Challenging Beijing's iron fist: Hong Kong residents stage continuing massive protests against Red China's planned clampdown on freedom.(At A Glance)

On July 1st, an estimated half-million demonstrators poured into the streets of Hong Kong's central business district for a mass protest outside the Legislative Council. The demonstrations have continued, protesting against government plans to limit freedom of expression and association. Dissatisfaction with the government of Mr. Tung Cheehwa, Hong Kong's chief executive, has been growing ever since the former British colony was handed over to Communist China in 1997. However, Mr. Tung, a puppet of the Beijing regime, stirred this wealthy island enclave of 6.6 million people to action with a proposed new "anti-subversion" bill that most residents see as a major step toward adopting the totalitarian police-state measures in place on the mainland.

Tung first unveiled the new proposal, known as Article 23, last September. Promoted at the insistence of the Peoples' Republic of China (PRC). the law would provide a legal justification for outlawing political dissent and religious worship under the guise of protecting the state against treason, sedition, subversion, or secession. Hong Kong residents are justifiably alarmed that the legislation will be interpreted to make it illegal for them to criticize government policies or to have any contact with religious and political groups outlawed on the mainland. They also are justified in seeing this as a step toward eventual implementation of Communist-style persecution, such as the PRC now employs against the Falun Gong spiritual group, the Roman Catholic Church, and most Protestant churches.

Tung, a shipping tycoon long beholden to Beijing, was chosen as chief executive by a PRC-appointed committee of 800 people. The same committee, dominated by businesses with ties to the mainland, also chooses six members of the 60-member parliament, known as the Legislative Council. An additional 30 members of the legislature are selected by Beijing-designated business and professional groups. That leaves only 24 members for the general public to elect. Besides protesting the proposed Article 23, the demonstrators, representing a broad cross-section of Hong Kong's population, have called on the government to address this democratic deficit.

Following the massive show of public opposition to Article 23. the Tung government postponed adoption of the measure. However, it has indicated that it will not move to speed reforms allowing for popular representation. Tung and the PRC are insisting that no change in the Basic Law, Hong Kong's Communist-designed constitution, take place before the 2007 election for chief executive. Since the chief executive's term of office is five years, this would guarantee a pro-Beijing leader in charge of Hong Kong through 2012 and greatly aid the Communists in consolidating control over the independent-minded people of Hong Kong.

The U.S. State Department and the Bush administration have made virtually no comments about the situation in Hong Kong, even though the demonstrations and the push to enact Article 23 have coincided with the State Department's release of its annual report on human rights around the world. State Department spokesmen condemned human rights violations by Burma, Zimbabwe, and Liberia's Charles Taylor, but carefully avoided making any similar condemnations of Communist China. To the contrary, the PRC, which systematically represses and ...