group, which over-

sees some state-run companies

that export products such as to-

mato paste.

Ties between the United States

and China have been fraying as

the Trump administration takes

an increasingly hard line on Chi-

na’s handling of the initial coro-

navirus outbreak, its growing re-

pression in Hong Kong, its mari-

time claims and miliary expan-

sionism in the South China Sea, its

efforts to export 5G next-genera-

tion telecommunications equip-

ment and its systemic abuses of

largely Muslim ethnic minorities

in Xinjiang.

The Chinese government has

carried out a campaign of mass

detentions in Xinjiang, placing

one million or more members of

the Uighur ethnic group and oth-

ers into large internment camps

that aim to indoctrinate the de-

tainees with propaganda about

the Communist Party and eradi-

cate core parts of their Muslim

and Uighur identities.

From 2018 onward, senior ad-

ministration officials debated

whether and how to punish China

for the abuses.

China hawks in the administra-

tion blamed Mr. Trump and top

economic advisers, including Mr.

Mnuchin, for holding back on

sanctions in order to avoid jeopar-

dizing trade talks with China and

to cozy up to Xi Jinping, the Chi-

nese leader.

But now, as the pandemic roils

the United States and endangers

the president’s prospects of re-

election, Mr. Trump has begun to

sour on maintaining cordial rela-

tions with China, and the hawks

have greater leeway to pursue

tougher actions on China and to

try to set the two nations on a

long-term course for confronta-

tion.

Mr. Trump’s campaign strat-

egists have also urged him to at-

tack China in an attempt to turn

the spotlight away from the presi-

dent’s failures on the pandemic

and the economy.

“Today’s designations are the

latest U.S. government action in

an ongoing effort to deter human

rights abuse in the Xinjiang re-

gion,” Secretary of State Mike

Pompeo, the most vocal of the

China hawks, said in a statement

on Friday.

The Xinjiang Production and

Construction Corp was founded in

1954 as a group entwined with the

People’s Liberation Army that

would oversee the deployment of

large numbers of ethnic Han citi-

zens, many of them military veter-

ans, to Xinjiang to build farms,

factories and towns that would al-

low China to consolidate control of

the important border region and

the many ethnic minority groups

there.

As of 2009, the group, which re-

ports directly to Beijing, had an

annual output of goods and serv-

ices of $7 billion, and the settle-

ments and entities overseen by

the bingtuan, or soldiers corps, in-

cluded five cities, 180 farming

communities and 1,000 compa-

nies. They also run their own

courts, universities and media or-

ganizations.

On July 9, the United States im-

posed sanctions on four Chinese

officials associated with Xinjiang

policy, including Chen Quanguo,

the party chief of the region and a

member of the Chinese Commu-

nist Party’s 25-member ruling Po-

litburo. That move was largely

symbolic.

China Gets

New Series

Of Sanctions

From U.S.

By ANA SWANSON

and EDWARD WONG

HONG KONG — The Hong
Kong government said on Friday
that it would postpone the city’s
September legislative election by
one year because of the coro-
navirus pandemic, a decision seen
by the pro-democracy opposition
as a brazen attempt to thwart its
electoral momentum and avoid
the defeat of pro-Beijing candi-
dates.
“It is a really tough decision to
delay, but we want to ensure fair-
ness, public safety and public
health,” said Carrie Lam, Hong
Kong’s chief executive.
She cited the risk of infections,
with as many as three million or
more people expected to vote on
the same day; the inability of can-
didates to hold campaign events
because of social distancing rules;
and the difficulties faced by eligi-
ble voters who are overseas or in
mainland China and cannot re-
turn to cast ballots because of
travel restrictions.
The delay was a blow to opposi-
tion politicians, who had hoped to
ride to victory on a wave of deep-
seated dissatisfaction with the
government and concerns about a
sweeping new national security
law imposed by Beijing on Hong
Kong. And it was the latest in a
quick series of aggressive moves
by the pro-Beijing establishment
that had the effect of sidelining the
pro-democracy movement.
On Thursday, 12 pro-democracy
candidates said they had been
barred from running, including
four sitting lawmakers and sev-
eral prominent activists like
Joshua Wong. Mr. Wong said he
was barred in part because of his
criticism of the new security law.
“Clearly it is the largest election
fraud in #HK’s history,” Mr. Wong
wrote on Twitter after Mrs. Lam
announced the postponement.
Even before Friday, the city’s
pro-democracy opposition had ac-

cused the government of using so-

cial-distancing rules to clamp

down on the protest movement

that began more than a year ago.

