In October 2022, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China issued a 63-page special report with the above title examining “how a once vibrant civil society in Hong Kong changed dramatically” in the two years after the National Security Law negated all former protections of individual rights.
The report, based on interviews with persons who sometimes prefer to remain anonymous, sheds light on “how the crackdown has transformed Hong Kong, including measures the authorities have taken to silence dissent; challenges faced by people detained for speaking out against political persecution; the condition of civil society after the forced closure of the most influential independent media outlets and the largest civic organizations; and the implications of this repression for Hong Kong people who have left and for those who have stayed.”
A few of the voices:
“Sedition is a speech crime…. Almost anything can fall under sedition. Alan Au Ka-lun, a moderate but widely popular public intellectual, was arrested for sedition. Six people were arrested for clapping hands in court to show support for Chow Hang-tung, a leader of the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China.”
—Patrick Poon, Visiting Researcher, Meiji University, Tokyo
“After the imposition of the National Security Law, I continued to set up street booths to distribute pamphlets and connect like-minded residents. However, I was followed, my phone was hacked. A friend whose dad was a civil servant warned me that I must stop or I would be arrested. The arrests of all five members of the General Union of Hong Kong Speech Therapists that published children’s books mocking suppression sent chills down my bones. No one wanted to be the key person of any organization anymore.”
—A former student leader
“In essence, anyone who refuses to be bought or yield to the powers that be but insists on professional principles and critical thinking is seen as an enemy.”
—An activist doctor
“Hong Kong’s rule of law has been turned into a fiction. There is no fair trial for political cases. Whatever the prosecution asks, it gets. Whatever the defense asks, it gets shut down. It is heartbreaking to see judges inflict injustice in the name of justice.”
—A defense lawyer
“Staff who stay know that they can no longer produce programs or interview people as before but only follow dictates from above. They hope that they do not have to do anything evil.”
—A former staff member of Radio Television Hong Kong
“A friend said that his 5-year-old boy came home one day declaring that he loved the People’s Republic’s national flag and felt emotionally attached. When the son was asked why he felt that way, he replied that school teachers told students to report back if parents criticized the flag. Small kids are white sheets of paper; it is scary that the authorities could write anything on them.”
—A pastor on the front lines of protests
“Hong Kong has changed from an open society to one in which people are gripped by fear. And the fear is encompassing.”
—A professor in Hong Kong
