John Lee (Ka-chiu), Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, has entered his fourth year in office. He spends much of his time promoting foreign investment — “to develop the economy well so everybody benefits from it,” he recently declared. However, his more important, though less publicized, role is as head factotum for Chinese President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping, governing the Special Administrative Region as if it were any other subject city in the People’s Republic of China. Indeed, with Beijing’s imposition of the draconian National Security Law in 2020, the chief executive position turned into the equivalent of a Gauleiter, or regional czar, in Nazi Germany. Today, Hong Kongers are not allowed to speak, at least politically, unless spoken to. Unfortunately, none of this is a surprise. Lee was the chief enforcer under the previous chief executive, Carrie Lam. He has enthusiastically worked to turn the territory’s “one country, two systems” promise into a “one country, one system” reality. Today, residents of Hong Kong, once one of the freest jurisdictions on earth, enjoy as few civil and political liberties as those possessed by residents of the mainland. That is primarily the result of the NSL, imposed by the Xi Jinping regime on June 30, 2020. The measure criminalized “secession, subversion, terrorist activities, and collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security, and stipulates the corresponding penalties, which in the most serious cases, could result in life imprisonment,” covering even minimal criticism of the SAR’s transformation into an outdoor prison camp. (RELATED: Tiananmen Square Anniversary Reminds Us of Freedom Lost) Since 2019, thousands have been arrested for having protested the Hong Kong government and its Chinese overseers. About 400 have been charged with supposedly threatening “national security,” with 150 so far tried, suffering an almost universal conviction rate. The very concept of national security “has proved almost infinitely elastic.” Explained Georgetown University’s Asian Law Center: The Hong Kong government, under Beijing’s direction, reacted with an uncompromising crackdown, first by arresting more than 10,000 people involved in the protests and ultimately prosecuting nearly 3,000 of them, then by imposing the National Security Law (NSL). The NSL’s terms go well beyond any ordinary definition of ‘national security,’ and seem almost designed to allow the government to target peaceful political speech, including criticism of government policies and actions. Since then, Beijing has used a mix of legal and extra-legal measures to attack virtually all elements of Hong Kong’s once free-wheeling and robust open society. No sector has been spared: opposition political parties, journalists, lawyers, grassroots activists, protesters, academics, and others have all been targeted. The space for public discourse has narrowed dramatically, and self-censorship, always a problem in Hong Kong even in the best of times, has now become rampant. According to Amnesty International, the NSL “is being used to target civil society groups, journalists, political activists and academics for actions that are fully protected under international human rights law.” Virtually any criticism of the PRC, such as commemorating the Tiananmen Square atrocity, is prohibited and can result in prosecution. Detailed Amnesty, people “have been targeted and harshly punished for the clothes they wear as well as the things they say and write, or for minor acts of protest, intensifying the climate of fear that already pervaded Hong Kong.” Trials and convictions continue, often of alleged offenses committed years ago. Last December, 78-year-old Jimmy Lai, former publisher of the Apple Daily and long-time defender of democracy and liberal freedoms, was convicted and sentenced to what amounts to life in prison. In February, Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal in the conviction of 47 people for organizing a primary in advance of the then-legal regularly scheduled elections. Since they opposed the government, Lee & Co. declared their past conduct to be illegal. Now, more retrospective prosecutions are certain with Lee claiming the right to retroactively classify previous actions taken before passage of the National Security Law as criminal violations. According to the South China Morning Post: Hong Kong’s new legislation enables certain criminal cases to be retroactively brought under national security procedures even if the alleged offences occurred before the 2020 national security law was enacted. The subsidiary legislation, which introduces a classification mechanism for “other offences endangering national security” under the city’s domestic national security law, was gazetted and came into effect on [June 9]. Under the new law, any case certified by the chief executive will be classified as a national security offence, even if the act or the prosecution occurred before the national security law came into force in 2020. This classification also extends to alternative charges faced by defendants. These cases will be subject to all procedures applicable to national security offences, including longer detention periods, stricter bail conditions, trials by designated judges, and the denial