HONG KONG—Under a grey drizzle, a Hong Kong law enforcement drill squad marched into the law enforcement academy parade ground on Thursday and confirmed off a newly obtained talent: Goose-stepping in the locked-knee marching fashion of the Chinese navy, a departure from the bent-knee British-fashion extensive the norm in the previous colony.
The drill squad was viewed by hundreds of supporters who collected on bleachers to celebrate National Security Education Working day, marked with fanfare 10 months immediately after Beijing initiated a sweeping crackdown on dissent in the town.
With promotional billboards up throughout the town and gatherings held at universities and other institutions, the functions sought to broaden assistance for a new security regime in put, together with a nationwide security regulation that makes crimes such as sedition and foreign collusion punishable with up to lifestyle in prison.
Thursday’s gatherings also emphasised that Hong Kong, returned to China in 1997 under an accord meant to grant the town constrained self-federal government, is now firmly under Beijing’s regulate. Senior Chinese and neighborhood officers gave speeches warning of significant effects for any one who crosses China’s bottom line of nationwide security. Quite a few of the city’s most outstanding democracy activists are in jail or on trial.
The sight of Hong Kong law enforcement marching in mainland fashion formed the most potent symbol of Beijing’s impact, and became the focal stage of the working day.
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