Beijing’s Crackdown on Democracy in Hong Kong

CLAUDIA MO, PRO-DEMOCRACY MEMBER, HONG KONG’S LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL: Now, Christiane, you’re right. It’s 2:00 in the morning my time, so things are a bit blurry. But then, perhaps that also sums up the feeling of Hong Kong after what happened to Jimmy Lai and the Apple Daily today, the Apple Daily being considered by many as the last bastion of Hong Kong’s free press, and they would meet all those theatrics. 200 police are barging into the building a news building as though it’s some sort of nuclear lair of some terrorists. So, they are sending in a very dire signal to not just the local press but to the foreign press based in Hong Kong that you watch out, the National Security Law is all applicable, and it’s omnipresent and you could get yourself in the same situation. You just need to learn to behave. Because we all knew about Beijing’s anxiety to control ideology in a society, and they think Hong Kong has become so disobedient, probably in part thanks to the foreign media. So, we need to sort of, you know, show a force that we need to present, and that would teach them a lesson, and that’s the main thing. And as far as Jimmy Lai is concerned, he has always been at the top of their target list. That’s an open secret in Hong Kong because he’s a celebrity, and it’s well noted, and the footage of this raid on his Apple Daily headquarters, the building today, would be going around the world.