Will Arrests Keep Hong Kong Out of the 'Abyss’?
The city’s democratic legacy — and ultimately its business —will be tested by a roundup of opposition politicians.
Staring into the future
Photographer: ISAAC LAWRENCE/AFPThe arrests of more than 50 pro-democracy politicians in Hong Kong mark Beijing’s most sweeping attempt yet to redefine the “One Country, Two Systems” arrangement that governed the former British colony’s return to China 23 years ago. They are a challenge to both the incoming U.S. administration of President-elect Joe Biden and the European Union, which concluded an ill-timed investment deal with China only last week.
The opposition figures, along with an American lawyer, were detained for organizing and participating in an informal primary election in July, which Chinese agencies and the city’s leader condemned at the time as an “unlawful manipulation” of the city’s election system and a potential violation of the national security law that took effect the same month.