A vocal pro-democracy media outlet, one of the last openly critical voices in the city, on Wednesday closed after a police raid. Earlier in December, the opposition was shut out from elections under a new law that puts all candidates to a loyalty test. And monuments commemorating the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 were taken down.

Throughout the year, the city’s authorities and the central government in Beijing stamped out nearly everything the pro-democracy movement had stood for. Activists fled abroad or were locked up under the draconian National Security Law imposed on the city 18 months ago. Unions and other independent organizations closed down.

Also read: Hong Kong police charge 2 from news outlet with sedition

The days when the former British colony was considered a bastion of freedom fade in memory. Returned to China in 1997, Hong Kong has endured an overhaul of its political system and a crackdown on political dissent. Authorities sought to suppress anti-government sentiment that led to months of political strife in 2019.

The most recent example was Wednesday’s raid by Hong Kong police on the online pro-democracy news outlet Stand News. Seven people were arrested — among them two current and former editors and four former board members, including a popular singer, Denise Ho — for alleged sedition under a colonial-era ordinance.

Also read: How democracy was dismantled in Hong Kong in 2021

Stand News is the second media outlet to shut down after being targeted by Hong Kong authorities. The Apple Daily newspaper closed earlier in 2021 after authorities raided its offices for a second time and froze millions in assets.

“Democracy has been under a sustained assault for well over a year in Hong Kong,” said Luke de Pulford, a coordinator for the London-based Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group of legislators from democratic countries focused on relations with China. “No democracy can function without a free press.”

“If no critical information is able to be published about the administration in Hong Kong or in China, then what last vestiges of democracy there were, I think we have to say, have been snuffed out.”

Also read: Hong Kong police raid pro-democracy news outlet, arrest 6

Little remains of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. More than 100 pro-democracy figures and others have been arrested under the security law, which penalizes actions seen as separatist or subverting the Hong Kong or Chinese governments.

That includes 47 people charged with subversion in February over their roles in an unofficial primary election held in 2020 to determine the best candidates to field in planned legislative elections.

Also read: More Tiananmen massacre memorials removed in Hong Kong

Silence surround the campus

Academics and students said that the erasure of symbols of the massacre is the latest manifestation of a climate of uncertainty and self-censorship that has been growing on the city’s campuses in the past 18 months.

There have been few public signs of protest against the removals from either students or staff, who are on semester break.

Also read: Hong Kong university removes Tiananmen massacre statue

The silence is also telling of the state of debate on campus. “You can feel that there is no longer serious academic discussion about the situation. It’s pure bureaucracy,” Harry Wu, a former professor of medical humanities at HKU, says.

Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong last year in response to months of pro-democracy protests, which were widely supported by university students. Authorities largely blamed the unrest on student-aged protesters and unverified claims of foreign interference.