Business
Rule by Fear Is Changing the Face of Hong Kong Society
After being likened in China’s state media to a “tumor” and “poison,” a teachers’ union with nearly 100,000 members saw the writing on the blackboard and dissolved itself.
A teacher takes attendance during Hong Kong’s first National Security Education Day in April.
Photographer: Vernon Yuen/NurPhoto/Getty
The Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union was founded in 1973. Over almost half a century, it flourished, coming to represent the vast majority of professional educators and operating an array of businesses and services for its 95,000 members spanning medical and dental clinics, insurance, legal advice, book-publishing and even supermarkets.
Then, one day, just like that: It was gone.
