Hong Kong, Sept. 1 -- As an authoritarian state, China has advantages when it comes to passing stringent and Orwellian laws. Primary amongst them is the reality that ordinary Chinese citizens have absolutely no ability to resist or avoid them. That is the case with the nation's newly revised National Defence Mobilisation Law, which was rubber-stamped by China's top legislature on 28 August 2026.

This particular law will come into effect on 1 October, and it gives Chairman Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) carte blanche to enlist any help or seize whatever resources they want from individuals or private companies in the event of a contingency such as war or conflict.

In fact, this law is something of a hangover from Mao Ze...