China is much more than a "system opponent"

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) National Congress begins on Sunday. And everyone is wondering what the outcome will be – will the annexation of Taiwan be officially included as a goal in the party statutes? Will Xi Jinping be re-elected?

It has been a decade since Xi came to power. According to his own statements, in these ten years he has made China better and bigger. But most, if not all, of its achievements are based on human rights violations and disregard for international law. One of his greatest achievements is Xi's anti-corruption campaign. However, it also serves him as an instrument for political revenge. In 2016, Human Rights Watch released a 102-page report that Xi's crackdown on corruption included illegal arrests, torture and brutal ill-treatment.

In the past decade, the CCP has also tightened internet censorship on an unprecedented scale to ensure the spread of its ideology across the country. In February 2014, Beijing launched Operation Qinglang, a campaign to control the internet. In 2015, The New York Times reported on the widespread blocking of encrypted network connections in China. Since late 2016, a number of people have been arrested and convicted for setting up or offering VPN services.

In early 2022, the Chinese Twitter clone Weibo introduced a feature that reveals “IP affiliation”; Comments on posts show the IP address of the user. This feature was then expanded to most major social media platforms at the end of April. Online censorship happens every day. Critical discussions are blocked, freedom of expression curtailed.

However, Xi Jinping also uses the judiciary to spread ideology and expand power. After the party's 18th congress in 2012, the National People's Congress (NPC) passed various constitutional amendments; 68 new national security laws were enacted. The anti-terrorist law passed in 2015 has since been used in cases related to the suppression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, while the law regulating foreign NGOs in China, passed in 2016, has drastically curtailed the ability of NGOs to survive, thereby repressing civil society. Not to mention Hong Kong's national security law, which is used to repress the population.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg of what Xi has pushed through over the past decade. Despite this, the world is still slow to respond to the threat China poses to our values.

The UK officially declares China a "threat" in a new strategic analysis. A long overdue decision. Europe and Germany should also face the truth and understand that China is much more than a "system opponent". What China achieves under CCP rule and what it offers to the world—rare earth elements, cotton, a large market—are all linked to human rights violations. And is therefore the exact opposite of everything we stand for.

We don't need more reports proving that Beijing cannot be trusted. We have more than enough evidence. What we need is action and determination to hold China accountable for its actions.

Glacier Kwong alternates writing this column with Joshua Wong. The two young activists from Hong Kong are fighting against the growing influence of China in their homeland. Since Wong is currently imprisoned, Kwong is continuing this column alone for the time being.