“Changes to Hong Kong’s elections and the composition of its legislature now ensure pro-Beijing lawmakers will always have a majority, turning the once-competitive Legislative Council into a rubber-stamp parliament,” the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (ESRC) said in its annual report to Congress this week.
Meanwhile, judges in cases brought under a draconian national security law that took effect on July 1, 2020 are now chosen from a list approved by the CCP-backed national security apparatus, “effectively stripping the Hong Kong judiciary of its former independence,” the report said.
