1 year firmly under China's thumb, Hong Kong has become "more dangerous than Beijing"

Hong Kong — Wednesday marked the first anniversary of China's central government imposing a controversial new National Security Law on the once-semiautonomous region of Hong Kong. Human rights group Amnesty International took the opportunity to warn that the once free-wheeling, international city was on the fast-track to devolving into a "police state" and "a human rights wasteland increasingly resembling mainland China."

"From politics to culture, education to media, the law has infected every part of Hong Kong society and fomented a climate of fear that forces residents to think twice about what they say, what they tweet and how they live their lives," said Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Regional Director. On June 30 one year ago, China's National People's Congress in Beijing rubber-stamped the controversial law in reaction to the popular pro-democracy, anti-China protests that rocked Hong Kong through much of 2019. It lists four categories of offenses as violations of China's national security: The act of subversion, defined as attempting to undermine Hong Kong's government; advocacy for secession, the separation of Hong Kong from the governance of China and committing an act of terrorism and colluding with foreign governments or forces.