China drops the gauntlet with new HK security law

US, China on a collision course as Beijing pushes through controversial law for the semi-autonomous city

China’s top legislature formally approved a controversial national security law for Hong Kong on Tuesday (June 30) that will provide Beijing with sweeping enforcement powers to prohibit and punish acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference in the Chinese-ruled special administration region.

International opprobrium has mounted against Beijing with critics of the far-reaching new law, which was not fully disclosed to the public prior to its unanimous passage by the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress, saying it will effectively criminalize dissent and stifle the city’s freedoms and semi-autonomous status.

The legislation puts Beijing further at odds with Western governments and will further strain US-China relations, which have already sunk to their lowest point in years. The US announced last month that it would begin removing Hong Kong’s special trade status under US law on grounds of China bypassing the city’s legislature to impose the new law.

China’s lawmakers fast-tracked the bill, passing it on the last day of a special three-day session that began on Sunday. It is expected to come into effect on July 1, marking the 23rd anniversary of the city’s handover to China from British colonial rule. The city’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam admitted she had not seen a preliminary version of the law prior to its passage.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Why Malaysia’s Mahathir just won’t fade away

Two-time Malaysian leader lays bare his last stand drive for power in an exclusive interview with Asia Times

Four months after his shock resignation, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has his sights set on yet another political comeback. In league with multi-racial opposition parties, the elder statesman hopes to unseat yet another ally-turned-foe successor whose rule he claims threatens a return to corrupt and authoritarian misrule.

Prevailing in an against-all-odds election win in 2018, Mahathir partnered with his estranged protégé and former deputy, Anwar Ibrahim, to topple scandal-plagued Najib Razak’s premiership, heralding Malaysia’s first-ever democratic transfer of power and bringing an end to the United Malays National Organization’s (UMNO) 61-year rule.

Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, however, fell less than two years into its mandate, as the leadership of his own party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM), or Bersatu, staged a political coup and formed a new, unelected government propped by UMNO that brought incumbent Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to power in February.

In a wide-ranging interview with Asia Times’ Nile Bowie and Shawn W. Crispin, the nonagenarian politician articulated his plans to recapture the premiership for an unprecedented third term, touching on everything from his relationship with Anwar, his leadership legacy and Malaysia’s place amid intensifying US-China superpower rivalry.

Read the full story at Asia Times here and here. 

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Anwar-Mahathir countercoup hits a wall in Malaysia

Veteran politicians' plan to overtake PM Muhyiddin's coalition breaking down over who should be leader next

Nearly four months after losing power in a backroom political maneuver, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) opposition’s efforts to reclaim the electoral mandate it won at historic 2018 elections have hit a wall.

An impasse over who should lead a potential new government if PH is able to resume control through defections in parliament has brought the political alliance’s many fault lines into clear view.

Intrigue and ambiguity over a tacit agreement for then-premier Mahathir Mohamad to hand power to his former deputy and rival Anwar Ibrahim pervaded the multi-racial coalition’s 22 months in power, a factor that analysts say contributed to its dramatic collapse in February.

PH’s quest to return to federal power and unseat Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s ethno-nationalist Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition is now in disarray over a failure by its component parties and allies to reach a consensus over their candidate for the premiership.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Beijing-backed security law hangs darkly over Hong Kong

Pending law will punish secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference but many fear will also curb rights and liberties

When Hong Kong authorities attempted to push through amendments to the city’s extradition laws last year, more than a million protesters took to the streets of the Chinese-ruled financial hub to oppose changes that would have allowed criminal suspects to be tried in the mainland’s courts.

While the widely-opposed rendition bill was ultimately withdrawn, critics say newly proposed national security legislation will effectively bring the mainland’s legal system to Hong Kong, with China’s National People’s Congress empowered to write and apply the still pending law without the approval of the territory’s legislature.

Though Beijing has yet to confirm the bill’s relevant clauses, officials have indicated that those in breach of the law, which will punish secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference in the city’s affairs, could be extradited to the mainland for trial, just as the earlier, now shelved proposal controversially sought.

Many see the precedent set by the central government using exemptions in Hong Kong’s Basic Law, the territory’s de facto constitution, to impose the new legislation as an inflection point that could spell the end of the “one country, two systems” framework enshrined in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration that guarantees the city’s high degree of autonomy.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Trump’s Hong Kong threat likely more bark than bite

US threat to remove Hong Kong’s special status would hurt American business as much as it would China’s economic interests

When China’s National People’s Congress overwhelmingly supported new national security legislation for Hong Kong on May 28, seen by many as a death knell for the city’s “one country, two systems” semi-autonomy, US President Donald Trump was quick to signal the US would retaliate in kind.

In a broadside against Beijing, he ordered his administration to begin the process of removing Hong Kong’s special trade status under US law, which entitles it to separate treatment from the mainland in terms of customs and immigration, privileges that bolster the city’s status as the world’s third-biggest international financial center.

Trump has also promised to impose sanctions on individuals seen as responsible for “smothering – absolutely smothering – Hong Kong’s freedom.”

Beijing’s decision to bypass Hong Kong's quasi-independent legislature and impose a new national security law, which will punish secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference in the city, was “only the latest in a series of actions” undermining Hong Kong’s promised freedoms, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the US Congress.

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.

Singapore poised for risky pandemic polls

City-state likely headed for snap polls that ruling PAP will inevitably win but at a cost to its political credibility

With classes in session and reopened workplaces abuzz, Singaporeans are easing into life after lockdown. Despite a continued rise in Covid-19 cases, the city-state began a guarded reopening this week following nearly two months of “circuit breaker” restrictions that brought its economy to a standstill.

With rising pressure to protect both lives and livelihoods, authorities hope to institute a “new normal” where businesses, social gatherings and religious services eventually resume with heightened safeguards in place to prevent a third wave of community spread.

The island-nation of 5.7 million has one of the highest infection rates in Asia, due mainly to outbreaks in its densely populated foreign worker dormitories. The still fluid situation is such that the government hasn’t fixed a firm timeline for its phased reopening. Holding an election against such a backdrop, some critics say, would be socially reckless if not politically opportunistic.

But speculation is rife that Singapore will hold snap polls as early as next month. Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat confirmed as much in a television interview in late March when he said elections were “coming nearer by the day” and that public health considerations “will be a foremost consideration.”

Read the full story at Asia Times.

Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.