Only ‘true patriots’ need apply: Beijing’s tough new laws turn Hong Kong’s elections into selections
Saša Petricic
03 April 2021
They’ve seen it coming for months, perhaps years, but this week’s official crackdown on democratic rights by China surprised even battle-weary veterans of Hong Kong’s opposition movement.
Many have been thrown in jail, including seven who were convicted on Wednesday for organizing protests in 2019.
Others, such as former opposition lawmaker Nathan Law, were forced to flee. Officially a wanted man, the 27-year-old is still considered a threat by the territory’s Beijing-backed government.
“All our freedoms faded [at] a drastic speed that none of us could have expected,” Law said in a Skype interview with CBC News from London, where he now lives. He counted off the rights lost on his fingers: “freedom of speech, of association and assembly, and now elections, all gone.”
