Political Censorship in British Hong Kong: Freedom of Expression and the Law (18421997) (Law in Context)

Drawing on archival materials, Michael Ng challenges the widely accepted narrative that freedom of expression in Hong Kong is a legacy of British rule of law. Demonstrating that the media and schools were pervasively censored for much of the colonial period and only liberated at a very late stage of British rule, this book complicates our understanding of how Hong Kong came to be a city that championed free speech by the late 1990s. With extensive use of primary sources, the free press, freedom of speech and judicial independence are all revealed to be products of Britain's China strategy. Ng shows that, from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, Hong Kong's legal history was deeply affected by China's relations with world powers. Demonstrating that Hong Kong's freedoms drifted along waves of change in global politics, this book offers a new perspective on the British legal regime in Hong Kong. "Introduction Around noon on 3 June 1919, nine schoolboys aged eight to seventeen walked westwards along Queen's Road in the Central District of Hong Kong clad in their school uniforms and holding open oil-paper umbrellas made in mainland China. The umbrellas featured Chinese characters reading 'Chinese people should buy native goods' The boys attracted the attention of passers-by, with more than 100 joining them to form an impromptu parade. They also attracted the attention of a police inspector surnamed Brazil who stopped the crowd and asked one of the students whether he had obtained a permit. The student said no, but that one of their teachers had instructed them to march. Inspector Brazil arrested the nine students on the spot and then went to the teacher's residence to arrest him as well"-- Provided by publisher. List of Figures page | x List of Tables | xii Acknowledgements | xiii List of Abbreviations | xv Introduction | 1 1 Punitive Censorship and Libel Lawsuits against the Press | 13 2 ‘Reading Every Line’: Era of the Daily Vetting of Newspaper Proofs | 27 3 ‘Communist China Now Contiguous to Hong Kong’: Censorship Imposed by the ‘Free World’ | 55 4 ‘Patriotism to You Can Be Revolutionary Heresy to Us’: Hardened Control of Media, Schools and Entertainment | 87 5 Preparing to Negotiate with China: Overt Loosening and Covert Control | 127 6 Liberating Hong Kong for China: De-silencing the City | 164 Conclusion and Epilogue | 190 Glossary of Chinese Newspapers | 197 Bibliography | 199 Index | 208