National Security Law - A new struggle in Hong Kong.
Many Americans died over the past 244 years fighting for our freedom, and Memorial Day is set aside to mourn and honor those that gave their lives up so we could live free from tyranny.
But while many Americans are hiding in their homes in fear and compliantly waiting for their government leaders to tell them when they can leave house arrest and reopen or visit closed businesses on this Memorial Day, many Hong Kong citizens are bravely standing up to tyranny and fighting for the same rights we no longer seem to desire.
Freedom comes at a cost.
Before the emergence of the global pandemic crisis, the mainstream media was following the Hong Kong protests very closely as the people of Hong Kong protested (and violently) against the extradition law.
After some bloody clashes between two classes of ideology, and a much disrupted city of Hong Kong, the extradition law was scrapped and the world soon went into a lockdown where gathering of people meant a real risk to personal health.
The new law essentially makes the following criminal acts:
- secession (breaking away from the country)
- subversion (undermining the power and authority of the government)
- terrorism (using violence and intimidation against people)
- activities by foreign forces that interfere in Hong Kong
Free speech is something people enjoy (mostly) freely in the west, but it is not a given in China and the territories it controls. Should the new laws pass, this freedom of speech will be stripped and made into a criminal act. Meaning protests, and campaigns for democracy would be considered a crime.
This is obviously a negative step away from the "one country, two systems" approach that is at the heart of the people of Hong Kong.