By: Azhar Azam
According to analysts, the United States has managed between 350 and 600 international extraditions in the past 12 years or so. As an alternative to extradition, under extraordinary rendition it has brought a number of suspected terrorists and other criminals from other countries back the U.S. or to the third countries for detention, interrogation, or prosecution.
Using its burly influential clout, the United States constraints the oldest democracy in the world – the United Kingdom – to arrest and extradite the whistleblower publisher of WikiLeaks Julian Assanage over leaked secret American documents and horrific videos including U.S. troops opening fire on Iraqi civilians.
Additionally, Washington bullies Canada to detain Meng Wanzhou, the daughter and chief financial officer of Chinese telecom giant Huawei, in order to limit Beijing’s ability to fight in trade war with the United States. But it rejects to extradite U.S.-based Fethullah Gullen, the suspect for Turkish 2016 coup attempt, to Anakara in spite of frequent requests and demands of its NATO ally, Turkey.
The United States is unbolting new front against China by covertly intervening and flaring the protests in Hong Kong to trigger unrest in the Chinese Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) despite that the autonomous government has shelved the Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2019 and has issued a public apology.
Chief executive of HKSAR Carrie Lam had introduced certain revisions in the Bill after a Hongkonger Chang Tong-kai, who allegedly killed his girlfriend in Taiwan during holidaying, fled the state and returned to Hong Kong. In the absence of an extradition treaty, the self-ruled island snubbed the requests of the Taiwanese officials to hand over the accused to them.
The amendments was intended to confiscate these loopholes and to allow the transfer of such fugitives, involved in heinous crimes such as rape and murder, to the countries that do not maintain a formal extradition treaty with Hong Kong including the mainland China, Macau, and Taiwan.
Although it was purely a legislation that strives to bring those criminals to justice who take advantage of the non-availability of the extradition treaty among these countries but the United States takes it as an opportunity to hurt China.
The convener of a campaign “Safeguard HK, Support the Surrender of Fugitive Offenders Legislation” told Global Times that the group’ website has been attacked several times because it supports the Bill and the investigations showed that most of the cyber-attacks came from the United States.
Earlier, Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi also traced a western “black hand” and warned overseas forces not to meddle in Hong Kong. In the first public comments by China, Wang further said that the legislation “completely suited the interests of the Hong Kong people”.
It is widely believed that the United States are using the protests as a bargaining chip to negotiate the trade talks with China before the upcoming Xi-Trump meeting at G-20 summit. In an interview with TIME, even though the keyboard warrior Donald Trump spurned to support rallies but called the demonstrations “very effective”.
The Western or American clap in the Hong Kong protests has a strategic background. Due to its decisive strategic location, developed infrastructure, effective international communication network – Hong Kong plays a vital role in the trade between China and the rest of world.
In June 2017, a top military brass of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had spotted light on the strategic importance of Hong Kong. “The PLA’s garrison in Hong Kong is not only a military garrison; more importantly, a political garrison”, said commander Yuan Yubai and political commissar Wei Liang of the South Theatre Command in a co-authored article.
“[The garrison] has changed from being a symbolic presence to a show of force, from image building to combat capability development,” the article added.
According to the China Customs, Hong Kong was the second-largest exports destination for the People’s Republic in 2018 – accounting for $302.1 billion or over 12 percent of total Chinese exports, behind the haughty Sino economic rival, the United States (478.4 billion U.S. dollars).
Most of the Chinese goods exported to Hong Kong are re-exported to other countries. In 2018, the value of goods exported through Hong Kong from and to China was valued at $467.6 billion – 89.1 percent of Hong Kong’s total re-exports trade value.
Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA) is another reason for the U.S. to play enigmatic role in Hong Kong protests. GBA is Xi’s mater plan to create an IT-driven economic powerhouse that experts say would rival San Francisco’s Silicon Valley and the bay areas of New York and Tokyo.
In October 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping inaugurated the world’s longest cross-sea bridge that connects Hong Kong and Macao with Guangdong. The 55-km bridge took at least 15 years in making and was completed at the cost of $18.3 billion.
Hong Kong International Airport was the busiest and the largest air cargo center in 2018, handling more than 5 million metric tons of cargo for the year. According to Heritage’s 2019 of Economic Freedom, Hong Kong was the freest economy of the world in 2019 as well for 25 consecutive years.
Located ideally in relation to the Pacific Rim and China, Hong Kong houses a substantial number of foreigners including Americans. As of December 2017, more than 22,000 U.S. nationals were living the HKSAR with an estimated arrival of 1.2 million U.S. visitors.
Hong Kong is an important entrepôt for merchandise trade between China and the United States. In 2017, about 8% or $36 billion of China’s exports to the U.S. and around 6% or $9 billion of Mainland’s imports from the U.S., were routed through Hong Kong.
The critical importance of Hong Kong in the Chinese long term economic growth sustainment and increasing PLA’s influence provide U.S. adequate grounds to intervene and inflate the crisis in Hong Kong.