Keith B. Richburg

Hong Kong

Contributing columnist writing on Asia, Europe and Africa
Keith B. Richburg, director of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong, spent more than 20 years overseas for The Washington Post, serving as bureau chief in Beijing, Paris, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Nairobi and Manila as well as New York City. He also was the Post’s Foreign Editor during 2005–2007. Richburg was Journalist-in-Residence at the East-West Center in Hawaii in 1990 and was president of the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club in 1997, during the year of Hong Kong’s handover to China, and again the FCC president in 2021 and 2022. Now a Professor of Practice
Latest from Keith B. Richburg

Let’s celebrate a rare democratic success story in Southeast Asia

Indonesia was in chaos and in danger of splitting apart. Twenty-five years later, none of the most dire predictions, including my own, have been realized.

May 24, 2023

In Hong Kong, face masks are finally optional — but distrust remains

There are fledgling signs of pre-covid normality, both good and bad.

March 19, 2023

What Hong Kong’s spiffy marketing campaign for tourists can’t disguise

No amount of spin or rebranding can conceal how this once free and vibrant city has become irreversibly less open.

February 11, 2023

Hong Kong celebrates the lifting of pandemic rules

The city is gearing up to celebrate New Year's Eve without covid restrictions.

December 31, 2022

China won’t be able to maintain its ‘zero covid’ policy forever

The question is when — and how — the government will walk it back.

November 30, 2022

The democracy progress you may have missed — everywhere

Let's pause and take note of some promising shoots of democracy.

November 22, 2022

Why Hong Kong’s economic free fall is partly self-inflicted

The city has a long history of overcoming adversity. Can it recover this time?

October 24, 2022

What we can learn from the people who are voting with their feet

Pay attention to all those Russians, Chinese and Hong Kongers who are heading for the exits.

October 4, 2022

Beijing’s stance on covid now makes it a global outlier

How long will China remain a global coronavirus outlier?

August 25, 2022

Holding presidents accountable for their crimes is what democracies do

The United States might want to learn from the experiences elsewhere and get over its aversion to prosecuting a former president.

July 27, 2022