Friday, February 28, 2025 | 3:00 PM EST
In 2020, China implemented the National Security Law (NSL) in Hong Kong, making a wide range of political activities illegal and further reducing the city’s autonomy. Last November, a court sentenced 45 pro-democracy figures to four to ten years in prison in the largest trial since the NSL was adopted. Political and legal changes have continued in Hong Kong, reshaping the Legislative Council and the way cases deemed a matter of “national security” are decided. What does the current situation in Hong Kong mean for the future of civil liberties and human rights in the city? What are the broader implications for Hong Kong’s future as a global financial center and intellectual hub? How do events in Hong Kong affect U.S.-China relations?
In an interview recorded on February 28, 2025, Carole Petersen and Ho-Fung Hung, in conversation with Thomas Kellogg, discuss the ongoing changes in Hong Kong.
Speakers
Thomas Kellogg
Thomas Kellogg is executive director of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, where he oversees various programs related to law and governance in Asia. He is a leading scholar of legal reform in China, Chinese constitutionalism, and China’s approach to international law.
Prior to joining Georgetown Law, Kellogg directed the East Asia Program at the Open Society Foundations. At OSF, he oversaw the expansion of the Foundation’s work in China, and launched its work on Taiwan and North Korea. During his time at OSF, Kellogg focused on civil society development, legal reform, and human rights. He also oversaw work on other issues, including public health, environmental protection, and media development.
Kellogg has written widely on law and politics in China and Hong Kong, U.S.-China relations, and Asian geopolitics. He has lectured on Chinese law at several universities in the United States, China, and Europe. He has also taught courses on Chinese law at Columbia, Fordham, and Yale Law Schools. He holds a B.A. from Hamilton College and J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Carole Petersen
Carole J. Petersen is the Cades Foundation Professor of Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii at Manoa. She teaches courses on international law, human rights, and gender and the law. She is also a member of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. From 1989-2006, Professor Petersen taught law in Hong Kong, where she served as a Director of the Centre for Comparative and Public Law and a member of the Women’s Studies Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong. She continues to research human rights in the territory and the implementation of the “One Country, Two Systems” model of regional autonomy. Professor Petersen holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a Postgraduate Diploma in the Law of the People’s Republic of China from the University of Hong Kong.
Ho-fung Hung
Ho-fung Hung is the Henry M. and Elizabeth P. Wiesenfeld Professor in Political Economy in the Department of Sociology and the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of Protest with Chinese Characteristics, The China Boom, City on the Edge: Hong Kong under Chinese Rule, Clash of Empires: From “Chimerica” to the “New Cold War”, and The China Question: Eight Centuries of Fantasy and Fear. His academic publications have been translated into at least 12 different languages. His analysis of global and Chinese politics and economy has been cited or featured in major media outlets worldwide. Hung received a B.A. from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, an M.A. from SUNY-Binghamton, and a Ph.D. in sociology from Johns Hopkins University.
