~ Linn Maung ~
The steadily worsening human rights situation in Hong Kong since the promulgation of the National Security Law in the island city in 2020 is clear evidence that China has consigned to the dustbin the provisions of the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984. In a similar spirit, China has trampled upon provisions of international treaties and bilateral agreements like the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in South China Sea and protocols signed between China and India on issues related to the border dispute between the two countries.
When the Joint Declaration, an internationally binding treaty, was signed between London and Beijing for the return of the British colony to China on July 1, 1997, it was guaranteed that the residents of the island city would enjoy the rights and freedoms enjoyed as British citizens for 50 more years; till 2047.
Yet, the hard line ruler of China Xi Jinping imposed in 2020 the draconian NSL under which there is a blanket ban, along with stringent penal provisions, on all forms of protests, the right of free speech and the freedom of the Press; under the pretext that these constitute secessionist and subversive activities. This is unthinkable in a free and democratic society like that of Great Britain.
The Democratic Party, the oldest and largest pro-democracy political party in Hong Kong, is facing dissolution; an instance of trampling of liberal democracy of the Western model. A Chinese official has told Democratic Party leaders that the party should not remain till the end of the year. The message is that the party would have to be disbanded or there would be consequences.
Founded in 1994 by liberal lawyers and academics, the prosecution and jailing of pro-democracy leaders has left the party rudderless. With the electoral reforms of 2021 allowing only “patriots” to contest the elections in the island city, it is nearly impossible for opposition candidates to contest in polls. A committee has been delegated power to work out the process of dissolution of the party.
The Democratic Party had a moderate stand, willing to work with Beijing. Its pending dissolution demonstrates that Beijing is not willing to allow even the mildest of dissenting voices to be heard in Hong Kong, say analysts.
According to a recent BBC survey, since the promulgation of the NSL in 2020 and February this year, more than 300 people have been arrested in Hong Kong in offences related to national security. More than 300,000 Hong Kong –dwellers have left the city. An additional security law called Article 23 last year has further tightened restrictions.
In violation of the provisions of the UN Convention, China has been obstructing the passage of ships of other nations through the international waters in South China Sea; and also ignoring an award of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that the “nine dash line” of China has no legal basis and that China has been violating the sovereign rights of the Philippines in the latter’s exclusive economic zone.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration was established in 1899 to settle international disputes. In January 2013, the Philippines instituted arbitral proceedings against China under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea concerning historical rights and maritime entitlements in the South China Sea, the status of some maritime features and the lawfulness of certain actions of China that were in violation of the Convention. China refused to participate in the proceedings.
In July 2016, the Court delivered a unanimous award. It noted that “though Chinese navigators and fishermen, as well as those of other States, had historically made use of the islands in the South China Sea, there was no evidence that China had historically exercised exclusive control over the waters or their resources. There was no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources within the ‘nine-dash line,’” which, incidentally, is an arbitrary series of nine dashes drawn by China on maps; encompassing a vast area of the South China Sea which Beijing claims to be its own.
The Court also concluded that China had violated the sovereign rights of the Philippines in its exclusive economic zone, interfered with their fishing and petroleum exploration and set up artificial islands. Chinese vessels had unlawfully created a serious risk of collision by physically obstructing the vessels of the Philippines.
Cocking a snook at the verdict, China continues to make the Philippines the main target of its aggression in the South China Sea even now. To mention only a few, last February, a Chinese navy helicopter flew within three metres of a Filipino patrol plane near the Scarborough Shoal off the northwest coast of the Philippines. In December last year, Chinese coast guard vessels, backed by navy ships, fired powerful water cannons and blocked and sideswiped a group of fisheries vessels of the Philippines.
In violation of a series of agreements signed with India between 1993 and 2013, China has been nibbling into Indian territories along the Line of Actual Control; the term by which the disputed border is known.
In the summer of 2020 India was taken by surprise when the Chinese army, in blatant violation of a series of bilateral protocols signed between the two countries, occupied large tracts of disputed areas along the LAC at a time when the attention of the whole world was diverted to how to combat the Covid 19 pandemic.
These protocols, signed between 1993 and 2013 for the management of the disputed areas peacefully, lays down that the two sides would maintain only a limited number of troops close to the LAC, that large-scale troop movements would be avoided within two kilometres of the border, that there would be no construction of a permanent nature close to the border. One of the protocols also lays down the rules of patrolling the disputed areas by either side to ensure that the other is observing the rules of the game.
The Chinese army was, however, preventing Indian patrols from approaching Indian territories. Despite a recent agreement on disengagement between the two armies, the Chinese army continues to be present in strength in the disputed areas and continues to set up constructions to fortify its positions.
Beijing has thus made it abundantly clear that it is no respecter of international treaties. In the process China is damaging its own credibility in the international arena.
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