In October 2020, roughly a month before Donald Trump was elected out of office in favour of Joe Biden, Raymond Yeung published his book China’s Trump Card: Cryptocurrency and its Game-Changing Role in Sino-US Trade (2020). In it, he outlines the role of digital currency in geopolitical affairs, especially when it comes to the relationship between China and the United States.

“When I wrote this book, I was just testing my ideas, but now the last four years [are] clearly telling you this is actually happening,” Yeung said while also admitting that back then, his ideas didn’t sell well.

He even joked that China’s Trump Card made it to the New York Times’ “Worst Sellers” list and that his publisher refused to print any more copies.

Yeung made these remarks while sitting next to Professional Committee Member Andrew Chan at an FCC Club Lunch in October — roughly a month before Donald Trump was re-elected to serve as the 47th President of the United States.

As the Chief Economist for Greater China at ANZ, Yeung shared an overview of the world’s trade issues, as well as cryptocurrency dynamics and what he thinks will help fundamentally different governments navigate through economic tension.

“Openness is the key word,” Yeung said when describing how blockchain has been used in attempts to mitigate some of these issues.

However, Yeung finds that blockchain’s impact is small and can’t be used as a blanket-solution to worldwide problems. Instead, Yeung suggested that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) create a neutral cryptocurrency that can be used by every country across the world. The appeal of this move is so that transactions are decentralised and not limited by banking restrictions.

“The best way to address trade imbalance is [by] establishing a global-first, apolitical, very neutral global currency. [This] is the only way to solve the global impact,” Yeung explained.

Yeung also used the talk to break down some of the terms he created in writing China’s Trump Card, particularly the phrase “factory-dollar recycling”.

With the concept of the US Dollar (USD) being a direct exchange for oil from Saudi Arabia, Yeung uses factory-dollar recycling to describe the relationship between USD and the Chinese Yuan, or Renminbi (RMB). In the same way that the value of USD is directly linked to oil, Yeung explained that this is exactly how China uses RMB in exchange for USD.

This explanation prompted moderator Andrew Chan to ask whether or not oil would one day be substituted by different valuable resources.

Yeung agreed that we now live in a world with a “multi-polar system” and maintained that if this becomes the case, a blockchain solution can help retain trust in a new, global financial environment.

To watch the full discussion between Raymond Yeung and Andrew Chan, please visit the FCC’s YouTube channel:

“We feel like history is repeating itself.”

Michael Bociurkiw, a Canadian of Ukrainian heritage, finds that the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia was foreshadowed by scenes from his childhood, when tensions between the two sides were already strong.

“I never learned how to play hockey, I was too busy being Ukrainian… it meant protesting in front of the Russian embassy, saying ‘KGB — Set Them Free’ or ‘Free Ukrainian Prisoners of Conscience,’” he explained.

Bociurkiw, a journalist-turned-global-affairs-analyst who has been based in Ukraine since before the Russian invasion in February 2022, first went to Ukraine more than 30 years ago as a reporter for The South China Morning Post.

In a discussion at an October 3 FCC Club Lunch with Correspondent Board Governor Jennifer Jett, he explained what he thinks may happen with the coming U.S. election and Russia’s inability to accept Ukraine as an independent nation.

With the conflict approaching the end of its third year, neither Russia nor Ukraine appears willing to negotiate. But Ukraine’s ability to continue resisting Russia’s aggression depends on continued support from its allies, particularly the U.S.

At the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September, which Bociurkiw attended, world leaders were unenthused about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “victory plan.” Zelenskyy also sought U.S. approval to send long-range missiles deep into Russian territory, which he says will be a game-changer in the war.

Bociurkiw echoed skepticism from U.S. officials as to how much difference those long-range weapons would make.

“It’s not enough to push the Russians back completely,” he said.

Russia also shows no signs of giving up after already taking over parts of Donetsk, Kharkiv and other Ukrainian regions. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow will make “no concessions” to end the war.

Since Bociurkiw’s event at the FCC, there have been reports of North Korean troops training alongside Russian soldiers for possible deployment in Ukraine, signaling the lengths that Putin is willing to go to in order to win.

