Recent
Antony Dapiran is a Hong Kong-based writer, photographer and lawyer. He is the author of "City on Fire: The Fight for Hong Kong" (Scribe, 2020). Antony has written and presented extensively on Hong Kong and Chinese politics, culture and business, with his writing appearing in The Atlantic, New Statesman, Foreign Policy, and The Guardian, among many others. A fluent Mandarin speaker, he has resided between Hong Kong and Beijing for over twenty years.
Recent
Uncertainty about the implications a new law could undermine the city’s hard-won status as an international legal center.
China’s new security law makes life near impossible for the territory’s pan-democrats.
If Hong Kong has become a pawn between the US and China, it is because Carrie Lam and her government have allowed it.
Days after China moved to enact new security laws, Hong Kong’s police refused permission for an annual vigil honoring the victims of the Tiananmen Square protests.
The new national security law threatens Hong Kong’s autonomy and way of life.
The gap between the mainland and the city is closing fast.
Hong Kong stands at a crossroads, its people emboldened by last year’s protests and infuriated by government culpability for the virus.
As Hong Kong’s protest movement passed the six-month mark and the year drew to a close, the question of what name to give a movement that began in June 2019 becomes a vexed one for editors and reporters, academics, and commentators.
The soundtrack of this year's Hong Kong protests marks a somber turn from the Umbrella Movement
Previous demonstrations in the city were colorful, hopeful, and exuberant. Rallies this summer have been more forlorn.
Peaceful protests like this human chain help to counteract the violence and cynicism shrouding the city.
Beijing appears set for a war of attrition, a war in which all of the tools of China’s state power are being brought to bear.
Away from the current clashes between police and protesters, artists and digital activists are using parodies and humor to protest the crackdown.
The strategies of Hong Kong protesters, honed through weekly clashes with police, offer a masterclass to activists worldwide.
Hong Kong
In the most chaotic week since the current anti-government protest movement began almost six months ago, the city’s streets were lit with burning barricades, petrol bombs hurled at police lines, and cars torched. Hong Kong this week feels a city balanced on the edge of a precipice.
In Hong Kong’s “shoppers’ paradise”, malls have become a key site for protests, exposing an age-old conflict between profit and principle.
Attempts to introduce a new extradition law may have “died a natural death” but protesters grievances run far deeper.
Young activists in Hong Kong last week showed the world how easily a relatively small group of protesters can disrupt the government of a major financial centre. Activists around the world might want to take note.
As protests continue to rock Hong Kong, Beijing's efforts to contain the unrest and impose its narrative on the unfolding events, both at home and abroad, are beginning to have an impact-but perhaps not in the way that the Chinese leaders intended.
Compromise or crackdown are the only options left for Beijing.
There are signs Beijing intends to work with Hong Kong on issues such as housing. But without democratic reform, protests will intensify.
An independent commission of inquiry could help authorities to learn lessons and promote reconciliation.
Popular protests will keep recurring until Beijing meets the city’s long-suppressed aspirations for greater democracy.
The proposed law has provoked a response like no other in recent years. Here's why.
From the Leftist riots of the 1960s to an uprising that fought a "brainwashing" National Education system, Hongkongers have always protested. But has the government stopped caring?
Antony Dapiran writes for SupChina that Hong Kong is the only place in the world that is a part of, and yet apart from, China; a place where researchers, analysts, commentators, writers, and artists can be sufficiently close to China to be well informed, to feel the zeitgeist, yet to work in an environment where they can express themselves freely.
This week protesters in Hong Kong stormed the legislative council building and vandalised its main chamber on the anniversary of the island's 1997 return to Chinese rule. The demonstrations appeared meticulously organised, with protesters using hand signals and forming human chains to ferry supplies to the front lines.
The current Hong Kong protests represent the vanguard of the global challenge to Xi Jinping’s authority — Hong Kong’s young protesters are positioned at the very front lines of the global backlash described by Richard Mc Gregor in "Xi Jinping: The Backlash" (Penguin: 2019).
