In the land of the First Amendment, it’s hard to convey what it’s like to lose the freedom of the press. So ingrained is a free press in the United States’ law and way of life, it is almost impossible for Americans to conceive of their government wiping out one of the country’s most popular press outlets and clapping its owner, officers and writers in jail.
It used to also be unimaginable in Hong Kong, an international financial center whose success once relied on offering freedoms not granted in mainland China. But this is precisely what happened on Thursday, when one of Hong Kong’s largest newspapers, with more than 600,000 paid subscribers to its online news platform, was effectively closed down by Hong Kong authorities beholden to the Chinese Communist government in Beijing.