Pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong are eyeing the calendar with dread. A restrictive new immigration law takes effect on Aug. 1 and they fear its potential to impose "exit bans" on government critics could trap them in the territory indefinitely. Those concerns aren't misplaced. Hong Kong police already have a "wanted list" of individuals subject to arrest if they try to leave the territory. But a coalition of Hong Kong pro-democracy activists in exile say they have a way out. Literally. They have issued an urgent public plea to the U.S. Congress to pass legislation that will grant refugee status to Hong Kong citizens with "well-founded fears of persecution" by the territory's authorities. In a letter obtained by POLITICO, the coalition calls on Congress to grant Priority 2 Refugee Status to Hong Kong's peaceful pro-democracy protesters seeking resettlement, Temporary Protected Status to Hong Kong citizens already in the U.S. and an extension of visas "to high-skilled Hong Kong residents with an associate degree or above." Conveniently, the proposed legislative protections outlined in the letter mirror those of the Hong Kong Safe Harbor Act 2021 co-sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) in February. Rubio dedicated that initiative to "those Hong Kongers who have courageously stood up to defend the city they love from the CCP's [Chinese Communist Party's] persecution and open our doors to them." But even if Congress fast tracks the bill and President Joe Biden commits to signing it, anxious Hong Kongers hoping for a speedy route to refugee status in the U.S. should brace for disappointment. That's the sobering message of Jennifer Quigley, senior director of governmental affairs at Human Rights First, which specializes in refugee rights advocacy. "It would take a long time, even if they sign the act into law tomorrow," Quigley said. "It would take months and months if not years before the approvals would come through." Quigley blames the U.S. government's dysfunctional refugee approval process that requires security vetting of every refugee applicant by multiple security agencies. "Vetting by each agency has an expiration, and if it is not done by that time, [the process] starts over," she said. Quigley says the best way for Hong Kong residents seeking to escape being potential victims of the accelerating erosion of the territory's human rights protections and rule of law is to try to get to the U.S. as soon as possible and not wait out the refugee application process. "It would be better for them to get a visa, any visa, and get to U.S. soil. They can then apply for asylum," she said. "The asylum process is the same as the refugee process, except you do it here rather than there." |
Greetings, China Watchers. I'm Phelim Kine and this edition of the newsletter marks my full-time debut at the helm of this essential information source for those seeking to understand where the U.S.-China relationship is at today, and more importantly, where it's headed tomorrow. I bring to this role more than two decades of China engagement in roles ranging from foreign correspondent at Dow Jones Newswires in Beijing and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong to environmental campaigner at the D.C.-based nonprofit Mighty Earth. I aim to channel that experience, knowledge, and most importantly, a boundless curiosity, into a compelling, informative and consistently engaging weekly rendering of the key issues affecting U.S-China relations and their implications for all of us. Thanks for joining me — comments, tips, critiques are most welcome at pkine@politico.com. — A tech update from Protocol | China. Protocol | China, backed by Robert Allbritton, publisher of Protocol and POLITICO, tracks the intersection of technology and policy in the world's largest country. Sign up for the newsletter and learn more about Protocol's research here. This week's coverage includes a close look at China's unique underclass of millions of female gaming "companions," or peiwan, and a look at Beijing's costly plan to quadruple the size of its domestic cybersecurity industry by 2023. TRANSLATING WASHINGTON — China accused of "Malicious Cyber Activity": The White House issued a blistering statement on Monday alleging that the Chinese government has fostered an intelligence enterprise that includes contract hackers "with a history of working for the PRC Ministry of State Security (MSS) [who] have engaged in ransomware attacks, cyber enabled extortion, crypto-jacking, and rank theft from victims around the world, all for financial gain." The statement linked Chinese state-backed hackers with an operation in March 2021 that targeted vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Exchange Server that inflicted "significant remediation costs for its mostly private sector victims." The U.S. statement was quickly backed by Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, EU, the U.K. and NATO, though the EU refrained from any direct attribution of blame to the Chinese government. The Justice Department backed up that rhetoric with a statement detailing an indictment against four Chinese citizens that the DOJ alleges conspired with China's Hainan State Security Department "in a campaign to hack into the computer systems of dozens of victim companies, universities and government entities in the United States and abroad between 2011 and 2018." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Tuesday responded to the furor with the counter-accusation that the "U.S. ganged up with its allies to make groundless accusations out of thin air against China on the cyber security issue." — Yellen downplays benefits of China Trade Deal: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen poured cold water on perceptions of the domestic benefits of the Trump-era trade deal with China, opening the door to a possible Biden administration tweaking of the agreement. In a Friday interview with The New York Times, Yellen took aim at one of the deal's linchpins, the imposition of sizable tariffs on Chinese imports. Yellen dismissed the tariffs as "taxes on consumers" and the agreement failed to address "the fundamental problems we have with China." That view dovetails with that of a broad coalition of business groups that has blamed the tariffs for raising consumer costs and that has pressed the Biden administration to lift them. Despite Yellen's panning of the domestic benefits of those tariffs, POLITICO's Doug Palmer reports that