Earlier this week, amid reports

that the vote might be delayed,

Eddie Chu, a pro-democracy legis-

lator running for re-election, said

that China’s ruling Communist

Party was ordering “a strategic

retreat.” They “want to avoid a po-

tential devastating defeat” in the

election, he wrote on Twitter.

The explanation that Hong

Kong must delay the vote because

of the pandemic is likely to fall flat

among the wider public, said Ma

Ngok, an associate professor of

political science at the Chinese

University of Hong Kong.

“I think it will be seen as a kind

of manipulation, that the govern-

ment is afraid of losing the major-

ity and that is why they postponed

the election,” he said.

Mrs. Lam denied that the deci-

sion had been influenced by politi-

cal concerns. “It is purely on the

basis of protecting the health and

safety of the Hong Kong people

and to ensure that the elections

are held in a fair and open man-

ner,” she said.

While Hong Kong has been a

world leader in controlling the co-

ronavirus, in recent days it has

seen its worst surge of infections

yet, with more than 100 new cases

reported daily for more than a

week. The government has un-

furled several new lockdown and

social-distancing measures.

Under Hong Kong law, an elec-

tion can be delayed up to 14 days if

there is a “danger to public health

or safety.” Mrs. Lam postponed

the election until Sept. 5, 2021, un-

der emergency powers that allow

the chief executive to make any

regulations considered to be “de-

sirable in the public interest.”

Those powers, which date to the

British colonial era, were invoked

last year when the government

banned the wearing of masks in

an effort to stem protests.

China’s central government

said it supported Mrs. Lam’s deci-

sion to delay the election, the

state-run Xinhua News Agency

reported.

The postponement will likely be

met with criticism from the United

States and other countries that

have expressed sharp disap-

proval of China’s tightening grip

on Hong Kong.

The elections “must proceed on

time,” Secretary of State Mike

Pompeo said on Thursday in a U.S.

radio interview. “They must be

held. The people of Hong Kong de-

serve to have their voice repre-

sented by the elected officials that

they choose in those elections.”

“If they destroy that, if they

take that down, it will be another

marker that will simply prove that

the Chinese Communist Party has

now made Hong Kong just an-

other Communist-run city,” he

added.

Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for

China’s Ministry of Foreign Af-

fairs, said on Friday that the Hong

Kong election was “a local election

in China and is purely China’s in-

ternal affair.”

The national security law tar-

gets activity that it describes as

secession, subversion, terrorism

and collusion with foreign powers.

It has stirred concerns in Hong

Kong because it allows mainland

security services to operate

openly in the city and makes some

speech, such as advocating Hong

Kong’s independence, illegal.

On Wednesday, in a sign that of-

ficials would strictly enforce the

law, the police arrested four activ-

ists, ages 16 to 21, who were ac-

cused of supporting separatism in

social media posts.

And the next day, in barring the

12 opposition candidates, the

Hong Kong government said that

the grounds for disqualifying

them included advocating Hong

Kong’s independence or self-de-

termination, soliciting interven-

tion from foreign governments,

expressing an objection in princi-

ple to the national security law

Beijing imposed last month, or

vowing to indiscriminately vote

against government proposals.

Opposition candidates say the

moves suggested that pro-Beijing

officials were concerned about a

resounding defeat in the Septem-

ber election. Even establishment

candidates have been quietly dis-

cussing the potential for a pan-

democratic wave.

Elections for neighborhood-lev-

el offices, held last November,

were seen as a warning: The op-

position took control of 17 out of 18

district councils, which had nor-

mally been controlled by pro-Bei-

jing parties.

This year, the opposition set its

sights on a bigger target: to take

at least half the 70 seats in the

Legislative Council, the top law-

making body in the territory.

While the protests have abated

in recent weeks under the authori-

ties’ crackdown, discontent with

the government has remained

strong since Beijing imposed the

security law on Hong Kong, a

semiautonomous city that main-

tains its own local government

and legal system.

Two weeks ago, more than

600,000 people participated in the

opposition camp’s primary elec-

tion, despite warnings from local

officials that it might be illegal.

Voters generally preferred candi-

dates closely associated with the

past year’s protests.

