The open web was a competitive advantage. The Great Firewall is coming and with it everything that made Hong Kong different
The Open City
There are 24 countries in the world where Facebook, Google, YouTube, Twitter and most major Western news sites are freely accessible without a virtual private network. Hong Kong has been one of them. While citizens in mainland China live behind the Great Firewall – one of the most extensive systems of internet censorship ever constructed – Hong Kongers have always been able to access the open internet, communicate freely and receive information from international sources without restriction. This was not a trivial distinction. It was a structural competitive advantage that underpinned Hong Kong’s role as an international financial center, shaped its entrepreneurial culture and was a direct expression of the “one country, two systems” promise. That advantage is now under explicit threat.
What the Firewall Does to an Economy
The economic cost of internet censorship is not hypothetical. A 2019 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research estimated that China’s internet controls cost the economy roughly 1.3 trillion yuan in foregone productivity annually. The information economy runs on the free movement of data. Financial analysts need access to international data sources. Lawyers need to research foreign case law. Journalists need to contact overseas sources. Businesses need to access global platforms for commerce, communication and market intelligence. All of these activities are impeded behind the Firewall. Hong Kong’s freedom from that impairment is one of the reasons it outperformed every mainland Chinese city as a global financial and professional services hub.
VPN Use Already Normalized
Hong Kong’s National Security Law explicitly extends to digital communications. Individuals have been arrested for social media posts, charged with sedition for messages sent on private platforms and investigated for online activity deemed to endanger national security. The result, documented by Freedom House, is a dramatic increase in self-censorship online. Hong Kongers have learned to assume their digital communications may be monitored and to calibrate what they say accordingly. VPN usage has surged as residents seek to maintain access to platforms they fear may be restricted and to communicate with overseas contacts with a degree of privacy. The psychological effect of this surveillance environment is a chilling of the free expression that drives innovation.
Social Media Prosecutions
Multiple individuals in Hong Kong have been arrested and charged under the National Security Law and Article 23 for posts on Facebook, Telegram and other social media platforms. Some of those charged had relatively small followings and no organizational connections to any political group. Their prosecution was possible because the laws are deliberately broad – “sedition” requires no intent to incite violence, only content that a court finds likely to “stir up hatred” against the government. When the legal standard for criminal speech is that broad, the only rational response for someone who values their freedom is not to express opinions online at all. That is not a coincidence. It is the design.
Journalists Cannot Use Normal Tools
International journalists working in Hong Kong have reported increasing difficulty conducting basic reporting tasks that were unremarkable five years ago: contacting sources by phone or message, accessing foreign websites for background research, using encrypted communications with overseas editors. The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks China as the world’s worst jailer of journalists. That record is being extended into Hong Kong, where the combination of broad security laws, digital surveillance and self-censorship has created a media environment in which genuinely independent reporting is increasingly impossible.
The Tech Sector’s Dependence on Open Information
Hong Kong’s aspirations to become a technology and innovation hub depend fundamentally on unrestricted access to global information flows. Software developers need access to GitHub and international documentation. Startup founders need to communicate freely with international investors. Researchers need unimpeded access to academic databases and pre-print servers. Financial technology companies need real-time access to global market data. None of these requirements can be met behind a Firewall. China’s experience confirms this. Despite massive government investment in its domestic technology sector, China’s mainland tech companies remain largely unable to compete at the global frontier of artificial intelligence, biotechnology and financial technology – in part because their researchers and engineers operate in an information environment that systematically excludes them from global knowledge networks.
The International Finance Center That Requires Open Information
The Fraser Institute includes freedom of information as a component of economic freedom because information is capital. In a modern economy, the ability to receive, process and act on accurate information without government interference is as fundamental to prosperity as the ability to enter into contracts or hold property. The extension of China’s information controls into Hong Kong – even partial, even gradual – represents a real economic cost. Every restriction on the flow of information is a tax on the knowledge economy, and Hong Kong’s knowledge economy is precisely the asset that distinguishes it from every other city in China. If Hong Kong becomes merely a node in Beijing’s controlled information environment rather than a gateway to the global open internet, it loses the last meaningful feature that justifies its special status. At that point, the only question is how long the pretense of “one country, two systems” can be maintained before the international community stops pretending it exists.
Sze Wing Lee
Digital Media & Technology Journalist, Apple Daily UK
Contact: szewing.lee@appledaily.uk
Sze Wing Lee is a digital media and technology journalist specializing in online platforms, information integrity, and digital culture. Educated at a top-tier Chinese journalism school, she trained in digital reporting tools, verification techniques, and media ethics.
Her work with Apple Daily and other liberal Chinese publications includes reporting on social media ecosystems, online censorship, cybersecurity awareness, and digital activism. Sze Wing’s reporting combines technical literacy with careful sourcing and contextual explanation.
She has newsroom experience covering rapidly evolving digital issues, where speed must be balanced with accuracy. Editors value her disciplined fact-checking and clarity in explaining complex technologies.
At Apple Daily UK, Sze Wing Lee provides trustworthy digital journalism grounded in professional experience, technical competence, and responsible reporting standards.
