Image by Mstyslav Chernov http://mstyslav-chernov.com/

It is no secret that China pursues a rigorous censorship policy. But does the same apply to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region? As recently as 2019, Hong Kong was rated much better than China in terms of press freedom by „Reporters Without Borders“. You might therefore think that Hong Kong is freer than China when it comes to dealing with censorship.

Current events prove otherwise. A new security law has been in place in Hong Kong since 2020. It came into force following mass protests for more democracy. This tightening of the law has led to more convictions and activists fleeing the country. Since December 2023, for example, activist and publisher Jimmy Lai has to stand his ground in court in Hong Kong. He is accused of violating the security law.

According to „Reporters Without Borders“, Hong Kong’s press freedom has fallen from 74th to 140th out of a total of 180 in the last four years (China is in second to last place). This shows how drastically the situation of freedom of expression in Hong Kong has deteriorated.

As students at the University of Kassel, we have compiled almost 200 books in our research on banned books in Hong Kong, including those that were banned after 2020. These censored books include topics such as the 1989 Tiananmen massacre or LGBTQ+-related content.

Our data is based on lists from Goodreads and publications from the Hong Kong Free Press as of December 2023. As the censorship situation is very opaque, changeable and arbitrary, these lists are subject to constant change.

Die Kasseler Liste, March 2024