China Threatens 'Blind Eyes' Countries That Interfere With Hong Kong Policy

Protestor Hong Kong (Erin Song/Unsplash)

JAKARTA - China rejects criticism from the Five Eyes alliance countries, namely Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Britain and the United States (US). They recently issued new policy rules for Hong Kong. The Chinese side said these countries had to face the fact that Hong Kong had been returned to China and on Chinese authority.

The new policy is that the Chinese government allows Hong Kong to disqualify opposition members it deems "unpatriotic." It also prompted all pro-democracy caucuses to announce their resignation.

"It doesn't matter if they have five or 10 eyes, if they dare to harm China's sovereignty, security and development interests, they have to watch out for their eyes to be pruned and blinded," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.

Launching The Guardian, Friday, November 20, the foreign ministers of the five countries expressed their disagreement with China's resolution to Hong Kong. They said the Chinese government's new resolution causing the disqualification of four pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong appeared to be part of a joint campaign to silence all critical voices.

The joint statement called the new Chinese resolution a violation of China's international obligations and its commitment to give Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy and free speech. Hong Kong, a city of 7.5 million people, was promised autonomy over local affairs for 50 years after returning to China in 1997.

Zhao said Hong Kong is an inseparable part of China and stressed that public officials must be loyal to motherland. Zhao then issued a statement "Basic political ethics exist in every country in the world, right?"

Four disqualified lawmakers have been barred from running again because of their calls for foreign governments to impose sanctions on China and Hong Kong. Now they remain in office because elections were postponed for one year.

Beijing officials welcomed the announcement that four Hong Kong lawmakers were disqualified. "The political rule that Hong Kong should be governed by patriots must be strictly guarded," said the Hong Kong liaison office.

Three other former pro-democracy lawmakers appeared in court in Hong Kong on Thursday November 19, one day after they were arrested for disturbing the legislature during debate on the National Anthem Bill earlier this year.

The three were joined by supporters holding signs with slogans outside the West Kowloon judges' trial. Eddie Chu, one of the three, said he faced "demands from the dictatorship" for actions to try to block the passage of the national anthem regulations.