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Hello and welcome to Chinese Whispers with me, Cindy Yu.

Every episode I'll be talking to experts, journalists and long-time China watchers

about the country's politics, society and more.

There'll be a smattering of history to catch you up on the background knowledge

and some contextualization.

How do the Chinese see these issues?

So I hope you'll join me every other Monday.

A little more than a year ago, a proposed extradition law triggered Hong Kong into protest.

The city is no stranger to mass movements, but this one was unlike the others in recent years.

A year on and after pandemic, it's still going strong. That is until last week.

And of course, we begin with that breaking news in Beijing, where China's parliament has reportedly passed a controversial national security law for Hong Kong.

So significant here, full details of the legislation still haven't even been released.

But state media has said it would criminalize acts of succession, subversion and terrorism.

So is this the end of Hong Kong as we know it?

And what does China want with the city anyway?

I'm joined by Professor Kerry Brown,

director of the Lao China Institute at King's College London

and a former Foreign Office diplomat in Beijing,

as well as Jennifer Creary,

...