“As HK enters a new year, challenges ahead are sobering” | Cliff Buddle

Good ol’ Cliff Buddle. Long time journo here, mate back in the day, now back in U.K., says it right. 

Two things can be true at once: Hong Kong is not just another city in China. It has its separations and freedoms not on the mainland. And it can still be worse today than it was four years ago, thanks to the National security Law, thanks to 2019 rioters demanding independence. Hong Kong government does itself, and U.S., no favours by front paging the pursuit of bail jumpers. 

Like the Japanese Consul General I’ve had people say similar things. Believing that the crushing of HK is complete. It’s not. Not yet anyway and there appears to be no desire to make it so. Only in the face of— unlikely— of a reprise of 2019.