'Slippery slope once you start internet censorship': US envoy warns Hong Kong moving to China-style curbs

The top American diplomat in Hong Kong has raised concerns about escalating internet censorship within the city, highlighting worries that China’s suppression of freedoms is eroding its status as a global financial center.

In his interview to Bloomberg, the first since assuming office in 2022, US Consul General Gregory May warned that connectivity problems and anxieties regarding data security have led certain American enterprises to resort to burner phones and laptops during visits to the formerly unrestricted enclave.

“Hong Kong is starting to go down the slope of trying to take certain content off the internet and blocking certain websites,” Bloomberg quoted May as saying on Thursday.

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“It is kind of a slippery slope once you start that internet censorship. Where does that end?” he asked.

The government’s efforts to eliminate the presence of “Glory to Hong Kong,” a song popularised during the 2019 anti-government protests, from the city’s internet has brought into focus the operational risks facing Western tech giants like Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc.

Additionally, some of Hong Kong’s internet service providers have blocked access to a few websites, including those of the UK-based rights group Hong Kong Watch, with officials justifying such measures on national security grounds.

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While Hong Kong’s internet remains predominantly open, the initial restrictions have raised concerns that the stringent controls observed in mainland China—where numerous Western platforms are inaccessible and government censors routinely remove content critical of the regime—could extend into Hong Kong.

The critique from an American diplomat comes at a time when Hong Kong is striving to strengthen its position as a global business hub and revive its economy by attracting tourists.

The city’s international reputation has suffered due to years of pandemic-related isolation, resulting in a drain of talent, and a broad crackdown on political freedoms, turning it into a focal point in the tense relationship between the world’s two superpowers.

“Releasing Jimmy Lai and these other people facing jail for political expression — releasing them would do more to improve Hong Kong’s image than all the financial summits and tourism promotion campaigns put together," Bloomberg quoted May as saying.

Pro-democracy activist Lai, 76, is facing life in prison under a national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.

May, a career diplomat who worked as a journalist before serving in mainland Chinese cities Shenyang and Guangzhou, called on the government to reassure businesses it was committed to a free and open internet and business-friendly data controls.

“We definitely want to have a better relationship with Hong Kong. We just need Hong Kong to stop the slide,” May told Bloomberg, referring to the city’s restrictions on freedoms.

“While we want the economic relation to continue to do well, frankly, our priority is more in the political space,” he added.

The US has sanctioned the city’s leader John Lee over President Xi Jinping’s clampdown on dissent, while Beijing has accused Washington of orchestrating mass protests against Communist Party influence that rocked the hub in 2019.

Congress last year passed a bill that could shut down Hong Kong’s three economic and trade offices in the US if the financial hub isn’t deemed significantly autonomous from Beijing.

With inputs from agencies