Fear dominates Hong Kong as it heads for an election By Eryk Bagshaw December 19, 2021 https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/f...it-heads-for-an-election-20211216-p59iaq.html Singapore: Three black boxes sit on the border of China and Hong Kong. No journalists are allowed in and neither is the Hong Kong public. They are polling stations with only one way in - from the Chinese mainland. For the first time, the Chinese residents who cast their votes at these booths will be voting in Hong Kong’s legislative council elections on Sunday, the first since Beijing implemented sweeping national security laws to shut down dissent in the global financial hub. A view of Hong Kong’s border, where three voting booths have been set up amid fears of historically low turnout in Sunday’s election. Credit:Reuters ......Last week Hong Kong’s Trade Office in London told The Sunday Times that it had committed an offence under Hong Kong law for predicting that a “low turnout would be an embarrassment for the authorities”. It was an offence “irrespective of whether the incitement is made in Hong Kong or abroad,” the trade office wrote to the editor of the London broadsheet, highlighting the extraterritorial nature of the laws and totally disregarding Britain’s own protections for freedom of the press. “It is totally ridiculous,” said a Hong Kong pro-democracy leader who asked only to be referred to as Mr H to protect his safety. “There is fear everywhere. In the past, we had freedom of speech, freedom of politics, now we have nothing.”.... ........“Beijing says China is a democracy. It’s a better democracy than the West and that’s why there must be elections,” said Hui. “But in this ‘democracy’, Beijing has drawn a very tight circle around it, and it’s only in these limits that you can operate.” Mr H worries that as one sham election moves to another in five years’ time, the spirit of Hong Kong’s once-vibrant democratic movement will die out. Even private conversations on politics have now moved off-limits. “It’s like the Cultural Revolution. You always worry about someone you are talking to going to the police or saying something. They have broken trust in Hong Kong,” he said. “I worry the only ones left will be saying the Chinese Communist Party is wonderful, the CCP is everything, the CCP is God. Then they will all belong to the government.”
“It is totally ridiculous,” said a Hong Kong pro-democracy leader who asked only to be referred to as Mr H to protect his safety. “There is fear everywhere. In the past, we had freedom of speech, freedom of politics, now we have nothing.”.... ........“Beijing says China is a democracy. It’s a better democracy than the West and that’s why there must be elections,” said Hui. “But in this ‘democracy’, Beijing has drawn a very tight circle around it, and it’s only in these limits that you can operate.” ok, this is classic. “said a Hong Kong pro-democracy leader who asked only to be referred to as Mr H” and “must be elections,” said Hui.”. Now I can call the police on Hui, aka Mr. H.