THE PANDEMIC KILLED DISSENT IN HONG KONG.

• Author: Wolfe, Liz
• Position: WORLD

WHEN GREAT BRITAIN returned control of Hong Kong to China in 1997, a condition of the transfer was that Beijing would allow the territory to maintain its own government until 2047. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has never liked this agreement, and the COVID-19 pandemic provided the excuse to all but erase the "one country, two systems" distinction.

The CCP began its authoritarian assimilation of Hong Kong in 2019, when Beijing encouraged CCP loyalists in Hong Kong's legislature to pass a law allowing extradition of residents to mainland China. That proposal sparked pro-democracy protests and a police crackdown in Hong Kong, which captured the world's attention.

In June 2020, Beijing responded to the pro-democracy movement by requiring Hong Kong to implement a national security law that "introduc[ed] ambiguously defined crimes such as separatism and J collusion that can be used to stifle protest," as The New York Times put it. But the pandemic provided Beijing with an even bigger opportunity to suppress dissent.

Citing public health concerns, Hong Kong postponed its Legislative Council (LegCo) elections for a year. In the interim, Beijing changed LegCo election rules to reduce the number of directly elected seats and to require that candidates pledge their loyalty to mainland China.

With only Beijing-aligned "patriots" on the ballot, CCP loyalists swept the 2021 LegCo elections. Many leading...