In “Hong Kong: New management,” the Post’s editorialist claims that “Beijing makes no secret whatsoever of the fact that it intends to run a tight ship from now on. And, in the final analysis, that’s as much its right as it would be of any government.”
A “tight ship”? When applied to a government that has slaughtered millions of innocent human beings, and denied the rights to liberty and property of millions more, what is this sickeningly vague phrase intended to be a euphemism for?
According to the principles identified by the Declaration of Independence, it is individual citizens, not governments, who are endowed with rights, and that “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” For the same reason that a slave “owner” has no right to compel another human being, a criminal government, such as that of Communist China, has no “right” to violate the rights of its citizens. As noted long ago by novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand, there can be no such thing as “a right to enslave.”