My Take | Self-defeating to invite foreign interference
- In concert with local opposition, the latest salvo from a group within the European Parliament against the Hong Kong and Chinese governments is just one more futile move for what is really a domestic conflict that can only be resolved in our own house
It must be a sign of old age, as I thoroughly enjoyed watching The King and I on TV the other night, one of my favourite films from childhood. Thank God, no CGI!
It turns out, though I never realised this before, the more recent Anna and the King with Jodie Foster and Chow Yun-fat is much more political than the original with Yul Brynner.
In the first film, a slave girl tried to escape with her secret lover, and the king must decide whether to punish her because her elopement was a personal affront. In the 2000 version, Anna, the British governess, didn’t know the king was ready to show mercy, so she tried to pressure him publicly to spare the girl from execution.
A king could not be seen as beholden to a foreigner. He had no choice but to execute both lovers. With the best of intentions, Anna as good as killed the girl herself.
When Hong Kong’s opposition politicians and anti-government activists hobnob with leaders in Western capitals to urge their governments to pressure and threaten sanctions against China and their own city, the incident in Anna and the King comes to mind.
The latest news sees a group within the European Parliament pushing for a European Union version of the Magnitsky Act to direct sanctions against Hong Kong over alleged human rights violations.