Hong Kong's slide into a police state

This is appalling:

Hong Kong police claim they have received more than 2,500 tip-offs since the launch of a hotline for people to report suspected breaches of the city’s sweeping national security law.

The multi-platform hotline, which opened on Thursday, allows Hong Kongers to report information directly to national security police via text message, email, or WeChat.

A police spokesman told the Guardian that by Friday morning the force had received more than 2,500 pieces of information. The hotline can accept audio, videos, photographs and texts, and contributors will remain anonymous and receive no replies once they have submitted their tips, police said.

While many countries have law enforcement tip lines, Hong Kong’s has been denounced by critics as reminiscent of China’s Cultural Revolution, when neighbours were encouraged to monitor and inform on each other.

The broadly defined national security law, imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing in June, criminalises a wide range of acts on the grounds of subversion, secession, foreign collusion or terrorism.