Hong Kong was transferred to Britain, then transferred back to China. Upon this re-transfer, the "One Country, Two Systems" government was set up with the Basic Law constitution. However, China began to take away some freedoms, which led to protests and increased tensions that continued from the early two-thousands era to today.
One must understand the Chinese Communist Party's ideology in order to understand their current actions towards Hong Kong. They use an adapted form of Marxist-Leninism, which underwent various changes to "fit the age"; for example, Deng Xiaoping morphed the Party ideology to embrace free markets and trade, and more recently, Xi Jinping added his fourteen-point document for even further modification. Though somewhat new, this ideology is still characteristic of Chinese communism in that it encourages the state to gain control over domestic and international affairs (including Hong Kong, of course).
In the early years after the handover, Hong Kongers were quite happy with the way things turned out. The deal included the "One Country, Two Systems" principle, which would allow Hong Kong to have their own governing system alongside China's. And as promised, China did not interfere with Hong Kong's internal politics in the beginning. However, tensions began to rise when China started to reduce the autonomy of Hong Kong, such as reducing certain civil rights and freedoms.
This chapter focuses on the modern protests and movements that have come out of Hong Kong, starting from the 2010 protests for the Moral and National Educational Policy, and ending with the ongoing (albeit reduced in intensity) protests over the extradition bill.
In May 2020, the CCP made a concerning move: without consulting anyone from Hong Kong, they simply passed a national security law that criminalized protest and cracked down on activists. Many people felt defeated by this, and some journalists called the end of Hong Kong's autonomy. However, while the activism has been drastically quieted, all hope is not yet lost.
China is expanding their power in various ways. This can be seen as a “canary in the coalmine” warning sign to countries that have territorial disputes with China. It also shows the lack of action that EU/US had to support HK’s democracy, and now China is basically unchecked in becoming even more powerful. We may look back on this in the future and think that it was our last chance to prevent China from becoming unstoppably powerful.