Sup China have published the following artice. Yet another canary in the coalmine for companies wishing to operate in the city
The anaconda in the chandeliers: The Hong Kong National Security Law and its implications for middle powers
In May 2021, an Israeli company became the first documented case of China imposing free expression limitations on a foreign business under the 2020 Hong Kong National Security Law. Tuvia Gering argues that democracies must research the law and its implications to ensure that their citizens are not prosecuted for exercising their basic rights.
At the request of Hong Kong police, the Nasdaq-listed Israeli software company Wix disabled a pro-democracy website on May 31, 2021. The details of the case were revealed three days later by Hong Kong activist and former legislator Nathan Law (??? Luó Gu?nc?ng) from his place of refuge in London.
During those three days, Law unsuccessfully pleaded with the company to restore the website, but Wix claimed to be acting on orders. The site was back and running three hours after the dissident shared the company’s responses with his 285,000 followers on Twitter, and the company issued an apology.
Just in the last decade, a large number of Western brands and private entities that rely on the Chinese market have sacrificed their freedom of expression — and even groveled — for the sake of their bottom line, only to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in the process.
Businesses and corporations are not the only ones feeling the heat. According to the Wall Street Journal, LinkedIn notified at least 10 foreign China scholars, including an Israeli academic, that their profiles had been blocked or that their content had been removed.
Furthermore, an investigation on IDF radio revealed in July that several Israeli academics admitted to self-censorship when writing or speaking about China. Some claimed they did so to avoid losing funding and access to the mainland, while others stated they were under direct pressure by the Chinese embassy in Tel Aviv.
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