Michael Ng on Empires Collaborate: Geopolitics of Colonial Policing in Hong Kong (1880s–1970s) (CUP book chapter)

"Empires Collaborate: Geopolitics of Colonial Policing in Hong Kong (1880s–1970s)"
Michael Ng
in Weitseng Chen (ed) and Hualing Fu (ed), Regime Type and Beyond: The Transformation of Police in Asia, (Cambridge University Press, May 2023), pp. 291-315

Summary: To date, most scholarly work on historical Hong Kong policing has focused on the relationship between the governing and governed within a local setting. This approach explains policing solely within the confines of the juxtaposition of the authoritarian power of the colonial government on the one hand with the individual rights and liberties of the colonized on the other. This chapter, which draws upon archival documents from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries showing how public media in Hong Kong were systematically censored, placed under police surveillance, and prosecuted for political reasons, argues that collaboration among the imperial empires to safeguard their interests in East Asia contributed significantly to Hong Kong policing during that period. Hence, this chapter argues that Hong Kong policing was historically not solely a matter of domestic authoritarian governance but also an issue of global geopolitical relevance. Analyzing colonial Hong Kong policing based on the conventional framework of human rights or colonial inequality and racism without considering the bigger picture of global and regional politics is, this chapter argues, seriously inadequate. The bigger picture is the political-economic situation of China, China’s relations with the major world powers, and those powers’ China strategies over time, as this chapter’s archival discovery will discuss.

Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts on RTHK Agender Café (a Media KE event) to discuss the Report by TALK on child sex abuse in Hong Kong (KE)

Introduction: Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts was involved in the research and publication of the report by TALK on child sex abuse in Hong Kong. Consequently, Taura (the founder of TALK) and Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts were on RTHK Agender Café (podcast) in November 2022 to discuss the report.  To view the RTHK session on Facebook, click here.

New Report Sheds Light on Child Sexual Abuse in Hong Kong: 
Understanding the Magnitude and Impact of the Problem

Child sexual abuse is a serious and pervasive problem that affects children of all ages, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Unfortunately, despite its prevalence, child sexual abuse is often underreported and misunderstood. In an effort to better understand the magnitude of this issue in Hong Kong, a new report has been released that brings together recent data and trends from surveys and official departments and bureaus records.

     The report, entitled "Child Sexual Abuse in Hong Kong: What We Do and Do Not Know," was produced by TALK Hong Kong, a volunteer peer-led group of women/femme survivors of sexual abuse and assault founded in Hong Kong in 2019. TALK provides support group meetings and undertakes advocacy work on related issues, believing that to tackle child sexual abuse we must understand its causes, scope, scale, and impact. The organization's purpose is to collate the evidence on child sexual abuse in Hong Kong into a single report that can inform the development of prevention efforts.

      This report was produced without any funding and with the pro bono support of, amongst others, Darcy Lynn Davison-Roberts, Senior Lecturer at The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law & TALK Hong Kong Advisory Network.

      The report highlights the lack of comprehensive and accurate data on child sexual abuse in Hong Kong, which is a barrier to understanding the true extent of the problem and developing effective prevention strategies. However, the report's authors hope that by bringing together the available data and trends, they can make a meaningful contribution to the conversation around child sexual abuse in Hong Kong. They also intend to make this an annual report, to be updated on regular basis and in this way, provide a clearer picture of the situation.

      This inaugural report serves as an important resource for anyone working to understand and address child sexual abuse in Hong Kong. It provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge on the issue and highlights areas where further research is needed. By working together and sharing information, we can hope to make progress in preventing child sexual abuse and providing support to those who have been affected by it.

     Taura Edgar, the founder of TALK Hong Kong and Darcy Davison-Roberts, appeared on RTHK’s Agender Café, where they shared results of the report and the work they've been doing to help bring the issue of child sexual abuse out of the darkness, by providing valuable insights and perspectives on the problem of child sexual abuse in Hong Kong, and discussed the various ways in which individuals and organizations can take action to prevent abuse and support survivors. 
To view the report, click  here. 

To view the RTHK interview, click here. 

Richard Cullen on White Man’s Media: Anxious and Aggressive (Pearls and Irritations)

This is one of a number of  articles in a series on White Man’s Media which is running at Pearls & Irritations. Articles in the series can be found here.

White Man’s Media: anxious and aggressive

by

Richard Cullen

Published at Pearls and Irritations in Australia

It is useful to recall how so much Western media coverage, from Hong Kong, of the deeply intimidating, three-month shut-down of arterial roads in 2014 and the unremitting violence of the 2019 multi-month insurrection was, in each case, dominated, first, by a constant retelling of narratives supplied by the activists and secondly, by intense coverage of all perceived lapses in official and police reactions. Added to this was a steady degree of media support for the protestors – regularly spilling over into acclamation – regardless, typically, of the unfolding disruption, chaos and destruction.

     It is inconceivable that coverage by the mainstream media in the US or UK, or elsewhere in the West, would have been remotely this tilted had these events unfolded on their own doorstep, rather than on China’s doorstep.

    Next, imagine, today, a leader in the New York Times (NYT) accurately observing that:

America’s appalling response to the COVID pandemic has cost the US trillions of dollars and thousands of preventable deaths. If only we had looked to and learned from China.

You certainly have to imagine this for it will never appear. In fact, the NYT has recently moved from repeatedly dismissing the Wuhan lab-leak conspiracy theory as fevered blame-averting by the Trump administration to arguing robustly that this is now a matter in need of serious revisiting.

