Less than an hour away from Hong Kong, by either boat or bus, is Macau – a much smaller, yet equally as interesting Special Administrative Region that, unlike Hong Kong, was formerly colonized by Portugal instead of the British. The city’s streets, architecture, and cuisine still bear resemblance to its former colonizer, and Portuguese remains an official language alongside Cantonese.

Also unlike Hong Kong, Macau remained untouched by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. Portugal declared neutrality, which allowed the city to become what author Peter Rose described as an “Asian Casablanca” while war raged just across the border in mainland China and in nearby Hong Kong.

Rose, while living in Hong Kong from 1997 to 2003, took frequent trips to Macau and soon thereafter found the inspiration for his newly published book – John Reeves, the British Consul of neutral Macau during World War II. Through research he conducted in libraries and archives in Asia, North America, and Europe – and even the former Consul’s personal manuscript – he was able to write The Good War of Consul Reeves, a fictional yet historically accurate account of Reeves’s life.

Rose spoke about his book at the FCC alongside First Vice President Jennifer Jett, the moderator of the talk. Joining the event were FCC members and their guests, as well as members and staff of Club Lusitano, Hong Kong’s private club exclusive to the city’s small Portuguese community.

Reeves arrived in Macau in June of 1941 to balance the recent arrival of Japan’s Consul. Thinking that Macau would be a simple role, Reeves soon found himself as the only senior Allied representative in Asia when Japan formally entered World War II the following December.

Reeves ran spy rings, developed medical services for the public and helped evacuate war refugees, accurately accounting for almost every penny of £1.7 million in British government funding at the end of the war.

Despite all his contributions to Macau, Reeves was disliked by the UK’s Foreign Office for a variety of reasons. He insisted on writing Hong Kong as one word – “Hongkong”; he ignored the Foreign Office’s requests for him to abolish his spy network; he drunkenly spilled secret codes at dinner parties. On top of all these “surprises” he gave the Foreign Office, one of his most daring efforts involved how Hong Kong should be structured after the war. He laid out his plan for everything from streets to government infrastructure – which had the British Foreign Office above all other public administration.

When World War II ended, Reeves’s wife and daughter left Macau to return to the UK – Reeves never saw them again. The former Consul was then stationed in Rome and eventually Surabaya, the latter being an “impossible assignment,” Rose said, after the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch which resulted in Indonesia declaring independence in 1949.

After his assignment in Surabaya, Reeves left the UK’s Foreign Service and moved to South Africa. He became what Rose described as a “complete eccentric”, wearing Chinese robes and long hair tied back in a ponytail.

He was never formally recognised for his efforts in Macau, which he lamented in his manuscript that was published posthumously by the Royal Asiatic Society.

“From 700 miles west to Chunking, 1,800 miles north to Vladivostok, 5,000 miles east to Honolulu, and 3,000 miles south to Australia, mine was the lone flag,” Reeves wrote.

In the audience Q&A session, Peter Rose was asked if there would ever be a statue to commemorate Reeves in Macau. While he initially joked that a statue would never be placed in front of the British Foreign Office, Rose did express support for such an idea.

“It’d be nice if he was recognised somewhere in Macau,” Rose said.

Watch the full talk on our YouTube channel below:

According to the Hong Kong government’s 2021 census, 91.6% of people in the city are ethnically Chinese. The remaining 8.4% of the population descend from Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Pakistan, and various Western nations.

Were Hong Kong’s racial demographics always this way? Or did different ethnic groups pave the road for the future of Hong Kong’s diverse society?

In her book Fortune’s Bazaar, former journalist and FCC member Vaudine England makes the argument that without Armenians, Parsis, Jews, Portuguese, and Eurasians, Hong Kong could not have become well known as a thriving port city — especially after World War II, when society focused on rebuilding itself following the end of Japanese occupation.

England spoke about her book at the FCC alongside First Vice President Jennifer Jett, the moderator of the discussion. She first spoke about her writing and research process, which she found to be somewhat similar to her former work as a journalist.

“You start a book because there’s a story that you know is there, but it’s untold,” she said. “It’s been ignored, it hasn’t been written about. It’s sort of a ‘scoop’, except it’s on a historical timeframe.”

In total, it took her 10 years to finish researching for Fortune’s Bazaar. Through this process, she found herself contradicting other well-known historians, including James Hayes, a Hong Kong civil servant who published numerous books and articles on the city’s demographic history.

Hayes’s primary claim was that Hong Kong’s success story was a “tale of two cities” in which British people and Chinese people may have interacted in public, but lived completely separate family and personal lives from each other. 

“A whole lot of them [British and Chinese] were sleeping together most nights. So, he kind of missed that,” England said, reiterating her point that Eurasian families played a massive role in Hong Kong’s development.

During the audience question and answer session, England also gave her recommendations on how the HKSAR government can continue to improve its status as an international city.

