November 14, 2020

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

The Hong Kong government has disqualified four pro-democracy lawmakers in response to the decision made by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's legislative body. This will further make the "One Country, Two Systems" framework in name only. To have deprived elected officials of their seats and to trample on democracy have nothing to do with socialism. The Japanese Communist Party demands that China's central authority and the Hong Kong government withdraw the disqualification of the four legislators immediately.

It is clear that China is intending to remove the lawmakers who call for democratization of Hong Kong and who criticize the Chinese leadership from Hong Kong's Legislative Council.

In protest against the disqualification of the four lawmakers, 15 other Hong Kong legislators announced their resignations. In addition to the eight vacant seats, more than one-third of Legislative Council members (70 seats) will be vacant, a most unusual circumstance. With most of the remaining legislators agreeing with the Chinese leadership, Hong Kong's Legislative Council will inevitably fall into a state of collapse.

Outside the Legislative Council, however, the pro-democracy movement is gaining momentum. The democratic forces were aimed at winning a majority in the legislative election which was supposed to be held on September 6, but the Hong Kong government postponed the election for one year under the excuse of the spread of COVID-19. The one-year extension was endorsed undoubtedly out of fear of a possible advance of the democratic forces.

The Chinese government led by Xi Jinping is planning to realize the "modernity of power in a socialist order" as a national goal by the middle of this century. Socialism embodies the ideal of "people are the protagonists" in politics, economy, and society. What the Chinese government is doing in Hong Kong is totally incompatible with socialism and is not worthy of being called a "communist party".