Anyone who feared that Hong Kong’s new national security law would be used to target protesters, not “terrorism”, as Chinese officials have asserted, saw their suspicions confirmed within 24 hours of passing the law, which criminalizes calls for secession, subversion and conspiracy with foreign forces. The first arrests have already been made under this law, including a protester who carried a sign that read “Independence of Hong Kong”. The sentence could be life imprisonment, tweeted Hu Xijin, director of the Global Times, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party.
“This marks the end of Hong Kong as the world knew it before,” activist Joshua Wong of Demosisto, a pro-democracy party in Hong Kong, heir to the so-called umbrella protests of 2014, was very similar to the ones on 2014. massive protests that rocked the city last year. Since the passage of the new national security law, Demosisto has already decided to disband, fearing that its members will be persecuted.
However, despite international condemnation, the new law was well received by Hong Kong executive leader Carrie Lam, long accused of being a puppet from Beijing – her reaction to the new law is expected to further deepen that perception. “Respect our country’s right to safeguard national security,” called Lam, in a video addressed to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
In protest against the passage of the new law, the United States is preparing to end the special status that Hong Kong, one of the main Chinese financial centers, enjoys until now exempt from many of the tariffs and restrictions imposed by Washington throughout its life. trade war with Beijing. The consequences for financial markets are unpredictable, especially in times of pandemic. And they risk worsening relations between the two giants.
Anger and arrests As expected, the streets of Hong Kong were filled with angry people, protesting the new law. More than 300 people were arrested, according to the Associated Press, some for alleged possession of a weapon – a video shows a protester stabbing a policeman in the arm. In addition, fires were set in Causeway Bay, one of Hong Kong’s main shopping districts, while protesters were trying to block traffic with piles of bricks. The authorities fired tear gas and pepper gas, also using water cannons.
“Resist until the end”, read on posters of protesters, according to Reuters. It is quite possible that this is the case: the vague terms of the new security law may allow mass demonstrators to be detained for things as simple as forming human chains in front of public buildings, “whether by force or not,” Hong Kong Bar Association vice president Anita Yip Hau-ki to the South China Morning Post, suggesting that even the press may be targeted for criticism of the government.
For those who do not feel capable of fighting to the end, there is already a way out: the UK Government has announced that it will facilitate Hong Kong citizens’ access to British citizenship in response to the new national security law. The approximately three million Hong Kongese eligible for this status will be able to live in the UK for five years and then apply for citizenship, without limitations.
Historical roots It is important to remember that the date of the passage of the law may have been chosen for symbolic reasons: it occurred on the eve of the 23rd anniversary of the delivery of Hong Kong to China by the British, this Wednesday. Given that part of the national security law criminalizes the conspiracy with foreign powers, the date is in line with Beijing’s accusations that the protesters are agitators at the behest of the Western or nostalgic powers of the British Empire. It does not help that sometimes UK and US flags are seen in protests.
Basically, the root of the discontent in Hong Kong is this: the concession agreement signed with the British – and with the Portuguese, in Macau. The two special administrative territories have their own rules, the doctrine “one country, two systems”, with different administrative, legal and economic models from the rest of the country.
On the one hand, these own rules allowed Hong Kong to become a financial center, while Macau was built as a gambling mecca in Asia. On the other hand, all this had an expiration date, until 2047
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