The purge of democratic lawmakers in Hong Kong underlines China’s disregard for international law

There are few better case studies of how democracy dies than Hong Kong. In the last 20 years, Beijing has steadily taken control of the key levers of power: the economy, the media, the executive branch. This year, the government decided that it was time for full blown authoritarianism. Covid-19 restrictions have provided a pretext to stamp out peaceful assembly. With the city’s chief executive little better than a puppet, the National Security Law was introduced to eradicate the city’s autonomy. This week, mass disqualification of democratic lawmakers serves to rubber stamp the new...