May 3, 2021, 1:00 a.m.
The Chinese government is working hard to force Hong Kong – long an outpost of freedom – into bitter political and civic submission while maintaining the territory's status as a global financial hub and gateway to the vast markets of the mainland.
However, the main features of Hong Kong cosmopolitanism – the free press, regulations governing access to government data, and international media exposure – are subject to severe pressures and constraints, disrupting the flow of news and information on which trade and culture depend. Beijing has concluded that Hong Kong's traditionally diverse, free-running, and professional media sector threatens the urge to control the territory's venerable legal, political, and educational institutions – and its troubled people.
While corporations weigh their responsibilities regarding social justice and democracy in the United States, banks and corporations contemplating a future in Hong Kong should consider the moral and practical implications of staying in a city where freedom of the press and professional journalism are systematically obliterated will enable decisive action against democracy and freedom.
China's efforts to keep Hong Kong's economic engine running while its policy is being reshaped along the lines of the mainland have so far been mixedly successful. Emigration has reached historic levels and politically active and freedom-minded Hong Kong residents are moving to Taiwan, the UK, Canada and elsewhere to ensure their personal safety and freedom. The territory faces a possible exodus of the elite; According to a recent survey, almost a quarter of university graduates under the age of 35 plan to work abroad.
Beijing is aggressively trying to make the island more attractive and is putting in abundant tax incentives to convince global banks – including Goldman Sachs, Citibank and Morgan Stanley – to cope with the effects of the draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong in June 2020, to overlook and increase staff in their territory despite the political dangers.
According to the New York Times, US financial firms are pulling the bait and increasing their staffing presence on the island. The expat community in Hong Kong is also shrinking. The number of visa applications for foreigners and some current expat residents returning home for concerns about how Beijing's firm hand could affect their professional and personal lives has plummeted. The stifling of Hong Kong's dynamic media ecosystem and the impact of national security law on daily life cannot be overlooked and destroy an important part of what has historically made the island an attractive place for foreigners to live and work.
Freedom of the press in Hong Kong has been under attack for several years. As early as 2015, as PEN America documented, the territory's traditionally resilient domestic media landscape was constrained by a pattern of abuse, including violent attacks on journalists by government-affiliated thugs, excessive use of force by police to thwart coverage of protests, and Pressure from Beijing to remove unfavorable editors and journalists both international and Hong Kong born.
At the time, it was evident that this tactic was just a prelude to an ever-increasing effort to crush the democracy movement in Hong Kong and force the territory under the heavy hand of Beijing.
The 2020 National Security Act criminalizes a number of activities. It bans demands for independence in Hong Kong, leading to “hatred” of the Chinese government or the disclosure of “state secrets” – a loose term used in the past to imprison journalists on the mainland. In the eyes of an aggressive Beijing-based prosecutor or judge, this could be construed as interfering with the work of journalism.
New enforcement mechanisms, police powers and surveillance agencies are empowering the government to fight violations and sending journalists a clear and chilling message that reporting anything other than a pro-Beijing line could pose a high risk. The law is astonishingly broad and is intended to apply to everyone, whether inside or outside Hong Kong, a local citizen or a citizen of another country.
Since the law was passed, a number of developments have dramatically changed the environment for the press. According to a recent study by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, public perceptions of media independence and credibility fell 18 percent, to their lowest level since the survey began in 1993. Outspoken Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, founder of leading Apple Daily newspaper has mostly been harassed for the past decade for pinning Beijing with its pro-democracy views.
But now, 72-year-old Lai is in jail, sentenced for participating in peaceful protests and sentenced to 14 months in prison while facing other charges. Following an initial arrest in August 2020 when 200 police officers raided the Apple Daily newsroom, the mogul was charged with fraud, collusion with foreign forces, conspiracy and other crimes under national security law. The basis for the conspiracy and collusion charges were Lais tweets, according to prosecutors.
