This article examines the policy effects of Hong Kong’s Statutory Minimum Wage (SMW) on underemployment, working hours, and wages. Using a Difference-in-Differences methodology on General Household Survey data (2011–2019), we assess five SMW adjustment cycles. We define a ‘most disadvantaged’ treatment group and a ‘less disadvantaged’ group based on the concentration of minimum wage earners in their industry-occupation cell, relative to an unaffected control group. Our findings show no significant increase in underemployment or reduction in working hours for either group. Wage effects were also contained, with inconsistent direct gains for the most disadvantaged group and no evidence of significant wage spillovers for the ‘less disadvantaged’ group. These findings indicate that the SMW and its adjustments in Hong Kong did not lead to the feared wage-job trade-off constraints; instead, they highlight the need to explore policy options for appropriate SMW increases to reduce economic inequality.

Hong Kong’s history remains contested during its decolonisation. The colonial government of Hong Kong, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and historians at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) all attempted to interpret the past in their own right. This article argues that the contest for epistemological territory between the Chinese and British colonial governments led to the fragmented accounts of Hong Kong history in official curricula. Unlike other cases, Hong Kong’s decolonisation did not result in independence. Instead, the United Kingdom transferred the colony’s sovereignty to the PRC in 1997. Both sides attempted to showcase their right and ability to shape the colony’s past. Instead of having an ultimate “winner,” both occupied a share of the epistemological territory regarding historical knowledge, producing fragmented accounts of the past. The article also recovers and examines the agency of locally trained historians. These people of Hong Kong did not have any chance to produce their own “autonomous history” precisely because of the impossibility of independence. This process resulted in the partially decolonised yet censored historical narratives that persist in Hong Kong under Chinese rule. Through this case, this article calls for further discussion of what ‘decolonisation’ meant for actors beyond the state.

Political control is pervasive in authoritarian contexts; however, the use of economic instruments as a means of political repression has been underexplored. Embedded in Hong Kong’s political upheavals triggered by the 2019 extradition bill, this paper underpins the erosion of Hong Kong’s political environment by analysing economic pressure exerted on businesses, or ‘economic repression’, to eliminate, convert, and/or silence their dissenting behaviour. Drawing on Earl’s repression typology, it distinguishes between two forms of repression: economic channelling and economic duress. The former involves covert actions that increase the operational costs of targeted businesses, including administrative inspections and the severance of economic ties, while the latter embodies overt actions that disrupt their operations, such as asset freezes and vandalism of shop premises. Although both businesses and individuals may be subject to economic repression, this paper pays special attention to businesses, as their responses have far-reaching implications for the political and economic landscape. Employing the cases of Cathay Pacific, Taipan Bakery, Apple Daily, and Chickeeduck, which were well-known players in their respective industries in 2019–2021, it is observed that economic channelling was usually deployed at a defiant company first, followed by economic duress if the target did not conform to the new political norms. Economic repression not only stifles political resistance in the marketplace but also hampers the competitiveness of the international financial city.

This article explores the role of international law in Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal (CFA). The CFA makes extensive use of international and comparative materials, particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). However, it avoids issuing judgments that would clash with Beijing’s core interests and accepts its broad definition of “national security”. This arguably facilitates authoritarian interpretations of the ICCPR and undermines the authority of the Human Rights Committee. Yet, in March of 2025, the CFA granted an appeal and upheld the right to fair trial, emphasizing that the ICCPR continues to enjoy constitutional status in Hong Kong. Moreover, the CFA continues to advance the rights of vulnerable groups, including the LGBT community. The CFA’s contributions to comparative jurisprudence on international human rights law are decidedly mixed. But this is arguably inevitable, given its unusual status as an “apex court” operating in the shadow of Beijing.

This study presents a mixed-methods analysis of the integration of social justice into legal practice in Hong Kong. While social justice within the legal field is a growing area of interest, research on how it can be enhanced through legal education remains relatively limited. This study aims to explore how higher education law courses can be leveraged to better incorporate social justice principles into contemporary legal practice. The research adopts a mixed-methods approach, including a quantitative analysis of questionnaires completed by 99 current law students in Hong Kong and a thematic analysis of interviews conducted with 33 students and legal professionals in the region. Findings suggest the potential benefits of increasing the emphasis on social justice within law programs at Hong Kong universities. The study also raises important questions about the optimal content and methods for delivering social justice education in legal curricula.

