As the author states in this acknowledgments “For all the euphoria of Hong Kong in 2019, no one familiar with the history of the Chinese Communist Party and its secretive, paranoid worldview would have been altogether surprised at the crushing of freedom that followed.” Yes, no one who was around and paying attention to the agreement that Britain was making with Red China would now be surprised that the Chinese Government would never adhere to that agreement, so it was only a matter of time before the changes would be put into motion. At some point Hong Kong will be no different than Mainland China. With that said “Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World” by Mark L. Clifford gives a very good overview of how Hong Kong got to the point where the agreement was finalized and what has happened since that time. And here is a spoiler, it is not good for the people of Hong Kong.

In a minor way some of what is now happening in Hong Kong has also been happening in other countries . As an example, here are some quotes from the book: “using pepper spray, rubber bullets, and batons.” “The business elite unsurprisingly held a conservative attitude, one that favored stability, property rights, and commercial success over notions of social welfare, workers’ rights, or civil liberties.“ Do these sound familiar?

However, the difference is that in Hong Kong the few rights the people had were taken away quickly and in a very strong and systematic process all while bypassing basic legal requirements. People ended up in jail, charges were trumped up and due process was completely pushed aside. If you crossed a line you would be arrested, your assets would be taken away and your family would be threatened. The author provides numerous examples.

The book paints an excellent picture of the individual rights and limits during the 150 years under British rule followed by the hand over and finally what China has done to Hong Kong since that point. It does make you wonder if Britain could have move democracy along a little further over those 150 years. The author clearly is passionate about the issues and wants people to see what is going on hoping that nations will be pushed into doing something. ‘Beijing’s destruction of a free city in full sight of the world offers no clearer example of the Chinese Communist Party’s desire to end freedom everywhere.’ If I lived in Taiwan I would be looking for a way to get out before the Chinese come marching in

I would recommend this book if you are interested in the geopolitical issues in Asia, if you are concerned about human rights or you want to have a better understanding of how the leadership in a country can systematically destroy the rights, freedoms and lives of it’s own people.

Based on the information in this book, you can see how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) plans on integrating Hong Kong into their future plans. Slowly, all of the promises that the CCP made to HK in 1997, to protect their "special" situation. But as they have done in Tibet, and are now doing in Xinjiang. Xi Jinping has an agenda that has non-Han areas absorbed by Red China. The population of China is aging, and in ten years the population will have aged to the point their military will begin to shrink.

Because of the aging he knows that he has to gain control of Taiwan very soon. He understands that if he doesn't control HK, Taiwan, Tibet, the islands of the South China Sea, they will become difficult to have any chance of being able to fold them into Red China. Xi fears that what happened in Russia (USSR) in 1989 will happen to China. More than anything he fears that minorities will become the majority of the population and they will become an enemy within.

If you question this scenario, look how they forced all pro-west candidates off the ballot in HK, and this resulted in only 30% of the voting public to vote for their slate. Xi doesn't care what anyone in the West says, they will continue until anything that makes HK unique disappears.

A vitally important read about how China has tightened the noose around Hong Kong's neck and has cracked down on basic freedoms Hong Kongers have enjoyed over the last 100 years or so. This book goes into detail how China and the CCP have crushed Hong Kong dissenters and how the template of these restrictions are and will continue to have worldwide impacts. The author tells how the restrictive transformation of Hong Kong, which was once a substantially freer city, is a potential canary in the coalmine of how China could interact with the rest of the world. This is a very important read for anyone who cares about free, open societies or losing fundamental basic human rights to totalitarian governments.

This book is on the very edge of excellence but, sadly, it falls short. The author not only gives us the name of the street someone lives on but feels impelled to give us that street name several times. Also, the author's footnotes are overwhelmingly from newspaper articles that I have found over the years to be most unreliable. Citing solid sources is, in my opinion, always the better opinion.