{"id":15708,"date":"2019-12-13T20:39:46","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T12:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/?p=15708"},"modified":"2021-06-23T17:16:28","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T09:16:28","slug":"borderline-terrors-editors-note","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/2019\/12\/borderline-terrors-editors-note\/","title":{"rendered":"Border Terrors – Editor’s Note"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seven months after one million people took to the streets of Hong Kong against the now-withdrawn extradition bill, protesters show no sign of backing down from their fight for democratic reform and resistance to Beijing\u2019s tightening control over the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong people\u2019s chronic mistrust and fear of the authoritarian\nChinese government are deepened by a series of events taking place during the\nmonths-long protest movement. Employees who showed support for pro-democracy\nprotests were fired by companies with business operations in China. A British\nconsulate worker was detained for 15 days on a trip to Shenzhen and said he was\ntortured by Mainland authorities. China\u2019s top legislative body said Hong Kong\ncourts have no right to rule the constitutionality of the city\u2019s laws. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong people are fearful of losing their freedoms and being fully\nintegrated with the Chinese mainland, which has driven hundreds of thousands to\njoin the protests for the past half a year.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Periscope section sheds light on the city\u2019s sentiment of fear\nand its trembling autonomy under the shadow of China. We try to understand the\ndeep-rooted anxiety among many in Hong Kong and how it finds an echo in the\nongoing political turmoil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since June, Hong Kong people have reported being intercepted by immigration officers when entering the Mainland. They were asked to unlock their cell phones. Once any \u201cpolitically sensitive\u201d materials were found, they would face detention at the checkpoint. We reach out to travellers and tour organisers to learn about their experiences, worries and how the searches interfere with their travel plans.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fear of phone checks and interrogation also haunts Hong Kong\nstudents who are required to have lessons or internship training in China. Out\nof concerns for personal safety as well as growing tensions between the city and\nChina, students are trying to distance themselves from the Mainland. We talk to\nstudents and teachers to hear about the debate over the necessity of\nuniversities having joint study programmes with China\u2019s educational\ninstitutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong\u2019s business sector also comes under pressure from\nBeijing. A striking example is China\u2019s aviation authority requesting Cathay Pacific to ban all\nemployees who supported or took part in the recent protests from flying over China\u2019s\nairspace. Over 30 Cathay employees have lost their jobs for expressing sympathy for\nHong Kong protesters on social media. We speak with former Cathay employees and\nlabour activists on how the climate of fear is changing the way people do\nbusiness and work in the city crowned as the world\u2019s freest economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This issue of Varsity<\/em> also features a wide range of stories\n– from the stress of toddlers to end-of-life treatment, and from community\nscreenings to the profile of designer Kevin Cheung Wai-chun. We also explore\nthe charms of Japanese repairing art Kintsugi and a creative local residence.\nEnjoy the read! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gloria Li<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managing Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seven months after one million people took to the streets of Hong Kong against the now-withdrawn extradition bill, protesters show no sign of backing down from their fight for democratic reform and resistance to Beijing\u2019s tightening control over the city. Hong Kong people\u2019s chronic mistrust and fear of the authoritarian Chinese government are deepened by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,1802],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editor-note","category-issue-154"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15708"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15792,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15708\/revisions\/15792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}