In many countries around the world, children are starting a new school year. That’s the case in Hong Kong. But for students aged 12 to 18, there’s a new subject to get to grips with. A revised curriculum adds the teaching of Xi Jinping Thought to the compulsory citizenship, economics and society classes introduced in 2022. Students will be encouraged to develop patriotism and affection for China.

Xi Jinping Thought is the body of Chinese Communist Party doctrine developed by China’s current hardline leader Xi, in power on the mainland since 2012 and now in his third term. It’s been taught in Chinese schools since 2021. Its introduction in Hong Kong, once a territory with considerable autonomy, is the latest step in a campaign to erase its special status and integrate it fully into China.

When the UK handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997, the Chinese state pledged to maintain its separate political system for the next 50 years. This promise included guarantees to uphold civic freedoms, including rights to association, expression and peaceful assembly, as enshrined in Hong Kong’s Basic Law. But it’s clear China has unilaterally reneged on its promises.

A revised curriculum for younger students will also come into effect next year, with new lessons on national security and a pro-China reading of history. China evidently hopes it can brainwash future generations to crush once and for all the rebellious spirit that once characterised Hong Kong. Until that happens, it will combine its indoctrination efforts with the approach it’s taken since democracy protests mobilised in 2019: criminalising anyone who dares demand human rights.

A repressive new law

In response to the democracy protests, in 2020 the authorities introduced a draconian National Security Law, which they have used to prosecute activists, many of them young, along with other dissidents and journalists. Over 10,000 people have been arrested in connection with the protests. The authorities have also levelled colonial-era sedition charges against many. Numerous activists were forced to make an impossible choice: stay in Hong Kong and be jailed or flee into exile. But even outside Hong Kong, they’ve been subjected to transnational repression: in July 2023, the Hong Kong authorities offered a reward for the arrest of eight exiled activists and told them they’d be pursued for life. Last December, they added another five names to the list. Police have also targeted the families of exiled activists for questioning.

But the authorities evidently wanted even more repressive machinery. In March, Hong Kong passed another security law, the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, also known as Article 23. This added five new categories of crimes to the existing security law, including insurrection, sabotage and treason. It increased sentences, expanded police powers and removed due process rights such as access to lawyers and the ability to seek a sentence review. The law applies to Hongkongers and their organisations anywhere in the world. It was passed unanimously and with no amendments by the puppet Legislative Council.

It didn’t take long for the authorities to flex their new muscles. The anniversary of the Chinese state’s massacre of protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989 is always a sensitive moment for the Communist Party, which tries to suppress any mention of the infamous event. Unlike in mainland China, people in Hong Kong used to be able to gather to mark the anniversary. But that’s all gone now, and memorial events can only safely be held abroad. Last year the authorities detained 32 people merely for holding candles and flowers in commemoration. This year, ahead of the day, they arrested eight people on sedition charges under the new law. Six had simply published social media messages referring to a ‘sensitive day’. Four more were reportedly arrested on the day itself, 4 June, including an artist who drew a sign in the air.

In June, the authorities used the new law to revoke the passports of six activists living in the UK, making it an offence for any Hongkonger to give them financial assistance. Recently the government also blocked two exiled activists from accessing their pension savings.

At least 90 civil society organisations and 22 media groups have closed down since the 2020 National Security Law came into effect. The new law has claimed fresh victims. Radio Free Asia pulled out after the law was passed. In March, one of Hong Kong’s few remaining independent bookshops, Mount Zero, closed its doors. Political parties have gone the same way. In May, the pro-democracy Civic Party disbanded.

Hong Kong was once a rare beacon of media freedom in the region. Shortly after the handover, the territory stood at 18^th out of 180 countries on Reporters With Borders’ Press Freedom Index. Now it’s 135^th.

Ongoing criminalisation

Meanwhile the trials continue. In August, two former editors of a now-closed media outlet, Stand News, were found guilty of sedition. This set a dangerous new precedent: it was the first time since handover that journalists were convicted of sedition, potentially opening the floodgates to many more guilty verdicts.

In May, the courts found 14 people guilty of subversion. They were part of a group of 47, mostly former politicians, who’ve been in detention since 2021, most of whom had already pleaded guilty. Their crime was to take part in unofficial Legislative Council primary elections in 2000. Back in the days when there was still some freedom about who could stand for election, they planned to win a majority and oust the chief executive, Hong Kong’s highest official; because this would disrupt the government’s functions, it was deemed a threat to national security.

August saw the latest chapter in the criminalisation campaign against business leader and democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai, whose now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper once offered a vital channel for dissent. Hong Kong’s highest court dismissed an appeal by Lai and six others to overturn their convictions for taking part in a protest in 2019. Lai has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020, despite United Nations human rights experts calling for his release. He’s also been convicted for taking part in a Tiananmen Square Massacre vigil, and is currently on trial on national security charges for his role in a crowdfunding campaign to support democracy activists. Evidence from one of the key witnesses in the trial, former democracy campaigner, Andy Li, was allegedly obtained through torture.

The growing use of the courts to criminalise those who express dissent – and increasingly the lawyers who try to defend them – poses a particular challenge to the foreign judges, mostly from the UK, who’ve long played a role in Hong Kong’s judicial system. Several have recently quit. In June, British judge Lord Sumption was one of two to resign, saying that ‘Hong Kong is slowly becoming a totalitarian state’. A few remain, including three from the UK. It’s a lucrative business: foreign judges are paid around US$52,700 per visit. But they should ask themselves whether there’s still a role for them to play in limiting the authorities’ worst excesses, or they’re merely complicit in legitimising an ever-growing machinery of repression.

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