Benedict Rogers & Johnny Patterson

The death of Hong Kong

A man is arrested during a demonstration against the new national security law in Hong Kong (Getty images)

When Hong Kong was handed over from Britain to China with great fanfare on 1 July 1997, there was a cloud which hung over the process. The shadow of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre loomed large, casting doubt on whether the promises that Beijing had made in international law could be trusted. 

23 years later, and Beijing has chosen 1 July to enact a constitutional coup. The handover anniversary has been chosen to theatrically signal that this is a kind of second handover, as one-country, two-systems becomes ‘one-country, one-system.’

The move is drenched in symbolism. The Chinese Communist Party considers the illusion of Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy to be so irrelevant that the city’s puppet leader, Carrie Lam, had still not seen the law hours after it had been passed. Gone are the days where the CCP’s mantra was ‘hide your strength, bide your time, never take the lead’. This is public muscle flexing. For Britain, it is a diplomatic slap in the face. They have ripped up the treaty and are flaunting its tattered pieces before the world.

Hong Kong was the only British colony where the citizens were not given the right to self-determination. Hong Kong’s people were given no say over their future. Instead, Britain took the CCP on good faith that they would keep their word, and uphold human rights safeguards. Naivety is one word for it.

Hong Kongers reacted with horror as the details of the law were revealed last night. Charges such as ‘subversion’, ‘secession’ and ‘collusion with foreign political powers’ are Orwellian: so vaguely defined that pretty much anyone from the political opposition is vulnerable to arrest. The sentencing is disproportionate and extreme, with most crimes carrying a minimum sentence of ten years and a maximum sentence of life.

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