Business & Politics

China’s Tightened Grip on Hong Kong

Honk Kong Riot Police

15th July 2020

 

The Chinese government has strengthened their control on Hong Kong, and barely two weeks on, the effects are already being felt.

The new law was passed on 30th June by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (SCNPC), a central organ of lawmaking in Beijing, and came into effect immediately.

Critics are claiming that the new National Security uses a desire for peace to mask repression of civil liberties in the city. It is widely seen by western politicians, and the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, as a further attempt by Beijing to restrict the special freedoms that those in Hong Kong enjoy in comparison to the rest of communist China.

What does the new law mean? 

The new law deals with the penalties around four types of crime – secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion – and specifies a maximum jail sentence of life imprisonment for any of these.

While it may be expected for any country to have laws covering these crimes, what is notable in Hong Kong is the fact that Beijing has consistently used these terms, or close variants, to describe the protests taking place in the city since March 2019.

These protests were in opposition to another proposed law – known widely as the 2019 extradition bill – which was also seen as an attempt to erode the democratic freedoms enjoyed in Hong Kong. It was due to be passed by the Hong Kong government, but the protests succeeded in forcing its withdrawal.

Now, the national security law seems to have taken its place. It has been described as an “extreme version of the failed extradition bill,” and has provoked even more protests in the region.

The Chinese government once agreed that the democratic systems in Hong Kong should be preserved after the 1997 handover, and promised to leave the territory to govern itself, under Chinese oversight, for fifty years. Twenty-three years have passed, and frequent protests have taken place for the last sixteen months, showing that many in Hong Kong fear their autonomy is fading much quicker than promised.

The idea of the national security law is nothing new. It was part of the core agreements between Britain and China as they worked towards a transfer of sovereignty in 1997.  Similar attempts were made to pass the law by the Hong Kong government in 2003, and even by the British colonial government in the 90s – but the topic has always been a sensitive one, quick to inspire dispute and protests.

So the current crisis is the latest in a long history of unrest in the area. But critically, Beijing has spent months labelling protesters as terrorists, secessionists and guilty of acting under western influence. All these things are now punishable with sentences up to life imprisonment.

 

 

“… it has been reported that police may now take DNA samples, search properties without warrants, intercept communications and regulate internet activity, claiming the law has given them the right to do so.”

On the ground, arrests have already been made since the new law was enacted. 

Ten people were taken into custody on its very first day of operation. Since then, it has been reported that police may now take DNA samples, search properties without warrants, intercept communications and regulate internet activity, claiming the law has given them the right to do so. 

A prominent pro-democracy activist Nathan Law has fled the city, and has said that Britain will be his new home for the time being. 

More recently, Hong Kong has now banned the singing of pro-democratic ‘Glory to Hong Kong’ anthem and other forms of protest in the city’s schools. In many eyes, the restrictions on once-widely held freedoms are closing in. 

Meanwhile, the west has pledged assistance, with the UK at the forefront. 

As the country which handed sovereignty of Hong Kong back to China in 1997, it has retained strong links with the territory. And while two nations jointly declared in 1984 that Hong Kong’s way of life would be unchanged, China now considers this declaration confined to the history books, while the UK claims it is legally valid and must be upheld. 

As a result, the UK has now opened a pathway for settlement and citizenship in the UK to over 3 million Hong Kong residents. The announcement was met with fury from China, with promises to retaliate. 

The UK can only offer citizenship to those born in Hong Kong (or their children under 18) when they had sovereignty over the territory. Because of this, there’s a cohort of young adults born after 1997 who will miss out on that option. 

But in any case, it opens the door to an East Berlin-style ‘brain-drain’ if those in Hong Kong with education and sufficient wealth to make the move choose to do so. 

It remains unclear whether the Beijing government would go as far as barring Hong Kong citizens from leaving the territory; the UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab has admitted that there is little it could do in that event. 

Meanwhile, the current British government is in power arguably in part due to their promises to restrict immigration. So far, little has been made of how an invitation to millions of Hong Kong residents will align with that promise. No member of the Johnson cabinet has addressed this issue in detail yet. 

 

 

 

 

 

Featured photo Jonathan van Smit

 

 

Share This