Beijing is also moving fast to reshape the media landscape. In mid-March, Beijing ordered Chinese internet mogul Jack Ma's Alibaba to part with the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's most influential English-language news agency. Despite fears that Beijing's acquisition of the newspaper five years ago would put Ma under Beijing's thumb, the company has maintained its reputation for heavy-hitting coverage and benefited from Alibaba's investments. The expectation is that the new owner of the newspaper will follow Beijing's line more faithfully.
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) – long a respected independent media company – has been silenced. A Beijing loyalist lacking media experience was appointed the station's new director, ousting a respected journalist. The installation of a Beijing lackey in the top slot resulted in the resignation of several key senior producers. RTHK has now also made it its business to draw episodes, fire columnists and otherwise aggressively transform itself into an image that is palatable to its overlords.
The RTHK also tried and failed to withdraw its contributions to two prestigious regional press awards, including the Human Rights Press Awards. Presumably, it did not want its work to be recognized by independent and right-wing judges so that the awards would not overshadow Beijing. After the awards program indicated that there was no provision for withdrawing works that had already been submitted to its judges, RTHK freelance journalist Choy Yuk-ling won the prestigious Kam Yiu-yu Press Freedom Award for a play that performed the police treatment of a protest in 2019 criticized.
Within days of the award being announced, the journalism for which she was awarded became the basis for a criminal conviction. Choy escaped imprisonment but was fined $ 773 for misrepresentation after searching the Department of Transportation website for details of a license plate. She wanted the information to identify a car owner for an interview. She was prosecuted and fined for making a false testimony after just ticking a box indicating that she was searching the database for "traffic and traffic related matters," which journalists have routinely done for years had. The net result of these moves is the strengthening and expansion of the state-controlled media sector at the expense of independent and credible news sources.
With the implementation of the National Security Act, the freedom of the press that was previously anchored in Britain's UK legal system will be dismantled. The Hong Kong Justice Department has taken the position that the police do not need a search warrant to seize journalistic material in the event of potential breaches of national security law. This means that no source material collected by journalists in the course of their work can be reliably protected, making both the work of reporting and the prospect of a source speaking to a journalist about a sensitive topic far more dangerous.
The corruption of press freedom has a direct impact on the corporate sector in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has long maintained a highly transparent business registration system that provides insights into issues such as corruption, connections between politically and economically influential families on the mainland, and even violations of sanctions against Iran. Now the government is appealing to privacy concerns to revive previous failed efforts to identify details about business owners and directors, which is affecting not only journalists but investors' ability to understand the underlying relationships and uncover the potential for proprietary business.
Hong Kong dates back to the Vietnam War and was a central hub for global coverage of Asia. This status became particularly important in the past two decades as China became a superpower. However, the security and freedom that have long been available to foreign journalists in Hong Kong is gradually disappearing. Journalists and their employers face similar restrictions as those that have affected Western media's ability to operate on the mainland. In 2018, Financial Times reporter Victor Mallet was effectively expelled from the area when authorities refused to renew his work permit.
The move was suspected in retaliation for an interview by a representative of an independent party at the Foreign Correspondents' Club. While mainland journalists have been expelled for reporting that disgruntled Beijing was able to move to Hong Kong earlier, it is now clear that a mainland ban includes the territory. Within a month of the passing of the national security law, the New York Times announced that their Hong Kong-based digital team would be relocating to Seoul, citing increasing difficulties in obtaining work permits and the prospect of tightening work restrictions in Hong Kong.
Beijing relies on the idea that economic incentives coupled with the longstanding appeal of Hong Kong life – including modern conveniences, close proximity to the rest of Asia, great food, luxury shopping, access to the great outdoors, and job opportunities – will be enough to attract the best the brightest on the island and at the same time ensure that a healthy proportion of the expats stay there.
But bankers, consultants, and aspiring CEOs are news junkies. By drying up credible news sources on topics such as pollution, local governance, and the business environment, executives and managers feel disadvantaged and in the dark. Over time, difficulty in accessing up-to-date, detailed and independent coverage of China will affect the ability of the Hong Kong trade class to carry out its work. In time, Beijing may be forced to recognize when it comes to Hong Kong.