Eight months after imposing a national security law on Hong Kong, Beijing is moving to tighten its grip over the supposedly autonomous region, with China’s National People’s Congress expected to review legislation next week that would ensure that anyone elected to any office — from district councilors who deal with garbage disposal to the Chief Executive — would in China’s eyes be a patriot who supports the communist party.
Within Hong Kong, the crackdown continued with the arrest on Sunday of 47 former lawmakers and activists charged with conspiracy to commit subversion, which carries a possible life sentence.
Meanwhile, the western world continues to support Hong Kong, with Canada announcing on Feb. 5 — days after a British initiative to accept up to 5 million Hong Kongers came into effect — that Hong Kong residents could apply for work permits that could lead to permanent residency. China’s emphasis on loyalty to the party marks a departure from what the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, who decided to take Hong Kong back from Britain in 1997, had pledged to the people of the then British colony in the 1980s.