The protesters did not expect to be on the streets soon. Living in Hong Kong had eased just a new normal after the danger of a pandemic resemble just begun. But there they were, lined on May 24 in black, bride ready for the storm. “This is a fresh hell,” said Sukie, 25, who asked not to be used for safety only their nicknames. After nearly a year of widespread far sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in the former British colony, China had sweeping new security measures announced that any secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference in Hong Kong to prevent and to punish. Next driving city law that abstained for fear of demonstrations over, and so bypassed Beijing to impose the bill itself the legislature. In the rest of China, these types of regularly leveled stifle disagreement measures. The intent is clear, says Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. . “Control is the number one consideration” The law, which in late June could be put in place, is willing to take liberties that Hong Kong’s long-set to cut a line between East and West apart from the mainland ; freedom of speech, assembly and an independent judiciary. It also opens another front in the ongoing conflict in China with the United States after three years of disputes on trade, espionage and bruising intellectual property. In response it announced the Trump Management Hong Kong is no longer was a free city, and promised his privileged exceptions on trade, customs, to lift travel and much more. The world once had “not that Hong Kong would become a reflection of the past in China.” “The sense of optimism that Hong Kong was a glimpse into the future of China,” said Minister Donald Trump, May 29 in recent months, tensions between the US and China have deteriorated drastically. A report now fluctuated between outbursts of hostility and grudging cooperation based on long-term alienation. In late May Trump has signed a major political document-China, 40 have supported the US engagement with China failed, hoping “citizen centric order, free and open rules-based” the United States would produce . The following week, the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi fired back that it was “wishful thinking to change for the US-China” and accused Washington of trying to arouse a “new Cold War.” The pandemic is the backdrop for these tensions, while Chinese President Xi Jinping hopes nationalism at home distract from the economic rubble from the crown worked to tease turns Trump anti-China sentiment shift of attention from their own response to the outbreak. Hong Kong, around which the US president has just said, a new line attacking. “Trump hardly a champion of liberal democratic values is” Orville Schell, director of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society, tells TIME. “But he is dedicated to China as a way to blame, to escape the weight of their own irresponsibility.” On one side is the world’s leading superpower in the world, and on the other his challenger on the rise. Caught in the middle, the Hong Kong mostly young protesters have come to symbolize opposition to the Communist Party. announced plans to curb Beijing in town a week, thousands defied the rules and instructions of the police on the street to disperse social distancing taking it again. Their songs “stand with Hong Kong” and responding bitter cloud of tear gas recalled the upheaval of last year. But no one can deny the stakes have increased dramatically. “And there is no middle ground,” says Chloe, 25, a teacher. “Or we will take now built in China, and we are independent.” For over half a century, observers late Hong Kong last US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the National Security Law, on May 22, a “death blow” were for the city as pronouncing. local activists, the handover from Britain that has been grafted with funeral rites, in 1997, back when Hong Kong returned to China for a formula of “one country, two systems” designed to preserve their legal and political systems within of an authoritarian state. This provision has been forged by the reformist leader Deng Xiaoping when many believed China would eventually embrace democracy. The West has long been in Hong Kong, saw where English is spoken and embraced Western ideals as “the values of democratic catalysts” in China, as President Bill Clinton put in 1993 in Hong Kong as a gateway forever China’s economic engine has flourished, a base for international and local companies always top trading nation in the world without the courts and the controlled party bureaucracy want to access. By 2001, about a quarter of China’s imports and 40% of exports were handled from Hong Kong. Politically, Beijing promised the city a “high degree of autonomy” for 50 years after the handover, in 2047. But the city has always been restless under the rule of the Communist Party. Promised democratic reforms, including direct elections for city leaders have never been realized, while the Hong Kong government are aligned more closely with Beijing. Attempting an insert “national education” into the curriculum in 2012 booksellers was thrown into the sea, after hunger strikes and demonstrations in the salacious tome published on the party leadership in 2015, passed away on television staterun reappear emission names. It ‘came to a head in 2019 when a Beijing delivery bill perceived the hand of authority inspired massive protests that turned into several months of violent unrest. The National Security Law is just the latest “stage” in a long erosion of liberty, says Bao Pu, a Hong Kong publisher and political commentator. “At present, even if do not pass the security law, the old way of life is over, it’s been a long,” he says. The disillusionment with Beijing has reduced its own identity among Hong Kong. This is particularly troublesome for Xi, who followed “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” Demonstrators in Hong Kong have not only rejected this vision, but also a support of the US and the UK requested Few believe independence is feasible, but they see it as a way to call their anxiety for the national right to express safety . The legislation will