03.07.2023

Lecture: Stephan Ortmann, "The Political Transformation of Hong Kong: From Liberal to Illiberal Authoritarianism"

11.07.2023: Dr. Stephan Ortmann will tell us about his observations on the politics of Hong Kong, where he currently teaches and resides.

Date: Tuesday, 11th July 2023
Time: 6–8pm c.t.
Venue: Hörsaal 001, Keplerstr. 2, 72074 Tübingen
 

Abstract

This talk will discuss the political transformation of Hong Kong from liberal to illiberal authoritarianism. As residents resisted the erosion of the liberal authoritarian regime and demanded greater democratization, which culminated in a massive and eventually violent protest movement in 2019, the Chinese government became more concerned about the potential threat from Hong Kong to the one-party state in China. In 2020, it seized more power by introducing a National Security Law, which was very vague and all-encompassing and thus constituted a regime change to a closed authoritarian regime. What followed has been the rapid disintegration of civil society, the decline in individual rights, the arrest of many activists, and the development of new illiberal institutions. Moreover, it also eroded the electoral system when it reduced the number of directly elected members of the Legislative Council and the District Council while requiring all candidates to be “patriots” thus allowing it to disqualify anyone. This trend is not unique to Hong Kong as a growing number of countries have experienced processes of autocratization since the late 1990s. The case of Hong Kong, however, combines different dimensions of regime change as the transformation was driven by both external and internal actors. While from outside, the Chinese government has been instrumental in pushing for the deliberalization, local government leaders have willingly allowed the erosion of the liberal system. The current trajectory suggests that the process of autocratization has not yet ended although it is unclear how far the process will proceed and what the long-term consequences of it are.

Biography

Stephan Ortmann is assistant professor at the School of Arts and Social Sciences of Hong Kong Metropolitan University. He has worked on various issues related to political change and civil society in Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Vietnam. His publications have appeared in many reputable journals including Asian Survey, Administration and Society, Asia Pacific Law Review, China Quarterly, Journal of Democracy, Government and Opposition, Pacific Review, and Third World Quarterly. He is the author of Politics and Change in Singapore and Hong Kong: Containing Contention (Routledge, 2010) and of Environmental Governance in Vietnam: Institutional Reforms and Failures (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). He has also co-edited a volume with Mark R. Thompson titled China's ‘Singapore Model’ and Authoritarian Learning (Routledge, 2020).