Hong Kong security law spurs fears over academic freedom

Overseas scholars and students shun territory's universities

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The campus at Hong Kong's Polytechnic University, and a government-sponsored advertisement promoting the new national security law (Source photos by Getty Images and Reuters)

MICHELLE CHAN, CHENG TING-FANG, and LAULY LI, Nikkei staff writers

HONG KONG/TAIPEI -- For decades, universities in Hong Kong had been a safe haven for academics in Asia to conduct research and exchange ideas. But for Katherine Chen and other scholars, that is no longer the case.

Chen, a communication professor at Taiwan's National Chengchi University, had planned to publish a research paper about January's presidential election in Taiwan at the Chinese University of Hong Kong early next year. The city's new national security law, however, is giving her second thoughts.

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