In barring the candidates for

the September elections, election

officials questioned whether can-

didates who had previously lob-

bied foreign governments would

continue to do so, which could po-

tentially violate the new security

law’s prohibitions on foreign influ-

ence. Another question asked was

whether candidates, if elected,

would veto the government’s

budget. Under Hong Kong’s sys-

tem, if the legislature blocks the

budget twice in a row, the chief ex-

ecutive is forced to step down.

Kwok Ka-ki, a legislator who

was one of the 12 candidates dis-

qualified Thursday, replied that

such a question was political in na-

ture, and that he was unsure why

an election official had any busi-

ness asking it. “After all, this is

why there are elections in the first

place,” he wrote.

Just half the seats in the legisla-

ture represent geographic dis-

tricts in Hong Kong, another bar-

rier for the pro-democracy camp.

The other half are functional con-

stituencies largely set aside for

candidates from various commer-

cial sectors, which tend to vote for

establishment candidates.

The opposition has pointed to

other places that have held suc-

cessful elections during the pan-

demic, including South Korea and

Singapore.

“I don’t think many people in

Hong Kong will be convinced,” Mr.

Ma said, referring to the official

justification for delaying the elec-

tion. “They are allowed to go to

work, take the subway, take the

bus, stand in long queues and then

not allowed to vote? It won’t be

very convincing.”

Hong Kong’s Leader Delays Voting

Until 2021, Infuriating Opposition

By AUSTIN RAMZY

Joshua Wong is barred from running in Hong Kong’s next elec-

tion. He called the ban “the largest election fraud in HK’s history.”

LAM YIK FEI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A move linked to the

virus that may protect

pro-Beijing officials.

Elaine Yu and Tiffany May con-
tributed reporting from Hong
Kong. Keith Bradsher contributed
reporting, and Claire Fu contribut-
ed research, from Beijing.

actions reflect Beijing’s urgency
to smother opposition to its en-
croaching authority over the terri-
tory after more than a year of po-
litical upheaval there.
“More will come,” said Victoria
Tin-bor Hui, a political scientist
from Hong Kong at University of
Notre Dame.
The aggressive consolidation of
power mirrors China’s broader
moves to flex its political, eco-
nomic and military might as the
world is distracted by the pan-
demic.
Western nations have pushed
back aggressively against Bei-
jing’s measures, imposing sanc-
tions and even suspending extra-
dition agreements with Hong
Kong, but to no avail. In some
ways, it appears to have embold-
ened China, which blames foreign
interference for the dissent in
Hong Kong.
“The people of Hong Kong de-
serve to have their voice repre-
sented by the elected officials that
they choose in those elections,”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
said in a radio interview ahead of
the postponement of the election.
“If they destroy that, if they take
that down, it will be another
marker that will simply prove that
the Chinese Communist Party has
now made Hong Kong just an-
other communist-run city.”
Wang Wenbin, the chief spokes-
man of China’s Ministry of For-
eign Affairs, said that Beijing was
allowing the Hong Kong authori-
ties to decide the timing of the
election. But he also insisted that
Beijing would not be dissuaded by
any foreign countries from doing
what it deems necessary.
“China is not afraid of intimida-
tion by any external forces — our
determination is unwavering and
unshakable in safeguarding na-
tional sovereignty, security, and
development interests,” he said.
On the mainland, China thor-
oughly stifles political dissent. For
the authorities there, Hong Kong
— with its nominal political auton-
omy and robust democracy move-
ment — has been a major irritant,
especially after huge protests
openly and at times violently chal-
lenged Beijing’s control and even
sovereignty over the city last year.
With its crackdown, Beijing is
following the authoritarian play-
book of countries like Russia,
holding elections but managing
them so that they cease to reflect
genuine voter will. Russia’s
leader, Vladimir V. Putin, recently
orchestrated a constitutional ref-
erendum to perpetuate his rule —
and then followed it up with a se-
ries of arrests, hoping to smother
discontent before it could gain mo-

mentum.

“They are running short of con-

fidence to face the people, to face

the people’s choice, to face the

people’s demands,” said Alvin Ye-

ung, a sitting pro-democracy law-

maker from the moderate Civic

Party who was disqualified from

running on Thursday. “It’s fear.”

Years in the making, the na-

tional security law created a cli-

mate of fear and uncertainty in

only a matter of hours after it was

imposed.