“I could see this war keeping on until Putin dies, whenever that happens,” Bociurkiw said.

To watch the full discussion, please visit our YouTube channel:

Counsellor Huang Jingrui is the spokesman of the Commissioner’s Office of China’s Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong. Despite being posted in the city since September 2022, he has only given closed door, off-the-record talks to other diplomats and journalists.

That finally changed this September — two years after the spokesman arrived in Hong Kong.

For his first-ever public address, Counsellor Huang spoke at an FCC Club Lunch alongside Correspondent Board Governor William Zheng, an expert on mainland politics who works for SCMP as a Senior China Correspondent.

While Counsellor Huang began his talk by outlining China’s Third Plenum that took place in July and how it will affect Hong Kong, he also addressed the international community’s concerns about declining freedoms in the city.

“China and Hong Kong’s reputation has been smeared over the years, and actually the media is part of it. Media itself has become a problem, especially Western media,” he said.

When it comes to Western media’s coverage of Hong Kong, Counsellor Huang finds that they mainly focus on national security news, such as the enactment of Article 23 of the Basic Law or the enforcement of the Beijing-imposed National Security Law. Counsellor Huang believes that Western media should be more balanced in order to provide people living in other regions a more accurate depiction of what’s happening in Hong Kong.

He also commented on measures taken under President Joe Biden’s administration that have established a quota on the number of Chinese journalists that are allowed to live and work in the United States, which has resulted in some Chinese journalists being forced to return to the mainland. China swiftly created its own quotas for American journalists which resulted in a similar exodus.

Despite these “tit-for-tat” moves, Counsellor Huang emphasised that journalists on both sides are key in developing mutual understanding.

“We hope that there will be more journalists — American journalists in China and Chinese journalists in America — to promote a better understanding between the two countries,” he said.

When asked whether or not Hong Kong still guarantees free expression for both regular citizens and media, Counsellor Huang reminded the audience that while enjoying the “Two Systems”, they should also keep the “One Country” part in mind. Everyone can enjoy freedoms — as long as certain “red lines” concerning “one country” aren’t crossed, he said.

“Don’t just look at the Two Systems,” he began. “We still have to be One Country, and there is always a red line. You can’t overthrow the government. You can’t advocate independence. There’s always a red line. Apart from that, you have all the freedom.”

Counsellor Huang was also asked about the recent cases of journalists being denied entry into Hong Kong. While unable to comment on individual cases, he did maintain the opinion that Hong Kong is a key location for international media, but that everyone has to operate in accordance with the law.

“Everybody’s freedom is limited, and it has to be within the framework of the law. Nobody’s above the law, even if you are the media,” he said.

Before finishing his talk, Counsellor Huang also shared his personal thoughts on what the job of local and international journalists should be.

“It is your job to facilitate understanding — not to facilitate misunderstanding and even driving paranoia, to [a] new McCarthyism. That’s not your job. Your job is to tell the truth, facilitate understanding between countries and people,” he concluded.

To watch the full discussion between Counsellor Huang and William Zheng, please visit the FCC’s YouTube channel:

On June 6th, 1944, nearly 160,000 Allied forces conducted history’s largest-ever seaborne invasion on the beaches of Nazi-occupied Normandy. The invasion, often referred to as D-Day, was a decisive operation that ultimately led to the liberation of France and Western Europe, as well as the end of the Second World War.

Participating in D-Day were a league of Allied nations, including the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Norway, and many others.

In the 80 years since then, every fact and detail about D-Day was thought to have already been covered in newspapers, books, movies, television shows, and other media.

Until now.

A groundbreaking exhibit by two Hong Kong historians reveals the role that China also played in D-Day — a little-known piece of history that adds a new layer of meaning to the international cooperation in World War II and Hong Kong’s relevance to the rest of the world.

“The shadows of Hong Kong always loom in some random corners of world history,” said John Mak, one of the two lead curators of the exhibit Lost and Found in Hong Kong: The Unsung Chinese Heroes at D-Day.

