Hong Kong Gone but Not in Spirit, Daily Brief March 20, 2024

Historians will surely long debate just what exactly was the point of no return for authoritarian rule in Hong Kong.

Some may say it was inevitable Beijing would renege on its promises and impose its iron grip after the UK handed over the territory to China in 1997. Others may argue the British only allowed representative institutions in the final years of their colonial rule, so traditions of democracy and human rights were not well enough established to later thrive.

But either way, in March 2024, it’s clear Hong Kong is fully under Beijing’s authoritarian boot. The city lost its last vestiges of fundamental freedoms yesterday, when the Beijing-controlled Legislative Council in Hong Kong passed a new security law. Unanimously and with no amendments, of course.

The “Safeguarding National Security Ordinance” is truly draconian. The new law expands police powers,and weakens due process rights. It punishes peaceful speech and civil society activism with long jail sentences.

In the words of my expert colleague Elaine Pearson: “Now even possessing a book in Hong Kong critical of the Chinese government can mean years in prison.”

Most disturbingly, perhaps, the new law’s provisions apply not only to Hong Kong residents and businesses inside the territory but anywhere in the world. In short, the authorities can use this law to silence dissent both in the city and globally.

The new ordinance will deepen the repression already known under the National Security Law, which Beijing imposed on the city in 2020.

That previous law dismantled the Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement by detaining and prosecuting elected representatives and thousands of peaceful protesters. It eliminated civil society groups and independent labor unions, and shuttered the most popular pro-democracy newspaper.

The extensive and prolonged efforts of Beijing to stamp out any hint of democracy and respect for human rights in Hong Kong ironically reveals exactly what China wanted to hide: many people in Hong Kong are against Beijing’s authoritarian rule.

Many Hong Kong citizens have consistently opposed these kinds of draconian measure for years. As early as 2003, half a million people marched against them. And as China’s crushing grip closed in, many used the only free vote they felt they had left, voting with their feet: some 100,000 have fled the city.

Some historians may argue Hong Kong was simply transferred from one empire to another, like a pawn in some geopolitical game. But that thinking, like the imperial mindset itself, ignores the people who live there and what they have wanted for themselves.

The unavoidable truth is, many people in Hong Kong have fought bravely for democracy and human rights. And yes, things look rather bleak now, but their spirit and their quest for freedom will one day serve as a torch for a brighter future.