Jimmy Lai and the end of Hong Kong – The fate of the former British colony is a warning to any nation that cuts a deal with China.

Hong Kong has changed irrevocably in less than 5 years.

It is no longer the open, press-friendly and freewheeling city
where journalists enjoyed broad freedoms, where sources
would meet and talk without inhibition in ‘on-the-record’
conversations, and where newspapers and magazines offered
a range of opinions from across the political spectrum.

In place of that once open city, Beijing and its handpicked
leaders in Hong Kong are constructing a city of fear, where
open discussion is stifled, where individual journalists and
press groups are cowed into censoring themselves and toeing
the line, and where a draconian National Security Law can be
wielded against anyone who publicly challenges the official
narrative. In other words, they are turning Hong Kong into
just another mainland Chinese city.

The Big Mistake that the West has made since the end of the Cold War was dealing with countries like China and Russia under the delusion that those countries would hold themselves mostly to their own words with regard to their international interactions. The West incorrectly assumed that these countries would *want* to be good-faith participants in the international community because the West believed that the economic and social benefits of doing so would be undeniable.

The reality is they don’t *want* to be good-faith partners in the global community. They want to be number 1, all others pay tribute.