By James Pomfret
https://www.reuters.com/journalists/james-pomfret
For 23 years Hong Kong was an anomaly.
A free and partially democratic city under Chinese rule, protected by a tradition of firm rule of law from the British colonial era, and a promise from Beijing of freedoms for its 7.5 million people that were unthinkable on the mainland.
On June 30, however, China imposed a harsh new paradigm on Hong Kong, marking an end to the liberal pledge, say government, political and diplomatic sources.
The national security legislation imposed by Beijing was a response to last year's protracted protests, that were preceded by years of smouldering discontent at what many Hong Kong people saw as China's creeping erosion of the city's freedoms.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2020-07-31/shocked-hong-kong-in-a-new-era-under-white-knuckle-china-grip