One Country, One System

Apple Daily, Hong Kong’s last pro-democracy newspaper, shut down last week, after the Chinese government imprisoned its founder, arrested five executives, and seized its financial assets. June 30 marks one year since Beijing imposed a National Security Law on Hong Kong; authorities have used the law to charge Apple Daily’s leaders, as well as many pro-democracy activists rounded up since the law took effect. Nearly a dozen activists were sentenced to prison in late May for massive demonstrations in 2019 against Beijing’s increasingly harsh rule over the former British colony. As China continues to stifle dissent and extend its control, has Beijing now fully assimilated Hong Kong?

To Minxin Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and the author of three books on Chinese politics, Hong Kong is now just another Chinese city. China had promised a principle of One Country, Two Systems for its rule over Hong Kong, but the National Security Law ended that façade. The crackdown, Pei says, is the conclusion of the increasingly hardline approach taken by Beijing since 2014, when President Xi Jinping took office and Hong Kong protesters demanded greater freedom as part of the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement. But, Pei warns, Xi’s tactics and concentration of power might set the regime up for crisis later, after he leaves office.

Michael Bluhm: The closure of Apple Daily looks like more evidence of China clamping down on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. What’s going on?

Minxin Pei: What’s going on is both tragic and very disturbing. The Chinese government is implementing its plan to fully absorb Hong Kong. It is now imposing all the restrictions associated with the National Security Law.