The rapidly rising price of freedom in Beijing-oppressed Hong Kong

When I lived as a reporter for Southeast Asia in Singapore and Hong Kong in the 1990s, other foreign correspondents and I often wondered which place was the most free in the region. Thailand had freedom, but it had its terrible and principled laws; Singapore was a safe first-world city, but it had serious defamation laws; The Philippines had a rigid democracy that emerged from years of repression, but it also had its share of violence targeting journalists. Indonesia in the Suharto-era (ending 1998) often jailed critics for long periods, and Malaysia seemed a civilized version of Singapore unless you changed what was said about its judiciary or the different ethnic groups. Could or could not be said.

This left you with Hong Kong, a British colony until June 1997, which did not have a representative electoral democracy, but where you could act as if you were in a modern democracy. British governors, local officials and leaders of Communist China may be ridiculed in your cartoons; You can say what you want in just about any country in the region and don’t worry about your words being seen. Arguably, Indian media was still as independent then, but India was not (nor is) part of the region, as Southeast Asia began on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, where South Asia ended.

In October 2019, I was in Hong Kong and walked alongside democracy protesters who marched in a disciplined manner, accompanied by loudspeakers to the beautiful tune of Hong Kong, Glory to Hong Kong. They were opposing an extradition bill introduced by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, which many feared would allow Hong Kong to send suspects to China, and whose power was used by trade unionists and human rights activists in Hong Kong. against those who monitored China from China. Area. At that time lakhs of people took to the streets. The protests were partly inspired by this statement by Bruce Lee: Be like water, formless, formless, seek your level to move on. The demonstrators avoided streets with large police presence and quickly moved elsewhere.

It seems that Hong Kong now belongs to another era.

In early 2020, when I met a prominent Hong Kong dissident at a literature festival in Norway, he could still speak of his belief in the rule of law. Eventually, China promised Britain and the international community that Hong Kong’s essential characteristics would not be changed for 50 years from the date it was handed over to Hong Kong in 1997. Half a century was a long time.

But it depends on notions of time, as Jan Morris writes in his book Hong Kong: Epilogue of an Empire, In 1898, instead of taking the new territories on a permanent lease from Imperial China, as was the previous practice, the British decided to take it on a 99-year lease. For British administrators, the lease was a new means of managing land rights, but, as Morris put it, “it was decided that the lease would last a century, until 1997—an eternity by British standards, by the Chinese.” Eyes twinkle.”

Perhaps the international community had assumed that over the next half century, Hong Kong would replace China, showing the mainland what it could achieve with economic freedom and civil liberties. Instead, China is succeeding in turning Hong Kong into a Chinese city. In June 2020, Hong Kong had a national security law inspired by Beijing. Many newspapers were shut down and dissidents were arrested, even some academics quit and some nonprofits closed up shop.

Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal has foreign judges to ensure adherence to common law standards, but last week two such judges resigned, saying they departed from the values ​​of political freedom and independence without supporting the administration. Can’t stay in court. of expression. Lam vehemently denied the allegations, but announced the next day that she would not seek another term.

Lam’s tenure has also seen regulatory redundancies, as Hong Kong has sought to expand its national security law beyond the island territory, seeking to ban international websites (such as Hong Kong Watch) that access Hong Kong’s borders. important to politics. His tenure in office has been disastrous not only for its dire political repercussions, but also for his failed handling of the COVID pandemic. While Hong Kong had previously managed to keep the pandemic under control (although its restrictions did put some migrants out of whack), the latest Covid wave has killed thousands and left the region running out of coffins. Suspected elderly citizens had refused to be vaccinated, making them vulnerable to infection. But Hong Kong seemed more content to follow the Chinese model of strict lockdowns, tighter border controls and stricter quarantine rules.

A country-two-systems model is barely recognizable today. The city that once sheltered the Chinese capital after fleeing the Communist takeover of China in 1949 and became a symbol of economic and many political freedoms is now more distinctly Chinese than at any time in its modern history. And that’s not good for his people.

Salil Tripathi is a writer based in New York. Read Salil’s previous mint columns at www.livemint.com/saliltripathi