The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau’s websites lock Hong Kong IP addresses, making it difficult for Hong Kong Internet users to access relevant economic data from the two departments. According to Hong Kong experts and financial analysts, this could affect Hong Kong’s status as a regional information center.
The Financial Times reported that the U.S. Department of Labor “began enforcing geoblocks including Hong Kong” as early as January 2018; while the Census Bureau neither admitted nor denied the blocking of Hong Kong Internet users, but said it “will continue to review the cyber threat report and make corresponding adjustments based on changes in the situation.
Since the two websites blocked Internet users from browsing through Hong Kong IP addresses before the discussion of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, it is believed that the move was not made in response to the National Security Law, but the Financial Times quoted a U.S. official with knowledge of Hong Kong policy as saying that more U.S. government websites will block Hong Kong users in the future as the Washington government no longer recognizes the autonomy of Hong Kong under Chinese rule. At present, the U.S. is already blocking websites in mainland China.
As the world’s largest economy, the U.S. economic data has an impact on business, Hong Kong Internet users are blocked, they can not directly access the Bureau of Labor Statistics website to obtain monthly employment and unemployment data, while blocking the Census Bureau website, you can not directly access the U.S. retail, residential construction, international trade and other data. Although Hong Kong Internet users can use wall software to change the IP address to access the site to be, or through Bloomberg and Eikon terminals to obtain relevant data, but some economists say that this makes them unable to “real-time” to receive data, there is a time lag, unfavorable to the race against time or investment in the financial practitioners. Hong Kong has always been known for its freedom of information and the speed with which it can be accessed, but even this advantage may wane in the future. If so, Hong Kong’s status as an international financial center will be diminished.
Honorary President of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, Paul Fong, is worried that in the future, civilian data such as Facebook and YouTube may also be banned, even if not blocked as in mainland China, and it may be difficult to watch US-related videos online in Hong Kong.
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