WASHINGTON—When the United Kingdom handed over Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China, a treaty guaranteed the city would retain its way of life through the adoption of the policy of “one country, two systems.” An expert who monitors Hong Kong’s freedoms came to Washington to warn U.S. legislators that this policy, which was meant to preserve the rule of law and protections for human rights, is threatened with becoming meaningless.
According to Benedict Rogers, chair of trustees of the UK-based group Hong Kong Watch, the “final straw” in the degradation of Hong Kong’s special status would be the passage of Article 23 of the autonomous territory’s Basic Law.
