Censorship is OK if it’s by your own side

The West cried foul when a British journalist was kicked out of Hong Kong after hosting a speech by a secessionist, but there was not a word when Taipei expelled an academic due to talk about peaceful unification with the mainland

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Victor Mallet, the Financial Times’ Asia news editor, was denied a visa renewal. Photo: Edmond So

Alex Lo

Alex Lo has been an SCMP columnist since 2012, covering major issues affecting Hong Kong and the rest of China.

Published: 7:08pm, 17 Apr 2019Updated: 10:11pm, 17 Apr 2019

Everyone knows about British journalist Victor Mallet, but you have probably never heard of mainland sinologist Li Yi. Why? Because one was kicked out by the Hong Kong government, the other by Taipei. Charges of censorship against people and governments are always made selectively.

Mallet’s failure to have his work visa renewed in Hong Kong became international news. Politicians from the British parliament, US Congress and White House practically turned it into a diplomatic incident.

Local pan-democrats and their media comrades were telling the world this was the end of free speech and a free press in the city. Almost every prestigious publication on both sides of the Atlantic jumped on their editorial high horses to condemn Hong Kong.

What did Mallet do? On behalf of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, he invited Andy Chan Ho-tin of the secessionist Hong Kong National Party, which everyone knew was about to be banned, to talk about why Hong Kong should become independent, in clear violation of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.

Fast forward to Li Yi, of the Renmin University of China. He was declared persona non grata last week by the Taiwanese government of the independence-minded Tsai Ing-wen, and expelled. His crime? He was invited by the Chinese Unity Promotion Party in Taiwan to give a talk on peaceful unification with the mainland.

An overreaction from Taipei? Nary a word from our champions of free speech in Hong Kong and overseas, who are normally so alert about such things.