Time To Unite: Why Not NOW ? ! Show Hong Kongers We Care.
Saturday August 27, 11 to 1 pm, Hordern Pavilion Moore Park, you are all invited to crash the party’s party.
I admire the tenacity and spirit of the Hong Kong resistance. As difficult as it was, it was better to fight and lose than let future generations believe Hong Kong was passively cowed. Future victory is sometimes built on a foundation of past defeat.
Slice by salami slice, Australian sovereignty is being eroded. I first heard the term “salami slicing” by listening to Joshua Wong in a documentary. Salami slicing of Hong Kong’s Freedoms began decades ago. The people of Hong Kong fought for important causes: To stop the education system becoming a propaganda system in 2014, and, in 2019, to stop extradition to China, which became 5 demands not one less, ultimately a demand for democracy - universal suffrage for the Legislative Assembly and Chief Executive. I watched “Ten Years” on Netflix, and then saw its dire predictions play out in real life in less than five.
During and before this time, Australian universities, schools and government bodies normalised interaction with what is not a normal regime. China’s leadership is an illegitimate government with an extremist ideology, but with money, networks, and a patient strategy to pursue its opponents beyond its borders and fool our citizens into compliance with its goals.
Our political parties compete for funds from CCP allies and for the votes of people who oppose voting in their country of origin. I read misinformation with breakfast and get told by seemingly sane people that I am a racist and don’t understand China or its importance to Australia. Because of my ties to China I am trapped behind a pseudonym and do not have freedom of speech in Australia, my country. In case you missed it - I am angry about this.
Hong Kongers are skilled migrants. They are skilled at organising protests, they are skilled at building networks, they are skilled at communicating their goals, they even made up their own resistance anthem. We need all of these skills.
All of the PRC diaspora have similar grievances with one source. Without The Fifth Modernisation, Democracy, and everything that that implies - independent legal system, free speech and assembly, respect for the rights of minorities, China’s internal disagreements cannot be resolved peacefully. As an outsider it is not for me to say whether region X should be independent or autonomous or integrated or assimilated. What I will say is that much suffering has been caused by the trampling of the rights of people within CCP controlled territory, as a result of what the CCP is. Now they will be silenced outside CCP controlled territory, here in this country.
Or maybe not. To change the current trajectory and reverse the CCP’s advances in this country, people must join together and take action.
I would like to see three things happen soon:
1 Diaspora groups - Hong Kong, Taiwanese, Tibetan, Uyghur, mainland dissidents, back each other and work together.
2 These groups, who understand the CCP playbook so much better than the rest of us, should Unite, Lead and Organise.
3 Other Australian residents and citizens of all backgrounds must join and support. It’s always someone else’s problem till it’s your problem. Now it’s everyone's problem. He who buries his head in the sand get’s (censored) in the arse.
In the medium term, I want to see Hong Kongers in Australia step up to the plate and show leadership. Their experience is freshest and rawest. But to facilitate that, they need your help.
Please show up, for a couple of hours on Saturday, and take a side. Their side, Your side, Our side.
For Sovereignty, Freedom, Democracy.
The CCP may be unbeatable in the PRC in our lifetimes. Preservation of Tibetan and Uyghur culture might have a better chance under the Australian sun than its place of origin. The idea that persecuted people can build a new life in my country as free people is a source of pride for me. But if Australianisation becomes a byword for the new Finlandisation, there is nowhere else to run. The Antarctica of the future will be CCP controlled and it’s too cold anyway. So it’s not out of boldness, but strategic necessity, to take a stand - on so many issues - but start this weekend, with this affront to our fellow free humans.
澳洲人站起来，澳洲人团结起来
Time for Australians to stand up, and stand together. Support Hong Kongers to support Australia.
May your weekend be good, make good use of it.
Simon 简单。
