#Biden can’t ignore Hong Kong and other commentary

Foreign desk: Joe Can’t Ignore Hong Kong

Team Trump was quick to speak up for the “brave freedom fighters” in Hong Kong, and as China continues to punish and arrest its dissidents, The Wall Street Journal editorial board hopes “the Biden crowd” remembers “it’s important that the world not forget” the opposition. The arrest of pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai, among other repressive steps, is part of Beijing’s “ferocious effort to stop all criticism — at home and abroad.” President Trump “called out these tactics,” but now “China will be lobbying the Biden team to drop all of this in return for a climate deal.” Still, it’s a good sign that soon-to-be National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan tweeted that he is ready “to help those persecuted find safe haven.” How about green cards for the lot of them?

What Corporate Censors Want

Big Tech censorship has newly awakened many conservatives to the dangers of corporate dominance. Yet, Oliver Bateman and Malcom Kyeyune argue at American Greatness, “what we see in the West today is not a project aimed at censoring conservative ideas.” It’s much worse than that: The ultimate aim is “insulating the elites from the opinions and complaints of the growing mass of plebs, rendering them ‘untouchable.’ ” That’s an “extraordinarily dangerous development,” since it breaks the feedback loop between power and populace. “An elite class insulated from the signals coming from the rest of the society is as dangerous as an athlete who can no longer feel pain: because pain signals are the body’s way of telling us that we should stop doing something before we hurt or kill ourselves.”

Fertility watch: How To Save Humankind

Forget climate change — the “greatest threat” to humanity is “too few people” having offspring who will produce ideas that make the world more “hospitable,” warns Glenn Stanton at Quillette. A major study this year predicts that “the world’s population shortfall will be markedly more dramatic and sooner than anticipated.” Population growth is largely responsible for economic growth, because more people lead to more life-sustaining technological advances. “Death happens,” Stanton argues, “when competing ideas are shut down” — which is why current “progressive thought” is contrary to growth. The correct progressive prescription: “Be fruitful and multiply.”

From the right: Shame on the Media

News that Hunter Biden “is under federal investigation for his financial dealings in foreign countries,” notes RealClearPolitics’ Mark Hemingway, “shouldn’t have been surprising.” But then, “the ­media steadfastly refused to cover” and Big Tech censored the story weeks before the election — “though neither Joe Biden nor his campaign disputed the ­authenticity” of e-mails obtained by The Post. The story was “damning enough” that reporters “should have ­demanded Joe and Hunter answer a slew of pointed questions.” Instead, “they immediately asserted” The Post story “was part of a ‘Russian disinformation campaign.’ ” The “media suppression” may “have helped Joe Biden win,” setting a “chilling” precedent for the press to “actively censor legitimate reporting” on public graft ahead of a national vote.

Conservative: How Not To Prevent Hacking

News that Russian hackers have penetrated the Treasury and Commerce departments’ e-mail systems reminds National Review’s Jim Geraghty that the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is supposed to handle such issues, has seen “a lot of turnover . . . since the election.” President Trump fired its chief, Christopher Krebs, Nov. 17 “after Krebs publicly declared that the election systems were secure and that there was no evidence” anyone “had changed votes from Trump to Biden.” His No. 2 was forced out for other issues. DHS itself “has an acting secretary, an acting deputy secretary, an acting chief of staff” and several other top “acting” officials. “No one whose duties don’t specifically involve cybersecurity cares about the topic until something goes wrong. But the way you prevent something going wrong is to care about it before something goes wrong.” With the president otherwise obsessed, “everything else . . . is way down on the priority list and easily ignored.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board