China imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong in June 2020, punishing what authorities broadly refer to as secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.
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Government officials in Beijing and Hong Kong said the law would target only a small number of "troublemakers" who threaten national security, and that the rights and freedoms of ordinary Hong Kong people would be protected.
Police have arrested more than 100 people under the security law since it was imposed.
Critics say it is being used to crush dissent in the global financial hub, an assertion Beijing rejects.
HOW FAR DOES THE LAW GO?
The reach of the law has stunned some diplomats, lawyers, activists and legal scholars.
The legislation provides for more active state management and oversight of foreign groups, organisations and media based in Hong Kong, a former British colony that has been seen as China's freest and most international city.
The law stipulates mainland agents, who are now officially based in the city for the first time, cannot be detained or inspected by local authorities while carrying out their duties.
It also allows Hong Kong's chief executive to appoint judges for national security cases - a move lawyers' groups have said imperils the city's rule-of-law traditions.
The legislation allows mainland courts to hear Hong Kong cases in certain situations, including those allegedly involving collusion with foreign forces.
Under the law, any Hong Kong residents running for election or working for the government must swear allegiance to the city and its mini-constitution, the Basic Law.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE IMPACT?
More than 100 people have been arrested under the national security law, with high-profile democracy and independence activists among the first to be detained.
A dozen pro-democracy candidates were disqualified from running in a since-postponed election last September, with authorities citing reasons including collusion with foreign forces and opposition to the law.
WHAT DO AUTHORITIES SAY?
Hong Kong's Security Bureau said this week the security law has "stopped chaos and restored order", and that those arrested represent "a very small number of the population", which it calculated at "about 0.0016 per cent".
"We would like to emphasise that any law enforcement actions ... are based on evidence, strictly according to the law," a spokesman for the bureau said.
The actions had "nothing to do with their political stance, background or profession," he said.
WHAT COMES NEXT?
In a city that has had strong media, artistic and religious traditions that are protected to a far greater degree than those in Communist Party-ruled mainland China, many are concerned the law will increasingly crush those freedoms.
Scrutiny is also intensifying over Hong Kong's vaunted judiciary and rule of law, long seen as crucial to the city's standing as a global financial hub, as national security cases go to trial.
Australian Associated Press
