Fences and chains won't stop remembrance.

We looked at 1200+ draft laws submitted to Hong Kong’s legislature since 1997. The new security law is literally the fastest bill passed from submission to voting. Chart shows how much faster the LegCo passes bills after China forced out opposition in 2021 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

This week is yet another heartbreak in the recent history of Hong Kong. 2003, 2014, 2019 were all moments of opening. Of opportunity. But recently it feels like all we have are closures, the space of possibilities shrinking. More dark days ahead I'm sure.

Delighted to share “Making Sense of Global (Dis)Order: History and International Affairs” at City Int Politics History at City on May 30. Looking forward to talks on the value of history in international affairs! With Chatham House Open to all-Registration👇🏻city.ac.uk/news-and-event…

Congratulations! Go pick up a copy of Richard's new book

A position that should be easy for the anti-war left to embrace: The most powerful countries in the world should not militarily intimidate smaller countries bc they don't like the results of a democratic election

Job alert: We are looking to hire a lecturer (i.e. Assistant Prof) in modern history at City Int Politics. Candidates with expertise in Africa or Latin America particularly encouraged to apply. Please share! city.ac.uk/about/jobs/app…

BREAKING: Hong Kong justice dept. to launch appeal bid against 2 democrats cleared of subversion charge 🔗 buff.ly/3yC14Eq

Earlier tonight, Hong Kong performance artist Sanmu Chen appeared to sign the words "8964" in the air—referring to the date of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown—before being surrounded and taken away by police. Sources tell AFP News Agency that Chen has been released.

When I was thinking of a feature to mark the protest anniversary, my question was: what fundamentally changed HK? It’s the NSL & the NS police. How do they work? No one knows. Now I have three cases to illustrate how they (unsuccessfully) get information from activists.

🧵For the last year, Mike Forsythe 傅才德 Katrina Northrop and I have investigated a secret about Jack Ma’s business empire: For years, Xiao Jianhua, jailed financier to China’s political elite, found early, lucrative windows to invest $1B+ in Ma’s companies, from Alibaba to Ant. 1/8

THREAD: Those darned Swiss banks. Anyone closely reading our story yesterday about the ties between Jack Ma and the jailed financier Xiao Jianhua would have noticed the names of 3 Swiss Banks: UBS, Credit Suisse, and one that isn't a household name: J Safra Sarasin (1/x)

Been building a collection of Chinese labor materials, it's taken eight years and we have tens of thousands of items. It's the only archive of its kind in the world. Kevin Lin and I pulled some items to launch the collection and generate discussion. Many good events, c'mon by!

Ten years ago, Xu Lizhi, a Foxconn worker, took a lift to the 17th floor of an office building in Shenzhen and jumped. His poem, "A Screw Falls to the Ground/一颗螺丝掉在地上": (Sun Wanning, "Bearing Witness to History: Dagong Poets from 1980s to the Present," Proletarian China)

I'm doing a book talk at Queen Mary University of London this Thursday the 24th at 5 pm with three amazing discussants ⁦Dr. Joanne Yao⁩ ⁦Jeppe Mulich⁩ and Jaakko Heiskanen. Join us if you're around! Register here: eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-talk-na…

Happy to announce the publication of our Past & Present supplement "Ordering the Oceans, Ordering the World." A wonderful group of contributors offer thoughtful articles on law, violence, and imperial order-making. academic.oup.com/past/issue/265…

Delighted to see our @PastPresentSoc Supplement on 'Ordering the Oceans, Ordering the World' is now out! Huge thanks to editors Jeppe Mulich and Renaud Morieux for their sterling efforts. I'm honoured to have an article in such good company. academic.oup.com/past/issue/265…

"Hong Kong & I have both lost our souls: freedom & rights. I am currently in the slump of my life." Johnnie To, recognised globally as one of HK's pre-eminent film directors, spoke w/ me for BBC in a candid interview about censorship & HK cinema’s drastically changing landscape.