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Hong Kong political reform
OpinionComment
Phil C. W. Chan
Phil C. W. Chan

Opinion | China’s national security law poses existential threat to Hong Kong’s universities and academic freedom

  • China’s tendency to use the vaguest, broadest terms in drafting its laws means research on several issues could become off-limits
  • Legislation will have chilling effect on overseas academics’ interest in and ability to pursue research collaboration with peers in Hong Kong

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Illustration: Craig Stephens
Phil C. W. Chan

Before it was replaced by “five demands, not one less” last year, “time is money” had long been Hong Kong’s unofficial motto. Visitors and expatriates were amazed at how fast Hongkongers ate or walked, often at the same time.

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The “umbrella movement” in 2014, the first political movement in the city in which large segments of society took part for an extended period of time, ultimately failed because Hongkongers could not bear the inconvenience and extra time in going to work and going home.

Opponents of the movement sought court orders and bailiffs’ assistance to end the stalemate after 79 days and celebrated Hong Kong’s respect for the rule of law in the process. It is, therefore, only fitting that Hong Kong’s 178 years of political and legal culture transformed to the core within a mere six days in May 2020.

Despite our struggles for universal suffrage and dissatisfactions about the arrogance and incompetence of our local government since July 1997, Hongkongers were steadfast in our belief that the Basic Law, a Chinese national law promulgated by the National People’s Congress in April 1990 in pursuance of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, was the highest law of the land this side of the border.
The dizzying speed of collapse of the Hong Kong we had called home – from Beijing’s introduction on May 22 of a national security law for Hong Kong at its “two sessions”, to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s certification on May 27 that “no reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground” – is heartbreaking.

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China’s top legislature approves national security bill for Hong Kong

China’s top legislature approves national security bill for Hong Kong

Just before the university sieges last November, I wrote in the Post that Hong Kong universities contributed to the city’s social unrest since last June through their silence and co-option.

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