Beijing is putting the squeeze on the Pro-Democracy movement in Hong Kong. This week China’s Communist Party approved a plan to move forward with a national security law in the region. The Washington Post says, “Secret police, surveillance, arbitrary detentions, propaganda in classrooms — all these will be coming to Hong Kong under a far-reaching national security law Beijing is unilaterally imposing on the territory.” This move comes after nearly a year of protests fighting a return to Chinese rule. NBC News points out since 1997 Hong Kong “has been governed by a unique model aimed at guaranteeing freedoms not granted on the mainland.” 

Now life, as people know it is about to change drastically. In The New York Times, Lewis Lau Yiu-man, a political commentator based in Hong Kong wrote:

The Chinese Communist Party is ambitious, and it is impatient. It doesn’t just want to control Hong Kong; it wants to remodel the minds and souls of the Hong Kong people.

Tanya Chan, a member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, remarked “It’s the saddest day in Hong Kong’s history:”

“This is the end of Hong Kong and it’s like the end of our homeland… I recall the time when I was young, and I believed in ‘one country, two systems,’ and I believed we were going to showcase to the world that Hong Kong people can rule Hong Kong. But now, I’m not yet 50 years old and suddenly all is gone.” 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is condemning China’s actions but doesn’t say whether the U.S. will intervene in any way:

The decision to bypass Hong Kong’s well-established legislative processes and ignore the will of the people of Hong Kong would be a death knell for the high degree of autonomy Beijing promised for Hong Kong… 

Watch more from CBS News above.