US should lead, not lecture, on China's crackdown in Hong Kong (Opinion)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
US should lead, not lecture, on China's crackdown in Hong Kong (Opinion)
The United States government has attacked China's new security law for Hong Kong as undermining political freedoms. Anyone who cares about democratic values should see that there is merit to that criticism. But on an issue that directly targets China's core sovereign interests, it is all too easy for Beijing to dismiss Washington because police forces across the US have been caught in photographs and videos violating the rights of American citizens.
© APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images A demonstrator holds her hands up while she kneels in front of the Police at the Anaheim City Hall on June 1, 2020 in Anaheim, California, during a peaceful protest over the death of George Floyd. - Major US cities -- convulsed by protests, clashes with police and looting since the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd a week ago -- braced Monday for another night of unrest. More than 40 cities have imposed curfews after consecutive nights of tension that included looting and the trashing of parked cars. (Photo by Apu GOMES / AFP) (Photo by APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images)
Let me be clear that I do not mean that other countries should be excused from human rights violations because of social injustices in the US. But the endemic problems with America's criminal justice system, which have persisted across both Democratic and Republican administrations, undermine Washington's credibility to take other countries to task for their abuses. To command authority globally, the US must, at the very least, abide by the standards it seeks to apply to other countries.
ast Wednesday, on the 23rd anniversary of the restoration of Hong Kong to China, Beijing enacted a new national security law without disclosing the draft to Hong Kong in advance. This law carries maximum sentences of life imprisonment for secession, subversion of state power, terrorist activities and collusion with foreign and external forces to endanger national security. Under the law, Chinese courts have jurisdiction over "very serious" cases and cases where national security faces "serious and realistic threats," overriding the authority of Hong Kong's courts. While similar laws exist in many countries , including in the US , there are concerns that these laws will be implemented by China in a way that stifles dissent and undermines the autonomy of Hong Kong.
In response to the new law, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo issued a press statement criticizing "Beijing's attacks on freedoms of speech, the press, and assembly, as well as the rule of law, all of which have, until now, allowed the territory to flourish." Pompeo further stated at a press briefing , "Security forces are already rounding up Hong Kongers for daring to speak and think freely. The rule of law has been eviscerated."
The demonstrators who have protested all across America for weeks in response to the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor might find the State Department's position hypocritical. News reports abound of peaceful protesters getting arrested by the police in multiple US cities.
New York Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou told me about heart-wrenching incidents of her constituents not knowing where the police had taken their loved ones detained while protesting. When demonstrators were finally released, they recounted the horrific conditions under which they were held, including being denied water to wash tear gas from their eyes.
In the same week that the State Department criticized China's new law, a civil rights subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee held a public briefing on First Amendment violations by police at Black Lives Matter protests. The rebuking language they used — "Unjustified, unnecessary and disproportionate government violence against the people is an attack on democracy itself" — opened the briefing about the actions of the police in the US against its own citizens. Rep. Jamie Raskin, the subcommittee's chairman, noted " serious violations of the First Amendment at the hands of government authorities ... from local police chiefs all the way up to the Attorney General and the President of the United States."
I attended that briefing because I represent, pro bono, Linda Tirado , a journalist who spoke at the briefing about how police officers shot her with a foam bullet that blinded her in one eye while she covered the civil rights protests in Minneapolis. I listened to the Rev. Gini Gerbasi recount her horror at peaceful protesters being cleared from Lafayette Square with tear gas, without any prior warning and before curfew, so that President Donald Trump could take a photograph holding a Bible in front of St. John's Episcopal Church.
Admittedly, while it is easy to demand that the US government reform police practices, criminal law and policing are generally matters for states, not the federal government. Nonetheless, Congress can enact laws that set parameters around police conduct, weapons and training when police forces rely on federal funding.
Various bills are being debated now. The House of Representatives has voted for the Justice in Policing Act , which has been named after George Floyd. Among other measures, the bill intends to ban choke holds and to end "no knock warrants," the same type of warrant used when police fatally shooting Breonna Taylor eight times while she slept in her home in Louisville, Kentucky.
Another bill introduced by Democratic Rep. Mark Takano of California would deny federal funding to police agencies that use tear gas . This bill accords with an unanimously adopted Senate bill, signed into law by Trump in November 2019, banning the export of tear gas to the Hong Kong police .
It remains to be seen what police reform laws are actually enacted in the end. However, at a minimum, it would be difficult to explain why it is unconscionable to tear gas Hong Kong protesters but acceptable to tear gas American demonstrators.
Police reform is not only important to promote criminal justice within America. It is an opportunity for the country to lead by example in foreign affairs. The diplomatic exchanges over China's new security law have shown in concrete terms how police violence within America has undermined the State Department's credibility and ability to promote America's interests and values overseas.
On May 30, US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus tweeted criticism of how Beijing has treated Hong Kong protesters: "Freedom loving people around the world must stand with the rule of law and hold to account the Chinese Communist Party, which has flagrantly broken its promises to the people of Hong Kong."
Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China's foreign ministry, tweeted in reply : "I can't breathe."
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Just as Trump leads by setting the example of not wearing a mask, so America also leads, requiring the rest of the world to follow its example.
Nope........Trump has already said he will not lead the Covid-19, nor or anything else other than his re-election efforts.
Trump refuses to lead a country in crisis
Trump says he won't extend social distancing guidelines
Don't blame what China is doing to Hong Kong on the United States. Chinese leadership is cracking down on Hong Kong. The Chinese government is setting its own example. And history will judge China for what China does; not for what the United States failed do.
How is the US supposed to lead when its leader is a pos?
Totally agree. The only thing he is fit to lead is unloading the garbage trucks at the dump. And that is only if they are running short of help.