There was no need to send in the People’s Liberation Army after all. Hong Kong’s freedoms were snuffed out with a pen stroke.

China did not consult Hong Kong’s officials about its new national security law. The legislation had been drafted, as became painfully clear, without the involvement even of Carrie Lam, the territory’s pro-Beijing chief executive. Within hours of its promulgation, pro-democracy activists were being taken into custody. Nine people, including a teenaged girl, were arrested on the first morning, most of them for carrying colonial-era flags or placards that backed self-rule. Human rights campaigners announced their withdrawal from public life. Hundreds of dissident social media accounts quietly closed down.