Opinion | The unrest will ebb, but Hong Kong’s slide into authoritarianism is just beginning

The chilling events of the past week – including the multiple arrests of activists and lawmakers, and the brutal police beating of train passengers – underline the erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms, and of ‘one country, two systems’

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Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam casts a shadow as she holds a news conference on September 3. The Hong Kong as we know it is gone forever. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:00am, 5 Sep 2019Updated: 2:35pm, 5 Sep 2019

Hong Kong is sliding from a free society into an authoritarian one. A combination of events last week became the tipping point. In a wave of Friday arrests, police swooped on democracy activists, including lawmakers and Joshua Wong Chi-fung. A day earlier, police grabbed independence campaigner Andy Chan Ho-tin at the airport.

Even as activists were being arrested, police denied permission for an anti-government march the next day by a group which had organised mass peaceful marches. Mainland media showed another anti-riot drill in Shenzhen a day before the arrests. Coincidence? I think not.

Beijing mouthpiece People’s Daily also timed it to tell Hong Kong judges that their rulings must satisfy all Chinese. And shocked Hongkongers saw graphic television footage of local police bludgeoning train passengers.

If all this doesn’t alarm you, it should. The free society Hongkongers treasure is slipping away. Youngsters on protest front lines are risking jail to slow what they see as a slide into authoritarianism. State media excoriated a university student leader I interviewed on TV last week just for speaking her mind. It sickened me.

I oppose violence and independence. But as protesters have said, peaceful protests got them nowhere. Some of those the police clubbed inside a train were protesters but why smash heads when they were not resisting?

Security secretary John Lee Ka-chiu said police do what they do based on intelligence. No intelligence justifies bludgeoning cowering young couples protecting each other.