IN IMPLICIT PROTEST AGAINST CHINESE CRACKDOWN, Hong Kongers Mourn Queen Elizabeth. “Crowds of Hong Kongers queued in sweltering heat on Monday to pay tribute to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, some expressing nostalgia for the city’s colonial past at a time when China is seeking to purge dissent. Public gatherings of more than four people are banned under coronavirus rules while opposition to Beijing’s rule has been swept aside in a major crackdown following huge and sometimes violent democracy protests three years ago. But on Monday, a public holiday in Hong Kong, a line of people hundreds of metres long snaked through the business district to the British consulate where a condolence book had been opened for residents to sign. . . . A business executive who gave her surname So admitted that Elizabeth II’s death had made her nostalgic and that she felt “less of a connection” with China’s Communist Party leaders in Beijing. ‘I only realised how good it was after I lost it,’ she said, referring to the city since its handover.”