Beijing enacted the Hong Kong National Security Law on 30 June 2020, criminalizing four broad categories of offence — subversion of state power, secession, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces — each carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, according to the text of the law passed by China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC).

Within days of its enactment, police began making arrests under it, triggering a systematic crackdown on political opposition across the city. The offences in the law are widely worded. Amnesty International, in a July 2020 analysis, stated the law was dangerously vague and broad, and that virtually anything could be deemed a threat to national security under its provisions.

Passed without consultation

The law was passed without any participation by Hong Kong residents in the legislative process, according to the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC). Its text was also kept from the public — and reportedly from the Hong Kong government itself — until after it was enacted, according to Amnesty International.

The........

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