The Sad State of Press Freedom in Hong Kong after Twenty-Five Years of Chinese Rule

Despite promises to the contrary, China has truncated press freedom in Hong Kong.

When it recovered Hong Kong from the United Kingdom in 1997, China promised the formerly independent city-state that it would still enjoy freedom of the press, among other freedoms, for half a century. On July 1, 1997, more than 7,000 journalists came to Hong Kong to cover its reversion to Chinese governance after more than a century of British rule. On the 25th anniversary of the transition, Chinese president Xi Jin Ping spoke of the handover as the launch of Hong Kong’s “true democracy.”

However, authorities tightly controlled media coverage of the anniversary celebration, refusing on grounds of “security” to accredit more than a dozen journalists from among hundreds of both local and international reporters seeking to cover the event. Chinese authorities...