Europe is not the only geopolitical challenge to freedom facing the world. “Hong Kong is no longer a functioning civil society,” according to the US State Department. Xi Jinping, the autocratic leader in China, is imposing the communist giant’s will on the freedom-loving people of Hong Kong in an attempt to stamp out its last vestiges of democracy. As the city prepares to “celebrate” its 25th anniversary of the handover to China, the event is marked by the grave erosion of its democratic institutions and human rights, which have intensified over the last year.
On Thursday, the US State Department released its 2022 Hong Kong Policy Report documenting conditions in the city. It begins by stating that “… PRC authorities took actions that eliminated the ability of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition to play a meaningful role in the city’s governance and effectively criminalized peaceful political expression critical of the central and local governments.” China has imposed sweeping changes to the electoral system in 2021 that block political groups not approved by Beijing, their ability to participate in elections. Extensive arrests, a profoundly impaired independent media, and the curtailing of freedom of speech have far-reaching implications for the population and the international business and financial communities. In response, some international firms closed operations in Hong Kong in 2021 and relocated entirely, while others have moved key staff or operations to areas outside of communist Chinese control. As the best and brightest flee, the State Department reports says, the once-flourishing Hong Kong is now less competitive and suffering economically with the loss of freedom needed to retain its position as a global financial center.
“The differences between Hong Kong and cities in mainland China are shrinking due to ongoing repression from the PRC,” according to US Secretary of State Tony Blinken. “Hong Kong is no longer a fully functioning civil society, under rule of law, and with the individual liberties” that form the bedrock on which vibrant societies grow. This would make front page news were Russia not at war with Ukraine. According to Freedom House, 60 countries last year suffered a decline in their freedom, with 30% of the world now living in societies that are “not free.”
The US Government announced that the central government of China took new actions “directly threatening US interests in Hong Kong” and that are inconsistent with the Basic Law and the PRC’s obligation pursuant to the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984. Yet few US media organizations covered the story. Over the last year PRC and Hong Kong authorities targeted groups, associations, media companies, and labor unions affiliated with the region’s pro-democracy movement with raids, arrests, prosecutions, and asset freezes, “creating a chilling effect” and “forcing them and other organizations to cease operations,” including two of Hong Kong’s largest independent media outlets, Apple Daily and Stand News, according to the State Department.
Hong Kong authorities continued to use the Law of the PRC on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (NSL) to undermine rights and freedoms. Police and prosecutors employed the NSL to detain individuals for lengthy periods without trial for nonviolent political expression or activities, including 47 activists and politicians charged with “subversion” for involvement in an unofficial primary election in July 2020.
In the last 12 months Beijing overhauled Hong Kong’s electoral system to ensure it could fully control the outcome of any future election. Today, all candidates for public office must be pro-Beijing “patriots” and the new rules require them to undergo an extended nomination and vetting process, without possibility of appeal.
Hong Kong authorities use the NSL to conduct politically motivated arrests and prosecutions against individuals and groups affiliated with the pro-democracy movement. The State Department report cites at least 51 cases where authorities arrested individuals in connection with alleged violations of the NSL, including secession, subversion, terrorist activities, and collusion with a foreign country or external elements to endanger national security, which includes “provoking hatred” against the PRC or Hong Kong governments.
There is no longer an independent judiciary in Hong Kong. The Sino-British Joint Declaration, as well as Hong Kong’s Basic Law, provide for one, but PRC and Hong Kong authorities repeatedly took actions that eroded the judiciary’s independence and ability to uphold the rule of law, particularly in cases that Hong Kong authorities designated as involving national security. The NSL now gives the PRC National People’s Congress Standing Committee, not the Hong Kong courts, the power to interpret the NSL. NPCSC decisions have the force of law in Hong Kong and are not subject to judicial review by Hong Kong courts. The people of Hong Kong are no longer free. Global forces of repression from Moscow Beijing are descending on the world to create a new Iron Curtain.
Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Department and has particular expertise in Chinese matters.