Free Republic

Beijing's aggression confirms that the Chinese Communist Party is fully committed to fulfill its own great power ambition regardless of the consequences to other states. While nations worldwide were busy dealing with health care and economic crises caused by the Wuhan virus pandemic, Beijing is exploiting the attendant confusion to tighten its control over Hong Kong and the South China Sea.Beijing Tightens Its Grip on Hong Kong Since summer 2019, an extradition bill that would have eroded Hong Kong’s judicial independence ignited the city’s pro-democracy movement. The spread of the coronavirus added a new dimension to the movement in 2020....

After more than three months of massive protests, strikes from professionals to students, and increasing brutality from police and street gangs, it seems Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement finally got one of their five demands met this week. On Wednesday morning, Hong Kong Chief Carrie Lam announced a formal withdrawal of the extradition bill, which would have allowed Beijing to demand Hong Kong hand over anyone to China, including human rights activists and dissidents. If this bill becomes law, it will erode Hong Kong’s independent judicial system and endanger the freedom of residents as well as visitors.Lam’s withdrawal announcement marks a...

Hong Kong’s embattled government was working to defuse the crisis over its controversial extradition bill with a possible pause for further discussion, sources told the South China Morning Post on Friday, with the clock ticking towards another showdown with protesters planning a mass rally on Sunday. Several heavyweight advisers to the city’s leader suggested there was no need for Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to meet a self-imposed July deadline to have the bill passed. But divisions emerged within the Executive Council, with others suggesting she should stick to her guns and continue to fast-track it through the legislature....