Chinese authorities in Hong Kong have arrested the prominent pro-democracy, anti-Beijing organizer and activist, Joshua Wong, following the previous day’s arrests of at least 53 other Hong Kong protestors. This crackdown represents the harshest measures the Chinese authorities have taken against protestors in Hong Kong since Beijing passed new domestic security legislation in July, which states that anyone even suspected of subversion, separatism, or colluding with foreign powers will face trial, with a possible life sentence in prison. The law was a direct reaction to the turbulent Hong Kong protests of 2019, which produced many violent clashes between protestors and authorities.
U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, responded to the recent Chinese clampdown of pro-democracy supporters as a possible cause for more sanctions placed on China in the future. With a new Biden foreign policy in the distance, with Antony Blinken as the new Secretary of State, it will be fascinating to see just how the United States will involve itself in the affairs of Hong Kong, if at all.
The semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong has had a rough relationship with Beijing ever since Britain ceded the city back into the hands of China in 1997. Recently, China has ramped up its efforts to assume control over the city, perhaps with the ultimate intent of stripping the city of its semi-autonomous status. If so, these new measures may prove themselves but a small intimation of how the Chinese government will expend its power in its effort to squash the Hong Kong protests. Surely, without outside interference, it would spell doom for the independent movement in Hong Kong.