Posted by I have refrained from commenting much on the Hong Kong riots of 2019 (a.k.a. mostly peaceful pro-Democracy demonstrations if you are brainwashed by the Western press) mainly because I felt there was little to add to the deeply polarizing and highly propagandized debate. I touched on the subject briefly in this article, “A beautiful sight?” that pointed out the sheer hypocrisy of the Western media when it referred to the storming of the Hong Kong Legislature by rioters as being mostly peaceful demonstrators and protesters while referring to the 1/6 storming of the Capitol Building as an insurrection. BBC characterized Hong Kong’s insurrection and storming of the legislature as, “Dozens of demonstrators broke through the glass of the Legislative Council (LegCo) building earlier in the day. Hundreds then entered the building, spray-painting messages on the walls and carrying supplies for those occupying the premises.” Nowhere is there a mention of violence, insurrection or rioting even though thirteen police officers were injured in the incident.
The purpose of this article is not to rehash the blatant hypocrisy and bias of the Western media that we saw highlighted about the skewed reporting on these two incidents but to draw another parallel that happened at the same time and to highlight the bias and outright lies spread by the Western media.
To start, its important to review the basics. Under the terms of the 1997 handover agreement of Hong Kong back to China with the United Kingdom, Hong Kong was to be administered for 50 years under a system known as One Country, Two Systems. Wikipedia defines this as, “It provided that there would be only one China, but that these regions could retain their own economic and administrative systems, while the rest of Mainland China uses the socialism with Chinese characteristics system. Under the principle, each of the two regions could continue to have its own governmental system, legal, economic and financial affairs, including trade relations with foreign countries, all of which are independent from those of the Mainland.” Following the enactment of the National Security Law, the streets of Hong Kong, after six months of nearly daily street riots and constant violence, are finally calm and peaceful but has the Western media has decided to describe it as being being “the end of One Country, Two Systems.” This is what the BBC reports, “The details of the law’s 66 articles were kept secret until after it was passed. It criminalises any act of; secession – breaking away from the country; subversion – undermining the power or authority of the central government; terrorism – using violence or intimidation against people; collusion with foreign or external forces.” The funny thing is that Hong Kong was always supposed to enact its own (and more encompassing” national security law under Article 23 of the Basic Law but has never been able to for more than 20 years due to continued blocking of such legislation by the “pro-democracy” groups. Strangely, every Western country, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada have some version of this sort of law and, in many cases, more draconian versions. So despite all the Western rhetoric, like the Financial Times exclaiming, “The end of one country, two systems“, the basic concept of Hong Kong’s “high degree of autonomy” remains unchanged. The horse races are still going on at Happy Valley, the Hong Kong dollar is still freely convertible, and Hong Kong remains an open and duty-free port of free-wheeling capitalism and the hub of Asian international finance. What has changed is that attempts by Western political and intelligence forces to use Hong Kong as a convenient pawn to destabilize China is no longer acceptable or allowed. Having personally witnessed the mass rioting, violence, burning and wanton destruction of property in Hong Kong during the 2019 insurrection (hey, if Americans can use this term, so can I) , I would say it was necessary to restore law and order as well as peace to the streets of Hong Kong.
But the purpose of this article is not to debate about the Hong Kong insurrection of 2019 but to highlight how biased the Western media is in its selective reporting and coverage. While all that was going on in Hong Kong, there was barely a peep from the Western media or politicians about what was going on in India.
Article 370 of the Constitution of India according to Wikipedia states, “gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, a region located in the northern part of Indian subcontinent which was administered by India as a state from 1954 to 31 October 2019, conferring it with the power to have a separate constitution, a state flag and autonomy over the internal administration of the state… Jammu and Kashmir state’s residents live under a separate set of laws, including those related to permanent residence, ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to residents of other Indian states. As a result of this provision, Indian citizens from other states could not purchase land or property in Jammu & Kashmir.” If this sounds like Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” policy then you get full marks except that it is far more encompassing than Hong Kong’s policy ever was.
As this article points out, “On 5 August 2019, the government of India revoked the special constitutional status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution, and abrogated Article 35A which had allowed it to define who its ‘permanent residents’ are and what rights and privileges are attached to such residency. The former state was bifurcated into the Union Territories of Ladakh (without a legislature) and Jammu-Kashmir (with a legislature). Concurrently, the Indian government imposed a near-total telecommunications lockdown in the region, detained political leaders and dissidents, and enforced Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code to prevent violent unrest. The conditions on the ground remained the same for over a year, with many political leaders remaining in detention, District Development Council (DDC) elections taking place as mere tokens of normalcy, and 4G internet services being restored only as late as February 2021. Despite the government’s actions, India received minimal adverse reaction from the international community.”
So while all the Western propaganda eyes were focused on the Hong Kong insurrection, India went about and totally abolished the autonomy of Kashmir with nary a peep from Western media or governments. Oh, it was reported, like this solitary BBC article, “Article 370: India strips disputed Kashmir of special status” but the screams of outrage from Whitehall and Washington D.C. were surprisingly muted. Why is that so? Well, the same paper I quoted above is pretty accurate in its assessment, “In the contemporary geopolitical setting—where India seeks to play a role as a reliable counterweight to a belligerent China—support from the West, especially the US, is crucial for India. Thus, any criticism from the West, in the context of the government’s actions in Kashmir since 5 August 2019, could have influenced India to amend its approach. However, the West’s response was largely muted, with most countries choosing to focus on the humanitarian situation in Kashmir, rather than the change in its constitutional status, since their interest in the legality of India’s amendment of Article 370 was tangential.” In other words, India is currently in the same situation China was in the 1970s. America’s rapprochement with China (and the creation of the One China policy over Taiwan as well as normalization of relations with the PRC) was entirely due to Nixon and Kissinger’s desire to use the Sino-Soviet split as an effective way to put pressure on USSR/Russia during the Cold War. Similarly, now that America has singled out China for Cold War II, India and “the Quad” are filling the same void in an attempt to encircle and contain China.
“China’s actions in Hong Kong are comparable with the amendment of Article 370 in August 2019, which involved unilateral action by the Modi government without the consent of J&K’s elected representatives. It stripped the region of its relative autonomy and, according to Pakistan, violated the terms of the Shimla Agreement of 1972 between India and Pakistan. While Hong Kong’s case elicited collective international scrutiny of the unilateral infringement of the autonomy of a region and criticism of the perceived violation of a bilateral agreement between China and Hong Kong, India’s Kashmir actions prompted only a muted international response, with most nations labelling the situation as an “internal matter” and a “bilateral issue” to be resolved by India and Pakistan.”
Well, this I disagree with because China did not abrogate the 1997 handover agreement nor did it abandon the one china, two systems policy whereas India clearly did eliminate Article 370 of its own constitution. But why was there almost no reporting, critique or backlash about India’s move from the Western press and governments? Maybe it was because India was smart enough to cut internet access to Kashmir and impose a full media blackout while it was busy detaining dissidents. According to the BBC, “Article 370 is sensitive because it guarantees significant autonomy for the Muslim-majority state. The measure was accompanied by a telecoms and media blackout which began on Sunday evening… Indian-administered Kashmir is in a state of lockdown. Curfew-like conditions have been imposed, and orders preventing the assembly of more than four people have been introduced. Tens of thousands of Indian troops were deployed to the region ahead of Monday’s announcement and tourists were told to leave under warnings of a terror threat. In the hours before Monday’s announcement, two of the state’s former chief ministers – Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti – were placed under house arrest.”
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, the BBC, CNN and all the other Western propaganda outfits were still roaming the streets and broadcasting their lies 24/7 while misguided youth, well funded by Western interests, continued their orgy of violence and destruction all under the aegis of “peaceful pro-democracy protests.” If you were just another white westerner who watches and reads the garbage news we are fed (and I have met many over the past two years who seem to think Hong Kong is now some repressive police state) — you would probably buy the narrative that freedom in Hong Kong has been crushed by the “evil CCP.” India cuts off all media, internet and telephones to Kashmir while sending in tens of thousand of soldiers and somehow Hong Kong’s besieged police force is “crushing freedom and is brutality violent” despite having caused zero deaths over six months of daily street rioting.
But just this week, we get this from news from “democratic India” as reported by CNN. “Indian police have arrested three Kashmiri Muslims for allegedly celebrating Pakistan’s win over India in the T20 World Cup on Sunday. Police superintendent Vikash Kumar in Agra — a city in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh — told reporters on Tuesday evening that a complaint was filed at the Jagdishpura police station after “anti-national” messages were sent by students at Raja Balwant Singh (RBS) engineering college following the match between the two cricketing rivals. On Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh Police tweeted that five people had been arrested in incidents throughout the state after “anti-national elements used disrespectful words against the Indian cricket team and made anti-India comments which disrupted peace. “Police told CNN on Thursday that three students from RBS engineering college had been arrested on Wednesday “for committing an offense with intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public, or to any section of the public whereby any person may be induced to commit an offense against the State or against the public tranquility.” The three were also arrested for committing an offense of cyber terrorism under India’s information technology act, while the charge of sedition was added before they appeared in court on Thursday, Saurabh Singh, a deputy superintendent of police in Agra, said.”
In other words, the western media and politicians clearly operate on the principal of “one world, two standards.”