Well, the news from Hong Kong continues to be grim. Regarding those pro-democracy advocates, they received another shock yesterday: one of their most famous supporters, and one of Hong Kong's most famous individuals was arrested by the government. His office was raided by national police and he was led away in handcuffs. Mr. Lai was the owner/editor of the Apple News paper which he operated as a voice of criticism of beijing and the Communist lackies who do the bidding of the ruler for life Xi JP.
Mr. Lai was a well known successful businessman who parleyed his investments into a personal fortune which allowed him to start up a media empire that is the backbone of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong that essentially aims to hold Beijing to the signed agreement with the British government before the turnover of Hong Kong to China in 1997. The agreement was to keep Hong Kong as a separate autonomous region with special local political rules that would maintain some of the elements that were in place under the British colonial government. However, all that changed when Carrie Lam, the mayor of Hong Kong, decided that the extradition law put in place would require criminals from HK subject to extradition to the mainland for a trial at the whim of Beijing. This caused a furor among young locals who realized that this would dramatically alter the status of HK and subject all residents of HK to Beijing's laws and dictates. Since last summer, demonstrations against this rule pushed Beijing to enact a new National Security Law that would place new conditions on all citizens living in HK. Riots and demonstrations have continued ever since.
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