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Opinion | Mass arrests and intimidation of the judiciary signal a gloomy 2021 for Hong Kong’s freedoms
- Free speech and media freedom now involve second-guessing to avoid the national security law’s red lines, and freedom of assembly is virtually non-existent
- Meanwhile, our chief executive has defended state media attacks on the judiciary and blamed Hongkongers for disrupting social harmony by exercising their rights
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It was a depressing end to the year. Nothing tells me 2021 will be any better. I know many share my gloom. Instead of hope, there is only despair.
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I am not talking about the coronavirus. Time and vaccines will take care of that. The cause of my despair is seeing the city I was born in morphing into something alien to me.
Neither time nor vaccines can reverse Beijing’s tightening grip. It seems like almost every day something happens that slices off a part of Hong Kong which makes it distinct from the mainland.
Just yesterday I woke up to the news that police had arrested more than 50 former opposition lawmakers and activists for alleged violations of the national security law. The mass arrests dampened the glimmer of hope I had a day before when retiring Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li made it clear an independent judiciary was crucial for our rule of law and freedoms.
His farewell remarks came after scathing attacks by state media against a judge who granted bail for media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying. It was heartening to see Ma rebuff calls by loyalists for judicial reform if the intent was to produce rulings they wanted.
Our status as a global financial centre could not be possible without free speech, freedom of assembly, a freewheeling media and, most importantly, an independent judiciary. To me, the national security law erodes these values.
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