Academics have said that Hong Kong’s recent denial of a visa for a US-based human rights researcher may foreshadow greater limitations for scholars working in the city – and called for the global higher education community to push back.

Earlier this month, Hong Kong authorities rejected a visa for Ryan Thoreson, a full-time researcher for the New York-based non-profit group Human Rights Watch who remotely teaches law part-time at Hong Kong University.

“The sector should see this visa denial as a warning that academic freedom in Hong Kong is increasingly vulnerable,” said Clare Robinson, advocacy director at the non-profit group Scholars at Risk.

She noted a few similar cases in recent years. In , Hong Kong authorities reportedly refused to permit Matthew Connors, a professor of photography at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, to enter the city. , they reportedly prevented American political scientist and author Dan Garrett from entering, in “apparent retaliation” for his statements on democracy and human rights in the region.

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Scholars speaking to Times Higher Education said that the visa denial was most likely linked to Thoreson’s position at the non-profit group.

“We can expect more individuals, both in and out of academia, to have difficulty entering the city for a variety of reasons as long as the government deems them a threat,” said Jeffrey Ngo, an activist from Hong Kong who is currently pursuing a PhD in history at Georgetown University.

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He said that Dr Thoreson’s specialty in LGBTQ+ issues, which are “generally considered taboo” in Hong Kong and China, may also have been a red flag.

“There’s a popular nationalistic argument – which is prevalent in other authoritarian societies like Russia and Iran, too – that things like LGBTQ+ rights are part of Western-imported ideas that destabilise traditional ways of life,” he said. “Even a place as cosmopolitan as Hong Kong is now moving closer to China with each passing day.”

Still, Mr Ngo stressed that “while there’s usually a lot of attention on foreign academics in the international media for obvious reasons, local academics suffer far more…for young, aspiring academics who once hoped they could build a career back home, that reality is totally shattered”.

Teng Biao, a scholar of human rights and visiting professor at the University of Chicago, urged universities abroad to educate themselves and support Hong Kong-based scholars: “The first thing is to know the situation in Hong Kong and China; the second is to stand up to the intimidation and influence from the Chinese government – that will be important to protect academic freedom.”

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Ms Robinson, of Scholars at Risk, echoed the sentiment: “The global higher education community must press Hong Kong and mainland authorities to take immediate actions to respect freedom of movement, support the cross-border exchange of ideas and knowledge and to refrain from basing immigration decisions on the substance of a scholar’s academic work or expression.”

Alvin Cheung, a legal scholar at McGill University, agreed that “the space for international academic exchange with Hong Kong is clearly closing”. He said that “at a minimum”, the higher education community should extend a hand to Hong Kong-based scholars.

Actions could include raising the profile of academics, in particular junior academics, in Hong Kong “to increase the reputational costs of their arrest or ill-treatment by the authorities”, he suggested, while institutions abroad could also take in academics unable to continue teaching in Hong Kong. Dr Cheung also supported re-evaluating – or even potentially ending – student exchange programmes with Hong Kong, given safety concerns.

But where foreign scholars are concerned, Dr Cheung said that, ultimately, those who are denied a visa to enter the city might be better off for it.

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“In the [current] era of rampant and unaccountable ‘state security’ institutions, it’s certainly arguable that the only thing worse for someone teaching ‘contentious’ subjects than being refused a visa to enter Hong Kong would be being granted one.”

pola.lem@timeshighereducation.com