Mak, along with his fellow curator Angus Hui, spoke about the exhibit at an FCC Club Lunch alongside Correspondent Board Governor Jennifer Jett. Their exhibit was held right next door at the Fringe Club before being transferred to the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The exhibit began with a surprise discovery in 2015. A decaying apartment building in Sai Ying Pun was scheduled to be demolished, which interested a local photographer who had an eye for ruins and abandoned properties.

While exploring the building, he noticed a door left ajar on the ninth floor. Inside were left-behind items from China’s Republican era. He took photos of these items and posted them on social media. Soon after his photos circulated online, a group of historians visited the building to collect and preserve the items, which were then featured in an SCMP article that December.

Hui, the second curator of the exhibit, was blown away by the SCMP article and its protagonist, Lam Ping-yu, whose diary from 1944 is the only known primary source regarding Chinese participation in D-Day Written on its pages is his firsthand account of being one of 24 Chinese naval officers who were selected for months of special training in the UK.

Their first mission: D-Day.

Hui was majoring in Chinese history and culture at the University of Hong Kong at the time the article was published. He bookmarked it, and in 2017 he circled back to the article and obtained the rights to digitise Lam’s diary. From there, he continued researching Lam’s story and eventually began collaborating with Mak during and after the pandemic.

The duo traveled across Asia and Europe to find more information about the 24 Chinese naval officers — where they came from, why they joined the Chinese navy, how they were selected to go abroad for additional training, their roles in D-Day, and what they did after World War II was over.

Lam was born in Java, Indonesia, in 1911, but wanted to return to his motherland to serve in the navy.

During the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Lam was dismayed by his country’s decision to prioritise other military operations, so he formally requested permission from Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek to train abroad. His request was denied.

It wasn’t until 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States became directly involved in World War II, that Chiang revisited the idea of sending his naval officers abroad in an effort to rebuild and strengthen China’s navy.

While 50 Chinese naval officers were sent to the United States, Lam and 23 other officers were sent to the UK’s Royal Naval College to study English as well as gunnery and artillery skills and British naval traditions.

After their training, Lam was stationed on the HMS Ramillies during the Normandy landings on D-Day. He described horrific battle scenes — artillery attacks and Norwegian destroyers being sunk by German torpedoes — that contrasted with more relaxed moments of warm meals and afternoon tea.

D-Day was a success, and Lam continued to participate in the liberation of southern France during Operation Dragoon in August 1944. Germany surrendered the following May, and the 24 Chinese naval officers received orders to return to China to assist in the ongoing war against Japan.

By the time they arrived, however, the US had dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading Japan to formally surrender in September 1945. Lam was reassigned elsewhere, but not before making a stop in Hong Kong to aid in the city’s post-war recovery.

With China embroiled in civil war, Lam and his fellow naval officers then had to decide whether to continue serving under Chiang or join the communist forces of Mao Zedong. Lam was the only one of the 24 British-trained officers who chose neither side, instead establishing residency in Hong Kong before moving to Brazil where he married a woman from Japan and had two children. All his wartime belongings, including his diary, were left in his apartment as it passed to other relatives, remaining there until they were discovered in 2015.

Lam’s story is not just about D-Day, Mak and Hui say, but about the large and small ways in which Hong Kong has always figured in global affairs.

“At a time when there has been a lot of doubt and self-doubt about Hong Kong’s international relevance,” Mak said, “let this be a reminder that as far as 80 years ago, Hong Kong has had a role to play in international history and international events.”

Lam eventually left Brazil for the US at 86 years old, and Mak and Hui are still investigating what happened to him next. They speculate that since his wartime belongings were left behind in Hong Kong, his family may be completely unaware of his legacy. Still, Mak and Hui are confident that as long as they continue sharing their discoveries across Asia and Europe, Lam’s story might reach his descendants — all the way from Hong Kong.

Like Mak, Hui says Lam’s story exemplifies Hong Kong’s historical relevance in the modern world.

“We believe that Hong Kong is a place full of historical and cultural heritage. Just explore it. Keep curious, and then we can always find other extraordinary stories like Mr. Lam’s,” he said.

