3. Authoritarian Crackdown Without Bloodshed: China’s Securitization in Post-NSL Hong Kong

The “One Country, Two Systems” formula in Hong Kong since 1997 used to be an experiment for the People’s Republic of China (China) to promote reunification with Taiwan. However, the degree of self-government, political freedoms, and the rule of law in this semi-autonomous city has drastically deteriorated since China imposed the national security law (NSL) in 2020. This chapter explains how the national security law and its enforcement eco-system become the primary tool of the authoritarian crackdown by both Chinese and Hong Kong authorities. This chapter argues that the NSL has been applied by the executive government to exercise greater interference in the court, to eliminate the significant mobilizing forces from the political opposition, and to further incentivize self-censorship in different sectors, particularly in academia and the education system in Hong Kong, by an enhanced censorship regime. Without provoking or exerting political violence, the NSL and its eco-system have effectively encroached independent institutions, eradicated most of the political opposition, and dismantled the free and open society of Hong Kong since 2020. Should China’s repression of Hong Kong escalate, geopolitical tensions between China and the West would continue, and Taiwanese people would continue to take China’s aggression in Hong Kong as a model of the future of their island’s reunification with China.