Last month, several thousand Hong Kong university students, some of them under the watch of a closed-circuit TV camera, were the first to take compulsory courses on the territory¡¯s national security law.

The content of the courses set out the dangers of breaking the law, in one case demonstrating how a message in a chat group could be interpreted as a serious breach, punishable by up to life in prison.

At Hong Kong Baptist University, at least one closed-circuit TV camera was present in the lecture hall, while an unidentified photographer took pictures, according to two students who attended.