The exhibit for Lost and Found: The Unsung Chinese Heroes at D-Day is still available for viewing at University Library, The Chinese University of Hong Kong from now until Dec. 25, 2024. Visitors are welcome from 11am to 5pm.

To learn more about Lam Ping-yu’s life, watch the full discussion on our YouTube channel:

This past May, the Hong Kong SAR government announced that the Municipal Solid Waste Charging Scheme that was set to roll out in April would be indefinitely postponed. This comes after nearly two decades of discussions while other major cities across Asia, like Singapore and Tokyo, were able to solve their own waste and recycling issues.

Hong Kong generates 5.97-6.6 million tons of solid waste per year, yet only about 30-35% of it is recycled. The remaining amount of unrecycled waste is enough to fill over 1,000 of the city’s double-decker buses.

So what’s next? With no clear solution from the government in sight, the FCC organised a panel of three waste management pioneers who gave their opinions on how the private sector could step up and address Hong Kong’s trash dilemma. Moderating the discussion was FCC Journalist Governor Joe Pan, who first introduced Edwin Lau to share his views and criticisms of the city’s waste management efforts.

“A lot of our waste did not end up in our landfills. That is the issue. [It] ended up in our nature — our beaches [and] countryside,” Lau said.

Lau is the Founder and Executive Director of The Green Earth, and played a key role in advising the government as they developed the Waste Charging Scheme. With the government postponing the plan indefinitely for the Scheme earlier this year, Lau had become even more critical of the government’s lack of effort. He continued to point out the statistics that showed how the city is underperforming when compared to the rest of Asia.

“You can see our waste problem, our achievement in waste reduction is really, really poor,” he said.

Eric Swinton, the Founder of V Cycle, then spoke from the standpoint of a private entrepreneur who has become dedicated to Hong Kong’s sustainability.

Swinton explained that the V in V Cycle stands for “virtuous” and then cited how his organisation aids both the city’s recycling struggles, as well as the elderly population.

“We, as a social enterprise, have a social mission: to look after the underprivileged people in Hong Kong, especially the ‘cardboard elderly’,” he said.

The “cardboard elderly” he referred to are the 65 to 85-year-old collectors who roam the streets for hours, break down and fold up boxes, and exchange their findings for around HK$25-50 a day. Swinton’s research indicates that there are approximately 3,000 cardboard elderly in Hong Kong. His aim with V Cycle is to help make their lives better.

By hiring the cardboard elderly, Swinton has created a much healthier and dignified job for them with sorting out waste that will be recycled at his factory in Tuen Mun. His staff receive free lunch, tea breaks, and an hourly pay that’s well above minimum wage. Swinton then shared a specific example of his employee Mr. Lee who previously collected cardboard boxes with his wife.

In his former work, Mr. Lee hurt himself and was hospitalised in order to receive an injection treatment, which wound up permanently injuring his back. But since he started working at V Cycle over a year ago, his health has rapidly improved and he can now stand up straight — and earn much more money to support himself and his wife.

Understanding the inflow and outflow of Hong Kong’s waste is also a key feature of Dorothy Lam’s research and efforts in local sustainability.

She refers to it as the “digestive system” and finds that Hong Kong has never examined its own resource allocation for waste management to pinpoint areas where efficiency and cost-effective strategies can be implemented. Other cities have done this, and if Hong Kong were to complete this study, Lam explains that this will help the city create regional partners as it combats waste buildup.

“I think for the ‘digestive system’, maybe we shouldn’t stop in Hong Kong [and] actually look at where the streams are going when [waste] is exported, and look at the market opportunities in those economies,” she said.

Being able to find a regionally-involved solution to the city’s recycling issues creates what Lam described as a “circular economy” where all involved parties are able to benefit — which will ultimately bring Hong Kong up to the same waste management efficiency as its Asian counterparts.

While the panel agreed that regional cooperation would make a significant impact in Hong Kong’s environmental efforts, Lau maintained that the city needed to vastly improve its own strategy in order to align with other places across Asia — and the rest of the world.

