DON GONYEA, HOST:
This week, Hong Kong marked two major political milestones - 29 years since Britain handed the territory over to China and six years since Beijing imposed its sweeping National Security Law. Officials said at the time the law would only affect a small number of people, but critics say it has transformed life in Hong Kong. Today, most of the city's political opposition has dissolved, been jailed or gone into exile. Danny Vincent reports from Hong Kong.
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DANNY VINCENT, BYLINE: At night, supporters gather outside a shuttered bookstore to mourn its closing. They wear black, the color of Hong Kong's protest movement, and stand quietly looking at the metal shutters.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (Non-English language spoken).
VINCENT: Last week, Hong Kong media reported the owners were arrested for allegedly selling seditious material. For many in Hong Kong, the bookstore arrests are the latest sign that the space for public dissent continues to shrink.
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VINCENT: In an undisclosed location, veteran activist W flips through a local newspaper.
W: No, they are not reporting anything political.
VINCENT: Until six years ago, she'd been active in Hong Kong's once-vibrant protest movement. Now she asks NPR to only use the first initial of her name for fear of government reprisal. July 1 has been a divisive day in Hong Kong's recent history. While officials celebrated the anniversary of the city's return from British to Chinese rule in 1997, activists like W would join a large political march. But since Beijing imposed a controversial national security law on June 30 in 2020, W says she began to notice something different in the lead-up to the anniversary.
On July 1, NPR saw plainclothes men following W from a gathering, across several stops on the subway and into a busy shopping district where small groups of activists gathered to quietly mark the anniversary of the handover. W says on days like this, she feels she's under surveillance. Hong Kong police told NPR that they take action in accordance with the law and made appropriate deployments due to the threat of public safety, public order and national security.
Do you know where the red lines are?
W: I don't know. Yeah, because some people are still saying things that's against the government on Facebook, but they're - nothing happened to them. But some only have less than 100 followers in Facebook, and they got jailed. No, I don't know the red line.
VINCENT: That invisible line also haunts the city streets on historically sensitive dates.
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VINCENT: On June 4, the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, mass vigils are a thing of the past. On the anniversary in central Hong Kong, police quickly surrounded a lone protester. His T-shirt reads, the sound of silence.
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VINCENT: Across town, we meet C. He is retired but also a longtime activist. Like W, he asks not to be named for fear of reprisal.
C: It's not just a law. It's like a - the weapon. They weaponized it. I think it's more like to clamp down the political opponents. They tried to erase - not only rewrite, erase the history like nothing happened before.
VINCENT: Six years after Beijing's National Security Law triggered a diplomatic tit for tat with Washington, Hong Kong's leadership isn't backing down. Powers continue to expand. This past June, Chief Executive John Lee was granted the unilateral authority to designate any criminal case a national security matter. Here he is speaking to the press on June 9.
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JOHN LEE: National security is a state responsibility. The fact the state has dedicated some of the responsibility to Hong Kong SAR is not just a trust. It's also a requirement that we do this well.
VINCENT: It's an uncompromising stance that activists like W believe has fundamentally changed daily life.
W: Yes, they have restored peace, in the sense that it's all quieted down. But the anger building up inside people is growing more and more. Some people chose to leave this place, immigrate to other countries, and some are still very angry inside and trying to do something in their own way.
VINCENT: But she admits in today's Hong Kong, the cost of doing something their own way are higher than ever. For NPR News, I'm Danny Vincent in Hong Kong. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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