My dear, how are you?

I do not address you at the beginning of this letter for fear of implicating your work and business. Nowadays, one should be warier of uttering every single word and chatting with friends. Loads of my friends are already faceless on Facebook. As they have deleted their pictures, I can’t make out who is who now. The punctilious ones have even renamed themselves with strange spellings you can’t even read out in the hope of fleeing Big Brother’s minions, seizing the freedom remained to pour out all they wish to say.

2020 was an unforgiving year. I wish you and your family could pull through the coronavirus pandemic and stay healthy. You asked me: “What’s happened to Hong Kong?” I haven’t since answered you in detail, maybe because I have had no idea where to start, or been busy – busy grieving, busy fuming and busy grasping what has happened to this city, whose pace of degeneration is way beyond what we can understand.

When the epidemic dies away, perhaps you will come to Hong Kong again. At that time, you will still be able to catch a glimpse of the resplendent night scenes of Victoria Harbor, but you will have to see absolutely clearly that this international metropolis will have been hollowed out and the promise to this lustrous city will never be carried out. By then, please listen carefully to the noisy taboos, and feel the relentless wrath of the people.

What’s happened to Hong Kong? I’d like to tell you what’s happened over the past ten days.

Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow and Jimmy Lai, the names you are familiar with, have been thrown in jail one after another.

Civilians engaged in crowdfunding in support of social movement have been accused by the police of fraud or money laundering.

The number of people from Hong Kong living in exile has been trending upwards rapidly. While a former LegCo member has become a fugitive, the police have exercised a collateral penalty to freeze his parents’ and wife’s bank accounts without clearly explaining the ground, if any. Even private property rights are not protected in an international financial center. In the past few days, queues of people have been seen at branches of foreign banks, as the people have been rushing at opening offshore accounts to transfer their assets

Liberal Studies, a subject to train students for distinguishing between truth and falsehood and caring for the society, has been scratched and will be replaced by a new curriculum instilling noble thoughts and feelings of patriotism in students and teaching them to get to know the motherland’s pipe dream of advancement.

The following sayings are not questionable anymore: Hong Kong is the crush point of the free world and the totalitarian world, the ground zero of the cold war between the East and the West, the new West Berlin; Today’s Tibet and Xinjiang are tomorrow’s Hong Kong.

Since the passage of the National Security Law, there have also been changes in Hong Kong over the past few months as follows:

Now, anyone shouting a slogan of protest will be slandered as succession of state; anyone holding up few pieces of blank paper will be accused of jeopardizing national security. The bigwigs will openly say: laws are weapons.

A fair election is already history. State organs convict people of being guilty of words. If you are deemed not loyal enough to or supportive enough of the Basic Law, you will be accused of breaching your oath. Members of the opposition camp have been disqualified. The LegCo has become a place where only one voice reigns supreme. Oaths have become inhibitions to thoughts.

Judiciary independence has become an empty talk for judges trying national security cases are appointed by the Chief Executive in secret.

Thousands of people attending a concert and an MTR compartment crowded with passengers are allowed while demonstrations are stringently controlled. Two or three people standing together will be charged with breaching prohibition on gathering.

Having unmasked themselves to lay bare their true red color, all Hong Kong officials just look the same as Chinese diplomatic wolf warriors you are familiar with.

This is a homicide case made widely known in advance. Have a look at history, you’ll know what totalitarians will habitually do. This tempest would have come sooner or later. The power not checked and balanced is bound to corrupt and will devour itself one day.

I’m not asking for help with this letter for nowadays in Hong Kong even telling foreigners what has happened to Hong Kong will likely be deemed colluding with foreign forces, and suspects will be sentenced before trial and denied bail. I can’t expect you are able to do anything for us on the other side of the world. Hong Kong has turned into a “canary in the coal mine” from a “goose laying golden eggs”. The historical duty of Hong Kong is to know and die first in order to alert the entire world to the potential danger before the noxious gas arrives.

Thank you for your invitation and showing me great hospitality that you promise you will provide me with accommodation one day when I am forced to leave Hong Kong. I’ve once imagined I have good friends all over the world so that I have a home in Taiwan, Australia, Switzerland, Brazil, California and New York. Isn’t that wonderful? Anyway, your kindness is appreciated. People who have chosen to leave are already plentiful. Nevertheless, some need to stay and defend Hong Kong to the death.

I wish your hard work would pay off and you would see a silver lining at the end of the darkness in the new year.

(Allan Au Ka-lun, veteran journalist)

Click here for Chinese version

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