AN American legal scholar specialising in LGBTQ rights said he has been denied a visa to teach at a Hong Kong University (HKU) today, as concerns deepen about academic freedom in the city.

Hong Kong universities rank among the top in Asia, but have found themselves caught up in Beijing’s crackdown on dissent following huge and sometimes violent democracy protests in 2019.

Legal scholar Ryan Thoreson said he was hired by Hong Kong University (HKU), the oldest in the city, to teach human rights law as a tenure-track assistant professor, but his visa application was rejected.

“(The government) has not given an explanation, but it showed up on the immigration website saying the application has been refused.”

Thoreson previously taught at Yale and currently works as an LGBTQ rights researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), which has repeatedly criticised the rights record of China, including the crackdown in Hong Kong.

In the absence of an official explanation, he said it is difficult to say if the denial is linked to his HRW affiliation.

“I do not think my scholarship is particularly critical of China or politically sensitive,” he said, adding that his work mostly focuses on LGBTQ youth rights.

Thoreson has been remotely teaching HKU courses while waiting for his visa, he said, and that the courses have nothing to do with the political context in Hong Kong so far.

Hong Kong immigration authorities and the HKU law faculty did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Historically, city authorities do not explain visa rejections.

‘Crackdown on dissent’

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.

China’s crackdown in Hong Kong has ensnared educational institutions as well, from elementary schools to universities, with authorities saying there is a lack of patriotic education.

The government has since moved to incubate loyalty among students as part of a wider campaign to root out dissent.

Some higher education administrators have embraced the drive to make teaching more “patriotic” and purged campuses of certain political views.

In December, a decades-old statue marking Beijing’s 1989 suppression of Tiananmen Square democracy protesters was dismantled by HKU.

Several other varsities followed suit, bringing down similar memorials on their campuses.

Last week, workers covered up a large slogan on an HKU campus bridge that mourned the Tiananmen “martyrs”.

Since 2018, four foreign journalists working in Hong Kong have been forced to leave after their visas were rejected without explanation. – AFP, February 2, 2022.