HONG KONG – Express trains deliver travelers from the airport to the city and passengers embark, only to join a line for taxis to take them into the particular thicket of brightly lit high-rises they seek. The Hong Kong taxi is roomy and distinctive. A Hong Kong businessman exported several to East Timor, where the red and silver sedans ply the waterfront of the poor and war-damaged capital, Dili.

The taxi may be the only thing Hong Kong has in common with East Timor. East Timor, the poorest country in Asia, is a democracy. Hong Kong, one of richest places in the world, is not.

Hong Kong does have elections, however. This Sunday’s elections for the Legislative Council, or Legco, will not change the government or give legislative power to winners of the popular vote.

The elections’ significance comes instead from the atmosphere in which Hong Kong people will go to the polls. A report released here today by Human Rights Watch shows how over the past 14 months Beijing has intervened more openly than ever to take control of Hong Kong’s political development. In the process, it has created the most poisonous political atmosphere in the territory in many years.

Human Rights Watch traces the roots of the current climate to July of 2003. Beijing, caught off guard by an enormous protest march that invigorated the democracy movement, set about recouping its losses. Economic inducements were unveiled in the belief that Hong Kong people would place prosperity over politics.

It didn’t work. In November, Hong Kong voted for pro-democracy candidates in local district-council elections, humiliating the party most closely allied with Beijing.

So Beijing got serious. In December, General Secretary Hu Jintao signaled that Beijing would take over Hong Kong’s democratic development, something it had previously claimed it would stay out of. Within months, Beijing had demolished this “one country, two systems” promise, asserting in April that from now on, Beijing would have to approve any steps toward democracy.

Meanwhile, Beijing made sure the people of Hong Kong would appreciate the stakes. A campaign was launched to brand democrats as unpatriotic. “The campaign was sustained over a period of several weeks, with new attacks on an almost daily basis,” Human Rights Watch reports.

“Senior officials in Beijing chimed in, regardless of the relevance of Hong Kong affairs to their official portfolio, and local pro-Beijing officials in Hong Kong either took part themselves, or more often stood by and said nothing.”

More ominous, if murky, developments followed. According to Human Rights Watch, two popular radio-show hosts quit their posts after telephone threats from a prominent businessman linked to organized crime triads purporting to act on behalf of Beijing. Businesses the men were involved with – a company and a noodle shop – were splashed with red paint, considered a hallmark of a triad attack.

Pro-democracy politicians have had their offices vandalized and smeared with feces. Hong Kong people reported pressure to vote for pro-Beijing candidates, often delivered through the workplace. Some in mainland-based companies were asked for the names of relatives, and one caller to a local radio show recounted being asked to photograph his ballot with the picture-taking feature of his mobile phone.

No one knows what to expect next. Some speculate that Beijing will come up with a loyalty test for members of the legislature, forcing democrats to associate their dedication to Hong Kong and China with allegiance to the Communist Party.

More drastic measures aren’t out of the question. In 1997, Beijing replaced the partly-elected legislature with a one year “provisional legislature” of its appointees to rubber-stamp various bills, including a new proportional system designed to disadvantage popular democrats. An unnamed mainland government official cited in the Human Rights Watch report hinted that disbanding the Legco established this Sunday is an option.

Hong Kong has entered new political territory. Many people involved in politics and civil liberties assume their offices and phones are bugged.

Friends write about how the Hong Kong they love is gone forever. “The atmosphere is worse here than anything I can remember, including the jitters before the handover in 1997,” says Minky Worden, Human Rights Watch’s Media Director.

Whatever happens on Sunday, that is only likely to get worse.