The Hong Kong Issue

In 2014, peaceful demonstrators pressured the CCP to fulfil its promise and allow the democratic election of the city’s chief executive and Legislative Council in what became known as the Occupy Movement or Umbrella Movement. In 2019, more than one-quarter of the city’s 7.5 million people marched peacefully in favour of democracy and police accountability, and against a law that would enable the extradition of Hong Kong defendants to China for prosecution in mainland courts.

After steadily encroaching on the city’s autonomy over two decades, the PRC in June 2020 imposed a harsh National Security Law (NSL) on Hong Kong, enabling virtual direct rule from Beijing. The NSL has since been used to stifle any protests, demonstrations, critical journalism, or other opposition to the Hong Kong authorities and the CCP. New police units have been established to enforce it. Thousands of people have been arrested under the NSL, many for the flimsiest of reasons – the new law allows the CCP to label almost any undesirable action as “subversion,” “separatism,” “terrorism,” or “foreign collusion” and prosecute those it deems responsible in pliant national security courts. Since 2019, nearly 2,000 political prisoners have been jailed in Hong Kong, meaning that the city’s political prisoner population has risen faster than that of either North Korea and Belarus. Sadly, many of Hong Kong’s best and brightest civic leaders – activists, politicians, journalists, and lawyers – are among those to have been detained.