National Security Law shows freedom is fleeting

Hong Kong, formerly powered by freedom // photo by Aleksandar Pasaric

Back in July 1st, the Chinese Communist Party passed the National Security Law for Hong Kong, pretty much ending autonomy and freedom in what used to be one of, if not, the freest populated region on the planet.

A political tool called Zhang Xiaoming in Beijing called the law a "Birthday gift to (Hong Kong)."

Oh, well thank you! Nobody has ever punched me in the face and thrown me into a cage for my birthday, before. How gracious for the CCP to give that to an entire city as a "gift"!

Xiaoming continued to say that it "will show its precious value in the future." Yeah, it sure will. For Carrie Lam, Xi Jinping, and the rest of the bullies in Beijing. Meanwhile, the people in Hong Kong  are fucked both now and in the future.

The people in Hong Kong unsurprisingly rushed to buy VPNs to secure their networks. Hopefully they also join the Tor network en masse.

So what is the National Security Law all about, anyway?

It broadly criminalizes secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion. As far as I can tell, just speaking about secession or subversion to the state in a not unkind way may land someone in jail. As we've seen, the CCP has used their state media arm to label protesters as terrorists. Collusion could just mean anyone asking a foreign country to help them against the oppression of their governments, which protesters have been doing for the better part of the past year.

It should be pretty clear just from this that the CCP intends to quell all dissent and have written the law with the intent of targeting the protesters.

Well, what's the penalty? How bad could it possibly be?

The minimum sentence is 3 years and the maximum sentence is life in prison. Yeah, for criticizing the government. Beijing also reserves the power to hold closed court sessions and even kidnap (let's just call it for what it is) people into the mainland for their kangaroo court show trials. Let's also not pretend that the CCP has any kind of aversion to torture, either.

Speaking of kangaroo courts, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong may also unilaterally pick judges and magistrates to deal with this law. I'm sure nothing bad could ever come of allowing someone to install automatic rubber stamp machines in secret courts.

The Law will also establish a National Security Office in Hong Kong, which honestly, just seems like a formality. I'm not sure if anyone actually believes there weren't agents already in Hong Kong, probably infesting the Hong Kong police a long time ago. CCP agents are also given wide latitude to conduct searches without warrants, seize assets, and conduct secret surveillance on people.

Bizarrely, it appears that even non-residents could be charged under the law while outside of the country. Yeah, sadly, I don't think I'll ever be stepping foot in Hong Kong again. Australia has issued a warning for its citizens from traveling to Hong Kong and China in general and urged its citizens currently in China to return. Within just one day of the National Security Law being passed, 370 protesters in Hong Kong became new political prisoners, a small fraction of the oppressed in China, but a huge percentage in Hong Kong.

The response from the Hong Kong people have been pretty amazing. In a move of sheer brilliance, a silent protest gathered at a shopping mall, holding up blank placards, a powerful protest against the censorious nature of the law without technically breaking the law. Noted activist Joshua Wong left and disbanded Demosisto since any ties to the organization would immediately run afoul of the law, but declared that he would stay in Hong Kong and continue to fight for freedom. The guy has balls of steel.

In talking with my wife about this, I recalled that CATO sent me a physical copy of the Human Freedom Index. I retrieved it and opened it up. It was the 2015 edition and right at the top of the table was Hong Kong in first place. It had a personal freedom score of 9.09, an economic freedom score of 8.98, and a composite score of 9.04. I was curious of their current score. Hong Kong's 2019 score is 8.70 personal, 8.91 economic, 8.81 composite. Down to third place, behind New Zealand and Switzerland. I'm uncertain if this ranking included extradition law in 2019. For comparison, China is ranked 126 with a composite score of 6.17.

I wonder how far Hong Kong will drop in 2020 and 2021. I wonder if they'll even continue to be listed separately.