Can Britain afford to stand up to China over Hong Kong?

Analysis: As Beijing integrates more into a UK set to be weakened by Brexit, taking action over the Hong Kong protests may not even be possible, writes Kim Sengupta

Riot police officers pin down a demonstrator in the city (Rex)

A crackdown was long expected, but the draconian scale and proposed reach of it still shocked the international community and left the people of Hong Kong facing a bleak future of uncertainty and foreboding.

The new security laws, drafted almost totally in secret, were made public only after being enacted late on Tuesday night, just hours before the 23rd anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China. They are likely to change life in a free, vibrant society which had existed next to an increasingly repressive China under what increasingly seemed like borrowed time.

The main charges under the legislation – secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces – are sweeping in scope and each carry a sentence of life imprisonment. In addition, there are requirements for “national security education” in schools and colleges, the media and the internet field.