FRANCE 24 brings you a special report on the new Hong Kong, with the freedom-loving former British colony undergoing a severe political, social and economic takeover by the authorities in Beijing. In what was until recently the last island of freedom in China, the Chinese Communist Party is imposing its rules and its model of society.
Ten years after the so-called “Umbrella movement” that saw tens of thousands of Hong Kongers take to the streets demanding more democracy, and just five years after record protests during the summer of 2019, Hong Kong – the rebel city – has been crushed.
In June 2020, the National Security Law imposed by China gave Beijing the upper hand. Freedoms have been stripped away and opposition silenced in the former British colony, which had enjoyed a high degree of autonomy since the UK handed it back to China in 1997. Now, a shifting red line has been drawn and the slightest misstep can land people in prison. With the 2020 law, denounced as oppressive by Western capitals and human rights NGOs, Beijing’s control is now almost total. Political opponents are jailed or forced into exile, while media outlets are either closed down of forced to follow the Chinese editorial line. School programmes have been reviewed to train a new generation of “patriots”.
From Hong Kong to London, where opponents of the regime have found exile, our reporters Antoine Védeilhé and Germain Baslé have been meeting those who still dare to speak out. Their accounts are rare, as prison sentences hang over anyone who has the courage to openly criticise the new Hong Kong.
In this 39-minute report, we also hear from regime loyalists. For the first time, someone close to the government speaks out about the system of denunciation set up in Hong Kong to track down the last remaining opponents.
Watch more‘My father stayed to defend his people’: Son of jailed Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai
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