The Hong Kong SAR National Security Law (NSL) has just entered its seventh year. The law, initiated due to the impact of severe riots and unrest that plagued the city in 2019-20, was enacted by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China, which, as the top legislative body of the country, holds constitutional jurisdiction over the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Following the promulgation of this legislation, much of the Western world reacted with outrage and claimed that it constituted a violation of Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy. The United States sanctioned several Hong Kong officials, while the United Kingdom sought to entice residents to migrate through the British National (Overseas) (BNO) visa program.

As this happened, Western mainstream media repeatedly pushed narratives that the law heralded the “decline” or “death” of Hong Kong, claiming that implementing national security measures would undermine the rule of law in the city and make it unattractive to businesses, and commentators frequently speculated that financial services would move elsewhere. Now that six years has passed, what has really changed in Hong Kong? And have these narratives stood the test of time?

In the middle of 2019, protests broke out in the HKSAR in initial opposition to a proposed extradition law, but soon radicalized into riots which intentionally sought to alter the constitutional order of the city, representing a challenge to China’s national sovereignty over the city. The riots were publicly backed by some American politicians and parts of the Western mainstream media, who used the narrative of democracy to justify their premise, and framed attempts to restore order as oppression. The insurrection saw public infrastructure and property destroyed, vandalized and torched on a wide scale in an active attempt to break the political system in a series of acts that would not be tolerated by any sovereign state in the world, and would result in imprisonment in most Western countries.

Hong Kong’s success has not hinged on chaos, rather it has been renowned for its stability under the rule of law and the confidence this brings for business. Six years on, the doom forecast by critics of the NSL has simply not manifested itself, and the city has adapted and continued to prosper

This foreign-backed rioting created a blatant national security problem in the HKSAR. Despite the fact that a national security law had been mandated in the Basic Law since Hong Kong’s return to the motherland in 1997, failure to implement it by local authorities had created a legal loophole in China’s national security which left the city with a limited capacity to handle events such as the riots in 2019-20, which can be reasonably described as foreign-backed subversion. As a result, the NSL was implemented by the Standing Committee of the NPC and made effective immediately to fix the legal lacuna.

So, what has changed six years on? First of all, law and order has been restored to the city. The riots were ultimately brought to an end and the ringleaders were subsequently prosecuted or fled into self-exile. This, combined with the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, has allowed Hong Kong’s business and investment market to recover. Despite the Western media’s negative narratives, life goes on as usual in Hong Kong. Although some media proclaimed a “mass exodus” from the city in the form of the BNO migration, as of 2026, only 166,000 have used it (despite predictions of nearly 300,000), with numbers dropping year upon year. In 2025, only 11,804 visas were granted. However, it is estimated that over 20,000 BNO migrants have already returned to live in Hong Kong, because the British economy is stagnating, living standards are shrinking, and immigration rules are getting tougher in line with rising anti-migration sentiment.

On this note, Hong Kong’s economy has fully recovered from the challenges of 2019-20 amid the unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic. The city has grown, rather than shrunk, as a financial center; its role as a gateway between the Chinese mainland and the broader world has increased. The city has become one of the world’s biggest markets for initial public offerings, and the largest cross-border wealth management hub, overtaking Switzerland. It has also benefitted from an exodus of Chinese capital leaving the US. Similarly, tourist numbers to the city have recovered, with 14.31 million visitor arrivals recorded in the first quarter of 2026, marking a 17 percent year-on-year increase. The city has actively sought to host a wide range of events to increase long-haul visitor numbers.

So, all things considered, has Hong Kong declined? Has it become a “police state”? While politically, the implementation of the NSL represented a turning point for many, in reality life has continued as normal. Anyone who claims it has not, is not being historically honest with themselves; Hong Kong’s success has not hinged on chaos, rather it has been renowned for its stability under the rule of law and the confidence this brings for business. Six years on, the doom forecast by critics of the NSL has simply not manifested itself, and the city has adapted and continued to prosper.

The author is a British political and international-relations analyst.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.