Hong Kong is introducing a new local security law to expand on the existing law that has rolled back freedoms. The ongoing trials of pro-democracy activists are a warning.
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Claudia Mo, Leung Kwok-hung, Benny Tai, Figo Chan, Jimmy Sham Tsz-kit, Chan Po-ying and Joshua Wong This month marks another depressing milestone in Hong Kong’s painful descent into authoritarian repression: Forty-seven politicians, scholars and activists began their fourth year under arrest on charges of violating the severe national security law that Beijing imposed on the city in 2020.
Since the arrests, only 13 have been granted bail under stringent conditions, leaving 34 others in prison as the trial, the largest under the 2020 law in Hong Kong to date, has dragged on. Prosecutors have often stretched credulity trying to prove that running in a primary and trying to win a majority of council seats amounted to a crime.
Last Wednesday also marked another sad milestone in Hong Kong’s downward trajectory: the end of a truncated 30-day public comment period for a new homegrownThe security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 is draconian enough and has already stifled free expression in the territory and led to the disbanding of media outlets, trade unions and civil society groups.
The Hong Kong government tried to pass this local security law in the past, but each time was forced to back down in the face of widespread protests. Now, under the cover of the national security law that has stifled virtually all public protest, it can hammer it through with no opposition.out to undermine national security. That’s the same logic officials used to justify the earlier national security law.
Hong Kong had been something special, an outpost of freedom on Chinese soil that could mediate between Beijing and the free world. China has crushed what had been one of its greatest assets.
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