James B. Cunningham had this opinion in USA Today. Here is an excerpt:

On April 16, 2021 a Hong Kong judge placed more nails in the coffin of freedom in Hong Kong. Nine pro-democracy leaders, including Martin Lee, Jimmy Lai, Albert Ho and Margaret Ng, were sentenced to prison for peacefully demonstrating in August 2019.

They had been participating in protests that had ballooned to unprecedented proportions over the Hong Kong government’s attempt to impose an “extradition law,” which would have enabled the transfer of Hong Kong citizens and foreign nationals to courts in mainland China.

In October, Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, withdrew the legislation. But she made no attempt to close the gap with the millions of people, especially the youth, who had protested the injection of mainland Chinese legal authority into Hong Kong’s prized rule of law. Instead, the government undertook to punish those who had peacefully demonstrated.

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