Down, down, down in the lowest, darkest depths of today’s Legislative Council meeting agenda, we find two motions put forward by our dedicated and hardworking lawmakers. The Democratic Party’s Fred Li Wah-ming’s starts:
That this Council seriously regrets that the Central Government has imposed a heavy sentence on LIU Xiaobo for inciting to subvert state power…
If Li had left it at that, he would have put the pro-Beijing members in an embarrassing bind: it would be unthinkable for them to oppose the Central People’s Government by supporting the motion or even abstaining, but by opposing it they would have exposed themselves as people who think a writer deserves 11 years in prison for suggesting the nation’s leaders obey the constitution. But that’s too simple. After piling it on for several more sentences, Li has to finish with:
… and the SAR Government should also expeditiously implement dual universal suffrage in Hong Kong…
…giving the pro-Beijing members all the (relatively) relatively excusable reasons they need to vote no.
Li’s fellow representative from Kowloon East, Chan Kam-lam of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment Etc of Hong Kong, proposes that the government do something we can all agree on:
…promote the philosophy of Confucianism to revive the concept of public morality, and strengthen the maintenance of ethical relationship in families to enhance the community spirit of mutual help
…no, that’s not it…
…promote the application of the philosophy of Confucianism to social enterprises and business operations, so as to enhance the humanistic qualities of the public
…ummm, nope…
…introduce in schools and tertiary institutions moral education courses which feature traditional Chinese cultural thinking and emphasize the cultivation of one’s moral character
…no, keep going…
…designate the birthday of Confucius as the Confucius Day to establish the esteemed position of Confucian thinking in the Hong Kong community.
That’s it – a new public holiday! I’ll vote for that.
Except they are pulling the plug on Easter Monday, so it will be exactly the same…
You guys are law makers, try doing some homework okay?
Liu Xiaobo received hundreds of thousands of US government funding via the NED in the past five years. Please see the NED’s China grants for Independent Chinese Pen Center and Minzhu Zhongguo magazine, which Liu heads.
If Liu is American he’d be in violation of Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA). Pray tell, why would we lament Chinese money corrupting our political process, while sending many folds more to China, to corrupt their political process?
This is by no means a straight foward case of free speech. Liu took foreign money the Chinese government has every right to prohibit (as we do under FARA.)
My reading of the verdict is that the Chinese court decided Liu’s political speech exceeded the limit of free speech, at least in part due to the prosecution evidence showing Liu received foreign remittance.