When the exiled Hong Kong activist Nathan Law woke up in locked-down London on Wednesday morning (11 November) he was met with yet more disturbing news from his former home: four pro-democracy MPs had been banned from the territory’s parliament after new rules imposed by China deemed their behaviour “unpatriotic”. By the following day, the rest of the legislators in the opposition camp felt they had no choice but to resign en masse. “The erosion of Hong Kong’s freedom has reached a new height,” said Law of the crackdown.
The news quickly sparked condemnation in the West, with the US, UK and Europe all threatening to introduce further sanctions on China. But in some ways, Law told me, he is “not very shocked” by Hong Kong’s continuing slide away from semi-autonomy. The principle of “one country, two systems”, which China promised to uphold when the territory was transferred from British control in 1997, has seemed increasingly void for months.
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