An interesting not-too-long but thorough report by Samuel Bickett – Asia’s Walled City: The Erosion of Transparency in Hong Kong. It covers a wide range of subjects, including: weakening freedom of information; removal of material from government websites and reports; removal of China risk disclosure requirements by the stock exchange; removal of info on private company directors; official orders to block websites; and paid spectators limiting access to trials.
Among possible future threats, the report mentions legislation on ‘fake news’, closed trials, registration of journalists, and broader Internet censorship. The picture is mixed…
As of now, fake news legislation seems to be on the backburner, particularly as the Article 23 NSL authorizes the government to significantly curtail media it disagrees with through sedition charges and other means.
…while the worst fears about secret trials have thus far not come to pass, it is certainly possible, if not likely, that the trial access currently enjoyed by the press and public will be curtailed in the future.
Interestingly, he does not foresee Mainland-style restrictions on Internet access…
…It is unlikely that the government will extend the Mainland’s Great Firewall to Hong Kong … there are technical limitations that make this very difficult to do. Unlike the Mainland, where the Internet has been physically structured around a small number of input and output points, countless such points lead in and out of Hong Kong. Many of these points are controlled by foreign companies, and it would be challenging to extend government control over them. Additionally, the government is unlikely in the near-term to even want to excessively control the Internet … the government has made clear its intention to continue to attract business and investment to the city. Transforming the nature of the city’s Internet would put those efforts at greater risk, with minimal gain since the government can continue to target individual offending sites via blocking orders to ISPs.
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Update on the Talent schemes. On my way to Sally Army store on a HA estate in Sha Tin on Saturday I was accosted by a tall, presentable young man. “You English?”. Nodded as I thought he might want to practice his language skills and I don’t mind giving ten minutes to furthering cross border relations.
He then used translation on his mobile and showed me the screen. “I am a student from Shanghai, can you give me some money, I have not found a job’!
On your bike.
Folk at the store were very surprised as there had been no reports of begging on the estate, but then gweilos are thin on the ground there.
On the guy’s part, he learnt that we are not all a soft touch, as have the panhandlers who jump on white folk coming through the gates at TST MTR.
Bickett is wrong about the “countless such points lead in and out of Hong Kong”. There are exactly 12 internet cables that connect HK to the world, and they come ashore at just 8 points. It would not be technically insurmountable to firewall these and I have not the slightest doubt plans and equipment are ready for if (when) the Emperor decrees it necessary.
It is safe to assume that the internet inside HK is already monitored (as it is in, say, the US); hence the increasing use of encrypted apps, VPNs and intelligent OpSec.
Or you can pretend that you don’t live in a Leninist dictatorship.