of the standard one-third sentence remission for good conduct. The regulation essentially legislates lawlessness. Warned Amnesty: “This could in theory turn any criminal case into a national security case, meaning it would be bound by the specific legal procedures under the national security regime, including the presumption against bail and being tried only by judges selected by the Chief Executive.” The Center for Asian Law’s Eric Lai observed “that the chief executive could also step into other criminal cases, such as commercial fraud and money laundering, under the pretext of safeguarding national security. These offenses are often being weaponized to suppress dissidents in authoritarian states.” The threat of retroactive law-making and criminal prosecution effectively ends any pretense that the SAR is governed by the rule of law. Unfortunately, the courts will provide no barrier to executive abuse. The Bar Human Rights Committee of England & Wales published a major study that found The imposition of the Hong Kong National Security Law on Hong Kong by Beijing in 2020 (the NSL) has fundamentally changed the constitutional landscape in Hong Kong. … The revocation of the right to judicial review, coupled with the apparent shift in judicial decision-making to political appointees from the National Security Committee or the National People’s Congress, significantly undermines the core principles of rule of law. The legislation’s absence of clear guidance or safeguards to constrain these unchecked powers poses serious threats to both judicial independence and the rule of law in Hong Kong. Lee and his CCP masters are attempting to remake Hong Kong with a mailed fist. Indoctrination has replaced education: “The city’s new school curriculum, for instance, denies Hong Kong was once a British colony. The curriculum redefines patriotism as unconditional allegiance to the Chinese state, with teachers facing repercussions if they present alternative views. The teachings of ‘Xi Jinping Thought’ are part of the new curriculum, while English classes in primary schools now focus on patriotism and national security.” Media freedom has disappeared: “In 2021, the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily was raided under the law, after which it ceased publication. … Stand News, another independent outlet, was shut down following similar raids. Its senior editors are now serving prison sentences.” Even self-publishing books on the earlier protest movement earned Hong Kongers convictions and prison sentences for sedition. Nor are only activists at risk. So are friends, supporters, and even family members. For instance, maintaining a fund to help those overseas resulted in prosecution. Even worse, in February, “Kwok Yin-sang, the father of exiled pro-democracy activist Anna Kwok, was convicted in early February, found guilty of handling financial assets belonging to his daughter.” Finally, leaving Hong Kong does not end the threat of persecution. The Lee regime has sought to make repression global. For instance, it placed bounties on nearly a score of dissidents who have fled. Observed Sarah Brooks of Amnesty International: “These bounties not only threaten the liberty and safety of the activists targeted; they also have far-reaching consequences on other activists who are now left feeling increasingly uncertain about their security, whether in Hong Kong or overseas. The bounties only compound the already existing climate of fear.” Chinese agents have also spied on Hong Kong democracy activists overseas. As a colony, Hong Kong was undemocratic, but it protected civil and political liberties, and before Taiwan’s transformation, represented the freest majority Chinese land on earth. For decades, it offered sanctuary to those fleeing the People’s Republic of China, especially during the mass starvation of the “Great Leap Forward” and madness of the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.” The United Kingdom returned the territory to China in 1997, and in the early years, Beijing respected its promise to preserve “two systems” in one country. However, that began to change a decade ago, and in 2020, Xi greatly tightened his control with the NSL. Lee enthusiastically fulfills his role as oppressor-in-chief with great efficiency and ruthlessness. In a recent interview, conducted with deference, even obsequiousness, by the South China Morning Post, he denounced Western critics and their “very serious disinformation campaign.” He complained: “It is despicable that they attempt to prevent the cause of justice by threatening sanctions.” Alas, his vision of “justice” is suppressing not just opposition but dissent, crushing the slightest resistance with brutal cruelty. Hong Kong once offered a beacon of hope to the rest of the PRC. Today, it demonstrates what PRC rule entails. We should remember and support those who continue to seek, at great personal cost, a China that treats its people as governed rather than ruled. READ MORE from Doug Bandow: The Forgotten Christians of Egypt Tiananmen Square Anniversary Reminds Us of Freedom Lost When Democracies Turn on Faith Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan. He is the author of Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire. Image licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.