hong kong after successfully muzzling hong kongs democracy protests and opposition beijings loyalists are now taking aim at the arts as they seek to impose mainlandstyle orthodoxy on culture and purge the city of dissent newly built on hong kongs victoria harbour m museum aims to rival western contemporary heavyweights like londons tate modern and new yorks moma the 60000 squaremetre venue is finally set to open later this year after multiple delays but it has already found itself in hot water earlier this week a group of prominent probeijing local politicians accused the museum of breaching a sweeping national security law that china imposed on hong kong last year in response to 2019s huge and often violent democracy protests the cause of the complaint filed to police on tuesday was the content of a media preview including works by dissident chinese artist ai weiwei many of the pieces are spreading hatred against the country probeijing lawmaker eunice yung said in a recent question to city leader carrie lam in the legislature will the government censor the collection what will the government do to prevent such provocation of antichina sentiments she added lam a probeijing appointee replied that hong kong respects the freedom of cultural and artistic expression but she warned authorities would be on full alert for any breaches of the security law adding that the red line is clearly recognisable for anyone hosting exhibitionsdeflated and anxiousthe exchange sent a new shudder through the arts scene in a city struggling to hold onto its reputation as an international cultural gateway to china unhindered from the authoritarian mainlands controls insiders say selfcensorship had been on the rise in recent years but the broad wording of hong kongs national security law and the fervour with which influential probeijing figures wish to see it applied now adds a whole extra layer of risk people are just a little deflated and anxious one art expert involved in major exhibitions at museums told afp asking to remain anonymous the law targets anything deemed secession subversion terrorism and collusion with foreign forces and has quickly criminalised a host of political views now in the everwidening definition of things that could undermine national security in hong kong we should add pieces of art peter lewis a radio presenter with rthk wrote on twitter earlier this week china promised hong kong could keep a level of autonomy and freedom ahead of its 1997 handover by britain but it has ramped up control since democracy protests exploded and declared only staunch patriots can run hong kongshifting sandsm is not the only cultural canary to be caught up in this new patriotic drivewen wei po and ta kung pao two newspapers that answer to beijings liaison office have published multiple articles recently attacking subversive content in hong kongs arts scene primarily projects that deal with the democracy movement earlier this month wen wei po led a successful campaign to halt the first commercial screening of