Near downtown Hong Kong, about a kilometer away from where Prince Edward Road East crosses the Kai Tak River, lies a historical artifact in the form of a lush and serene public space: Kowloon Walled City Park. A wandering tourist might find its name a bit strange. Kowloon — sure. Park — makes sense. But […]
Tag: hong kong
Beyond APEC, Protestors Stand in Solidarity
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, held in San Francisco from November 11-17, gathered leaders from its 21 member states to deliberate on regional economic issues. On the morning of November 15, President Biden and Xi held their talk at Filoli Garden to discuss economic cooperation as well as topics including fentanyl, artificial intelligence, climate […]
Clipping Hong Kong’s Wings: Cathay Pacific’s Downward Spiral, and How Hong Kong Will Suffer
The image of a Cathay Pacific 747 on final approach towards Kai Tak Airport, making a sweeping turn over Checkerboard Hill, mere feet above the sprawling concrete apartments and neon signs of Kowloon, forever remains ingrained in the consciousness of Hongkongers as a symbol of their city. Today, people can no longer witness this sight […]
A New Era of Hong Kong
“Two-thousand and eighty-five votes in favor, zero against, and one abstention. [The bill is] passed!” On March 11, 2021, nearly 3,000 Chinese lawmakers passed the “decision on improving the electoral system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region” at the Fourth Session of the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC). The NPC, according to China’s Constitution, […]
Resistance Beyond Borders: HK19 Meets Myanmar’s Anti-Coup Movement
The recent Myanmar Coup is hardly unprecedented. Myanmar was governed by a military dictatorship from 1962 to 2011, leaving the country under the iron fist of the Tatmadaw, the Burmese Military. The strength of the Tatmadaw was enshrined by the 2008 Constitution, which guarantees one third of parliamentary seats to the military, reserves leadership of […]
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: How the United States Discards E-Waste
It’s all about the new. Increasingly, the people of the United States want the latest technology; every time tech giants like Apple and Samsung release new devices, hundreds of thousands flock to buy them, often discarding their old devices by simply throwing them in the trash. Everyday, Americans throw out over 350,000 cell phones and […]
The Constitutional Dimension of “One Country, Two Systems:” The Interpretation of the Basic Law by Beijing
(This piece is inspired by a podcast episode produced by UPenn Center for the Study of Contemporary China, where Prof. Johannes Chan from HKU Faculty of Law discusses the rule of law in Hong Kong.) China’s resumption of the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong is a historical political experiment, and one challenge is to […]
Chinese Censorship Comes Stateside
The general manager of the Houston Rockets basketball team, Daryl Morey, triggered a firestorm in China when he tweeted: “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.” His actions saw Chinese businesses cutting ties with him, the Rockets and the NBA. Morey even saw criticism from the Chinese government itself. Ultimately, the tweet was deleted and […]
Political Reform and Dialogue: Hong Kong Government’s Only Way Out of Its Legitimacy Crisis
The civil unrest that burst on June 9, when over one million people took to the streets, has been scourging Hong Kong for four months, and there is no indication that the strife is likely to subside within the foreseeable future. The ongoing turbulence is Hong Kong’s people’s direct response to a controversial fugitive bill, […]
One Country, How Many Systems?
September of 2014 saw Hong Kong’s gleaming central business district, one of the most important financial hubs in the world, turn into a virtual conflict zone, replete with shouting mobs, police in riot gear, and clouds of tear gas. In an atmosphere of discontent for the national government in Beijing, Hong Kongers took to the […]
The Trouble of Localism in Hong Kong
A giant locust sits perched upon a mountain, the Hong Kong cityscape in the distance. Next to it, bold black lettering asks, “Are you willing to let Hong Kong spend a million Hong Kong dollars every eighteen minutes on bringing up anchor babies?” Spanning a full page, this provocative advert ran in the popular Chinese-language […]
The King of Kong
China has long struggled to contain separatist movements around its periphery. Until now, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) focus has been on deterring activists and leaders in Tibet and the northwestern region of Xinjiang, while militarily dissuading Taiwan, where it has never held sway, from formalizing its independence. In Tibet and Xinjiang, the Party uses […]
Doomed to Fail: why Hong Kong’s street protests hurt more than they help
Fires, tension, warning shots fired into the night: the 2016 “fishball riot” is the latest in a long line of destructive clashes between democratic activists and the Hong Kong police. Unfortunately, the violence is sending Hong Kong down a path democracy can’t follow. 2016 marks the 19th year Hong Kong has been part of China; […]