Hong Kong’s ‘one country, two systems’ is over

The Chinese Communist party made an announcement yesterday which effectively ends ‘one country, two systems’ in Hong Kong, and in so doing launched a brazen assault on the international rules-based order. They have also dramatically changed the very nature and way of life of the city which was once my home.

Over the past six years, the regime in Beijing has increasingly tightened its grip on Hong Kong, eroding its freedoms initially subtly but more recently with dramatic acceleration, and tearing up the promises it made in an international treaty with Britain before the handover.

But yesterday came the final, most blatant nail in the coffin: the announcement that the National People’s Congress in Beijing will introduce national security legislation which will include draconian punishments for ‘subversion’, secession’ and ‘colluding with foreign political forces’. The latter ‘crime’ could make it illegal for Hong Kongers to brief Members of Parliament in Britain – and certainly to partner with me and the advocacy organisation I founded, Hong Kong Watch.