Hong Kong Protests Signal Alarm That City’s Special Freedoms Are Fading

Protesters carry British flags as they block the lobby of the Hong Kong Revenue Tower in Hong Kong on June 24, 2019. Hong Kong has been rocked by major protests for the past two weeks over legislative proposals that many view as eroding the territory's judicial independence and, more broadly, as a sign of the Chinese regime's efforts to chip away at the city's freedoms. Kin Cheung/AP

HONG KONG—China promised that for 50 years after Britain gave up control of its last colony, this shimmering financial enclave would get to keep freedoms absent in the communist-ruled mainland. Twenty-two years on, those are rights many here believe Hong Kong cannot live without.

The hundreds of thousands who marched in a June 16 protest over a now-shelved extradition bill, and those still demonstrating, are signaling alarm that Hong Kong may become just another Chinese city as those protections unravel and Beijing’s influence expands in the territory.