Thanks to the Editorial Board for continuing to illuminate Hong Kong’s dark plight in the Feb. 13 editorial “In a Hong Kong courtroom, freedom itself is on trial.”
In reality, “lex rex” (the law is king), which was the norm under British rule, is now dead, a victim of the 2020 national security law, which effectively made “Lee lex” (Mr. Lee is the law) the new normal. Mr. Lee and his fellow communist snollygosters have stacked the deck against the pro-democracy activists now on trial: arresting them on bogus charges, jailing several without bail for nearly two years, holding some in solitary confinement and ordering a nonjury trial by three handpicked judges.
The regime’s intimidating, arbitrary mistreatment of these and other political prisoners is abundant proof that the rule of law is no longer sacrosanct, the judiciary no longer exercises independent power, and fundamental rights and freedoms no longer prevail in Hong Kong. Like the rest of China, Hong Kong is now under authoritarian rule.
Charles D. Eden, Atlanta