New Security Laws threaten Hong Kong's Civil Liberties

Credit: Matthieu Gouffies

On Tuesday the Hong Kong legislature passed a litany of security laws at the direction of the Chinese government in Beijing, undermining the decades of public resistance to steady Chinese encroachment on Hong Konger’s democracy and freedom, which has been under a special status within China ever since it was transferred to China from British Territorial possession in 1997. Which critics of the bill say is a harsh strike against the agreement that the Chinese government entered with the British and the citizens of Hong Kong. 

The legislation passed by the legislature grants authorities the power to crack down even further than they already have on the mass protests that have embroiled the city for years. Even adding the potential of life imprisonment for vaguely defined political crimes such as treason and insurrection. The bill also adds ‘protections’ against external interference in Hong Kong, which is creating risks for those businesses that have headquarters in Hong Kong and making the territory all the less international and more closed off. 

The Hong Kong government tried to pass similar national security laws in 2003, which were met by mass protests that stopped the passing of said bills. Similar attempts were made in 2014, 2018, and 2020 when the first of these security bills were actually passed under the guise of covid safety. Over this period of time the Chinese government has done its absolute best effort to squash the resistance to them, with opposition and pro-democracy forces oftentimes being exiled and imprisoned. 

The new security laws passed by pro-Beijing chief executive John Lee, are targeted at essentially stripping the protections that the Hong Kong people once had and to target the opposition and actors that work against the Chinese government and are trying to stop the inevitable encroachment of them. The protections that Hong Kong are also set to expire by 2047 according to the treaty that the Chinese and British government agreed to during the handover from British control to Chinese control; but as it stands these new security laws and the ones that are already in place give China defacto complete control over the territory and allow it to control it as tightly as they would want.