Opinion

July 2020
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Critical commentary and analysis on Hong Kong, China and Taiwan affairs from HKFP’s community of columnists, experts and advocates.

Democrats’ primaries: Getting ready for Hong Kong’s last free election

By Sam Cheung Ho Sum On Saturday and Sunday, democrats in Hong Kong are holding primaries for the first time ahead of the official Legislative Council (LegCo) election in September. Although the primary election was intended for selecting the strongest candidates to run in the official election, Beijing’s escalating crackdown may render the latter a […]

by Guest Contributor 17:31, 10 July 202017:32, 10 July 2020

5 years on: I was one of China’s rights lawyers – detained, tortured but hopeful for the future

by Guest Contributor 23:00, 9 July 202023:20, 9 July 2020

Win-win or lose-lose? Why countries should uphold universal values and not cede to China’s propaganda

By Leo Lan As a citizen, imagine you are assured by a regime that you will be abundantly fed but you don’t have the right to choose your state leaders. Imagine also that you are detained after you attempt to attend a human rights training at the United Nations, or even if you just support […]

by Guest Contributor 21:32, 6 July 202013:14, 7 July 2020

At last I see the light, cue the anthem – all praise to the Chinese Communist Party!

I can’t really explain this entirely new and transcendent feeling. Here it is, 23 years after the 1997 handover from British to Chinese rule and just days after the promulgation of Hong Kong’s new national security law. Suddenly I see the light. This must be what it’s like for those evangelical Christians when the heavens […]

by Kent Ewing 11:00, 5 July 202011:30, 5 July 2020

July 5, 2009: The day I became a second-class citizen

By Zumretay Arkin The summer of 2009 began like any other, I was excited to spend my first summer in my home country after migrating to Canada, reunite with my family and friends, go to all my favorite places in Urumqi, eat the delicious seasonal fruits, but–most importantly–be in a Uyghur environment. Little did I […]

by Guest Contributor 10:55, 5 July 202016:34, 5 July 2020

The historic problem with slavery

Slavery was, and is, a terrible institution. Discrimination against people on the grounds of their race is indefensible. Black Lives do matter. These ethical positions now seem obvious. It was not always so. Steven Pinker, author of The Better Angels of our Nature, has documented the way in which, over centuries, the degree of sympathy […]

by Tim Hamlett 10:05, 5 July 202010:55, 6 July 2020

Hong Kong’s ruling elite fight to extinguish freedom whilst clutching foreign passports, money and property abroad

Is there anything left to say? Despite the confident assertion by Chief Executive Carrie Lam that the “vast majority of the people” support the new national security law, the reality is that it does indeed have some support but elsewhere there is a mood of despair, anger and – in some quarters – a desire […]

by Stephen Vines 21:21, 4 July 202021:25, 4 July 2020

‘We just really f***ing love Hong Kong’: Can you criminalise us?

If the Chinese government was really stupid enough to believe that the new national security laws could silence Hongkongers, I guess they were disappointed. The new laws conveniently took effect on the 23rd anniversary of China’s takeover of Hong Kong. Yet despite a historic police ban of the 17-year tradition, on the very first day […]

by Christina Chan 21:09, 4 July 202021:11, 4 July 2020

When will they come for journalists?: Hong Kong press freedom under the new national security law

As June turned to July and the first half of the year comes to a close, a dark cloud has come down over Hong Kong. Beijing has passed its national security law. Journalists were already worried about the prospect of the law. The Hong Kong Journalists Association released the results of a survey on June […]

by Robert Gerhardt 11:00, 4 July 202000:52, 4 July 2020

The Hong Kong girl with the blank protest placard

Since the Hong Kong protests began 13 months ago, the world has seen so many images of police violence that the only possible conclusion it can reach with an intact conscience is this: so tenuous does Beijing view its grip on power that it would go to any lengths to squash the Hong Kong protests, […]

by Guest Contributor 23:56, 3 July 202001:03, 4 July 2020

Grief, rage, and despair: reflections from an exiled Hongkonger

Hongkongers have always known that we lived on borrowed time. As a British colony and then a supposedly semi-autonomous region under Beijing’s rule, Hong Kong and Hongkongers have never enjoyed political freedom outside of the confines of powerful sovereign states. Five years ago, I joined tens of thousands of other Hongkongers on the annual July […]