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China Enacts Security Law, Asserting Control Over Hong Kong
Beijing's top legislative body has unanimously passed a sweeping national security law for Hong Kong, a controversial move that could effectively criminalize most dissent in the city and risks widening the rift between China and western countries who have criticized the law.
The news was first reported by local Hong Kong media: cable televsion station NOWNews; the city's public broadcaster; and a slew of newspapers, including Wei Wen Po and Ta Kung Pao, two pro-Beijing outlets which often signal official Chinese policy.
Hours later, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported President Xi Jinping had already signed the measure into law. Xinhua said it will be incorporated into Hong Kong's Basic Law, the city's mini-constitution, and become effective Wednesday, the anniversary of Hong Kong's 1997 handover from British to Chinese Rule.
Hong Kong security law: Anger as China's Xi signs legislation
One key pro-democracy group said it was now ceasing all operations. Demosisto announced the move on Facebook after Joshua Wong, one of Hong Kong's most prominent activists, said he was leaving the group, which he had spearheaded.
[...] Demosisto said several members had asked to be delisted and it had decided to "dissolve and stop all meetings". It said that the fight against "totalitarian oppression" would have to continue in a "more flexible manner". Joshua Wong said the law marked "the end of Hong Kong that the world knew before".
Also at NYT, Reuters, and Hong Kong Free Press.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @05:18PM (4 children)
At what point does China's expansionism go too far and get us into a hot World War III?
Allies so far are looking to be UK, US, India, and most likely any British Commonwealth nation such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc. Also South Korea and Japan.
Axis would be China, North Korea. Russia's a wildcard. They historically don't like China; but they might form a pact. They already don't like the US. Europe is tricky. They might be able to stay neutral. Africa is still weak, and might be a battlefield over resources with sides TBD. South American countries might be in a similar position, or be able to remain neutral.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday July 01 2020, @06:47PM
When they stop being key to the supply chains of most major Western corporations, and when they stop being key to the value of the US dollar. China's main defense has nothing to do with the military, and everything to do with how they could seriously screw up the US and EU economies any time they want to.
As for your wartime alliances, I don't see them shaking out the way you do, at least for the near future, for the simple reason that the US has for the last few years aligned itself diplomatically more with Russia and China and North Korea than with the EU and UK / Commonwealth.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @06:52PM
Europe neutral? There are 800 million people in Europe, grouped in dozens of different countries.
About 400 million of those people have idiotic notions about nation states and can barely wait to prove how their particular country is better than any other.
I would really like you to be right, but I doubt anyone can predict what Europe will do.
China going to war is somewhat problematic though, I'm not sure their population is as easy to control as it seems.
People certainly didn't fear making a hero out of the whistle-blowing doctor once he became well-enough known.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday July 01 2020, @09:08PM (1 child)
>Allies so far are looking to be UK, US, India, and most likely any British Commonwealth nation such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc. Also South Korea and Japan.
The UK is a paper tiger; they really have little military power left, and little ability to project power. This was shown blatantly during the Falkland Islands war; that incident would have been a cakewalk for the US Navy but the UK had serious difficulty countering an invasion from a country as backwards as Argentina.
India is actually more militarily powerful and capable than people give them credit for. They're already pissed at China about a border dispute, but they actually have real combat experience from their troubles with Pakistan. China has a big military, but hasn't done any actual fighting for a long time.
AUS/NZ have small but capable Navies, especially AUS. Canada doesn't really have much. Japan, however, has one of the largest blue-water navies in the world, which a lot of people don't realize, and probably could easily take on China in a Naval shooting match. SK also has invested a lot into military power because of their rivalry with NK. But in a shooting war, NK is likely to jump in on China's side, which would keep them busy. NK has an immense amount of artillery pointed at Seoul, which is the only real reason anyone even pays attention to NK and doesn't just squash them.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday July 02 2020, @01:14PM
The US is the only other country you've mentioned that has demonstrated that capability to project military power thousands of miles (googling around, it appears that the Falkland Islands were crudely 1000 miles from Argentina and 8,000 miles from London). The UK also has more military experience than that same group of countries. So it's definitely not a paper tiger, but rather one of the most experienced and capable militaries you've so far mentioned.