Photo/Illutration Women walk past a government-sponsored advertisement promoting the new national security law as a meeting on national security legislation takes place in Hong Kong on June 29. (REUTERS)

While covering the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong six years ago, I came across a humorous sight--a row of life-sized panels of Chinese President Xi Jinping, each showing him holding a yellow umbrella.

This was the doing of some young anti-Beijing demonstrators, whose playfulness impressed me. And the Hong Kong police also chose to overlook this tongue-in-cheek display.

Talking with these young people in their roadside tents, one recurring complaint I kept hearing from them was about the failure of people of their parents' generation to voice political dissent.

The older generation naively accepted the government's assurances that "the one country, two systems principle would preserve Hong Kong's autonomy," and focused solely on their economic well-being, according to the young protesters.

They, however, asserted Hong Kong's economy only deteriorated, and that now there was "no future" for Hong Kong.

Being neither a state nor a city, Hong Kong is a strange place. The people are denied their right to a fair and equitable vote, and yet the government allows them the freedom to express political dissent.

The Umbrella Movement was devoid of any chain of command to speak of, and teenagers of both sexes boldly denounced the Chinese Communist Party from atop their roadside soap boxes.

Agnes Chow, a 23-year-old leader of the movement, took to social media to keep discussing the controversial Hong Kong National Security Law.

"The situation is about to turn dangerous for my colleagues and me," she posted in Japanese. And addressing the Japanese public directly, she pleaded: "I want you to realize how fortunate you are to have your freedom. I truly want you to understand that."

The national security law was enacted on June 30. Under this legislation, the Chinese government is setting up in Hong Kong a "national security commission," a Beijing-operated surveillance organ.

It is understood that anyone charged with "acts of secession or subversion of state power" under the new law will be punished ruthlessly. This blatant display of authoritarianism sends a chill down my spine.

Imagining the terror and sense of defeat now being felt by Hong Kong's young people who have sought to protect the public's freedom to dissent, I am made to feel acutely that the tolerance and open-mindedness once shown by Hong Kong for the demonstrators, who made fun of the Chinese president with those life-sized panels, was nothing but an ephemeral phantom.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 1

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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