“Let’s take bigger and bolder steps together to let Hong Kong really move on the sustainable path to show that Hong Kong is an international city. On [an] environmental side, we should also be on par with other major cities on environmental issues,” Lau concluded.

To watch the full discussion, please visit our YouTube channel:

Indonesia’s ongoing protests began late last month in response to controversial legislation that aimed to reserve power for outgoing President Joko Widodo’s two sons and prevent a leading government critic from running for governor of Jakarta.

At many locations across the world’s third-largest democracy, young protesters, mostly university students, demonstrated outside government buildings. Protests in capital city Jakarta took place at the gates of the House of Representatives, with violence breaking out between police and demonstrators in the afternoon and lasting through the late evening.

Some protests in Central Java featured banners with the words “Kita Tolak, Masa Pahit” written on them. The phrase translates to “We Reject Bitter Times” and its historical reference was instantly recognised by author Herald van der Linde.

“They say, ‘We do not want to see the dynasty stuff that we’ve seen in the past. We reject that,’” he explained.

“Masa Pahit” is a direct reference to the Majapahit Empire that lasted from 1290 to 1520, a near 200-year period where dynasties and power struggles dominated Indonesian life. Majapahit also happens to be both the title and subject of Linde’s latest book, Majapahit: Intrigue, Betrayal and War in Indonesia’s Greatest Empire (2024).

Sitting alongside Professional Committee member Philip Bowring, Linde delivered a detailed explanation on the history and cultural significance of Majapahit, as well as the writing process that brought this book to life.

Linde works full-time as HSBC’s Chief Asia Equity Strategist, but in his spare time, he travels frequently to Indonesia. He’s even fluent in Indonesian, as well as English and Dutch, and has earned the nickname “The Flying Dutchman” for his frequent travels around the region.

He spent three years digging into historical archives across Indonesia, searching for everything he could find, including not just information about the Majapahit era, but also historical events leading up to this empire and its impact on the rest of Asia.

None of the information he found was in English, yet his book is. Majapahit has now become the first-ever English-language publication on the subject, a fact that Bowring pointed out early on in the discussion.

“In the English language and among English-language academics, there is a profound ignorance of the whole history of the Indonesian archipelago,” Bowring said when recalling trying to write a chapter about Majapahit for his own book Empire of the Winds (2019).

Majapahit’s long history can be summarised into two themes: division and reunification.

Pre-Majapahit leaders attempted to divide Indonesia in order to distribute power, but could never truly accomplish this task due to the legendary tamarind tree that once stood in what is now Jakarta.

While the country was never truly divided, Linde explained that there are major differences in culture, language, and religion that stretched across Majapahit — differences that are still reflected in modern Indonesia. He specifically referenced West Java.

“Even today, West Java is separated to a certain extent,” Linde said.

Despite its differences, Linde elaborated on how Indonesia preserves itself by remaining tolerant towards all of its ethnic and religious groups. This value was instilled after the fall of the Majapahit Empire, which coincided with the “birthday” of modern Indonesia.

“Majapahit, to a large extent, created Southeast Asia as we know it very much today. That’s why I think it deserved about three years of my life to write the book,” he concluded.

To watch the full discussion, please visit our YouTube channel:

The geopolitical competition between the world’s two most powerful countries, the United States and China, is expected to continue for years, if not decades. China’s Xi Jinping shows no signs of retiring, while Americans will be heading to the polls in November to select either current vice president Kamala Harris or former president Donald Trump to be their next leader.

Regardless of November’s outcome, Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani believes that the US-China contest is too “baked in” and will be followed by an eventful decade he hopes to see.

“That’s why I’m trying my best to stay alive for the next ten years,” Mahbubani said, adding that he is now 75 years old.

Mahbubani, the two-time Singaporean Representative to the UN and two-time President of the UN Security Council, recently published his tenth book, Living the Asian Century: An Undiplomatic Memoir. While touring Hong Kong to promote his book, he spoke at the FCC alongside President Lee Williamson and commented on the ongoing power struggle between the US and China.

Standing at the FCC podium before an audience of correspondents, diplomats, and associates of various professions, Mahbubani first listed three strengths and two weaknesses each for the US and China when it comes to their ongoing rivalry.

