Hong Kong

  • Features

    Free, Open, Prosperous

    Indo-Pacific populations have woven democratic norms — including transparent, accountable and inclusive governance under the rule of law — into the region’s cultural fabric. Japan established its first representative government in the late 19th century, nearly a century before its modern constitution, supplanting the intervening military rule, proclaimed that “sovereign power resides with the people.” South Korean civil society, including…

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  • Conflicts - Tensions

    Hong Kong’s academic freedom suffers under security regime, report says

    Voice of America Hong Kong’s national security law, enacted in July 2020, has eroded academic freedom in the former United Kingdom colony, according to a report released in late September 2024. The report, by the international group Human Rights Watch and the United States-based advocacy organization Hong Kong Democracy Council, said university authorities have imposed greater control and limitations on…

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  • Conflicts - Tensions

    Hong Kong begins 2024 on anti-democracy drive

    FORUM Staff When the trial of media mogul Jimmy Lai began December 18, 2023, in Hong Kong, some called it a landmark test of free speech under the former British colony’s draconian national security law. Others, such as Lai’s son, Sebastien, called it a sham trial. Jimmy Lai, 76, the pro-democracy publisher of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, is charged…

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  • Conflicts - Tensions

    U.N. ‘alarmed’ by Hong Kong detentions

    Reuters The United Nations said it is alarmed by detentions in Hong Kong linked to the 34th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square. Hong Kong police said they detained more than 20 people on June 4, 2023, for “breaching public peace” and also arrested a 53-year-old woman for “obstructing police officers” on the anniversary of…

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  • Conflicts - TensionsProtesters outside the Chinese embassy in London in December 2022 call for freedom and democracy in Hong Kong.

    U.K. criticizes erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong

    Reuters The United Kingdom in January 2023 criticized what it said was the systematic erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong by the Chinese government and a crackdown on free speech by authorities in the former U.K. colony. The criticism, contained in the U.K. government’s latest six-month report on Hong Kong, accused the People’s Republic of China (PRC) of diminishing the…

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  • Conflicts - Tensions

    Security clampdown diminishes Hong Kong’s value to mainland China

    Tom Abke Beijing’s security clampdown in Hong Kong is rapidly reducing its value to the mainland by making it a less attractive place to live and work, thereby draining it of talent, according to a former United Kingdom diplomat stationed there and media reports. By bringing the city’s systems of political representation, media, education, civil society and law under authoritarian…

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  • Conflicts - Tensions

    Hong Kong press freedom erodes at world-leading pace

    FORUM Staff Hong Kong, once a bastion of free speech and press freedom, is losing its true voice. With the rapid disappearance of thorough, balanced reporting by independent journalists, Hong Kong “news” now consists of one-sided, coverage professing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) viewpoints, observers say. No nation or territory tumbled farther than Hong Kong from 2021 to 2022 in…

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  • Conflicts - Tensions

    Hong Kong’s Chinese University to impose ‘national security education’

    Radio Free Asia The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) will impose the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) patriotic education program on all students starting in 2022, a source told Radio Free Asia. Under newly revised core curriculum requirements, all students must complete the course “Understanding China Today” to graduate, the source said. CUHK confirmed that it would introduce courses under…

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  • Northeast Asia

    Another Hong Kong news organization closes amid crackdown on press freedom

    Radio Free Asia Popular Hong Kong media organization Citizen News has announced it will cease operations in the wake of a national security police raid on pro-democracy news site Stand News, which folded after two of its senior journalists were arrested for “sedition” in late December 2021. “Citizen News will cease operations from January 4, 2022,” the site said in…

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  • Top Stories

    China leads world in jailing journalists for third consecutive year

    FORUM Staff The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is the worst jailer of journalists in the world, according to two recent reports from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that advocate for freedom of the press. The PRC topped the list of offenders with 127 journalists imprisoned as of December 1, 2021, according to an annual study compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).…

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