Lies, ideology and repression: China seals Hong Kong’s failed-state fate | Simon Tisdall

The former British territory was a flawed success. Xi Jinping has ended that with the punitive and hastily passed article 23

So farewell, Hong Kong. The vibrant, pulsating city-state that grew, under British rule, into one of the world's great financial, business, cultural and tourism hubs has finally been brought to heel. Browbeaten, abused, silenced. Trust Xi Jinping, China's dementor president, to suck out all the joy. Last Wednesday was the UN's International Day of Happiness. But it was a sad, bad day for Hong Kong.

That was the moment residents woke up to the news that Hong Kong's puppet legislature, acting on Beijing's orders, had unanimously abolished its right to think, speak and act freely. Eating noodles is a seditious act now, if the noodles have secret foreign connections. Under new security laws, known as article 23, life imprisonment awaits those who defy the behemoth to thenorth.