With tourism campaigns like “Hello Hong Kong” following three years of strict pandemic travel restrictions, an exodus of foreign and local talent, and increasing concern over the city’s new national security legislation, Hong Kong’s title of “Asia’s World City” has come into question by the rest of the international community.

“If you want your city to be a functioning, living community port city… you need to be the kind of place that is open to people of different faiths, of different skin color – let’s be blunt – of different cultures. And they need to be able to, I mean not only ‘go ye forth and multiply’, but actually live rich, diverse lives,” England said.

England was also asked about how anyone with an interest in Hong Kong’s history should go about researching and learning more about this place. She gave two answers, books and cemeteries, both of which she finds to be rather revealing about a place’s culture and people.

Her final piece of advice touched upon how current people who find themselves moving to and living in Hong Kong aren’t too different from past generations who made the exact same migration. Many people end up staying in Hong Kong for a lifetime, which is why England insists that more people explore more of the city’s rich history.

“The fact is, all of us here now are connected to these stories of these people before us, and a lot of us came here for similar reasons. If you’re feeling you’re a part of Hong Kong, which is a place that is different to its neighbors – and why is it different? Well, I think it’s worth looking at that and finding out more about it,” she concluded.

Watch the full talk on our YouTube channel below:

Novels have captured the imagination of readers for centuries. Fantasy, horror, science fiction (a.k.a. sci-fi), and mysteries are just a few popular genres, but now a new one is emerging: climate fiction, or “cli-fi” for short. 

The rise of this new genre coincides with increasing awareness of climate change across the world. Just in February, Climate Copernicus – the European Union climate monitor – reported that the average worldwide temperature over the past 12 months was 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than at the dawn of the Industrial Age.

While activists and non-profit organizations can certainly spread awareness, authors of the latest addition to the cli-fi literary canon argue that fictional characters and scenarios can be more effective in motivating people to take action.

“Nobody reads a boring report,” said Steve Willis, co-author of Fairhaven – A Novel of Climate Optimism. “A story is far more engaging than that.”

Willis, along with his co-author Genevieve Hilton, spoke at an FCC Club Lunch on the day of their book’s debut. Moderating the talk was FCC Correspondent Board Member Karen Koh.

Willis is the Director of Herculean Climate Solutions, an environmental consulting agency based in Malaysia, while Hilton is a full-time sustainability activist and writer under the pen name Jan Lee. The duo initially connected on LinkedIn and brainstormed their ideas for Fairhaven and continued to meet and discuss online while crafting their novel. Their recent trip to Hong Kong for their book launch was the first time they had met in person.

Hilton also shared her thoughts on why she as an activist figured a novel might be a better approach to the message she wants to share.

“There’s a whole ‘scared straight’ phenomenon. If I give you all the evidence and show you how horrible it could be, you will do something about it [climate change],” Hilton said.

Fairhaven is set in 2036 in Penang, Malaysia. The main character, Grace Chan, is about to take office as President of the newly-formed Ocean Independent State, yet crashes into a dyke and begins reviewing the life she has lived as the tide rises.

Despite being fiction, the novel roots itself into the environmental history of Malaysia – and the world – and proposes two solutions: restoring ocean ecosystems and refreezing the Arctic. Both of these solutions, while not currently being worked on by any organization, are possible, say the authors. But, it would take the right people to step forward and make it happen.

“It feels absolutely hopeless, but when you actually have your hand on something and you think, ‘This would actually work – we just need to keep pushing,’ you’re determined to make it otherwise,” said Willis.

Thinking about a climate change solution that doesn’t currently exist – but could – is what Hilton also finds to be instrumental in inspiring climate action.

“You can’t work towards something if you don’t know what it looks like,” she said.

Watch the full talk on our YouTube channel below:

The People’s Liberation Army, China’s massive yet untested military force since the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979, is prepared but will not take rush actions despite heightened tension along China’s borders, according to a renowned China observer.

Professor Jean-Pierre Cabestan, author of the new book Facing China: The Prospect for War and Peace shared his insights with nearly 100 FCC members during his lunch talk at the club, digging into China’s military strategies in the past decade. The talk was moderated by William Zheng, an FCC Professional Committee member who works full-time as a Senior Correspondent on SCMP’s China desk.

The talk came just days after mainland China and Taiwan’s government representatives traded accusations over the death of two mainland fishermen, causing a new round of tension on the world’s most dangerous waters.

Besides Taiwan, the East and South China Seas, the Sino-Indian border, and the Taiwan strait are the main forefronts where China’s military stands. Across the world, diplomats, generals, scholars, and journalists analyze China’s military strategies and attempt to predict how the country would fare in these potential conflicts.

“Nuclear powers have to think twice about starting a military confrontation,” Cabestan said early on.

China, as well as 8 other countries, have nuclear capabilities. In order to avoid nuclear warfare (or any kind of warfare), Cabestan explained that China’s military strategy consists of “grey zone” tactics — movements and operations that stay under the threshold of official combat. According to him, these grey zone tactics are fueled by China’s growing military capabilities and nationalist passion.

