It took less than three years since the enactment of the National Security Law (NSL) in Hong Kong, for the totalitarian regime of Hong Kong and communist China to turn the city into something that is almost unrecognizable. The once cosmopolitan city is now completely different—the dynamic vibes are there no more. Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, visited Hong Kong in April and made a few sound bites that charmed no one. Xia borrowed the “old adage” from paramount leader Deng Xiaoping and addressed it to the already suppressed Hongkongers: horses will still run, stocks will still sizzle, dancers will still dance but demonstrations or parades are not the only way to express your rights.”
In four years, Hong Kong’s famous demonstrations and protests are there no more. You will never see a few million people on the streets with all the restrictions from the Hong Kong government.
The Labor Day demonstration application on May 1 has been cancelled. The organizer and former chairperson of the now defunct pro-democracy coalition, the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU), was reported as missing, then re-appeared. The organizer, Joe Wong, withdrew the application for a parade after he was interrogated by the police. The ultimate goal is to restrict freedom of peaceful assembly in Hong Kong under the NSL.
Under the totalitarian regime in Hong Kong, capital is fleeing and emigration continues. Hong Kong is undergoing a “blood transfusion” as people cannot see their future. The old Hong Kong core values are gradually and quickly being lost, twisted, and redefined: and that relates to free speech, free press, and freedom of demonstration in general. People who have lived in Hong Kong before and after the NSL imposition will clearly see the painful differences.
In the pre-NSL days, Hong Kong could tolerate all voices from left, right, and center. In the “old Hong Kong model,” the majority of people believed in the rule of law, and Hong Kong was a world financial center. All this has disappeared since the implementation of the Hong Kong version of the NSL. Since the new law came into effect, and with the “perfection of the electoral system” (完善選舉制度) in Hong Kong, the Legislative Council has transformed into a house full of “hand-raising machines.” No proposed bills inside the legislature need to be critically and meaningfully debated before it is passed.
Deng Xiaoping, former strong leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), once said in his speech at the United Nations in 1974: If the CCP becomes powerful and bullies the weak, “we must expose it, oppose it, and work with the Chinese people to overthrow it.” And even going further back in time, Mao Zedong said in 1946, which was three years before the CCP controlled China: “What China needs most is democracy... The Chinese people insist on the kind of rights that the British, French, Americans and other peoples have enjoyed for a long time.” Perhaps the first two generations of the CCP leaders just “sweet-talked” the world, and we were all deceived?
Fast forward to the present day, China’s rich and powerful, mostly associated with the CCP, have offshored trillions of U.S. dollars. It is hidden in accounts in the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, and through shell companies, with beneficial owners difficult to trace. The privileged and powerful always have a backup plan.
Ironically, we also know that present-day China is running out of funds and the economy is in deep trouble, but let us keep our focus on Hong Kong issues at the moment. And in Hong Kong, here comes the real issue, and this is in regard to the retirement fund of Hong Kong people. For Hongkongers who have moved to the United Kingdom through the BNO scheme, it will take up to five years before they are granted permanent residency and citizenship in the UK, and they will not be allowed to remove their MPF pensions until then. According to data compiled by Hong Kong Watch, an advocacy group focusing on Hong Kong, around 2.2 billion pounds of retirement assets cannot be withdrawn by BNO holders. The theory is that it is the punishment from the Hong Kong government for the “unpatriotic” Hongkongers, who decided to move to the UK after the social movement of 2019, and because of people leaving, financial assets and physical assets will be moved as well. The act itself is believed to be politically motivated.
From a human rights front, we all have witnessed the quick deterioration in Hong Kong. Xi Jinping has a “new definition” of one country, two systems, and the original model no longer exists. The city, in general, is like “a big prison cell.” Let me elaborate on it in greater detail. Political prisoners detained or serving time in Hong Kong’s jails must face the scorching heat in the summer and the cold snaps of winter. Hongkongers living outside the “prison systems” of HK, ironically, are deprived of their personal freedom and basic human rights. Life behind bars as a political prisoner is not easy, as one is subject to 24-hour surveillance, and for those living outside the “prison cells” in Hong Kong, losing all sorts of freedoms is the real pain.
At this moment, can you say that Hong Kong is still Hong Kong? Maybe, there are no “physical torture chambers,” but mental torture, whether in a prison cell or living outside, neither is easy. Since 2019’s Hong Kong Extradition Bill crisis and the subsequent four years of struggle, the extreme makeover in Hong Kong has been incomprehensible. It is not difficult to believe that some of the high-profile democratic leaders of Hong Kong will die inside the prison because jail time under NSL can be long.
In prisons, solitary confinement is the worst form of torture; and to overcome this mental torture, one must be mentally prepared as early as possible. Hong Kong is moving toward a police state, and those who are wrongfully detained politically will have to go through “many difficulties” to survive. Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” experiment has failed. Now, let us see if the Taiwanese people can resist the CCP’s aggression.
