Democracy Activists Speak At US Congress Hearing

Pro-democracy activist Nathan Law on Wednesday told a US Congress hearing that Beijing was turning Hong Kong into just another Chinese city. He said, under the new national security law, his participation in the event will likely land him with years in prison, if not a life term. But the former leader of the now-disbanded Demosisto party said he would continue to speak up.

"The high degree of autonomy, once promised, is just another blatant lie," he told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "It takes decades, if not longer, to build a city but it takes just weeks to destroy it."

Law said leading democracy supporters - such as his former Demosisto colleague Joshua Wong, veteran politician and lawyer Martin Lee and publisher Jimmy Lai - were also in danger as well as the concept of Hong Kong as a city.

"What now lies ahead of us is not just the personal safety of my friend Joshua or other leading opposition figures like Martin Lee and Jimmy Lai but the survival of Hong Kong as an idea," he said.

Former lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan, who organises the annual June 4 candlelight vigil, also spoke at the hearing as did Brian Leung, the man who read a statement on behalf of protesters after the storming of Legco last year.

Lee said people will now have to learn to live in a suppressive environment, while Leung accused Beijing of trying to isolate Hong Kong from the world.

Beijing and SAR officials have said the new security law will provide stability to Hong Kong after months of chaos. They say this stability will ensure the continuation of One Country, Two Systems and that the SAR will still thrive as a business centre.