The Wuhan virus hysteria has caused people to be so obsessed with news about the virus itself that one might think that nothing else is happening in the world. In some countries, however, while individuals obsess over their own personal health and well-being, tyrannical governments are successfully using this crisis (thrust upon us by a tyrannical government) as an opportunity to increase their totalitarian grip (look at Michigan, New York, and California if you want local examples).
Sometimes the reports are of merely questionable rather than confirmed malicious activity—Tanzanian President Magufuli has raised eyebrows by ordering from Madagascar a plane-full of an herbal potion to “cure” his people before shutting himself up in his village and refusing to take calls from other concerned African leaders. On the other hand, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran refused any U.S. aid for his country, citing a conspiracy theory with absolutely no evidence that the virus was man-made in America as a weapon against America’s enemies. Ironically, almost simultaneous with the Ayatollah’s refusal to accept any medical aid on March 22, just two days earlier, the Iranian Health Ministry reported that a person was dying every 10 minutes from the Wuhan Virus in Iran.
But one of the worst instances of tyranny and disregard for individual human lives has been in Hong Kong, where the Chinese Communists have used the world-wide distraction over the Chinese Wuhan virus to finish off any political opposition to their regime.
In April, Church Militant reported on the “reign of terror” in Hong Kong by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The “father of Hong Kong’s democracy,” Martin Lee, was detained with many other pro-democracy leaders because they organized and participated in “unlawful assemblies.” This detention broke a binding international treaty (the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984), but everyone is so caught up in the Wuhan virus hysteria that, as usual, Hong Kong was ignored. The Justice and Peace Commission of the Hong Kong Catholic diocese called the sweeping arrests (over 200 people) “political persecution” from the CCP. The August and October 2019 peaceful demonstrations of pro-democracy Hong Kong residents (the first brought together around 1.7 million people) are cited as the reason for the recent arrests by the CCP.
China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) called democratic protestors a “virus” that “must be eliminated” because they were threatening the “prosperity and stability” of Hong Kong. This was the same language used on the Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang province before the Muslims were rounded up, thrust into concentration camps, tortured, brainwashed, and sold into slave labor by the CCP. Not exactly an encouraging precedent.
China, in fact, is claiming that it is not bound by Article 22 of the Basic Law, which guaranteed a good deal of autonomy to Hong Kong when the British gave up Hong Kong. While Hong Kong is saying that China has no right to intervene in its affairs, China has been getting increasingly intrusive. China agreed to the “one country, two governments” policy, but, as usual, the Communists have done everything but follow the law. As the Human Rights Watch World Report 2020 noted, a country which can put over a million members of an ethnic or religious minority in a concentration camp for no legitimate reason and erect the “Great Firewall of China” to prevent all of its “citizens” from getting real news can have no problem abusing and repressing Hong Kong.
The CCP doesn’t believe in the rule of law or reason, they believe in rule by law—a law enforced by any means they deem necessary with no reasons required as justification. While the world turns the other way and dithers over the Wuhan virus “pandemic,” real lives are being destroyed and a real human rights crisis is steadily worsening in Hong Kong. Perhaps those political leaders who claim to be so caring for the victims of the Wuhan Virus (and considering that many nursing homes, which are actual hot spots, still can’t get proper equipment, one wonders) could also turn an eye on Hong Kong. Or maybe the media can continue to act as the American arm of the CCP propaganda machine, political leaders can continue to ponder new policies to violate Western freedoms, and Hong Kong as a democratic state can be wiped off the map. Western “leaders” and media figures are good at “fixing” and focusing on the problems that don’t exist and ignoring the elephant in the room.
As C.S. Lewis once pointed out about how evil works to deceive people, “The game is to have them all running about with fire extinguishers when there is a flood, and all crowding to that side of the boat which is already nearly gunwale under.” While the American media is running about with fire extinguishers hyperventilating at the prospect of free men and women reopening their hair salons, Hong Kong is being flooded with all the repressive might of the CCP. Hong Kong is nearly gunwale under and the West needs to take note before it sinks altogether.
