China’s new national security law in Hong Kong is already cooling freedom of expression

On Tuesday at 11 p.m. local time, the Hong Kong government released the text of a new draconian national security law that gives the Chinese government new powers to crack down on freedom of expression and dissent in Hong Kong. .

Drafted in secret by senior Chinese officials in Beijing, and not seen by the public up to that point, the law criminalizes “secession, subversion, organization and perpetration of terrorist activities, and collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to put national security danger. . ”

Those who commit such acts, which according to experts are loosely defined in the law and, therefore, allow an extremely wide interpretation by the authorities, face severe penalties, which can include even prison life.

“The things you talk about, write about, post, and even people you know, with whom you have a connection, may be at risk of being prosecuted under this law,” said Ho-Fung Hung, a politician. Professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University that focuses on China and East Asia, he told Vox.

And, according to the New York Times, “the law opens the way for defendants in major cases to be tried in the courts of mainland China, where convictions are generally secured and penalties are often severe.”

The law went into effect immediately. Less than 24 hours later, the Hong Kong police announced the first arrest under the new policy.

And they weren’t subtle about it: they immediately posted photos on their official Twitter account of the young man they had arrested. Your alleged offense? Holding a pro-Hong Kong independence flag.

Chinese state media quickly reported the story of the first arrest, but made sure to blur offensive images of the independence flag itself, so as not to commit the same serious act of promoting such a seditious idea (something the Hong Kong Police Force apparently I did not plan to do before tweeting the photos).

For many Hong Kong watchers, these images ushered in the end of freedoms that Hong Kong, unlike the rest of mainland China, had enjoyed for decades.

The law effectively ends “one country, one system”

The “one country, two systems” principle, enshrined in Basic Law, Hong Kong’s de facto constitution, has been in place since Britain returned control of the territory to China in 1997.

As Jen Kirby of Vox explains, “the part of ‘one country’ means [Hong Hong] it is officially part of China, while the ‘two systems’ part gives it a degree of autonomy, including rights such as press freedom that are absent in mainland China. China is supposed to comply with this agreement until 2047, but it has been eroding those freedoms and trying to bring Hong Kong under its control more strictly for years. “Kirby continues:

Last spring, the Hong Kong legislature attempted to pass an extradition bill that critics feared would allow the Chinese government to arbitrarily detain Hong Kong residents. That sparked massive protests, leading to months of riots that sometimes turned violent. The bill was withdrawn, but the protests continued, as the fight transformed. in a bigger battle to protect Hong Kong’s democratic institutions.

But Beijing’s imposition of this new national security law is the most direct and dramatic move China has made to erase those freedoms once and for all.

“[The National Security Law] it is a complete destruction of the rule of law in Hong Kong and threatens all aspects of freedom that the people of Hong Kong enjoyed under international human rights standards or the Basic Law, “said Lee Cheuk Yan, a veteran politician and activist at Hong Kong lawmakers during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the new law on Wednesday.

Anthony Wallace / AFP via Getty Images

And Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Energy Project at the study center of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, He told Vox: “This law really eliminates ‘one country, two systems.'”

But Hong Kong’s pro-democracy activists are not intimidated, or at least not yet.

Anthony Kwan / Getty Images

On Wednesday, Hong Kong’s executive director Carrie Lam held a press conference to announce the new law, a law drafted without her input and the full details of which even she did not know until the day before.

Outside, thousands of Hong Kong residents took to the streets to protest, and in direct defiance, despite the heavy police presence.

STR / AFP via Getty Images

Anthony Kwan / Getty Images

Riot police deployed around the city raised large purple banners that read: “This is a police warning. She is displaying flags or banners / chanting slogans / or behaving with an intention such as secession or subversion, which may constitute crimes under the ‘HKSAR National Security Law’. He can be arrested and prosecuted. “

At the end of the day, nearly 400 people had been arrested, including 10 who were specifically arrested for violating the new law.

Anthony Kwan / Getty Images

Dale de la Rey / AFP via Getty Images

But experts fear that despite this initial strong opposition, the chilling effect of the law will eventually occur.

“People will be intimidated. They will charge people and sentence them, “Glaser said. “The Chinese have this saying: ‘kill the chicken to scare the monkey.’ They will look for very early cases that they can prosecute so that they can demonstrate their resolve in hopes of intimidating other people into challenging their authority. “

Hung, of Johns Hopkins, also said that the law could have important implications for the September legislative elections in Hong Kong, because the Chinese government could use the new law as a legal basis to suppress pro-democracy candidates.

“Under the new law, many of the slogans, many of the opinions will be illegal,” Hung said.

There is already a precedent for Chinese electoral officials involved in Hong Kong’s legislative elections: in 2016, several candidates were disqualified for allegedly supporting Hong Kong’s independence, Hung said.

“I think the Chinese were nervous after the last round of the district election that there could be many Democrats who would be elected and potentially the pro-China legislature would lose lawmakers,” Glaser said.

“I think that if the candidates do not moderate what they say, they will be prevented from running under the law,” Glaser added. “They could easily be arrested.”

In fact, that has already happened: a pro-democracy legislator, Andrew Wan of the Democratic Party, was arrested during the protests on Wednesday.

It is a clear example of how quickly life in Hong Kong has changed, literally overnight.