Joshua Wong 黃之鋒  😷Verified account

4/ Back in 2003, the Hong Kong government’s forceful attempt to pass a similar piece of legislation in the local legislature was met with uproar from civil society and was aborted. The undemocratic nature of the government proved to be its Achilles’ heel.

5/ 15 years later, the legitimacy of the local & central Gov faced yet another major challenge amid the 2019 protest. But now, Beijing has taken advantage of Covid19 & initiated a series of assaults against HK’s autonomy while the global community has its hands tied by the virus.

6/ It first attempted to institutionalize the “supervisory power” of China’s Liaison Office in HK. The NPC is now further attacking “1country2system” by circumventing HK’s Legislature: It legislates by way of inserting the evil law directly to Annex III of the Basic Law.

7/ Protests, electoral institutions & international advocacy helped sustain 2019 movement. By introducing national security law, Beijing wields massive discretionary power to punish protesters, and to cut off HK from the international society and its crucial support on the other.

8/ Beijing has stepped up its propaganda efforts by framing protests, peaceful or otherwise, as terrorism. Under national security law, protesters might be subject draconian legal punishments. Worse still, It explicitly takes aim at foreign interventions “meddling in HK affairs.”

9/ Not only can activists or legislators who have participated in international advocacy efforts be barred from running in elections or even imprisoned, international NGOs and other organizations, including their personnel and assets, can also be subject to legal persecution.

10/ Ultimately, without a proper democratic legislative procedure, vague legal terms such as “secession” and “subversion” easily devolve into repressive tools that intrude on our fundamental freedoms and rights, including freedom of speech, assembly and religion.

11/ It's not implausible that criticism against Beijing or HKGov or even support for protests will soon be construed as a subversive act, punishable by law. Chilling effect will eventually snowball: starts with self-censorship & spills over its borders into the rest of the world.