Even foreigners who criticize China could be jailed if they ever set foot in Hong Kong under the city’s controversial new national security laws, analyst and author Gordon Chang said Sunday on the Fox News Channel.
The laws, which came into effect on Tuesday, not only clamp down on personal freedoms for Hong Kong residents but give China the ability to imprison anyone it wants, Mr. Chang said.
“It demands the total obedience of people in Hong Kong (and) China demands the total obedience from everybody else in the world,” Mr. Chang said. “That really is the message here.”
“One country, two systems” had been a principle of China’s governance of Hong Kong since it assumed control of it in 1997. While Hong Kong would be part of China, it would enjoy a high level of economic and political autonomy.
“Now 23 years in, that’s no longer the case. It’s out the window,” Mr. Chang said.
China’s government will use the law to ramp up its crackdown on dissidents in Hong Kong. But the pro-democracy movement isn’t going away and is actually more of an insurgency against a totalitarian government, Mr. Chang said.
“We know insurgencies can disappear for a time but they can come back and they usually do,” he said.
China continues to make provocative statements, including ongoing threats to mount an invasion of democratic Taiwan, he said.
“I think it has not satisfied its blood lust,” Mr. Chang said.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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