By the time this article is out, Christmas is just around the corner. If you live in communist Hong Kong, you feel like you are suffocating. These days, I still wake up with a heavy heart. I had a meaningful hedge fund career, and being a columnist in the finance and political sphere of Hong Kong, I was also active in upholding press freedom in the city. I left Hong Kong involuntarily in the middle of 2021 because of political uncertainty. In a year and a half, the extreme makeover of my beloved Hong Kong has been more than surreal. The once-famed international city has turned from a semi-autonomous region into an absolute police state. In reality, the Hong Kong Liaison Office, directed by Beijing, calls the shots.
That said, many people might slow down during Christmas time and look for a time for reflection. Others will look inward and forward, thinking about what the future holds. Is that hope for Hong Kong’s future?
At this present moment, I think of political prisoner Jimmy Lai, media tycoon and founder of Next Media and Apple Daily. Lai, 75, has won numerous humanitarian and press awards for defending press freedom; his unwavering support of human rights has had a long history. He has already been sentenced for unauthorized assembly and fraud charges for 14 months and received a hefty five years and nine months, respectively. But the killer case is yet to come: the NSL alleged violation, with the trial date postponed till September of 2023. It is a trial without jury, and most people would believe the outcome is predetermined. According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), China and Hong Kong combined have the highest number of jailed journalists, totaling 110, across the world to a record high of 533 in 2022. And one last point on Lai, he might stay in prison for the rest of his life for the alleged NSL charge of “colluding with a foreign power.”
With the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily being forced to shut down in June of last year, the mainstream media in Hong Kong are very much pro-Beijing. In the airwaves, we all witnessed the Hong Kong Government spend money to bombard Hongkongers with the “love mainland China” doctrine. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has now gained full control of the Hong Kong media, and the city has lost its heartbeat. If you think Deng Xiaoping’s One Country Two Systems model still exists, you are living in La-La Land. Not only have Hongkongers lost their freedom of speech and assembly, but the right to protest is also technically gone.
The story doesn’t end here. The once pro-Beijing businessmen are also feeling the heat of suppression in Hong Kong now. Acting like a patriot or loyalist to communist China doesn’t buy you immunity or safety in Hong Kong. We have all seen the in-fighting of party members inside communist China. Political purges are common, and there is no shortage of stories of good people being wrongly persecuted for various reasons.
Back to the Hong Kong home front. There are speculations that the super-rich tycoons in Hong Kong, especially those who are influential politically, are “advised” not to leave the city during some important occasions, the period when the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party meeting that takes place in October was one example. This is to show “unity,” so to speak, when the Chinese economy has been tumbling. The tycoons in Hong Kong almost all have foreign passports, and they also realize now that a pro-government and pro-Beijing stance does not equate to political and financial security. Asset freezes and confiscation of passports are becoming worrisome. The old-aged tycoons still remember why they fled Shanghai to Hong Kong in the 1950s when the communist took over China’s sovereignty in 1949.
I once heard this saying: “Hong Kong is not just a city. It is happening.” Colonial history gave Hong Kong a unique opportunity to thrive. The handover in 1997, which was supposed to last 50 years with a non-intervention policy, was only sustained for 23 years. I foresee international businesses relocating their Asian business headquarters from Hong Kong to other Asian cities, like Singapore, Taipei, or Tokyo, where there is more political certainty and the business environment is more stable. To make matters worse, the CCP has strengthened its efforts and intensified its crackdown on Hong Kong until it becomes just another Chinese city. This is changing the DNA of Hong Kong rapidly.
Including the alleged NSL violators, close to 2,000 detainees are inside the Hong Kong prison system in relation to the democracy movement of 2019. That is a huge number on all counts. The NSL is also a political tool to criminalize Hongkongers, using its vague and broad definition of secession, sedition, and collusion with foreign powers, giving itself absolute power and a so-called legal basis to punish the outspoken. Inciting seditious activities is broad and vague, and to make Hongkongers and the next generation wipe out any thoughts of resistance, “re-education” now starts at an early age-kindergarten.
In conclusion, in two and a half short years, Hong Kong has also turned itself into the most heavily policed and surveilled city, comparable to Xinjiang and Tibet. We all remember the death of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo in July 2017 while under the CCP’s custody. And one last point, the communist Hong Kong government and Beijing refused to let human rights activist and media tycoon Jimmy Lai out of custody—all being politically driven. Lai might die in jail. If this is the case, the CCP and communist Hong Kong will martyr Jimmy Lai.