their efficacy as a revenue generator remains undeniable. Trump's trade war with China has racked up nearly $100 billion in duties over the past three years, even though the rate of collections has slowed as companies switched to other foreign suppliers, new figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show. As of July 14, CBP had collected about $96.4 billion in tariffs that Trump imposed on more than $350 billion worth of Chinese goods. That dwarfs the $10.9 billion CBP has collected from Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs by a ratio of nearly 10 to one. Trump's duties on an initial batch of $34 billion worth of Chinese goods went into force on July 6, 2018, followed shortly by duties on another $16 billion. When China retaliated, Trump kept raising the stakes by hitting more goods. — CAPAC wants "responsible rhetoric" on China: The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus warned Monday in a letter to congressional members of "rhetoric used to describe the People's Republic of China (PRC) that encourages xenophobia and racism against Chinese Americans and those perceived to be Chinese." The letter calls on members of Congress to "model responsible rhetoric" and to avoid language "that exacerbates the bigotry and racism facing Asian Americans." The letter specifically urged Congressional members to temper the rhetoric they use in public discussion about legislation designed to boost U.S. "global leadership" and by focusing on "the merits of these pieces of legislation without increasing the risk of backlash against Asian Americans." — State Dept tackles HK operations risks: The Biden administration sees the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's security and governance structure as increasingly mirroring that of any other Chinese city. And that's a problem for U.S. businesses in the territory. That was the key message of a "Business Advisory" the administration issued on Friday that warned U.S. firms operating in Hong Kong of an intensification of hazards to the security and integrity of those operations. The advisory, produced by the State Department, Department of the Treasury, the Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, cautioned U.S. businesses that "the risks faced in mainland China are now increasingly present in Hong Kong" and urged "due diligence policies to address risks." The advisory singled out Hong Kong's draconian National Security Law , which went into effect on June 30, 2020, as one of the main factors that "may negatively affect their staff, finances, legal compliance, reputation, and operations" of U.S. firms in Hong Kong. — Blinken warned of Chinese 'mischief' in Haiti: Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) and Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) sent a joint letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week warning that the Chinese government may seek to "exploit" political turmoil in Haiti to harm the interests of the U.S. and Taiwan. The two lawmakers cautioned that political uncertainty in Haiti following the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse may give China an opportunity to push the Caribbean nation to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China. The letter noted that several of the suspects now implicated in Moïse's killing allegedly broke into Taiwan's Haitian embassy the following day, raising "serious concerns about the potential for Chinese mischief in Haiti." The Chinese government has long pursued a policy of peeling off Taipei's few remaining diplomatic allies , clustered in Africa and Latin America, to isolate the self-governing island internationally. Perry and Tiffany urged Blinken to communicate to Haiti's government and other regional states that maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan to resist any Chinese government moves "to gain a greater foothold in the Caribbean." |
— WHO chief calls for 'transparency' on Covid: World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week completed his transition from cheerleader for China's coronavirus containment efforts to advocate for Chinese transparency over the pandemic's origins. In a special briefing on the coronavirus's origins on Friday, Tedros outlined WHO's proposal for a second phase of on-the-ground investigation in China, including "audits of relevant laboratories and research institutions operating in the area of the initial human cases identified in December 2019," a veiled reference to the controversial Wuhan Institute of Virology . Tedros further called on the Chinese government to adopt a "spirit of transparency" in sharing data essential to understanding from where and how the coronavirus emerged. Tedros' comments reflect growing WHO member state frustration with how the Chinese government initially blocked a WHO investigative team from entering the country in January 2021 and subsequently hampered its ability to conduct a thorough, impartial probe once the team arrived in China. The Associated Press reports that "a senior Chinese health official said Thursday he was shocked" by the WHO plan. "National Health Commission Vice Minister Zeng Yixin dismissed the lab leak theory as a rumor running counter to common sense," the AP reported. — Japan's rhetoric sparks 'nuclear attack' video: Japanese government officials' recent hints of potential Japanese intervention to defend Taiwan in a possible future invasion attempt by People's Liberation Army forces were clearly too much for the patriots at "Six Army Strategies," a Chinese "military commentary" channel. The Taiwan News reports that the channel last week produced a lurid video that featured a collage of PLA naval, air and land forces blended with a voice-over narration threatening nuclear attacks on Japan if it intervenes in a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. "We will use nuclear bombs continuously," the narrator intones , "until Japan declares unconditional surrender for the second time." The five-minute video might have gone unnoticed were it not subsequently uploaded to the website of the municipal committee of the Chinese Communist Party in Shaanxi province's Baoji city, where last week it was shared more than 2 million times before being deleted. But proving once again that the internet never forgets, the video persists thanks to the efforts of an online viewer who saved an abbreviated version complete with English-language subtitles. |
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