China’s population of 1.4 billion people and their psychological motivation to overcome the Century of Humiliation (1842-1949) were two of the country’s strengths, yet it was China’s status as the world’s oldest and continuous civilisation that Mahbubani highlighted the most.

“This is not a contest against the Communist Party. This is a contest against a 4,000 year old civilisation,” he said.

From his experience, Mahbubani said he finds that many Americans are unaware of this fact, especially those in charge of US foreign policy.

This directly ties into what Mahbubani’s finds to be the first weaknesses of the US: lack of long-term strategy. China’s long history, Mahbubani believes, is able to outlast American diplomacy.

“As the United States applies pressure and imposes sanctions, imposes tariffs on China, the Chinese say, ‘Well, you’ve done this before. We understand what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to dominate us, and we’ll make sure that this time, you don’t succeed,’” he said.

However, Mahbubani believes there are weaknesses in China’s strategies as well. The central government’s alienation of the American business community has removed the country’s internal shield from aggressive US trade policies, said Mahbubani.

Also, China’s population is ageing in parallel with declining birthrates. Mahbubani believes the combination of these factors now forecast a further demographic drop in what was once the world’s most populous country (India now hosts the world’s largest population).

He also figures that the US, with a population of just over 300 million, could outshine China in its ability to attract professional talent from nearly every corner of the world — making this the first US strength that Mahbubani listed.

He noted companies like Google and Microsoft whose CEOs are both originally from India, and even joked about the ambiguous background of Elon Musk, leader of Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly known as Twitter).

These high-profile companies are also unique to the US, a place that Mahbubani described as “the most Darwinian society on Earth.” The consistent competition amongst Americans themselves is what Mahbubani believes leads to the other two strengths he believes that the US has over China: a culture of innovation, and ultimately, becoming the most powerful nation in human history.

Power and — arguably just as important — income are not distributed equally or fairly across the US.

The US’s final weakness, Mahbubani contends, is its metamorphosis into a “functional plutocracy” that has stagnated the financial status of the bottom 50% of Americans for several decades. The alienation of this group, especially the white working class and their “white-lash” against the rising power of racial minorities, is what Mahbubani believes has led to Trump’s election in 2016 and potential re-election in 2024 — which would then make Trump the No. 1 weakness of the US.

In further discussion with President Williamson, Mahbubani explained how Americans’ emotional responses to internal politics have also carried into US-China relations.

Noting past US legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and recurring themes of “yellow peril” in American entertainment, media, and various fictional characters, Mahbubani believes that it’s important to dig deeper into the American psyche and unroot the emotional aspect that continues to affect US policy towards China.

“I’m trying very hard to persuade the United States and China to behave rationally towards each other, but if you are driven by an emotional fear which is deep and dark, then frankly, you may do things that are crazy. That’s why I want to surface this emotional dimension. I want it to be understood, dissected, and analyzed so we can say, ‘Are you seriously being influenced by your emotion or your reason in this contest against China?’” he explained.

Many of Mahbubani’s critics label him as “pro-China” and “anti-US” for his various comments on US-China relations and China’s overall relation with the West. Given these comments and public feedback, Williamson also asked about whether or not Mahbubani believes in the “intrinsic value of democracy” in the current geopolitical climate.

His answer was a clear yes, but not without a few caveats.

“Western liberal democracies today are in serious trouble,” Mahbubani began to explain — another opinion of his that he admitted is not widely accepted by the West.

To him, Mahbubani believes that as society evolves and becomes smarter, people will want more of a say in their government’s decision-making, which will ultimately lead to democracy.

However, he finds the West has ignored warnings from over 2,000 years ago, from Greek philosopher Plato who ultimately rejected democracy due to its ability to usher tyrants and dictators into positions of power. It is precisely this concept that Mahbubani believes led to Donald Trump’s election in 2016 and his ongoing re-election campaign to become 47th President of the US.

“When the West goes through this worship of democracy, it is actually doing democracy a lot of damage because democracy is a very difficult political system to manage,” Mahbubani concluded.

