Closed book stores, cancelled shows: A sad silence descends on HK

Covid rules that kept visitors away, an exodus of citizens and China’s weakening economy.

Some foreign executives say authorities’ relentless focus on national security shows politics is trumping business, undermining the city’s efforts to revive its status as a global hub even as officials travel the world seeking to boost international confidence. Hong Kong’s postpandemic economic recovery has been tepid, its stock market is in a funk and companies have pulled money out of China.

Almost 200,000 Hong Kong citizens have applied to migrate to the U.K. since China imposed a national-security law on the city in 2020, with many already moving. Business owners have lamented a brain drain in professions from teaching to IT.

A survey published in September by recruitment agency Robert Walters Hong Kong said that more than half of Hong Kong professionals it polled were considering or planning to leave the city in the next five years.

“The desire to work overseas and gain international experience isn’t new, especially among young people, but it’s concerning to see such a large percentage of Hong Kong professionals considering leaving the city,” John Mullally, the agency’s managing director, said at the time.

For those that remain, the city’s character is changing bit by bit.

Since Beijing imposed a national-security law on Hong Kong in mid-2020 to quell the mass pro-democracy movement, dissent in public and on social media has all but vanished. At least 290 people have been arrested under the law, including dozens of opposition lawmakers, journalists and activists, many of whom have been detained for years without a conviction.

Police have called upon taxi drivers to report anyone they suspect to be involved in violence, terrorism or other crimes. There is a national-security hotline for tipoffs from the public that has received hundreds of thousands of reports.

Several independent bookstores known to support freedomofexpressionhavesaidtheir businesseshavebeentargetedby frequentgovernmentcheckson anything from land regulations towhethertheirbusinesslicense was clearly displayed.

Mount Zero bookstore, a small establishment nested under a sprawling banyan tree in a quiet but hip neighborhood near the central business district, is closing by the end of this month. Its owners said on social media they have been fielding government letters accusing them of minor infractions almost every week and had also received anonymous complaints.

The bookstore—which has the words, “Ideas are bulletproof,” emblazoned above its entrance—held outdoor poetry readings, book talks and weekend markets that sometimes drew police officers with cameras, visitors said.

Book Punch, another independent bookstore, said officers from various government agencies including the labor, fire and tax departments visited within a span of about 15 days in December.

The city’s arts community has seen a spate of dance and theater shows, whose members were known to be sympathetic to the city’s pro-democracy movement, canceled by their hosting organizations or venues, sometimes without a reason being given. One canceled show was to feature a group of deaf dancers whose leader had once interpreted a protest anthem in sign language.

The city’s longest-running drama awards had its public funding cut from an arts body that cited incidents at the show the previous year, the funding body said in January. Those included participants making references to creeping censorship in the city, and having a political cartoonist and a highprofile journalist as its guests of honor at the event.

For some, the latest law has added to uncertainties over what is still permissible.

During deliberations over the bill, lawmaker Rev. Peter Koon asked whether a priest must make a report if he listened to the confession of someone who might endanger national security. The city’s justice secretary, Paul Lam, responded saying it would be hard for the government to offer exemptions to religious or social workers, but only extreme scenarios like confessing to trying to overthrow the government are targeted.

That discussion led the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong to come out with a public statement to clarify that the new law won’t change the confidential nature of confessions at the church, while adding that it recognizes that citizens have an obligation to ensure national security.

Another debate sparked by Rev. Koon was asking whether peopleshoulddestroyoldpublicationscontainingseditiouscontent, such as copies of old Apple Daily newspapers published by mediatycoonJimmyLai,whois currently standing trial on national-security charges.

The city’s security chief said in response that it would be illegal to keep seditious material, although one possible defense would be if the holder had forgotten it was in their possession.

The government later said it would only be a crime if someone keeps a publication “without reasonable excuse,” slamming a headline in a British newspaper suggesting people could be jailed for keeping old newspapers.