“YOU can lock up our bodies, but not our minds!” So says a message posted on the Twitter account of Joshua Wong, a pro-democracy activist in Hong Kong (pictured), shortly after he and two associates were sent to jail on August 17th for their roles in the “Umbrella Movement” protests that swept through the territory in 2014. The jail sentences, ranging from six to eight months, outraged their supporters. Tens of thousands took to the streets in protest (see article). Many people in Hong Kong regard the three mild-mannered, bespectacled men as political prisoners. The silence of the West, particularly that of Britain, the former colonial power, is depressing.

The people of Hong Kong are right to be alarmed. The territory is not a democracy. But it is more open than mainland China, and its reputation rests partly on having a judiciary that is rigorous and impartial. That is why so many foreigners choose to live and invest there. Any erosion of the rule of law threatens Hong Kong’s prosperity, as well as the reputation of China, which promised to respect its liberties when it took back the territory from Britain in 1997.

Two territories, one system

Under President Xi Jinping, China has sought more overtly to stifle dissent in Hong Kong. Mr Xi was spooked by the umbrella protests, in which thousands of young people blocked busy streets for weeks to press for greater democracy. China has sent in agents to spirit away people it does not like. It has tried to disbar pro-democracy legislators. And it has blatantly put pressure on Hong Kong’s judges.

The three defendants today, all in their 20s, led the protests of 2014. Two of them were convicted last year of clambering into a government compound during the unrest, for which they received community-service sentences. The third was given a suspended jail term for inciting others to follow them. But that was not enough for Hong Kong’s government. It lodged an appeal, saying the men should be jailed.

Whether the judges bowed to external pressure is impossible to tell. But there is little doubt that Hong Kong’s government pushed for tougher sentences under pressure from its overlords in Beijing. Absurdly, the Communist Party views the three men as dangerous separatists. Their jail terms mean they will not be allowed to stand in elections for five years.

The very suspicion that the judges might have buckled feeds the public’s loss of confidence in the rule of law, and makes Hong Kong more prone to the kind of instability it experienced in 2014. In November China’s rubber-stamp parliament took a sledgehammer to Hong Kong’s legal independence when it sought to sway a court case about whether two pro-democracy legislators should be disbarred for failing to take their oaths of loyalty to Communist China properly. Subsequently they, and then four others, including Nathan Law, one of the activists now jailed, were stripped of their seats.

China also wants Hong Kong to enact legislation against sedition and subversion. In 2003 the territory’s government shelved plans for such a bill after mass protests. If Hong Kong agrees to revive that idea, renewed upheaval is all the more likely, as residents will rightly fear that the new law could be used to lock away people for political crimes, and thus turn free-spirited Hong Kong into just another Chinese city.

The Communist Party may shrug, as China is prospering despite its thuggery. Yet there is a cost. For a country that seeks to cast itself as the champion of a global rules-based system, its respect for the treaty guaranteeing Hong Kong’s freedoms is an important measure of its credibility. Right now, it is failing the test. The world should raise its voice.