Dear President Clarke,

I understand that your College is inclined towards revoking Carrie Lam’s honorary fellowship over her support of Beijing’s enactment of the national security law for Hong Kong.
Frankly, I am disappointed, not because your College wishes to punish one of your alumni, but because it is doing so as a knee-jerk reaction without a careful examination of the evidence. Politicians in the West are jumping on the anti-Beijing bandwagon. But I expected a lot more from a world-leading academic institution that teaches students to be critical and independent thinkers. Shouldn’t you at least acquaint yourself with the facts before you jump to conclusions ?
America wants the world to be united in its hatred of China. But before you swallow its anti-China propaganda whole, please revisit the situation on the ground.
This chain of events has been triggered by the proposed extradition bill whose withdrawal forms part of the five “non-negotiable” demands. That bill has since been killed. Of the other four demands, violent street protestors want immunity from prosecution, that the protest not be classified as “riots”, that Hong Kong’s current leader be dismissed and that there be an independent inquiry into the protests and alleged police brutality. These are the five demands that propel the endless violent protests. This is their fight to the finish. Does it deserve their crash and burn all-out war ?
Speaking of police brutality, what the boys in blue do in Hong Kong is child’s play. Throughout 10 months of violent streets protests and provocations, there has not been a single fatality due to police action. By contrast, in Iraq, over 300 protestors were killed with nearly 15, 000 injured. The police here don’t use live ammunition, and only once or twice use rubber bullets. They use water cannons and tear gas to disperse the troublemakers, with officers reduced to chasing protestors around, and the rioting youths playing a cat-and-mouse game with them. Prior to any action, they hoist warning flags. The force has strict rules about the use of firearms. Show me another police force in the world that acts with such restraint before you cry “police brutality”. For a taste of real police brutality, go to America. The Hong Kong police are fighting violent flash mobs with their hands tied behind their backs.
As for protestors, there is something else afoot here. The organizers are cunning in the extreme. They push 11-year- and 12-year-olds to the frontlines. As underage participants, they face only limited liability. These teenagers hardly know their own minds, much less social issues like freedom of expression and rule of law. They disguise other teenage protestors as journalists to give them maximum mobility and a shield of immunity.
Of the five demands, none refers to protecting the rule of law, only that protestors be above the law. It is the essence of civil disobedience that advocates accept the legal consequences of their actions. These immunity demands undermine their claim to moral legitimacy.
Demanding that Carrie Lam step down is no different from demanding that Boris Johnson vacate No. 10--part of the political game played around the world. What is so non-negotiable about that  ?
Do the street protests qualify as ‘riots” ? You be the judge. Shops, malls, banks, even restaurants have been wantonly destroyed without provocation. Businesses are now either labelled “yellow” or “blue”, with the former patronized and the latter vandalized. Subway stations facilities are repeatedly and massively trashed; several universities have their labs and expensive facilities smashed to smithereens, costing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, with the institutions of higher learning under siege for months. These halls of education are the last bastions of free speech, yet the trouble-makers have terrorized their occupants, especially if they are of mainland origin. Anyone who utters a dissenting word risks bodily harm. The President of HKUST had his home vandalized simply because he did not do as protestors demanded. Would you tolerate such destructive behavior by your students ? One dissenter was burned alive, in full view of media cameras.
For Hong Kong, it has been 10 months of terror and lawlessness. This is our land of freedom and democracy ?
The old Hong Kong, much admired for its civility and rule of law, is no more. It is now bitterly color-divided into “yellow” and “blue”, with nothing between them except hatred. It reminds me of the saying that “The disease has been cured, but the patient dies.” Your utopia is our dystopia.  Our way of life is dead.
Through it all, Beijing has let the situation simmer. It did nothing except helplessly gnashing its teeth on the sidelines. Beijing kept its end of the bargain, letting Hong Kong people run themselves. But the lawlessness is out of control. Would your government tolerate the Union Jack being desecrated while brandishing the Chinese national flag or God Save the Queen being booed in football games ? The economy is hemorrhaging, and social media is rampant with hate messages and incitement to violence. This is democracy in action ? This is supposed to promote our human rights ?
Beijing has given the city 23 years to enact its own national security legislation. But it got nowhere. Would London or Washington have allowed the destructive unrest to fester ? We know Trump’s answer when he called in heavily armed police to disperse peaceful protestors with rubber bullets.
We must ask one inevitable question: Why is Macau in peace, and Hong Kong in turmoil ? Because Macau has accepted the one-country-two-systems concept, enacting its national security law soon after returning to Chinese sovereignty. So, it is not the system that is broken, it is there are fomenters of unrest in the former British Colony, with the US Agency of Global Media funneling at least $3 million US in the last few years to the protestors. America sees Hong Kong’s strategic value as part of its China containment policy. The unpopular Taiwan leader was down to 12% of voter support, yet she was politically resurrected by stoking groundless fears in the Hong Kong chaos, thereby winning re-election. Hong Kong people have been free to organize and take part in anti-Beijing protests, even calling for the downfall of the central government. Protestors want two systems without one country. Playing both sides of the equation, they are the ones who have breached the agreement.
The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman is right. China is run with great rationality like a corporate board. It may not be run on the Western model of democracy—but given the bizarre behavior of Trump in the US and Boris Johnson in the UK, who is to say that democracy has an edge over the Chinese model of governance ? After all, this is the government that has lifted 750 million people out of poverty. Despite American demonization, China has behaved responsibly in world bodies and arenas. It is time to judge the country by its actions, not by America’s propaganda and false narrative.
 
Chinese international behavior is best understood as moves to counteract the never-ending US encirclement—its South China Sea actions are not about territorial gains but to ensure freedom of navigation in the vital sea lanes to keep its commerce flowing freely to the world. Its Belt-and-Road Initiative is also an anti-encirclement economic move. The China Dream is wrapped around in its an economic power, not its military might. But neither does it want a repeat of its Hundred Years of Humiliation.
The UK is offering residency rights to Hong Kong “freedom fighters”. Australia and even Taiwan, will soon follow suit. I say, please take them all off our hands. These arsonists, vandals and robotic rampaging street rioters are our “gift” to democracy. Good riddance. They will soon be your headaches as they descend on your quiet neighborhoods. Enjoy.