Political Cartoonist Forced to Leave Hong Kong After His Work Attracted Police Attention

Wong has created a lot of cartoons that satirize the Chinese Communist Party

In this still taken from video, Justin Wong (L) is in an interview with Simon Shen (R) on Jan. 1. 2023. "The Diplomat" YouTube Channel/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

A former assistant professor at the School of Visual Arts of Baptist University (HKBU) and political cartoonist has emigrated to the UK after he was reported to the police for an academic article on the anti-extradition movement in September 2021.

Justin Wong, who had focused primarily on satirizing the current social situation in Hong Kong, was reported by HKBU’s higher-ups over his article. The article contained images of the sensitive slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Time.” He then decided to give up his faculty post and leave Hong Kong for good in the same year.

On Jan. 1, 2023, Wong was interviewed by Simon Shen, a former Hong Kong political scientist and columnist, now an associate professor at National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan. Wong said that he found the incident incredulous and believed he was not the only scholar who had experienced it. He said that the police had contacted HKBU about the case. He also learned from his former colleagues that the police had indeed made inquiries to HKBU, but after he left Hong Kong, the police stopped further investigations.

Wong’s Cartoon Received Police Warning

Wong received his Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts) from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1996 and his Master of Arts (Interactive Digital Media) at Ravensbourne College of Design and Community in London. Upon his return to Hong Kong in 2004, he taught in the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong and worked as Art Director in an interactive media design company.

Throughout the years, Wong worked in various media. He is the artistic director of a new media art group-The Writing Machine Collective. His works include comics, animation, design, illustration, and interactive multimedia.

In recent years, Wong’s works have focused primarily on satirizing the current social situation. He received his first warning from the police in 2021.

On Sept. 17, 2021, Wong published a six-frame cartoon in a Hong Kong newspaper, which was a discussion between two students on participating in extracurricular activities. It mentioned the campus reporters and delivered a few satirical stunts against the Hong Kong police. The following one is another of his cartoons.

Justin Wong has created a lot of cartoons that satirize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the local Communist Party authorities. This one shows the CCP red line getting tighter and tighter. Courtesy of Justin Wong's Facebook

The police later sent a letter to Wong, expressing their strong dissatisfaction and concern about the cartoon that mentions the fake news source coming from a friend of the police program “Junior Police Call,” and asked Wong to clarify.

Two years later today, Wong said that political cartoons might not be 100 percent consistent with the facts. At that time, he did not expect the work to bring such intense pressure. The complaint letter by the police was sent not only to himself but also to the university’s vice chancellor, The Newspaper Society of HK, and major media outlets.

“At that moment, I could already feel that I couldn’t continue drawing anymore...” He said.

Wong also described that the status in both higher education institutions and society, in general, is shrouded with a sense of fear from the authority’s “intimidation threat” to suppress any potential opposition voices, gradually developing into a culture of mutual monitoring and reporting.