HONG KONG — “Expats,” a new Amazon Prime series set and partly filmed in Hong Kong, appears to be blocked in the Chinese territory amid growing concerns about censorship under Beijing’s tightening control.
The first two episodes of the six-part series, which stars Nicole Kidman, were released worldwide on Friday. But in Hong Kong, they are listed as “currently unavailable to watch in your location” and can only be accessed using a VPN.
Neither Amazon nor the Hong Kong government immediately replied to emailed requests for comment from NBC News on Monday.
The series, directed by Chinese-born American filmmaker Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”) and based on the 2016 novel “The Expatriates” by Janice Y.K. 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 that lasted for months.
A different set of mass pro-democracy protests roiled 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 that critics say has eroded freedom of expression and other civil liberties that Hong Kong was promised would stay untouched for 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 in prison. In 2021, the Hong Kong legislature passed a censorship law aimed at films that might “endanger national security,” and since then there have been a number of instances where movies or short films were required to cut scenes or were blocked from release.
Though the censorship law does not apply to streaming services, they are still subject to the national security law overall. At least two episodes of “The Simpsons” —…
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