President Xi Jinping has increasingly imposed an authoritarian vision on China. That’s bad news for Hong Kong, China’s freewheeling capitalist enclave.
President Xi Jinping has ascended China’s political mountaintop and is imposing his will on both the Communist Party and Chinese people. His time spent in America did not turn him into a liberal: under him the People’s Republic of China has taken a sharply authoritarian direction.
What the PRC does at home no doubt concerns freedom-loving people around the world. Nevertheless, it comes as no surprise and China remains far freer today than during Mao Zedong’s rule.
X But Beijing’s domestic policies matter more when applied to nominally autonomous Chinese territories, most notably Hong Kong. The latter is not only the economically freest land on earth. It also is governed by law, not men, and protects basic liberties. But that appears to be changing, for the worse.
Seized by Great Britain from the decrepit Chinese Empire, the territory was returned in 1997. Beijing promised to preserve its unique characteristic as a Special Administrative Region.
Little changed for many years. But the 2014 Umbrella Revolution featured youth-driven demands for the impossible: democratic selection of the SAR’s political leaders. Protests ended with a political impasse.
Intrusions in Hong Kong’s autonomy have since increased. In 2015 several publishers critical of the PRC were arrested by Chinese authorities in seeming violation of international law.
Last year two independence-minded activists were blocked from taking their seats in the legislative council after highlighting their contempt for Beijing while taking their oath of office. The National People’s Congress joined the controversy and the Hong Kong authorities then challenged the election of another four political activists.
In July President Xi visited Hong Kong to mark the 20 th anniversary of China’s takeover and made clear his government would not tolerate support for independence.
