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HONG KONG – “Expats,” a new Amazon Prime series set and partially filmed in Hong Kong, appears to be blocked on Chinese territory amid growing concerns about censorship under Beijing’s increasingly strict control.
The first two episodes of the six-part series, starring Nicole Kidman, premiered worldwide on Friday. But in Hong Kong, they are listed as “currently unavailable for viewing in your location” and can only be accessed using a VPN.
A spokesperson said on Monday that the Hong Kong government had no comment on the “operating arrangement of individual companies.” Amazon did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from NBC News.
The series, directed by Chinese American filmmaker Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”) and based on the 2016 novel “The Expatriates” by Janice YK Lee, tells the stories of three American women living in Hong Kong, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
It is set in 2014, and at least one later episode of the show is said to include scenes depicting pro-democracy protests held that year and lasting for months.
A different set of mass pro-democracy protests rocked Hong Kong in 2019 and at times turned violent. Beijing responded the following year by imposing a sweeping national security law that it says was necessary to restore stability but which critics say has eroded free speech and other civil liberties that Hong Kong was promised would remain. intact during its first 50 years under Chinese sovereignty.
The national security law criminalizes subversion, succession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces and is punishable by life imprisonment. In 2021, Hong Kong’s legislature passed a censorship law targeting films that could “endanger national security” and since then there have been a number of cases in which films or short films were required to cut scenes or be blocked. premiere.
Although the censorship law does not apply to streaming services, they are still subject to the general national security law. At least two episodes of “The Simpsons,” one referring to the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing in 1989, and another referring to “forced labor” in China, remain unavailable in the Hong Kong version of the Disney+ streaming service.
Kenny Ng, a film censorship expert at Hong Kong Baptist University, said Amazon had most likely made the decision on its own out of an abundance of caution.
Given the potentially sensitive content of the 2014 protest, he told NBC News, refraining from launching the show in Hong Kong is “a very safe gesture to preempt any potential future commercial risks” in mainland China, which is “a very large market.” for streaming.” ”and one where Amazon Prime is not currently available.
Hong Kong residents were outraged in 2021 when Kidman was exempted from strict Covid-19 quarantine requirements so she could film parts of “Expats” in the city, long a film hub.
Without naming Kidman, the Hong Kong government said at the time that the exemption had been granted “for the purpose of carrying out designated professional work, taking into account that it is conducive to the maintenance of the necessary functioning and development of the Hong Kong economy.” ”.
Government officials, businessmen and other high-profile figures had also been allowed to avoid the quarantine regime, which required travelers arriving from abroad to spend up to three weeks confined in a hotel, at a cost of thousands of dollars, until ended in September 2022.