China’s demand for undivided loyalty is causing tragedy in Hong Kong

OVER THE past four months as many as 2m Hong Kongers—or more than a quarter of the city’s residents—have marched to demand the scrapping of a bill that would have exposed criminal suspects to the mainland’s courts. Those protests were a stunning vote of no confidence in China’s Communist-controlled legal system. They worked: the extradition bill is being withdrawn.

It is hard to imagine a clearer rallying cry for the many mainlanders who distrust their own justice system. Their cousins in Hong Kong, guaranteed access to independent courts and uncensored news under the rubric of “one country, two systems”, could not bear to live as mainlanders must every day. But dissent in Hong Kong has not proved contagious.