The End of Freedom of HONG KONG? A tough new security law threatens the territory's tradition of free speech and political protest.

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: INTERNATIONAL

The day after China imposed a harsh new security law on Hong Kong, Joshua Wong, the 23-year-old who is the city's best-known democracy activist, disbanded the youth political group he co-founded in 2016. Wong said he was afraid for his safety.

"From now on, #Hongkong enters a new era of reign of terror," Wong tweeted.

It was just one of the many ways that the new law, which was passed in June, reverberated across Hong Kong. Books written by prominent activists were removed from the city's public library system. Pro-democracy posters that had covered the walls of many businesses vanished, taken down by owners suddenly fearful of being thrown in jail. And within days of the law's passage, 10 people were arrested and charged under the new law, including a 15-year-old girl who was waving a Hong Kong independence flag in public.

The sweeping new national security law gives China's central government in Beijing broad powers to crack down on a variety of vaguely defined political crimes. Its intent, experts say, is to silence pro-democracy protesters who have flooded the streets of Hong Kong for much of the past year.

"The law is devastating in that it appears to have no bounds," says Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch. "Hong Kong activists, accustomed to operating in [a] mostly rights-respecting environment, now face a frightening void."

Hong Kong is a complicated place. Although it's part of China, it has been treated differently because of its unique history. For more than 150 years, Hong Kong was a British colony. Under Britain, it became a major international trading port and evolved into a Westernized society with a tradition of free speech and a vibrant press. The rest of China has been a one-party Communist state since 1949.

'One Country, Two Systems'

In 1997, Britain gave Hong Kong back to China. But as part of the handover, China agreed to a compromise known as "one country, two systems." Under this arrangement, Hong Kong would operate under different rules from the rest of China for 50 years: The city's capitalist financial system would remain in place, and freedom of speech, assembly, and religion, as well as a free press would be guaranteed.

There are no such protections in mainland China. Though economic reforms have led to three decades of explosive growth and made China's economy the second largest in the world after the U.S., the Chinese government denies basic freedoms to its 1.4 billion people. Political...