“China’s become more assertive, more risk-taking than before, but up to a point,” he said, noting how each of China’s moves are carefully calculated.

The focus of the discussion, as well as Cabestan’s new book, was on China’s potential conflict with Taiwan.

China views Taiwan as a “renegade province” that must be reunited with the mainland — by force if necessary. After the Chinese Civil War in 1949 in which the Communist Party succeeded in gaining control over the mainland, the Kuomintang Party relocated to Taiwan and established a de-facto state with their own currency, political system, military, and infrastructure.

The rest of the world now must follow the One-China Policy and establish official ties with either the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the mainland or the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan. As of 2024, the ROC has only 11 diplomatic allies.

“The clear admission in Taiwan that Taiwan may be part of China for some, but it’s not part of the Communist Party. It’s not controlled by the Communist Party,” Cabestan said.

Cabestan clarified that while a war between China and Taiwan would result in devastating consequences for Asia and the rest of the globe, he remains optimistic that such a conflict is unlikely to happen. Even more unworried about the risk of conflict are the people in Taiwan themselves.

A trip to Taiwan, Cabestan says, can show that the average person in Taiwan isn’t deterred by the threat of war and can still go about their daily life in peace.

“If you go to Taiwan… there’s no sense of panic or fear,” he said. “It [war] is still far away from affecting the morale of the Taiwanese.”

Still, countries including Japan, South Korea, Australia, and the US are committed to defending Taiwan if the PRC were to launch an attack on the island. The US, while establishing ties with the PRC in 1979, simultaneously passed the Taiwan Relations Act which solidifies the US’ commitment to helping defend Taiwan should the PRC attack.

The US, like China, has nuclear capabilities, yet this fact is precisely why Cabestan predicts peace for the region — instead of war.

“We have to bear in mind that we have two nuclear powers here [the US and China] which are involved in the security of Taiwan — the future of Taiwan. I think the Chinese will think twice before starting a war against Taiwan,” Cabestan concluded.

Watch the full talk on our YouTube channel below:

Following up on his vow to pass Article 23 of the Basic Law, Chief Executive John Lee and the HKSAR government announced a four-week public consultation period for the bill in late January. Article 23, originally shelved in 2003 after mass protests against it, enables the city to enact laws prohibiting seven offenses – including treason, espionage, and theft of state secrets.

The government claims that Article 23 will “plug the gaps” that aren’t covered by the National Security Law that Beijing imposed on the city in June 2020. Various sectors have urged the government to clarify terms like “national security” and “state secrets”, as well as to lengthen the public consultation period, which ends on February 28.

On February 19, the FCC held a Club Lunch moderated by President Lee Williamson in which a panel of government, journalism, and legal experts shared their thoughts on the bill.

“I think the proposals are actually less broad or ‘sweeping’ than a lot of the similar proposals introduced by other common law jurisdictions,” said Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, Convenor of the Executive Council.

Ip was the Secretary for Security in 2003 when Article 23 was originally proposed. She stepped down after mass protests caused the HKSAR government to shelve the bill, but eventually returned to the government in 2008 when she was elected as a member of the Legislative Council.

Sitting alongside Ip was Ronson Chan, Chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA). When asked about Article 23’s impact on journalism, Chan referenced a recent HKJA survey in which 75% of respondents indicated that the law would negatively affect their work.

“It is very easy for journalists to feel [in danger] in their work and I think that it may affect the atmosphere for the freedom of press. So that’s why we are highly concerned about the legislation,” Chan said.

Chan also emphasised the need for the government to clarify what are state secrets, otherwise journalists may inadvertently violate Article 23 while waiting for the government’s official response for a story.

“It still has to be a secret,” said Professor Simon Young, the Ian Davies Professor of Ethics at The University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Law, who also sat on the panel. “I would think it is something you would reasonably expect to be confidential.”

Young further elaborated that the acquisition, possession, and disclosure of a state secret all need to meet the same mens rea – knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe it is a state secret and intending to endanger national security by sharing it.

“It’s not just any kind of knowledge or disclosure. You have to show that that person really intended to endanger national security. If they’re doing legitimate journalism business, then it’s unlikely that they would have that intention,” Young concluded.

Ip, on the other hand, didn’t believe Article 23 would harm the work of Hong Kong’s journalists.

“I don’t think the media really needs to worry,” she said early on in the discussion, but later emphasized that there is “no absolute freedom of speech” when asked if people in Hong Kong should worry about Article 23 criminalizing free speech.

Chan agreed with Ip that there is no absolute freedom of speech, but that efforts should still be made in order to clarify what free speech means in Hong Kong.

“The red line is floating and moving,” he said. “I think we need to distinguish the differences [of free speech] from Hong Kong and the outside world.”

Watch the full talk on our YouTube channel below: