Hong Kong — President Xi Jinping further tightened his grip on power in China this week. After a decade in power, he is expected to be anointed by the Communist Party he leads for another term. His assertive approach at home and abroad has led to increasingly tense relations with neighboring island Taiwan, and a dramatic tightening of control over Hong Kong. Hong Kong was a British territory for more than a century, allowing it to develop an open civil society and vibrant free press. But China assumed control of the territory in 1997 and under Xi Jinping the Communist Party has cracked down hard on dissent. A key element of that crackdown has been a slow but concerted stifling of freedom of speech. One high profile case has highlighted China's intolerance of criticism. In the summer of 2021, Hong Kong national security police arrested five young speech therapists for their part in an alleged "conspiracy to distribute seditious materials."  Their crime: Publishing three children's books