The Anti-Extradition Bill Movement in 2019 sparked the most radical mass protests seen in Hong Kong since the transfer of sovereignty. Scholars have proposed various explanations for the radicalization of the protests, as well as for the mass support for this radicalization across various sectors of society. However, economic grievances have been relatively downplayed in attempts to understand the radical protests. Using data from a survey conducted during the suspension of the movement in 2020 (N = 1,574), this study examines the relationship between economic grievances and support for the protests. Through mediation analysis, the findings show that individuals who perceived themselves as belonging to a lower class tended to have a diminished sense of social mobility and equality. These negative perceptions contributed to concerns about the activities of Mainland Chinese individuals and the use of public resources. Thus, these particular economic grievances were found to be positively associated with support for the 2019 movement.

Jellyfish are widely distributed throughout the world’s oceans. However, understanding jellyfish species’ distributions remains poor. Here, we addressed this knowledge gap by applying an approach that uses citizen science observations to inform collection of samples which then undergo molecular analysis. Doing so allowed us to confirm the presence of the jellyfish Cyanea purpurea in the waters of Hong Kong SAR for the first time. Due to morphological overlap in Cyanea species, DNA analysis confirmed specimen identification. Samples were taken from 19 jellyfish individuals for subsequent DNA analysis. Ten samples (53%) were confirmed as C. purpurea, two samples (10%) were identified as Cyanea nozakii, and seven samples (37%) were not able to be identified. The combined application of citizen science and DNA analysis has proven effective in confirming the presence of C. purpurea in Hong Kong waters. This approach of using citizen science observations to inform the collection of samples for subsequent molecular analysis could be transferrable to other similar situations in which identification based solely on morphology is insufficient, potentially enhancing our ability to recognise species occurrence.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong is launching a pioneering BA program in Public Humanities, combining two existing units—Cultural Studies and Cultural Management—to form a socially relevant undergraduate education that promotes community-building, critical and creative skills, and humanities values. Hong Kong’s public sphere has been shrinking, necessitating a deeper reflection and conceptualization of the public within its historical and cultural contexts. The term “public” in Hong Kong has diverse meanings and overlaps with private and communal aspects, influenced by Chinese cultural history and colonial experiences. Despite the decline of civil society, various public activities, such as markets, performances, and talks, continue to foster local culture and community engagement in Hong Kong. The program emphasizes collaboration, participatory arts, and media technology to foster civic agency and public engagement, encouraging students to work with diverse community stakeholders. The program promotes care and connection as guiding principles for community-building, aiming to cultivate responsible citizens and rebuild trust through open communication and meaningful civic participation.

Housing informality has emerged across developing and developed societies amid the global housing crisis. This article presents an intra-national comparative analysis of informal housing interventions in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, two major Chinese cities, to investigate the policies and discourses of urban housing informality and the factors shaping different governance regimes. A critical policy discourse analysis was conducted on official documents addressing subdivided units in Hong Kong and urban villages in Guangzhou between 2010 and 2023. The analysis focuses on policy goals, interventive measures and state-market-society relations, revealing that despite similarities between subdivided units and urban villages, government interventions differ significantly. The Hong Kong government has adopted a regulatory-welfare-mix model, whereas the Guangzhou government has pursued a developmental approach to address the phenomenon. This article contributes to policy studies by comparing informal housing intervention approaches and analysing the within-country divergence of normative goals and policy levers under different sociopolitical contexts.

Americans living in nineteenth-century Hong Kong and China's treaty ports encountered a contradiction. The British dominated elite foreign society, their political, social, and cultural agendas often setting the pace for life within the community. But as citizens of a country that had recently wrested its independence from its one-time imperial overlord, Americans arriving in China were ostensibly averse to imperialism and the culture of empire. They maintained a belief that theirs was a benevolent republic that championed international amity and self-determination. Still, as Elisa Tamarkin notes, if Americans were wary of the British Empire, many found the spectacle of it appealing—a tendency evident in Hong Kong and the foreign enclaves along China's coast. Americans eager to enter elite foreign society proclaimed newfound sympathies for British belligerence in China, in turn developing increasingly prejudiced opinions about their Chinese neighbours and staff. Their derisive expressions of racial difference reinforced efforts to reconcile Anglo-American cultural incongruities. Such sentiments reflect the entangled processes through which extraimperial groups such as Americans fashioned themselves as members of the colonial elite. I argue that through such processes, the British and Americans subordinated national rivalry in the interest of entrenching racial divisions between white and non-white communities.