Show trials and fake elections are destroying Hong Kong

The prosecution of Mr. Lai, 76, is a signal moment. A self-made garment industry tycoon, he used his fortune to establish the popular pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, making him one of the most prominent independent voices in Hong Kong. He has already served more than three years, and now he is charged with “colluding with foreign forces” and sedition, facing up to life in prison if convicted. The national security law was imposed on Hong Kong in 2020 after mass protests the year before and has been used to silence dissent in the former British colony. According to lawyers, the Hong Kong authorities intend to use the prosecution of Mr. Lai to portray the city’s 2019 pro-democracy protests as a U.S.-directed plot aimed at destabilizing China, instead of the grass-roots-organized demonstrations they were. The Post’s Shibani Mahtani reports that a key witness against Mr. Lai is a young activist who was mistreated in prison; the Hong Kong courts now resemble the system used in mainland China, where testimony is routinely coerced to secure convictions. Hong Kong police have started airing confessions from jailed protesters on television, mirroring the long-established practice of forced public confessions in China.

Hong Kong authorities have multiplied their use of police-state tactics, announcing on Dec. 14 that they are offering bounties of $128,000 each for the arrest of five democracy activists on charges of “incitement to secession,” “incitement to subversion” and “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security.” Once again, the truth is being turned on its head — advocates for liberty are being accused of treachery. The five, all now abroad, are Simon Cheng, Frances Hui, Joey Siu, Johnny Fok and Tony Choi. In July, eight others were similarly charged. The bounties are another brazen example of China’s use of transnational repression, extending the long arm of its dictatorship into free societies.

Yet another sign of the downward slide came in elections on Dec. 10. These were elections in name only, with the outcome preordained. The number of directly elected District Council seats was slashed to 88, less than one-fifth of the total; most of the remaining seats will be appointed. Under a strict new vetting process, interested candidates first had to secure endorsements from at least nine members of government-run committees, a near-impossible hurdle. And even those securing the endorsements then needed to be vetted further by national security officials to ensure their patriotism. Not a single opposition party candidate could run that obstacle course and enter the race.

This exercise was largely met with voter apathy. The Hong Kong government to tried to drum up interest, plastering the city with advertisements encouraging people to vote. But it was to no avail. The turnout was a dismal 27.5 percent, the lowest for any election since the British handoff. The costly, meaningless vote created a simulacrum of giving people a say in their future while actually maintaining strict top-down control.

People are voting in Hong Kong — with their feet. The city has experienced a wave of outward migration since the national security law was imposed, leaving some schools without enough students, a shortage of teachers and civil servants, and local officials complaining about a brain drain.

One who left for good is opposition activist Agnes Chow Ting, co-founder of the now-disbanded Demosisto party. She was imprisoned for her role in the 2019 protests, detained for “colluding with foreign forces” for calling for sanctions against Hong Kong, then released on bail without being charged. This month, she revealed on social media that she has been living in Canada, from where she said she was never returning.

The repression is damaging what little remains of Hong Kong’s reputation as a global financial center. This month, Moody’s Investor Service downgraded the economic outlook for Hong Kong to negative, citing the “reduced autonomy of Hong Kong’s political and judiciary institutions” and said to expect more erosion of the city’s autonomy. Hong Kong officials denounced the downgrade as a “smear.”

China is remaking Hong Kong into another wasteland of liberty, where the exponents of free speech and assembly are called criminals and the authoritarians go free. Beijing should not be surprised as the city’s decline accelerates.