Hong Kong’s government has began the process of adopting a controversial new national security law that critics fear will further roll back civil liberties at Asia’s top financial hub.
Known as Article 23, Hong Kong’s own security legislation was shelved in 2003 after a previous attempt to enact it drew half a million residents onto the streets in protest over fears it would erode civil liberties.
But no such public opposition is expected this time around.
Beijing’s national security crackdown of recent years has transformed once-freewheeling Hong Kong, silencing almost all dissent by jailing dozens of opposition activists . Many civil society groups have been disbanded, and the city’s once- outspoken media outlets have shut down.
Hong Kong and Chinese authorities say the Beijing-imposed security law, which criminalizes succession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces in vague and broad terms, has restored order to the city following the 2019 protests and deny it has curtailed freedoms.
In 1997 Hong Kong was handed back to China by the British government who ruled it since 1841 ( except 4 years of Japsnese occupation in 1941-45) .
That saw the start of a grand political experiment, as Communist China promised Hong Kong civil liberties and freedom – unavailable in the mainland – for at least 50 years under a novel arrangement called “one country, two systems”.
27 years later, that experiment is threatened with an early end as the Hongkong administration seek to........