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Beijing is betting expats will flock to the city despite China’s draconian media crackdown—but faced with censorship, many international elites could vote with their feet.
The Chinese government is making a high-stakes bid to force Hong Kong—long an outpost of freedom—into abject political and civic submission while sustaining the territory’s status as a global hub for finance and a gateway to the mainland’s vast markets.
But key features of Hong Kong’s cosmopolitanism—its free press, provisions for access to government data, and international media presence—are facing dire pressure and constraints, interrupting the flow of news and information that commerce and culture depend on.
Beijing has concluded Hong Kong’s traditionally diverse, freewheeling, and professional media sector threatens the drive to bring the territory’s venerable legal, political, and educational institutions—and its restive population—to heel.
As corporations weigh their responsibilities in relation to social justice and democracy in the United States, banks and businesses contemplating a future in Hong Kong should consider the moral and practical implications of remaining in a city where press freedom and professional journalism are being systematically snuffed out to enable a determined clampdown on democracy and freedom.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/05/03/killing-hong-kongs-free-press-will-harm-its-economy/