Outrage and renewed calls to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics followed Wednesday’s news of the arrest of Canadian pop star and democracy advocate Denise Ho in Hong Kong, and others implicated in a post in Sedition-Related Charges Line.
Observers say the arrests question the safety of Canadians in China and called for Ottawa to reassess its relations with Beijing.
Along with Canadian politicians, a consortium of 18 organizations concerned about human rights in China, including the Alliance Canada Hong Kong and the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, issued a statement calling on the international community to comment on the arrests.
“We urge our Canadian government, our international allies and journalists around the world to strongly condemn this latest crackdown on Hong Kong press freedom and work closely to expedite the release of all journalists arrested in Hong Kong. “, it reads. “We also urge our Canadian government to provide Denise Ho with consular protection.”
Others say the arrests show that the “one country, two systems” policy aimed at granting Hong Kong freedom and democratic rights has failed and that Canada should stop adhering to it.
Ho is a pop star and democracy activist who was born in Hong Kong but partially raised in Montreal. In the past, he has testified at the UN Human Rights Council on abuses in Hong Kong and is also an activist for LGBTQ rights. The 44-year-old has been expelled from mainland China for protesting human rights abuses.
Police raided the offices of the pro-democracy digital media Stand News on Wednesday. Ho, a former board member, was arrested earlier in the day, along with six other editors and current or former board members.
The arrests were made under a criminal ordinance dating back to the city’s time as a British colony, The Associated Press reported.
In 2019, mass protests broke out over the introduction of China’s national security law, with opponents warning that it would be used to clamp down on freedom of speech and the media in the region. At the time, opponents said they feared the law was just the beginning of an oppressive campaign against free speech in Hong Kong. Many said the law violated the treaty under which the region was handed over to China in 1997, which stipulated that civil rights would remain intact for 50 years.
Ho and other arrested are charged with conspiracy to publish a seditious publication. She faces fines and up to two years in prison.
Stand News was one of the last publications critical of the government after the famous Apple Daily closed after its publisher and publishers were arrested last year. Stand News suspended subscriptions earlier this year and removed many op-ed pieces from its website about national security law concerns.
The latest arrests also follow the demolition of monuments to the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Hong Kong last week.
In Canada, conservative senator Leo Housakos said that Ho’s arrest once again shows Canadians are not safe in China and said he wrote a letter to the government urging it to institute a total boycott of the upcoming Beijing Olympics over concern for the safety of athletes.
“Canadians are not safe in the hands of communist thugs,” Housakos told the Star. “Immediate action is needed. At some point, the Canadian government must put a firm footing, stick its head out of the sand and stop pretending to do the same with Beijing. “
He said Ottawa also needs to issue a travel advisory warning Canadians of the danger of traveling to China. An estimated 300,000 Canadians live in Hong Kong.
Housakos said Ottawa must rethink its approach to the relationship with China and stop adhering to the politics of one country, two systems. Such a change could mean that Hong Kong would not enjoy the privileges granted by Canada, such as residents who do not require a visa to visit.
In Vancouver, Thekla Lit of the Chinese Communist Party’s Chinese-Canadian Human Rights Violations Concern Group, which also signed the statement of 18 groups, said the arrests constituted a “death threat” against other outlets in the city.
“It really means that freedom of the press is being almost completely eliminated,” Lit said. “These attacks could extend to foreign journalists.”
He said the ongoing crackdown on the media means that the Chinese Communist Party can do whatever it wants.
On Wednesday afternoon, Global Affairs Canada said consular officials are “engaged and ready to provide assistance on the ground.”
Spokesman Jason Kung said Canada is concerned about the arrests and will speak out against such actions together with international allies.
Ho’s arrest comes months after Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were released after nearly two years in jail on espionage charges in what many observers said was in direct retaliation for the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer. , Meng Wanzhou, in Canada.
Meng was arrested in December 2018 at the Vancouver airport at the request of the United States, where she was wanted on charges of fraud. She signed a deferred prosecution agreement and was released in September, Kovrig and Spavor were released the same day.
This latest arrest of a Canadian in Hong Kong, while “deplorable”, is not the same situation, said former Canadian ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques.
“The Michaels case was clearly a retaliation for the arrest of a Chinese citizen that (Chinese President) Xi Jinping thought was important,” Saint-Jacques said. “(Ho) has been caught up in this huge effort now to wipe out all forms of opposition in Hong Kong. All critical voices. “
He also said that Canada will have to reconsider joining one country, two systems. He said Hong Kong authorities are sending the message that it will run through the “rule of law” rather than the “rule of law”, which calls into question the status of the region.
With files from The Associated Press
Reference-www.thestar.com