“We are the meat on the chopping board,” said Martin Lee, founder of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party. “They have set a precedent for Beijing to legislate on Hong Kong’s behalf.” Or as Dennis Kwok, former member of the Legislative Council, put it rather more succinctly: “This is the end of Hong Kong.”
It’s a premature death. The "joint declaration" of 1997 by which Britain handed over its wealthy colony on China’s south coast to the communist regime in Beijing promised that Hong Kong could keep free speech, the rule of law and a high degree of autonomy for 50 years. Twenty-three years later, it’s over.