US scholar specialising in LGBTQ+ rights says Hong Kong denied him visa to teach at HKU
- Ryan Thoreson, who previously taught at Yale and currently works as an LGBTQ+ rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, was hired to teach human rights law
- The government hasn’t given a reason for rejecting his visa, and Thoreson said his work isn’t critical of China or politically sensitive
An American legal scholar specialising in LGBTQ+ rights said on Wednesday that he was denied a visa to teach at the University of Hong Kong. Photo: SCMPAn American legal scholar specialising in LGBTQ+ rights said on Wednesday that he was denied a visa to teach at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), as concerns deepen about academic freedom in the city.
Hong Kong’s universities rank among the top in Asia but have found themselves caught up in Beijing’s crackdown on dissent following huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Legal scholar Ryan Thoreson said he was hired by HKU to teach human rights law as a tenure-track assistant professor, but his visa application was rejected.
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“(The government) hadn’t given an explanation for it, but it just showed up on the immigration website saying the application had been refused,” Thoreson said.
Thoreson previously taught at Yale and currently works as an LGBTQ+ rights researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has repeatedly criticised China’s rights record – including the crackdown in Hong Kong.
In the absence of an official explanation, he said it was difficult to say if the denial was linked to his HRW affiliation.
“I don’t think my scholarship is particularly critical of China or politically sensitive,” Thoreson said, adding that his work mostly focused on the rights of LGBTQ+ youth.
He said he had been teaching HKU courses remotely while waiting for the visa, and that the courses so far had nothing to do with Hong Kong’s political context.
Hong Kong immigration authorities and the HKU law faculty did not immediately respond to AFP’s requests for comment. Historically, city authorities do not explain visa rejections.
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HRW described the decision as another blow to Hong Kong’s reputation as a hub for academic freedom.
“Hong Kong authorities denying visas to scholars is nothing more than the Xi Jinping-ification of academic institutions – a terrible loss,” said the watchdog’s China Director, Sophie Richardson.
Several higher education administrators have embraced a recent drive to make teaching more “patriotic” and purge campuses of certain political view
In December, a decades-old statue marking Beijing’s 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square was dismantled by HKU.
Several other universities followed suit, bringing down similar memorials on their campuses.
Last week, workers also covered up a large slogan on an HKU campus bridge that mourned the Tiananmen “martyrs”.