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Asia tech conference RISE ditches Hong Kong for Malaysia

  • The decision comes as major tech companies fret over the accelerating crackdown by Beijing on dissent in Hong Kong
  • Hosting RISE in Malaysia is expected to expand the event’s reach into Southeast Asia

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‘Han the Robot’ waits on stage before a discussion about the future of humanity and artificial intelligence by Hanson Robotics at the RISE Conference in Hong Kong on July 12, 2017. Photo: Agence France-Presse
A major Asia-focused technology conference announced on Thursday that it is ditching Hong Kong in favour of Malaysia, in a fresh blow to the Chinese financial hub’s push to attract tech talent.
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The annual RISE Conference brings together chief executives, start-ups and investors, and has been held in Hong Kong over the past five years.

Organisers, however, said they would move their annual conference to Kuala Lumpur in 2022.

“Hosting RISE in Kuala Lumpur is going to expand the event into an exciting region of Southeast Asia,” Casey Lau, co-host of RISE, said in a statement.

The decision comes as major tech firms fret over the accelerating crackdown by Beijing on dissent in Hong Kong, following last year’s huge and sometimes violent democracy protests.

In June, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law that grants authorities significant powers to access company servers and networks.
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