TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China’s promise to maintain the “one country, two systems” formula in Hong Kong for 50 years was a scam right from the start, Chinese democracy activist Wang Dan (王丹) wrote Tuesday (June 30).

The Tiananmen student leader and former resident of Taiwan shared his reaction on his Facebook page to the passage of a national security law for Hong Kong Tuesday, with even Hong Kong leaders unable to learn the legislation’s detailed contents.

The 1997 promise by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) to keep Hong Kong autonomous for 50 years was designed to fool its residents, according to Wang. Afterward, China had been slowly “eating” Hong Kong piece by piece, and by the time they realized it was a scam, it was too late, the Liberty Times quoted him as saying.

The Chinese Communist Party has a long history of deceit and subterfuge, first recruiting reformist youths to its cause in the run-up to its takeover of power in 1949. Four years later, the young progressives realized they had been fooled, but by then it was too late, Wang said.