     Why, though, has this remarkable U-turn materialized? A pivotal aspect of the explanation is that history and current polling indicate that the Biden Democrats face a serious risk of losing their slim majorities in either the House of Representatives or the Senate – or both – in the mid-term elections due in November, 2022. Now that Trump is gone, the far-reaching anti-Trump media machine can get seriously behind Joe Biden. Re-energizing the (once derided) Wuhan lab-leak conspiracy theory provides an opportune argument, blessed with significant Sino-phobic potential to spur Democrat voter turnout and support in 2022... Click here to read the full article.

     

In the News: Director of HKU's Centre for Chinese Law, Dr Angela Zhang, Comments on Recent China Anti-trust Law Developments

Dr Angela Zhang, Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Chinese Law, has been sharing her knowledge on Chinese anti-trust law and her views on the US-China relations.  A collection of her recent articles, interviews, and comments reported in the international media is found below:

· China is Leaning into Antitrust Regulation to Stay Competitive with the U.S., Fortune, 9 February 2021

· Why Is China Cracking Down on Alibaba?, Project Syndicate, 2 February 2021

· The Dangerous Legal War Posing a New Threat to China-US Relations, Nikkei Asia, 1 February 2021

· China's Alibaba Probe Is Not All Bad News , Nikkei Asia, 8 January 2021

· In China, Behave or Face a Campaign, Bloomberg, 7 January 2021

· Should China Wield Antitrust Laws to Counter US Attacks on Huawei Amid Global Tech Competition? South China Morning Post, May 26, 2020

· ByteDance’s Douyin Sues Tencent, Claiming Antitrust Violations, krASIA, 3 February, 2021

· China Antitrust: ByteDance and Tencent Legal Battle Seen as Potential Landmark Case, South China Morning Post, 3 February, 2021

· ByteDance Files Lawsuit Against Tencent in Tit-for-tat Battle, Financial Times, 3 February, 2021

· China’s Big Tech Clampdown: Why Some Businesses Stand to Benefit, Aljazeera, 26 January, 2021

· China is Joining the Global Push to Rein in Tech Giants, The Wall Street Journal, 24 January, 2021

· Why China’s Central Bank Leads Antitrust Drive and How this May Affect Alipay, WeChat Pay, South China Morning Post, 22 January  2021

· China’s Approval of Cisco-Acacia Deal Conditional on Fair Competition but also an Olive Branch to Joe Biden, South China Morning Post, 22 January, 2021

· China’s Startups Hope Tech Crackdown Creates New Opportunities, Bloomberg, 21 January , 2021

· Crackdown on Jack Ma’s Empire Gathers Pace Despite Reappearance, Financial Times, 21 January, 2021

· Do Fintech Giants Alipay and WeChat Pay have Monopoly Power? China’s New Regulation Leaves Experts Guessing, South China Morning Post, 21 January, 2021

· China’s Central Bank Proposes Antitrust Rules for Country’s Booming Online Payments Sector, Pandaily, 21 January, 2021

· China's Crackdown on Alibaba Goes Beyond Teaching Jack Ma a Lesson, S&P Global Market Intelligence, 19 January , 2021

· Trump’s Final Days Bring New Turmoil to U.S.-China Relations​, Bloomberg, 12 January, 2021

· China Brings in New Law to Fight Trump's Sanctions, BBC, 11 January, 2021

· China Launches Measures to Protect Companies from US Sanctions, Financial Times, 10 January, 2021

· Jack Ma's Absence Raises More Questions than it Answers Amid Ant and Alibaba Probe, The Straits Times, 9 January, 2021

· "Alibaba Antitrust Probe Presents New Challenges for China’s Regulators 12 Years after Implementation of Anti-monopoly Law", South China Morning Post, 7 January, 2021

· "Jack Ma was Almost Bigger than China. That's What Got Him into Trouble", CNN Business, 6 January, 2021

· "China’s Mighty State Monopolies Cast a Big Shadow over Private Enterprise, but will Antitrust Law and Vows of Reform Level the Playing Field?", South China Morning Post, 5 January , 2021

· "Mo money, Ma problems - Chinese Trustbusters’ Pursuit of Alibaba is only the Start", The Economist, 2 Jan 2021

· "Alibaba: a Chinese Success Story comes under Scrutiny", TRT World, 25 December, 2020

· "全球掀起反壟斷風潮　何時輪到香港？", 香港01, 21 December, 2020

· "Don't Expect an 'Explosion of Cases' from China's Antitrust Push: Professor", cnbc.com, 23 November , 2020

Angela Zhang on The Role of Media in Antitrust: Evidence from China (Fordham Int’l L.J.)

"The Role of Media in Antitrust: Evidence from China"

Angela Zhang

Fordham International Law Journal

2018, Vol 41, Issue 2, pp. 473 - 530

Abstract: This Article examines the media, a neglected but important institution that plays a role in influencing Chinese antitrust enforcement. Drawing from the methodology used in communication studies, the Article conducted a content analysis of 1,394 news reports on six high-profile Chinese antitrust investigations from 2008 to 2015. The findings demonstrate that in reporting antitrust investigations, Chinese media tends to be biased against firms under investigation. Instead of providing a balanced and objective account of the story, the media was an effective conduit for amplifying the populist concern, and aided and abetted the regulator in advancing its enforcement. The Article argues that such an outcome is driven by at least three factors: the regulator’s strategic leakage of information to state-controlled media, the rarity of public dissents of agency decisions, and the populist pressures for lower prices and nationalism. See full text here.