SCIENCE sciencemag.org 10 JULY 2020 • VOL 369 ISSUE 6500 129PHOTO: ROY LIU/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES
NEWS | IN DEPTHT
he new security law China imposed
on Hong Kong last week has created
deep uncertainty in the city’s aca-
demic community. Some researchers
worry it could limit academic free-
dom in Hong Kong—along with free-
dom of speech and the right to protest—and
make it harder to attract scientific talent
from abroad. “We don’t know exactly how
the law will be implemented, but just the
perception and uncertainty that it creates
will be a problem for the universities,” says
Sun Kwok, a Hong Kong–born astronomer
who was dean of science at the University
of Hong Kong (HKU) for 10 years.
But others expect the law’s impact
on Hong Kong’s thriving academic
research to be minimal. While its
details need to be interpreted by the
courts, “I believe that academic re-
search grounded in scientific rigor
and thorough analysis of evidence
without bias should prevail,” says
Fanny Cheung, pro-vice-chancellor
for research at the Chinese Univer-
sity of Hong Kong (CUHK).
The law is China’s answer to the
monthslong demonstrations that
rocked Hong Kong starting in spring- Triggered by a proposed bill
that would have allowed extradition
of Hong Kongers to the mainland,
the protests eventually targeted a
long list of grievances, including
the lack of direct elections to choose
Hong Kong’s chief executive.
Although the law states that Hong
Kong’s tradition of free expression will be
protected, many worry about its empha-
sis on protecting national security. The
law gives authorities new powers to pun-
ish “secession, subversion, perpetration
of terrorist activities, and collusion with
a foreign country or with external entities
to endanger security.” Approved by China’s
National People’s Congress and signed by
President Xi Jinping on 30 June, the law
took effect that same day. Within hours,
Hong Kong authorities reportedly rounded
up hundreds of protesters.
In a joint statement issued in early
June, when the text of the law was not yet
known, the heads of five of Hong Kong’s
eight public universities—Lingnan Uni-
versity, CUHK, the Education University
of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, and HKU—wrote that they “un-
derstand the need for national security
legislation” but pledged, “Our universities
will continue to stand fast in upholding
the principles of academic freedom and in-
stitutional autonomy.”
Many expect repercussions. The law
“will play into the issue that we’ve had per-
suading people from North America who
are not ethnically Chinese to think about
coming to Hong Kong,” says Matthew
Evans, an ecologist and dean of science at
HKU. The ban on “colluding” with foreign
entities could discourage joint studies withforeign organizations disliked by Beijing
in areas such as environmental and food
safety research, says Chan King Ming, an
environmental scientist at CUHK. Evans
also worries about the U.S. decision, in
response to the law, to impose the same
restrictions on exports of sensitive tech-
nologies to Hong Kong as it does on China.
Those restrictions might affect imports of
laboratory equipment, he says.
Others fear more direct effects. The
Chinese government tries to control the
release of certain research results on the
mainland, notes Peter Baehr, a professor
of social theory at Lingnan University. In
what Baehr calls a “draconian action,” au-
thorities shut down the lab of Zhang Yong-
Zhen of Fudan University in Shanghai inJanuary after his group published the first
genome of the novel coronavirus without
authorization. Baehr worries China may
try to influence the dissemination of Hong
Kong research results as well.
Bruce Lui, a lecturer in journalism at
Hong Kong Baptist University, adds that
the mainland’s concept of national security
extends to such areas as economics. That
means Hong Kong scholars might have to
tread softly if reporting, for example, in-
flation statistics embarrassing to the gov-
ernment. “Politics and state stability come
first,” Lui says.
There could also be shifts in univer-
sity curricula. One article in the new law
calls for Hong Kong to “promote
national security education in
schools and universities,” though it
does not say how. “There have been
voices in certain political circles in
Hong Kong that liberal education
is to blame for the student unrest
in 2019,” Kwok says.
Some scholars are urging cau-
tion before pronouncing the death
of the “one country, two systems”
principle agreed on when sover-
eignty over Hong Kong was trans-
ferred from the United Kingdom to
China in 1997. “I believe we need to
wait before coming to that very se-
rious and in my view tragic conclu-
sion,” says one Hong Kong-based
foreign scientist who asked not to
be identified because of the politi-
cal sensitivities. He adds that the
law’s lack of detail is already lead-
ing to rampant speculation. As a result,
“Anyone who is able to leave is probably
considering it seriously,” he says. But an-
other senior academic says the few schol-
ars who have already left were motivated
not by the security law but “because of the
social unrest.”
Whatever happens next, Hong Kong’s
researchers shouldn’t engage in self-cen-
sorship, Kellee Tsai, dean of humanities
and social science at Hong Kong Univer-
sity of Science and Technology, wrote in
a 2 July message to her faculty and staff.
“There may well be non-obvious ‘red lines’
in Hong Kong’s higher education sector
that cannot be crossed without severe legal
consequences,” she said. “Let’s not draw
those lines ourselves.” jNew security law rattles Hong Kong universities
Researchers worry about academic freedom and city’s ability to attract foreign talent
By Dennis NormileCHINAPro-democracy lawmaker Andrew Wan was among hundreds arrested
in Hong Kong on 1 July during protests against a new security law.