I'm John Batcha with my colleague and friend Mary Kistel, Executive Vice President

Stephen's Incorporated, former Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State State and with the editorial board of the

Wall Street Journal many years in Hong Kong when that city was free, when its

understanding of liberty was sacrosanct and when it was protesting the threats from the

mainland well the threats have turned into brutality. New York Times

reporting Hong Kong passed national security legislation giving officials in the Chinese territory

more power to curb dissent 21 years after mass protests forced the government to backtrack

on a plan to introduce such laws. The legislation targets political offenses like treason and insurrection with penalties as harsh as life imprisonment and expands the scope of what can be considered criminal behavior.

That's enough to know.

This is said to be number 23, law 23.

However, what I see Mary is that Hong Kong is now a cage and to live there means that you're being watched,

you're being listened to, you have no authority to protect you in the event of malpractice by the regime.

Are people still living in Hong Kong under these conditions and practicing their lives or must they leave Mary?

Well, many hundreds of thousands have already left John if they had the capability to leave.

Article 23 is a tragedy for the Hong Kong people. It represents the final

blow to whatever freedoms were left in the territory. It makes Hong Kong more of a security state than

even mainland China. It refers to a provision that was negotiated in the basic

law, which was the mini constitution that Hong Kong enjoyed freedoms under.

And it puts everyone at risk.

Hong Kongers and foreigners there, because it gives China the quote unquote right to haul people

over the border into their lawless justice system where they you know torture people and

do whatever else they need to do to extract confessions.

...