More than 100 residents of Hong Kong, mostly young people, awaken the city by sending their best wishes to the nation and the city at Wan Chai's Golden Bauhinia Square, on Sept 17, 2019. [Photo/China Daily]
The national security situation in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has deteriorated rapidly over the past years. Riots and acts of terrorism dominated the landscape in Hong Kong in the second half of 2019, with pro-independence elements inciting an increasingly violent rebellion against the government. The SAR government and the city have been paralyzed by the violent anti-government demonstrations. The violence stopped for a few months due to the novel coronavirus epidemic only to return recently.
Beyond the SAR, the war of words between Beijing and Washington has been escalating, and there is evidence to show separatist elements in Hong Kong have been funded and trained by organizations related to the US government. With all the demonstrations and riots being targeted at authorities in Beijing, Hong Kong is now the battlefield for a "hybrid war"-attacks by US forces and defense by the Chinese government. As such, national security is nowhere more seriously threatened and undermined than in Hong Kong.
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