The day the law took effect, po-

lice officers detained 10 protesters

for national security violations, in-

cluding a young man on a motor-

cycle with a Hong Kong liberation

flag who collided with police offi-

cers. Tong Ying-kit, who was hos-

pitalized after the collision, was

later the first charged person un-

der the new law. He remains in

custody.

The newly created agency to

enforce the law, the Office for

Safeguarding National Security,

soon took up residence in the

Metropark Hotel in Causeway

Bay and surrounded it with barri-

cades in a physical manifestation

of Beijing’s growing authoritarian

footprint on the city.

The agency is headed by Zheng

Yanxiong, a senior Communist

Party official dispatched from

Guangdong, the neighboring

province on the mainland. He is

best known for his hostility to a

short-lived democracy experi-

ment in a Guangdong village,

Wukan, nearly a decade ago.

On July 10, the Hong Kong po-

lice raided an independent polling

institute whose computers were

being used by democracy sup-

porters for an unofficial primary

to decide which candidates would

run for the legislature. Five days

later, the police arrested five ac-

tivists, including a vice chairman

of the territory’s Democratic

Party, in connection with protests

and violent clashes at Hong Kong

Polytechnic University last No-

vember.

The four young activists ar-

rested on Wednesday were all for-

mer members of Studentlocalism,

a pro-independence group led by

secondary school students that

ended its operations just before

the security law took effect.

Regina Ip, a cabinet member

and the leader of a small pro-Bei-

jing political party in the legisla-

ture, welcomed the arrest on

Wednesday of the four activists,

who ranged in age from 16 to 21.

She said that their postings

showed continued support for

Hong Kong independence after

the law went into effect, although

the police have not elaborated on

what the four specifically said.

Their arrest shows that the au-

thorities are “acting in accordance

with the law,” she said.

The spirit of the law has been

used to justify the dismissal of the

professor at the University of

Hong Kong, Benny Tai. After the

rollout of the rules, Mr. Tai, who

was convicted of public nuisance

for his role in protests in 2014,

helped organize the recent prima-

ry vote for the pro-democracy

camp.

Beijing’s Liaison Office in Hong

Kong supported his removal, de-

scribing it in a statement as “a just

act of punishing evil and promot-

ing good and conforming to the

people’s will.”

The legislature cannot have

seats “for these unscrupulous in-

dividuals who are plotting to de-

stroy” Hong Kong, the liaison of-

fice said. The Hong Kong govern-

ment said that candidates who ob-

jected “in principle” to Beijing’s

enactment of the law were vio-

lating the oath to uphold Hong

Kong’s constitution.

The government also said it

was unconstitutional to vow to

block its legislative proposals in

order to pressure the administra-

tion. Some opposition lawmakers

had floated the idea of voting

down the government’s budget.

Under Hong Kong’s mini-consti-

tution known as the Basic Law,

that could force the resignation of

the chief executive, Carrie Lam,

and new elections.

The yearlong delay in the elec-

tion now gives the authorities

time to disqualify more pro-de-

mocracy candidates and quash

any remaining momentum of the

anti-government movement.

While the protests have largely

quieted down since the law was

imposed, the opposition had been

looking toward the election as a

way to revive their cause. The pro-

democracy camp had been hoping

for big gains in the voting, follow-

ing their landslide victory last fall

in district elections. With many of

their most prominent leaders now

banned from running, their

chances seem less certain.

Mr. Yeung, the lawmaker, said

the government had failed to

show that the election could not go

ahead during the pandemic. He

cited safety measures adopted by

South Korea and Singapore dur-

ing recent elections.

“How on earth can they con-

vince the rest of the world, includ-

ing Hong Kong people and the in-

ternational community, that they

have no other ulterior motives

other than public health con-

cerns?” he said.

Ms. Hui, from Notre Dame,

compared Beijing’s strategy to

Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War.” Bei-

jing, she said, has exploited ad-

vantages to defeat its perceived

enemies, not just with the security

law in Hong Kong, but also in the

South China Sea, on China’s bor-

der with India and in other con-

tested areas.

“The harshness of the law can-

not be measured by the number of

arrests,” she said, “but by the de-

terrent effects on silencing any-

one who dares to dissent.”

A flurry of arrests, firings and political bans by the Chinese government has fractured the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

LAM YIK FEI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

From Page A

China Boldly Wields Security Law to Crush Hong Kong Dissent

Keith Bradsher reported from Bei-
jing, Elaine Yu from Hong Kong
and Steven Lee Myers from Seoul,
South Korea.