Meet Hong Kong as it really is, with Mainlanders moving in, Hong Kongers emigrating
The search for Hong Kong identity 20 years after the handover fuels the city's creativity.
Reflections on nostalgia in Hong Kong for the "Writing Hong Kong" special edition of Cha.
On June 16, an estimated 2 million people took to the streets to protest the Hong Kong government's handling of a proposed extradition bill. What do the protests mean for the future of Hong Kong? And what do they say about Hong Kong’s relationship with the mainland? A ChinaFile Conversation.
Beijing's top official in Hong Kong, Wang Zhimin, has called the protests a "life and death war" and compared them to the "color revolutions." What’s next for Hong Kong? And what is the likelihood the protests will end peacefully, or descend into further bloodshed?
A look back at Hong Kong in 2017, for the ANU Australian Centre on China in the World yearbook.
By Antony Dapiran You might not have noticed, but zombie invasions hit both South Korea and Hong Kong this past summer.
The traditional Hong Kong 1st July protest march continues despite Xi visit and hardening rhetoric from Beijing.
Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Hong Kong on Thursday to mark the 20th anniversary of the July 1, 1997 return of the territory to China from the United Kingdom.
A look back at Hong Kong in 2016, for the ANU Australian Centre on China in the World yearbook.
A ChinaFile Conversation following the election of Carrie Lam as chief executive of Hong Kong.
The NPC's hurried interpretation of Article 104 of the Basic Law may not be as definitive under Hong Kong law as Beijing hopes.
Hong Kong Umbrella Movement
While police tore down tents, a curious assembly took place on the roadside at a nearby freeway overpass.
While protesters' demands have not been met, their voices have been heard clearly, not just by Beijing, but by each other.
Is this the final chapter of the challenge to Beijing and its control of the former British colony or just the beginning?
Protest leaders seem to have accepted the inevitability of a forced end to their demonstration, but it's unlikely this will also mean the end of their movement.
The role of 'foreign forces' in Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests has Beijing deeply worried. But it's not the US or other foreign nations they're most concerned about.
Student protesters in Hong Kong are gaining a political education that will prepare them to be future leaders of the island.
Questions are intensifying about the long-term impact of the protests on business confidence in Hong Kong but so far the administration does not appear to have any strategy to resolve the current crisis beyond simply hoping it all goes away.
Occupy Central was intended as a well-organised protest beginning on October 1. But a student strike originally meant as a curtain raiser quickly morphed into the main event.
The view that the Taiwanese election results were primarily a result of the "China factor" has gotten a lot of play in the media, but it's not right.
China Business & Politics
The Chinese government long ago won its battle for complete control of information. This victory renders their treatment of Liu Xiaobo tragically redundant.
As the anti-graft campaign initiated by Chinese President Xi Jinping continues to snare targets big and small, many speculate that the crackdown is going beyond a short-term push to signal a "new normal" in China.
The business community has misunderstood the importance of the "negative list" system being applied in China's new Free Trade Zones.
Proposed changes to China's foreign investment regime could amount to the single largest reform since the beginning of the "opening and reform" era.
China is effectively removing the fetters for outbound investment, with a stroke making Chinese bidders more competitive in international M&A transactions.
Alibaba's corporate governance arrangements suggest an insecure and paranoid founder, intent on maintaining control of his company at all costs.
Alibaba's decision to list in the US appears to be a loss for HK. But there is a possible 'face saving' resolution that could yet see the online retail giant make its homecoming.
As China moves from manufacturer to consumer, foreign firms are coming into direct competition with domestic players. Plenty of evidence suggests they're getting treated unfairly.
Art Asia Pacific
Four Leading Figures Look Back on Chinese Art in the 1990s
Hong Kong authorities face the challenge of "illegal" art, from the King of Kowloon to the Umbrella Revolution.
Self-help measures for art market players when a contract is not an option
Artist resale rights are in the spotlight in Asia.
As several cities compete for the position of "Asia's art-market hub," one of the strategies adopted by the aspirants has been the introduction of freeport areas.