During last year’s celebrations in Beijing to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) boasted that Beijing had gained full administrative control over Hong Kong and said this would “guarantee the territory’s long-term stability and prosperity.”
Predictably, at the postponed “patriots only” legislative election in December last year, pro-Beijing flunkies wiped the board, taking every available seat. Xi had chalked up a major win: “anti-China elements” would no longer cause chaos in Hong Kong and “obstruct the territory’s transition to stability and prosperity.”
However, the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in