Originally posted on July 5, 2019.
From Kim Bi-rei’s essay published in the August issue of WiLL, titled “The Taste of Hong Kong’s Restaurants Suddenly Declined: ‘One Country, Two Systems’ Would Become Hollow — My Prediction from Twenty Years Ago Came True.”
Having already seen through the coming hollowing out of “one country, two systems” just before Hong Kong’s 1997 return, Kim Bi-rei discusses the true nature of the Chinese Communist Party, the habit of falsehood and territorial expansion in Chinese political culture, and the chain of danger extending from Hong Kong to Taiwan and possibly Okinawa.
Through the reality that the light of freedom is fading from Hong Kong, this piece argues that the time has come for the Japanese people as well to awaken.

2019-07-05
That was because I knew that China has no self-restraint to curb its ambition for territorial expansion, and that Chinese people tell lies without the slightest hesitation.

The following is from an essay by Ms. Kim Bi-rei, published in the August issue of the monthly magazine WiLL under the title, “The Taste of Hong Kong’s Restaurants Suddenly Declined: ‘One Country, Two Systems’ Would Become Hollow — My Prediction from Twenty Years Ago Came True.”
A prediction from twenty years ago.　
Hong Kong is shaking.
A demonstration on the scale of one million people was held over the revision of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance.
If the amendment is passed, people detained in Hong Kong could be transferred to mainland China.
When I saw reports that large numbers of dead and injured had appeared, I remembered the “prediction” I had made twenty years ago.
British Hong Kong was a place where Eastern and Western cultures met.
But in 1997, Hong Kong was returned from Britain to China.　
A Hong Kong dyed in a single color of Chinese civilization would lose half its charm.
Thinking so, I took one last trip to Hong Kong with my daughter two weeks before the handover.
The name of the trip was “say god bye to Hongkong (goodbye to Hong Kong).”
The taste at the restaurant I used to frequent had already declined.
If it became part of China, a free way of life would no longer be guaranteed.
That was because skilled chefs were leaving Hong Kong one after another and seeking work in Canada and Australia.
In addition, some of the wealthy paid millions of dollars and emigrated to the English-speaking world as well.
The ordinary citizens who remained were filled with complicated emotions.
Chinese-centered thinking had penetrated Hong Kong too.
While they were pleased to become formally part of the Chinese sphere, they were also driven by anxiety.
“What will happen to Hong Kong once it is absorbed into China?”
I have never forgotten the anxious expression of the taxi driver who asked me that.　
After the handover, China promised “one country, two systems.”
But would Hong Kong’s autonomy really be protected?
Japan’s intellectuals either expressed optimism or obscured their words.
I stated clearly that, sooner or later, “one country, two systems” would become hollow, and politics would be absorbed by the Chinese Communist Party.
That was because I knew that China has no self-restraint to curb its ambition for territorial expansion, and that Chinese people tell lies without the slightest hesitation.
I have hardly ever heard any words of reflection from those who once glorified the Cultural Revolution.
Fed up with intellectuals who do not take responsibility for their own words, I declared, “If my prediction is wrong, I will quit being a commentator.”
But, “unfortunately,” my prediction was correct.
Now, the light of freedom is fading from Hong Kong.　
In 2004, Taiwan held a presidential election.
The day after Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party, whom I supported, barely won reelection, a man who said he had come from Hong Kong thanked me.
“Thanks to Taiwan, somehow Hong Kong is still being protected.”　
Just like Tibet and the Uyghurs, the Chinese Communist Party surely wants to suppress Hong Kong by force.
But because its final objective is to seize Taiwan, it cannot do so.
Put differently, if Taiwan does not remain firm, Hong Kong will be swallowed up in no time.
Can today’s Taiwan really hold out?
Can today’s Japan really hold out?
If Hong Kong falls into the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, Taiwan will be next.
And after that, it may be Okinawa.
This section will continue.