China’s communist government is not naïve. It knows the power art and music can have to encourage oppressed people. So Hong Kong’s Beijing-loyal leaders tried to ban a song. It’s one that democracy-driven Hong Kongers have adopted as an anthem: “Glory to Hong Kong.” But on Friday, a Hong Kong judge denied the government’s request. The ruling came after internet search giant Google resisted official pressure to alter search results to suppress the anthem.
The judge’s decision was a setback for Hong Kong leaders trying to crush a pro-democracy movement. That movement has been going on since 2019.
Those leaders say they have been embarrassed when “Glory to Hong Kong” was played (supposedly by “mistake”) at international sporting events. They want mainland China’s official national anthem, “March of the Volunteers,” to open such events before the watching world.
The government went to court after Google resisted pressure to display China’s national anthem as the top result in searches for Hong Kong’s city anthem. Google asked that a ruling first prove that “Glory to Hong Kong” violated the law before it would be removed from the top search spot.
Judge Anthony Chan says he considered whether a ban of the song would do any more than the city’s criminal law that’s already in place. That legal code includes a National Security Law imposed by Beijing in 2020. Under that law, many of the city’s activists for democracy have been arrested.
“I cannot be satisfied that it is just and convenient to grant the injunction,” the judge wrote in the ruling.
The decision felt like a small victory for hopeful Hong Kongers who remember the freedoms they had as a self-governing British colony. But analysts cautioned that the court ruling doesn’t pave the way for internet freedom in the now-China-ruled administrative area. Foreign tech giants can’t let down their guard on complying with China’s demands on control of information, they say. Those tech companies operate with other entities in the global financial hub that is Hong Kong. Getting on China’s bad side could result in restrictions on their presence there. And that could be financially devastating for big tech.
Recent history supports that China is determined to enforce its policies within its territories—even if that entails breaking promises. When Great Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997, terms stated that the former colony could keep its Western-style liberties for 50 years. But the security law and other changes ate away at the freedoms that the city’s residents once enjoyed.
Despite the court ruling, George Chen, former head of public policy for Greater China at Meta, says there is “zero chance” the government will leave Hong Kongers access to the protest song online. The song is already banned in schools.
