Hong Kong Feels China's Benevolence

Meanwhile, in the special administrative region of the People's Republic of China that is Hong Kong where they do democracy differently, authorities have announced that making 'general remarks' about Hong Kong's Covid-mitigation strategy does not violate its national security law. This magnanimous response comes after a local legislator had earlier said that those who suggested 'like the West' that people should prepare to start 'living with the virus' may have broken the national security law. Being branded an anti-national or a member of a crispy tukde-tukde Sichuan chicken gang for criticising government policy was a worry in many living rooms. But with the announcement comes relief - Beijing's foot soldiers in Hong Kong aren't that authoritarian as foreigners make them out to be, after all.

But what constitutes 'general remarks'? Is it asking questions about the 'zero-Covid policy' that many outsiders deem draconian? Or, is it, in the middle of general gupshup, critiquing certain aspects of it? What happens when someone, perhaps after too many mai tais, makes 'specific remarks'? Fortunately, Hong Kong's social media is strict enough to not be a feeding ground for anti-national utterings. Even with the reassuring word from the authorities, Hong Kong would do well to remember that the Great Wall has ears.