“True Masters”: Total Security and Colonial Continuities in Hong Kong Under the NSL

Beijing’s imposition of the National Security Law last summer marked a dark new point of departure for Hong Kong—the muzzling of what had been one of Asia’s most boisterous and defiant polities. But it was also a point of continuity for a city that has never truly escaped colonialism, where promises of democratic self-rule have been made and broken for generations when they threatened to defy London or Beijing.