South Asia and Beyond

Hong Kong Today, Taiwan Tomorrow: Hong Kong Activist Joshua Wong On Beijing’s Aggressiveness

NEW DELHI: Rattled by huge protests that erupted in Hong Kong last year over a proposed immigration law that ultimately led to it being junked, China has now introduced a draft national security law for Hong Kong that would bypass the city’s legislature and severely curb personal freedoms and, in effect, mean the end of democracy and the “one country, two systems” under which China has governed Hong Kong since 1997. From ‘one country, two systems’, Beijing plans to make it ‘one country, one system’, says Hong Kong’s prominent pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong. Speaking to StratNews Global Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale, Wong said, if the law is imposed, Hong Kong won’t be the place with free flow of capital or free flow of information. “From a global financial centre, it will turn into a city under the hardline direct rule of Beijing.” It’s an uphill task but we won’t cow down to Beijing, says Wong who was also at the forefront of the protests against the immigration bill. The whole world should stand by Hong Kong as it’s a matter of right versus wrong, he says, adding, what Beijing is doing today in Hong Kong may be replicated in Taiwan tomorrow.

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