The end of Hong Kong?

Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei believes a newly passed national security law for Hong Kong augurs the end for the semi-autonomous city.

Ai was arrested at Beijing's airport in April 2011 and held for 81 days without explanation during a wider crackdown on dissent that coincided with the international ferment of the Arab Spring.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Ai said he identifies with Hong Kong’s democracy movement and has been working on a documentary about protests that began a year ago, at times erupting into tear gas-shrouded combat between police and demonstrators.

“I experienced every detail of who they (the protesters) are, how they fight and how this is going to end,” Ai said. “They are so determined and very pure. So those stories are really, really hurting me.”

Many in Hong Kong fear their city will become like any other in mainland China after the National People's Congress in Beijing approved the national security law. It targets people and groups suspected of sedition or other threats to safety and security and follows recent arrests of many leading pro-democracy activists in the former British colony.

According to Ai, the new measure is “not lawful” because even the Chinese state hasn't established “its own legitimacy of control.”

China's communist leaders promised to allow Hong Kong to keep its own customs territory and financial system, laws and civil liberties for 50 years after Beijing took control in 1997. Critics of the new law say it may allow mainland security organs to interfere in local law enforcement, among other things.

“So, China promised ‘one country, two systems’ for 50 years, now it’s far from that,” Ai said from his home in Cambridge, England. “They violated their own words. So, that’s more dangerous because once you’ve lost the trust of the international community, who’s going to (have a) dealing or have a business with someone like this?”

“In old China, we have a word that means if you say something, it has to be trusted," he said.

Hong Kong's status as a safe haven for dissent has been deteriorating for years, Ai said, pointing to abductions of business figures embroiled in mainland Chinese business disputes, among others.