WASHINGTON -- "One ounce of prevention is worth one pound of cure." That was the analogy former senior U.S. official Daniel Russel gave when talking to Nikkei about the American response to China's new national security law for Hong Kong.
Now that Beijing has pulled the trigger, it is much harder to roll back the measures, which are widely seen as infringing on the freedoms promised to Hong Kong under the "one country, two systems" formula that was to stay in effect until 2047.