China: Biggest threat to mankind today

Beijing has recently announced that it would authorise the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress – China's rubber-stamp Parliament – to draft a national security law for Hong Kong caught most off guard.

Newspapers and media reports suggest that it sparked widespread resentment not only in Hong Kong but also worldwide. The move sparked renewed protests over the weekend, caused a landslide on the local stock market and elicited the expected global outrage.

Beijing's decision to bypass Hong Kong's legislature and directly impose a national security law is widely seen as a violation of the joint treaty signed between China and the UK when Hong Kong was handed over in 1997. But then, when did China honour any commitment or word given to either its own people and the world? The latest development in Hong Kong only reinforces the world view that the most unreliable nation on the earth is China.

The 'One Country, Two Systems" framework that Beijing had declared during the takeover of Hong Kong from the British in 1997 would face its death knell if the new decision is allowed to be imposed on the city. This would make the vibrant Hong Kong any other mechanical city of China and there would be nothing left in it for the world to flock to it. And the people? Well, all that they will have ahead is a dreary dreaded life of a suppressed and oppressed citizens of China with all right to expressions and freedom of speech stifled.

Whatever rule of law and civil liberties currently are in place in the city would be finished under the draconian Communist masters of China. It could jeopardise the rule of law and civil liberties currently enjoyed in the city, and ultimately, be the death knell for the "one country, two systems" framework that Beijing has touted to integrate Hong Kong. More profoundly, in the longer term, it could be the decisive blow for rule of law in Hong Kong – and the city's autonomy. China is in a soup with its Wuhan cover-up and is trying to divert the attention of the world. Hong Kong is just one of the moves. This is a calculated move on part of China to make the world's water murkier. It is time the world wakes up from its stupor. It has been a long time since the world looked eyeball to eyeball with China due to peculiar geopolitical situations prevailing. This is not just about Hong Kong. it is also about Taiwan.

It is about India. It is about South China Sea and all the smaller countries in and around it. Pakistan may not realise it, but it is also about the future of Pakistan. No one is safe from China, be it Nepal, Bhutan or Sri Lanka. The avarice and greed of China is such that it consumes the interests and lands of other countries like a black hole devouring the stars and other components of the universe. Today the biggest threat to mankind is China with its evil practices and malicious moves. It is not just Wuhan that should be probed. All its moves that meant trouble for its neighbours must be probed and actions initiated without fear or favour.