establish the continuous operation mainland feared security agencies for the first time in Hong Kong, instead of working in secret. Prominent protesters fear arrest by the secret police and the trial and detention in Beijing. Many have begun to accounts of their social media bother to eliminate purge contributions may be onerous when the law comes into force. Some in the city are eyeing the exits. Migration decisions say they are overwhelmed by the sudden volume of requests. Taiwan has “Rescue and possibly residence” promised to escape political oppression to Hong Kong, while the British patent 2,900,000 of its former subjects offered safe haven. “We will fulfill our obligations,” the prime minister Boris Johnson wrote in a June 3. The pato Trump flow management has been developed business in China to hurt. The special status of the enclave has allowed Beijing to win foreign funds. In the first eight months of 2019, China received $62.9 billion worth of foreign direct investment in Hong Kong, accounting for 70% of total deposits. already to destabilize any threat of such vital funding stream is likely to slowdown in the Chinese economy. But removing the special status of the city could reduce its attractiveness as a global hub. Analysts say that companies can eradicate from Hong Kong to Singapore and Vietnam. Internal sources of two law firms and an international media company, Time said the emergency planning has accelerated to move, although executives have expressed in other companies hopes would restore legal stability national security to Hong Kong and investments foreigners. A survey of 180 companies by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong in early June found that almost 30% were considering handling operations, capital or assets, but the majority of correspondents said they had no personal plans to leave the city . Experts say that the actions of the administration Trump could ultimately accelerate Beijing’s ability to consolidate control over Hong Kong, but also harm the interests of US companies. According to the US consulate in Hong Kong, 1300 American companies have offices in the city. “Paradoxically, if we eliminate our special relationship with Hong Kong, making Hong Kong more integrated in the Chinese system, not less,” said Susan Shirk, a former State Department officials that the 21st century Chinese Center at the University chairs of California, San Diego. For some of the hawks figures in Washington, which seems to be a side effect. Republican Senator Marco Rubio, acting chairman of the powerful intelligence committee of the US Senate urged companies to leave the area, and finally said China’s interference will be mandatory. “Alternatives exist all over the world from Taiwan and Malaysia in Ireland and Mexico. Can provide to adapt,” he said in a statement at the time. “If the [Chinese Communist Party] vision of safety is implemented, Hong Kong can no longer serve as between China and the familiar world intermediaries.” While Beijing harder line toward Hong Kong reflects his impatience with the protest movement, it is part of a pattern of aggression in the weeks after an initial recovery of China from the crown as well. Chinese troops repeatedly disputed border with India in May exceeded and clashed with Indian troops. The Chinese navy has stepped up patrols in the South China Sea and sank a fishing boat off the coast of Vietnam in April. The United States has in art, has warships to use against China’s southern coast and increasing naval exercises in disputed waters. The two powers in a war of words over Taiwan, the island Beijing claims the self-ruled part of its territory has been affected. Chinese Defense Ministry expressed “strong dissatisfaction last” Taiwanese Tsai President Pompeo Ingwen month congratulations for their dedication, and most of the top generals days of the country explicitly threatened the island by force to absorb later. “Chinese Aggression is not just rhetoric,” Alice Wells, a US diplomat, said during a recent press conference. “We continue to see disruptive behavior and provocations China, raises the question of how China is trying to use its growing power.” Election 2020 US threatens this new environment of uncertainty and belligerence connection, as President Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden commercial attacks which was softer on China. However, the question is, shall we say of a new Cold War with its implication of a conventional collision or nuclear weapons, turgid current and former officials and others. battlefield literally today, but technology, his first 5G lines, AI and supply chain, along the trade and investment flows. The balance of power between Washington and Beijing is now more level than that between a US and a boom fading USSR, the only military power had. Another comparison might be the big game, the commerce of the 19th century rivalry between Britain and Russia, the two superpowers of the time. Inheritance of this dispute is still visible today in the war in Afghanistan and the region affected constantly disputed Kashmir. When and forces, however large Colliding, there are victims left behind. Hong Kong may even be one of them. The pro-democracy activists here trying to get their next steps to find out. Years of peaceful demonstrations have been ignored by the city government. The most violent iterations of last year has drawn the ire of Beijing. Now dissidents must move new tactics as relentlessly fight with the Chinese government, its local proxies instead. Many hope the United States and its allies have come back to help push. “I hope that Western countries will sooner or later inevitably conflict with China can see,” says Cheung, 50 years Transmission employees whose open Sunday was interrupted by the police to clear a protest. “Get up stand Hong Kong at the top … The rest of the world at some point.” -With reporting by Kimberly Dozier and John Walcott / WASHINGTON; AMY GUNIA / HONG KONG; and Charlie CAMPBELL / SHANGHAI This appears in the June 15, 2020 issue of time. Photo copyright by Anthony Wallace AFP / Getty Images
Hong Kong is in the midst of the great struggle for the US-China power captured
