25 years after Britain handed Hong Kong over to China, the city is in limbo. Beijing has been expanding its control over the vibrant, global hub. Residents still enjoy greater autonomy and civil liberties than other Chinese, but many protests are banned.
Alex Siu, a building services engineer, was born in Hong Kong and only left in 2020 — his parents had ensured he’d have the option by getting him a British National Overseas passport years earlier.
Kurt Tong, former U.S. consul general to Hong Kong and managing partner of consultancy The Asia Group, said the changes reflect growing dissatisfaction in Beijing with the freewheeling semi-autonomous region. The consternation deepened when some of the millions of Hong Kong residents who marched in peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2019 stormed the city’s legislative complex and at times violently clashed with police.
“Hong Kong was going to become part of a local government of an authoritarian country ruled by a Leninist party. How could it be a Western-style parliamentary democracy?” Burns said in an interview.months long 2019 protests“But this is a brittle stability based on the imposition of the law and the arrest of pan-democratic leaders and jailing them, chasing them out,” he said, and many in Hong Kong still support the pro-democracy movement even if they are silent for now.
“I know it’s very difficult. But I think we owe it to ourselves and to future generations to do the best we can to fight for our core values, which are human rights, democracy, rule of law and personal safety, and social justice,” she said.— better known by his nickname “Long Hair,” is serving a nearly 2-year prison sentence and awaiting a hearing on national security related charges, says she is pressing on.