The people of Hong Kong find themselves with tape now permanently stuck to their mouths because of the recent passing of a new security law on June 30th. China claims that this new law will return stability to Hong Kong, but residents say that the new law forces them to stay quiet, and to no longer have the right of freedom of speech without worrying about facing punishment. The new security law gives mainland China jurisdiction to censor media, intervene in public affairs, extradite people who’ve escaped to Hong Kong for political sanctuary, and more. In simple terms, this means that the recent passing of China's new security law makes it easier to punish protests and reduce Hong Kong’s autonomy. This worries and scares the people of Hong Kong because they believe that with this new national security law, they have lost freedom of speech.
Although Hong Kong is under China’s rule, and China is a “socialist democracy” which is really a system controlled under the Chinese Communist Party, Hong Kong is known for being pro-democracy and making the most out of their power to speak freely. Free speech in Hong Kong has played a role in international news media and rights groups. Even under China’s rule, Hong Kong clung onto an independence that allowed them to have material on political topics that was banned in mainland China, protest freely, and demonstrate a pro-democracy territory. However, with the passing of this new security law, limits have been placed where the people of Hong Kong feel like they longer have a voice. The police have arrested more than 20 people because of this new law, with the crimes being punishable up to life imprisonment and allowance for Beijing to directly intervene if they find if wanted.
Changes in Hong Kong have been visibly significant. The owners of a particular bubble tea shop (who had once supported the protests and the idea of pro-democracy) removed all signs of the support, posters, and signs that once was used as a form of decoration. Another example was a restaurant in Hong Kong that removed all supporting signs of the protest and replaced them with Mao-era propaganda posters. Finally, all publishers had to quickly rewrite various textbooks used in academic civic courses to avoid punishment, since the textbooks openly criticized the government. Libraries have also followed suit, where all books written by democracy activists have been removed.
Even with all of these changes, the limits of the new security law is “vaguely defined”, giving the people of Hong Kong the room to make risks seeing just how much they are now allowed to say, write, or tweet. Some individuals have brought creativity into this situation, carrying blank signs or signs with coded messages to continue to protest. They have also begun to play protest songs, but without the lyrics. But the police are giving the young protests warnings, telling them to watch out. Because as soon as they express any kind of criminal opinion, they will be punished and arrested because nothing can fight the law.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/04/world/asia/hong-kong-speech.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-52765838
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