Transnational academic spaces and epistemic networks: Hong Kong emigrants’ experiences with extraterritorial authoritarian practices

Le résumé fourni par la source

Globalization has facilitated the physical mobility of university students and academics for the purpose of study and/or work abroad. In this context, the article explores whether and how autocratic origin states interfere extraterritorially in the academic life of their emigrants. We investigate a most likely case, namely that of Hong Kong (HK) emigrants following a politically-motivated mass emigration after 2019. Probing the experiences of HK emigrants in the United Kingdom and Germany through semi-structured interviews and in light of Chinese diaspora engagement policies, the study illustrates the extraterritorial reach of the Chinese party-state in overseas academic spaces and its demonstrable impacts on respondents’ academic freedom. Moreover, the study highlights that HK emigrants develop coping and resistance tactics to counter extraterritorial authoritarian practices. Conceptualizing the horizontal interactions of these emigrants as a transnational epistemic network, we underline the importance of academic freedom in the emergence and development of such networks.

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