Helvetin Pastori/Pastor of Hell

This is a translation of a speech I gave at the 2023 convention of the Finnish Green Party. The original is available here. Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine has concretely highlighted what excessive dependence on authoritarian states leads to. In a short time, both Finland and the EU had to completely rebuild their Russia policy, and admit to their their previous naive approach towards Russia. Considering how quickly that message seems to have gotten across, at least one question arises for me: Why are we deliberately repeating the same mistakes regarding China? One example of this quite literally hits close to home: there are plans to built a major concentration of battery manufacturing plants in my hometown of Kotka and its surrounding areas, largely to be built with Chinese money. Despite criticism, local decision-makers have mainly focused on the economic effects of the project, while simultaneously downplaying the risks related to China. However, after Russia started its ...

Translation of my speech at the Finnish Green Party's convention on the 12th of September 2021. Finnish version available here Hong Kong is a former British colony, which in 1997 was handed over to China. Before the handover, the countries agreed on a special arrangement which was meant to secure civil liberties for Hongkongers for at least 50 years. In the Summer of 2020, China betrayed those promises by legislating the so called "National security law". For Hong Kong's democracy movement, effects of the national security law have been catastrophic: since the law was enacted, every single democrat has been kicked out, or pressured to resign from the regional legislature. Around 30 organizations, which includes political parties and trade unions. have shut down operations. At the moment of writing this 146 people have been arrested and 84 people prosecuted under the national security law. Apart from this, the Hong Kong police has issued arrest warrants on at least 10...

Translation of an article by Yle, published on the 16th on October 2020. Link below. Käännös Ylen 16.10.2020 julkaistusta artikkelista. Linkki alla. https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11599142?origin=rss Many Western countries have suspended extradition to the region after China changed the status of Hong Kong with a new law. Finland will suspend it's extradition treaty with Hong Kong. According to the proposal by the government the judicial situation in Hong Kong has become unclear, after China introduced a national security law on the region which limits the regions autonomy. President Sauli Niinistö has approved the suspension of the extradition treaty today. Finland has decided that in order to clarify the situation, a separate decision is needed about the viability of the extradition treaty. Extradition treaty's allow Finland to extradite suspected criminals at the requests of other countries, based on specific criteria. The treaty between Finland and Hong Kong has never been applie...

https://www.talouselama.fi/uutiset/te/16d1b8f4-6b49-402e-af13-5e1cac163578?ref=ampparit:a1ad Translation of an article published in Talouselämä on the 22nd of July 2020. Link below. Käännös Talouselämä-lehdessä 22.7.2020 julkaistusta artikkelista. Linkki alla. From the MEP's five supported both economic and human rights based sanctions. According to Uutissuomalainen, ten from Finland's 14 MEP's support EU-level sanctions against China due to the late June enactment of a national security law in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. From the MEP's Ville Niinistö (Greens), Alviina Alametsä (Greens), Elsi Katainen (Center), Miapetra Kumpula-Natri (Social Democrats) and Silvia Modig (Left Alliance) support sanction based on both economical and human rights based sanctions. Alametsä points out that the EU is currently negotiating with China about a massive investment deal. "The deal should include legally binding clauses to protect sustainable de...