Carrie Lam Returns Cambridge Fellowship

Hong Kong’s leader says she has ''returned'' her honorary fellowship to a Cambridge college after a row over whether the finance hub's academic freedoms are being suppressed as authorities crackdown on pro-democracy opponents.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam said she was cutting ties with Cambridge’s Wolfson College after it began looking into the state of academic liberty in Hong Kong.

Lam said she was ''deeply disappointed by the college smearing a person on the basis of hearsay instead of facts''.

Wolfson College said it had recently raised concerns with Hong Kong's leader about ''her commitment to the protection of human rights and the freedom of expression''.

Its governing body had been due to consider Lam's fellowship next month but would no longer do so now that Lam had returned the honor.

Lam, a pro-Beijing appointee, was one of a number of Chinese and Hong Kong officials sanctioned by the United States after Beijing imposed a sweeping security law on the semi-autonomous city in late June.