The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is to shift its Asia headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore, it said on Thursday in a letter sent to staff.
The US newspaper said its decision comes after other foreign firms have reconsidered their operations in Hong Kong.
WSJ editor-in-chief Emma Tucker in a letter to staff said that the shift would also involve an unspecified number of layoffs.
Announcing changes to the WSJ’s Asia operations, Tucker wrote: “Some of these changes are structural: We are bringing together our business, finance and economics coverage. Some are geographic: We are shifting our center of gravity in the region from Hong Kong to Singapore, as many of the companies we cover have done.”
On the staff changes, she added: “Consequently, some of our colleagues, mostly in Hong Kong, will be leaving us. It is difficult to say goodbye, and I want to thank them for the contributions they have made to the Journal.”
The union for WSJ employees, IAPE, in a statement said that it was “sorry to learn that eight reporters from the Hong Kong and Singapore offices have been laid off from the company.”
The WSJ also has bureaus in Taipei, Tokyo, New Delhi, Beijing, Seoul and Sydney.
Tucker said a new business, finance and economics group would be created with a mandate to “break news and write ambitious and distinctive features, analysis and enterprise.”
She also said the WSJ was looking to appoint an editor to lead the group, with the position based in Singapore, alongside a number of other journalist roles in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Hong Kong authorities this year introduced a new national security law, with critics saying it expanded the territory’s powers to prosecute dissidents, and that it was scaring foreign businesses away.
The new law expands on a national security law implemented by China in 2020 to quell the huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests that swept Hong Kong the year before.
More than 290 people have been arrested, 174 charged and 114 convicted — most of them prominent pro-democracy politicians, activists and journalists — since Beijing’s security law was enacted.
US news outlet Radio Free Asia announced in March it had closed its Hong Kong office, citing concerns about staff safety, while media watchdog Reporters Without Borders last month said a representative was denied entry to the territory.
Hong Kong was once home to a thriving independent media environment. Authorities have since closed several local media outlets, including Stand News and Apple Daily.
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