The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress unanimously approved a law that will cut the number of district representatives for Hong Kong residents.
Authorities charged 47 people with violating a Chinese law aimed at suppressing dissent. The pro-democracy activists, arrested in early January, face life in prison.
Britain had offered Hong Kong holders of overseas citizenship a path to residency and citizenship in the U.K. China rejects the move as an infringement on its sovereignty.
The action, which falls under a strict new Beijing-imposed national security law imposed on Hong Kong, comes in response to an unauthorized, independent primary held in July.
The activists were intercepted as they tried to flee to Taiwan by speedboat. Two people accused of organizing the trip got the stiffest penalties, two and three years in prison.
The media tycoon was arrested nearly three weeks ago for allegedly violating the terms of his office lease. He was subsequently charged under China's new Hong Kong national security law.
The media mogul and prominent critic of China's ruling Communist Party remains in prison after his arrest on accusations he violated a controversial new national security law.
The democracy activist and publisher is perhaps the most prominent individual to be charged under China's controversial new law, which takes aim at dissent in nominally semi-autonomous Hong Kong.
The decision means at least five more months in custody for Lai, who publishes a prominent pro-democracy newspaper. His arrest comes amid a sweeping crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong.
Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam, all in their 20s, have been held since pleading guilty in November for organizing a protest last year that surrounded police headquarters.
The arrangement, originally slated to begin Sunday, would have provided some travelers the ability to bypass a 14-day quarantine period. But new cases in Hong Kong have put the plan on hold.
London and the European Union denounced Beijing's move to disqualify some of the territory's pro-democracy lawmakers — an action that sparked the mass resignation of the opposition.
An epidemiologist and a grad school graduate who'd gone to see family reflect on how tough it was to be cut off — and what they learned from their months-long quarantine.