To watch the full discussion between Kishore Mahbubani and Lee Williamson, which covers media, disinformation, and a range of political topics, please visit our YouTube channel:

Thomas Gnocchi has been the Head of the European Union Office to Hong Kong and Macau since September 1st, 2020 — arriving amidst the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic and just a few months after Beijing’s National Security Law (NSL) was introduced in Hong Kong.

Now, just four years later, he will soon be departing Hong Kong for a new assignment in Tokyo, Japan. Before leaving, Ambassador Gnocchi spoke at an FCC Club Lunch event alongside First Vice President Morgan Davis to summarise his experience during a pivotal period in Hong Kong’s history.

“It’s a real pleasure to address the FCC Club Lunch. This is my last public event before leaving, so I’m particularly happy that this is taking place here at the FCC,” he began.

To kick off the discussion, Davis first asked Gnocchi how he would characterise his past four years in the city.

“I think it would have been even wilder had I come the year before,” said Gnocchi.

Gnocchi referenced the anti-government protests of 2019 that were caused by a now-withdrawn amendment to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, which would have allowed suspected criminals from Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan to be extradited to mainland China for trial. Protests were fueled further by the Hong Kong Police Force’s alleged use of excessive force against demonstrators.

After months of large-scale protests that extended into the first half of 2020, Beijing pushed for the NSL in Hong Kong, which stamped out nearly all forms of criticism towards the local and central government. In early 2024, the Hong Kong government then enacted Article 23 of the Basic Law which aimed to “plug the gaps” not covered by Beijing’s NSL. Article 23 has been criticised by various sectors for its seemingly vague definitions of national security and state secrets.

These events ultimately set up Gnocchi for a new political landscape in Hong Kong unlike anything the EU Office had previously experienced.

“I think my job here in the EU Office here was very, very different to that of my predecessors [who] weren’t dealing with these more political topics. We’re out of the pandemic, but [these] political changes have changed Hong Kong quite a bit in this relatively short period of time,” Gnocchi said.

Some of the new changes that Gnocchi noted in his talk were the amount of self-censorship that journalists now engage in while reporting under these new conditions, as well as the city’s declining press freedom environment and the closure of various independent news organisations.

Apple Daily and Stand News are just two of the many media outlets that have been shut down since the implementation of Article 23 and the NSL. Also, Hong Kong’s ranking in Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index has fallen to 135 out of 180, and many of the city’s journalists have confirmed in various indices and surveys that they have censored their work more often over the past few years.

“I’ve had several instances where a reporter says, ‘Well, we can’t really carry that.’ I’ve seen it first hand, this self-censorship,” Gnocchi recalled.

Davis then asked if it’s possible for these laws to be undone, which Gnocchi agreed is possible but would take a tremendous amount of effort to change the legal framework that Hong Kong currently utilises.

“Theoretically, yes it is reversible. But I think it would take something pretty substantial to roll this back,” he said.

Despite being the Head of the EU Office and noticing media censorship in the interviews he has given over the past four years, Gnocchi said he hasn’t gotten specific feedback from European journalists working in Hong Kong. Regardless, he emphasised that press freedom in Hong Kong is still a top concern for the EU.

“I think that the general realization that a thriving media environment — an environment where there’s true press freedom — I think that’s good for business and many organizations that rely on objective news and free information. Steps taken in that direction would be very, very welcomed,” he summarised.

On a positive note, Gnocchi also shared what he would miss about Hong Kong after he soon relocates to Japan. Food and nature were the first things that came to the outgoing ambassador’s mind.

“Well, the food has been a particular highlight — and spending time in the FCC. I’ve tried to balance the food by walking in the great country parks, which are just around the corner. That is something that I’ll really miss about Hong Kong – the fact that you have this international finance center and you walk two minutes and you’re in a country park. Certainly I’ll miss that a lot,” he said.

Despite this, Gnocchi also shared his excitement for the new range of cuisine that will be available to him once he reaches Tokyo.

“There’s good food in Japan, too. I’m not out of the woods yet!” he concluded.

Watch the full discussion between Morgan Davis and Thomas Gnocchi on our YouTube channel: