This 2019 legislation would have allowed extradition to the People's Republic of China. Many residents viewed this as a subversion of Hong Kong's semi-autonomous political system, leading to large-scale protests, political unrest and a police crackdown. It also prompted Beijing's further direct intervention in Hong Kong's governance.

For the Chinese Communist Party, this organization's support of protesters and alleged collusion with foreign forces violated the party-mandated national security law. This law has since been applied retroactively.

A retired bishop of the Hong Kong Diocese, Cardinal Zen has long supported Hong Kong protesters, critiqued Beijing and criticized the Vatican's rapprochement with the Chinese Communist Party. Chinese Catholics see the arrest as an attempt to intimidate and prevent activism among Hong Kong's Catholic community.

To understand why the Chinese Communist Party would feel intimidated by a 90-year-old man and threaten him with life in prison, it is important to go beyond narrow, concrete effects - such as a cowed Catholic community - and identify the principles held by the leadership. As a former military diplomat currently researching the link between philosophy and foreign policy, I argue that Cardinal Zen's threat to the Chinese Communist Party lies not in his support for democratic reform, but as a competing source of political authority.

The party's morality of hierarchy

The Chinese Communist Party leadership continues to be shaped by the principles of classical Chinese philosophy. Despite official condemnation during the Mao years, the party has more recently tried to bolster the foundations of classical Chinese thought to legitimize its own rule.

During a 1997 speech at Harvard University, Jiang Zemin - then the general secretary of the party - praised classical Chinese thought and tied it to contemporary values and the state's development. Today, General Secretary Xi Jinping routinely mentions classical philosophy in his speeches and noted at the 19th National Congress that the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics will build upon Chinese culture's traditional vision, concepts, values and moral norms.

Classical Chinese ethics begin with the existential centrality of the family. Fan Ruiping, a researcher in Confucian ethics at the City University of Hong Kong, notes Confucianism sees the family as the basic structure of human existence, not simply a social institution. Thus, the family becomes the standard against which behavior is judged. For example, to protect the family, Confucius argues it is moral for a son to hide the misconduct of his father.

According to the Yongle Emperor, an emperor who ruled in the 15th century, the entire world is a single family. Within this system, one's position is defined by one's role, grounded in the five Confucian relationships: ruler to subject, father to son, husband to wife, elder brother to younger brother, and friend to friend. Each of these is both reciprocal and hierarchical. The moral individual conforms to the role one fills in society and treats others according to theirs.

Even in contemporary Chinese society, friends treat each other as elder and younger siblings, such that in any situation there is a hierarchical relationship - an older friend is addressed as "elder brother" or "elder sister." In calling another "elder brother," one's own position in that reciprocal relationship - "younger" - becomes obvious.

Through identification of the family as the moral standard and its extension throughout society based on the five relationships, Confucianism views a moral society as a unified family, ordered hierarchically. At the top of the hierarchy sits the emperor, whose relationship with subjects mirrors that between father and son. One serves the rulers as one would serve one's father or elder brother.

In this view, society is well organized when each person fills the assigned role, paying appropriate deference to those above and acting benevolently toward those below. As Confucius stated, "The ruler is the ruler; the minister is minister; the father is father; and the son is son. That is government."

According to Confucianism, order, stability and prosperity are maintained when all subjects fill their proper roles. The danger of ignoring this lesson was highlighted by the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, when Chairman Mao Zedong used students to attack those in the party who opposed him. It was also evident in the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, when the party allowed the students to develop moral authority and had to resort to military force to crush peaceful student protests. The consequences of losing control was made stark two years later when the Soviet Union collapsed.

Cardinal Zen and challenge to hierarchy

According to its moral principles, the party can tolerate no competition for authority, and has a long history of eliminating those who present a challenge to the party's position. For example, following the 1956-57 Hundred Flowers Campaign that encouraged engagement from intellectuals, Mao Zedong used the Anti-Rightist Campaign to eliminate their growing authority. This campaign sought to refute anti-regime commentary made by intellectuals, punishing about 550,000 of them, many with reform through labor.

More recently, Xi Jinping has used an anti-corruption drive to eliminate intra-party challenges to his authority by purging prominent figures, such as Zhou Yongkang, retired public security chief and former member of the Politburo Standing Committee. In Hong Kong, the national security law has been used to charge publisher and democracy activist Jimmy Lai, whose media holdings regularly criticize the Hong Kong and Chinese Communist Party leadership.

The principle of hierarchy can also be used to understand and predict how events can unfold. For example, if Cardinal Zen dies in custody, he could become a martyr of the protest movement - hardly ideal for the Chinese Communist Party. Still, the leadership's philosophy suggests it would be even worse for the party to let Zen continue his activism and become a more active threat to its moral and political monopoly.

Additionally, arresting a cardinal could disrupt ties with the Vatican. However, as political scientist Lawrence Reardon demonstrates, since 1949 the party's chief concern in relations with the Vatican has been whether the pope or the party appoints bishops within the People's Republic of China. In other words, who sits atop the Catholic hierarchy within the People's Republic of China is more important than anything else the party gains through relations with the Vatican.

To remain at the pinnacle of China's moral hierarchy, the party will need to remove alternative sources of authority. Through his criticism of the party and the Vatican, Cardinal Zen has shown the potential of transforming into a political leader in his own right.

As a possible alternative source of authority, Cardinal Zen has become the latest victim of the party's moral hierarchy; he will not be the last.

• Scott D. McDonald is a Non-resident Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies; he is also a PhD Candidate at The Fletcher School, Tufts University.
• Published with permission of Religion News Service

The statement refers to the Security Police's arrest of the 90-year old in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

Hours later, Zen was released on bail.

He and three of four other trustees of the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund were arrested. (The fourth is already in jail.)

Zen, cultural studies scholar Hui Po-keung, barrister Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee and gay rights activist and pop singer Denise Ho Wan-see are are suspected of:

"Making requests of foreign or overseas agencies, imposing sanctions on the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (and) endangering national security," according to a Police statement.

In 2020, a sweeping National Security Law came into force, criminalising previously protected civil liberties under the headings of "sedition" and "foreign collusion".

The law crushes dissent and can carry up to life in jail.

Zen is an outspoken supporter of the pro-democracy movement.

Before the law's implementation, many Catholics, including Zen, warned that it could be used to silence the Church in Hong Kong.

The Fund

The 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund was set up to help 2019 pro-democracy protests pay legal and medical fees. The protests were squashed by security forces.

The Fund was disbanded last year after the national security police ordered it to share operational details.

This is just the beginning.

A police statement says those arrested had been ordered to surrender their travel documents and would be released on bail.

Further arrests are pending, it warns.

Condemnation for the arrests has come quickly

Benedict Rogers, who founded NGO Hong Kong Watch and is a convert to Catholicism, says: "Today's arrests signal beyond a doubt that Beijing intends to intensify its crackdown on basic rights and freedoms in Hong Kong.

"We urge the international community to shine a light on this brutal crackdown and call for the immediate release of these activists."

The cross-party All-Party Parliamentary Group for Freedom of Religion or Belief tweeted "This is yet another example of China's increasing restrictions of fundamental human rights."

David Alton, an independent member of the House of Lords, described the cardinal's arrest as "an act of outrageous intimidation."

Earlier this week, former security chief John Lee was named as Hong Kong's next chief executive, succeeding Carrie Lam,.

Like Lam, Lee is a baptised Catholic.

The Hong Kong Catholic diocese also issued a statement on the arrest of Zen, a leading figure in the organisation, for the first time on Thursday afternoon.

"The Catholic diocese of Hong Kong is extremely concerned about the condition and safety of Cardinal Joseph Zen and we are offering our special prayers for him," it said.

The diocese added that it had always upheld the rule of law and trusted it would "continue enjoying religious freedom in Hong Kong under the Basic Law" in the future.

"We urge the Hong Kong police and the judicial authorities to handle Cardinal Zen's case in accordance with justice, taking into consideration our concrete human situation," it added, without elaborating on what situation it was referring to.

Source

• The Standard
• Catholic News Agency
• Catholic News Agency
• AP News
• The Wall Street Journal
• South China Morning Post
• Image:UCA News

Speaking to Crux, Father Bernardo Cervellera, head of Asia News and an expert in Chinese affairs, said he believes the silence of Hong Kong church leaders is perhaps in part "because they are very disappointed," that the Vatican has not engaged the new security measure and the uprisings it has provoked.

Cervellera said he received a message from someone in Hong Kong Sunday, the day several mass protests were staged, stressing to him that "it's not only necessary to pray to the Madonna of Sheshan for China, but also for the Vatican and for the curia." Read more

The Church says the political repression of those demanding democratic rights in the China-administered region is wrong.

Hong Kong police arrested 15 pro-democracy activists last weekend, including former legislators because of their roles in Hong Kong's mass protests last year.

They have all released on bail but will appear in court on 16 May.

The Hong Kong diocese's Justice and Peace Commission says the arrests in the city-state, which functions under the Chinese communist regime, was part of "political repression."

All arrests should be stopped until an independent commission of inquiry and its subsequent report has been issued, the Justice and Peace Commission says.

So far, Police have arrested about 7,000 people in connection with riots and violence since the pro-democracy protests began last June.

Most are young students.

However, the latest arrests included former legislators, including 81-year-old Martin Lee, a former barrister, legislator and founder of the Democratic Party.

The Justice and Peace Commission has asked the government to repeal the Public Order Ordinance.

This law, enacted during Hong Kong's British colonial rule, considers more than three people gathering without Police permission as "unauthorized."

The repealing of the 1967 law, which has been amended 26 times, is needed to "restore Hong Kong people's freedom of procession and assembly," the Justice and Peace Commission says.

It also asked police to "return the mobile phones of all arrested persons to ensure their privacy."

The latest police move is considered the biggest crackdown on the pro-democracy movement since the anti-government protests started last June.

The pro-democracy activists were protesting against the now-scrapped extradition bill, which proposed sending suspects to mainland China for trial.

Democracy activists saw the bill as the latest of a series of moves that were shrinking their democratic rights.

An official of the Security Bureau told media that they acted after an investigation proved that the arrested people had violated the law because they organized and participated in unlawful gatherings.

All people are equal before the law and no one can break the law without facing the consequences, he says.

Many activists suspect the arrests are part of the Chinese communist regime's aim to stifle this September's legislative elections.

"They are doing whatever they can to try to silence, to take down, the local opposition," one says.

The US, Britain and Australia have condemned the arrests.

Source

• UCA News
• The Tablet
• Image: Al Jazeera

Several posters supporting the democratic protests in Hong Kong were pasted on advertising columns at the Palmerston North campus on Thursday night by a group of students wanting to raise awareness for the turmoil unfolding in their homeland. Continue reading

Cardinal Tong sent his appeal in an open letter to local citizens last Friday. The Cardinal said he was deeply pained by the worsening situation in the city.

He acknowledges he is not a politician, and so declines to offer a solution to the crisis. But he does express his hope that God will help the people of Hong Kong to overcome "this period of repeated disorders".

"When our legitimate requests are not accepted, we may feel disappointed," Cardinal Tong said. But, he adds: "you must not lose hope, for despair blurs our gaze towards the future, draining our lives." Read more

The media comments followed a video showing eight students taking part in air gun shooting practice while parading an American flag on the rooftop of Yu Chun Keung Memorial College, a diocesan school.

Ta Kung Pao, a Chinese Communist Party-run newspaper, says the video is like "violence assault training" and asked if the college had become "a mob training centre."

A statement from the school says the video is showing its gun club activities and does not represent the school's views on the increasingly violent pro-democracy protests.

However, Ta Kung Pao linked the video footage to another story showing the school had allowed anti-government demonstrators to take refuge in its church.

"The church providing shelter to the mob wearing black has been criticised by people who say it is collaborating with them," Ta Kung Pao reported.

"Some worry that the church has become a base for those who are anti-China and anti-Hong Kong."

The Mother of Good Counsel Parish opened a nearby chapel for people to take shelter in on 3 August when they clashed with police.

Another Communist Party-run newspaper says having a chapel share a building with a Catholic primary school was allowing protesters to hijack the school by using religion as a cover.

That article's publication prompted a statement from the school, saying the chapel will be open only for parishioners who have an appointment and with security approval.

In the same report, the newspaper also attacked the Catholic Centre (the diocesan bookstore) for uploading a cartoon onto Facebook.

In the picture, Jesus is seen hugging two masked youths wearing helmets and black clothes, a trademark of the demonstrators.

"Kids, tired already? Come to my door!!" the caption says.

The newspaper decried it as "coverage and connivance with violent protesters."

A diocesan staff member says the picture does not mean the diocese is not taking sides.

"In today's Hong Kong situation, being attacked [by the media] is not a surprise," he said.

"But the message of the picture is very mild. It just shows Jesus offering shelter and help to those in need.

Source

• UCA News
• Image: UCA News

The university has launched an investigation after Chinese students were filmed verbally threatening another group of students who were protesting against a proposed extradition bill in Hong Kong. Two people at the protest were physically assaulted by pro-mainland supporters.

Continuing on-campus unrest is seeing Lennon Walls created by pro-Hong Kong factions destroyed by pro-mainlanders.

These walls provide a space for students to post peaceful thoughts and messages of support for those involved in the Hong Kong protests.

The UoA Vice-Chancellor Stuart McCutcheon has sent all UoA students an email reminding them they have the right speak their mind on campus.

Shortly after the email was circulated, a spokesperson for the China Consulate in Auckland published a press release.

It says the consulate does not believe it is appropriate for organisations to promote the Hong Kong protests "under the pretext of so-called academic freedom and freedom of expression".

The situation between Hong Kong and China has been misrepresented, the press release states.

Putting China's side of the story forward, the press release explains China is allowing the local governments in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan to cooperate with the mainland on extraditing criminal suspects and fugitives in individual cases through a special arrangement.

This would close an existing legal loophole to jointly combat crime and uphold law and justice in the semi-autonomous territories.

"Unfortunately, some ill-intentioned individuals and media outlets [are spreading] exaggerated or false views, thus causing panic among the public, and obstructing the discussion of the amendments in the HKSAR Legislative Council.

The release also claimed that certain organisations had engaged in "smearing attacks on the Chinese government and the Hong Kong SAR government" by failing to fight against the wide-spread "bias" and "anti-China sentiment" spreading throughout New Zealand.

It is unclear whether the message specifically targeted the university or was intended for New Zealand media organisations.

The clash is seen by many news outlets as a symptom of a far wider concern.

They say the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government has reasserted controls over the Chinese diaspora, including the consolidation of Xi's leadership and spread of his ideology, Xi Jinping Thought.

Religious affiliation of any sort not sanctioned by Beijing is forbidden.

In 2017 Xi said the 60 million-plus Chinese diaspora must serve the CCP's political and economic agenda.

New Zealand has around 200,000 citizens and permanent residents who may be specifically targeted in this respect.

Source

• Craccum
• The Washington Post
• Noted
• Image: NewsHub

The vigil was organised by the Justice and Peace Commission of Hong Kong Diocese, Hong Kong Federation of Catholic Students, Diocesan Youth Commission and St. Benedict Parish's social concerns group.

The marchers urged the government to heed protesters' key demands.

"In the last two months, the city has been in turmoil.

"We should have a cooling-off period and a ceasefire of at least two or three months, for both sides to sit down and come to an agreement to move society forward," Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Ha Chi-shing told the protesters.

Hong Kong has suffered months of street protests opposing the now-abandoned extradition bill.

This bill would have allowed criminal suspects to be transferred to jurisdictions with which Hong Kong city has no formal arrangement.

Ha repeated the protesters' demands: for the bill to be fully withdrawn and for an inquiry into the police's handling of the unrest and accountability by the Hong Kong Legislative Council and chief executive.

"Violence will only create more violence. Hatred will only produce more hatred. Injustice will never achieve justice. History will prove that only peace and reason can establish a long-term peace," he said.

The bishop pointed out that the root cause of the demonstrations lay with the Hong Kong government, which, he said, had no excuse for its actions.

Meanwhile, keeping the peace was something of a "mission impossible" for police, he said, because the current problems were rooted in politics, not security.

The church has been among the bill's opponents for months.

Resisting Ha's demands, Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor simply said "the bill is dead".

She said any complaints against the police should go through established bodies like the Independent Police Complaints Council.

Lina Chan, executive secretary of the diocesan peace commission, said the levels of violence by police and resistance by the protesters were increasing.

The church is therefore stressing that protesters use nonviolent principles in their demonstrations, she said.

"When we are reaffirming the importance of peace, we should base that on justice," Chan said.

"We need to bring the truth into the light; this is what can lead us to a true reconciliation."

In her opinion, an independent investigation committee could help relieve current tensions.

"To have such a committee can help avoid similar things happening again."

Source

• NCR Online
• Yahoo
• Image: Yahoo News Singapore