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POLITICSAug 17How has John Lee’s promise of a ‘new chapter’ for Hong Kong held up?It made perfect sense for Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu to hold public consultations on both the city’s first five-year plan and the last policy address of his current term at the same time. Many have been putting forward views that warrant serious consideration. It is clear that Lee needs to be bolder when it comes to the “new chapter” he promised in 2022 when he was elected. The Northern Metropolis is only one part of the city’s transformation; his coming policy address must lay...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 16Flags to fly at half-staff in Hong Kong as tribute to late ex-premier Zhu RongjiHong Kong will fly the national and regional flags at half-staff at various government sites on Tuesday to mourn the late former Chinese premier Zhu Rongji. The government said on Sunday it would lower the flags at government headquarters in Admiralty, Government House, all control points and checkpoints at border crossings and Hong Kong International Airport. The tribute will be paid on the day of Zhu’s cremation, in accordance with a notice issued by state news agency Xinhua. It said that...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 16Snooker stars not in Hong Kong just for low tax, immigration chief saysHong Kong’s immigration chief has rejected claims that world‑class snooker players are using a local talent scheme primarily to cut their tax bills, saying zero‑tax Middle Eastern destinations would be more logical if avoidance were the only goal. Director of Immigration Benson Kwok Joon‑fung stressed on Sunday that the city’s public safety, convenient transport and education system appealed to global talent, pushing back against criticism in a televised interview after snooker star Jimmy White...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 16Hong Kong’s growing wealth inequality: will it be an M- or olive-shaped society?An ageing society and a widening income gap threaten Hong Kong’s social fabric. In the last of a five-part series on the city’s five-year plan, we look at what can be done to address these key issues. Read part one here, part two here, part three here and part four here. At 71, Man Chi-ying is the sole carer for her husband, Fung Yu-hoi, a Parkinson’s disease patient. Fung, who is also 71, has stiff limbs and, on some days, needs his wife’s help getting dressed. She has to hold his hand to keep...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 15Hong Kong’s new university town a test of the city’s global ambitionsHong Kong’s Northern Metropolis University Town is no longer just a planning concept. After site visits by a university town task force, the government has reportedly absorbed lessons from overseas models, expanded the university town area to more than 1,000 hectares, received 19 proposals from local institutions and moved towards phased site tendering and development. The project has become something more significant: a test of what Hong Kong wants its higher education system to do in a...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 15‘Living in two worlds at once’: work in Hong Kong, live and play in Greater Bay AreaRegional cooperation is a key priority in Hong Kong’s first five-year plan. In the fourth of a five-part series on the plan, we look at how life in the Greater Bay Area can get better, with the right policies. Read part one here, part two here and part three here. Eager to escape Hong Kong’s suffocating housing conditions, university administrative worker Polly Chan decided in 2023 to rent a weekend flat in Guangzhou. On weekdays, she lives with her mother in a cramped 300 sq ft flat in Tai Po....South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 14Hong Kong garners 16,000 submissions from consultation for city’s first 5-year planHong Kong authorities received more than 16,000 public submissions for the city’s inaugural five-year plan by the close of its consultation on Friday, with an official noting general support for more focused integration into national development and the strategic cultivation of emerging sectors. Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Janice Tse Siu-wa described the blueprint, which is set to be delivered next month, as “a milestone in public administration”, adding that it would...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 13Hong Kong public rental housing wait edges up to 4.8 years, urban allocations riseThe composite waiting time for general applicants for long- and short-term subsidised public rental housing in Hong Kong has edged up slightly to 4.8 years at the end of June, authorities have said, adding that a higher proportion of coveted homes in urban areas was allocated in the second quarter. Despite an increase in the “composite” figure, which includes temporary flats under the light public housing initiative, the Housing Bureau said on Thursday that the average waiting time for general...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 13Hong Kong woman acquitted of protest-related charges after return from AustraliaA Hong Kong woman who returned from Australia has been acquitted of two charges linked to the 2019 anti-government protests, after a magistrate found insufficient evidence that she was involved in the unrest. Eastern Court ruled on Thursday that prosecutors had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that casino cashier Ami Chan Hui-ching, 21, carried two laser pointers and three bottles of spray paint for illegal purposes on September 8, 2019. Magistrate Edward Wong Ching-yu pointed out that...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 13Stop mourning Hong Kong. It’s evolving, not dyingHong Kong has changed since the turmoil of 2019-20. Few people would dispute this. The more important question is what kind of city it is becoming. It is evolving into a more nationally integrated yet still distinctive city. The emerging model seeks to combine market dynamism and international connectivity with clearer alignment to national development. This is not decline. It is a search for a viable identity and role. Critics such as Stephen Roach have argued that the Hong Kong of old is...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 12Hong Kong student avoids jail for seditious graffiti in commercial complex toiletA Hong Kong student has been spared jail for seditious acts in breach of the domestic national security law, after a court ruled that his good background, young age and the limited impact of his offences constituted “exceptional circumstances”. Leung Kai-lok, 19, is potentially the first person to avoid a custodial sentence for violating the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, although he was incarcerated for four weeks before sentencing. West Kowloon Court on Wednesday gave the defendant...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 12Hong Kong is no longer a Western playground – and it’s not looking backWhen it comes to bad prognostication, no one can beat Fortune, which came up with the mother of all “Hong Kong is doomed” narratives. In June 1995, the magazine ran its infamous “The Death of Hong Kong” cover story, predicting its demise following the 1997 handover to China. Stephen Roach, veteran China watcher and former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, seems determined to follow in its footsteps. In 2024, Roach caused a stir by proclaiming “Hong Kong is over” in the Financial Times. He was...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 12Hong Kong’s five-year plan: what’s at stake?Hong Kong's five-year plan is being examined to understand its potential implications and what is at stake. This article discusses the significance of future government policies for the region.South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 12Why does Hong Kong need a 5-year plan – and will it crimp its free-market economy?As the government completes a public consultation exercise to craft the city’s own five-year plan to align with national development, the first of this five-part series looks at key questions, starting with the need for such a blueprint. Economist Heiwai Tang has a line he likes to use on free-market purists: “The market is almost always right, but it’s not always right.” While Hong Kong has long been ranked the world’s freest economy, Tang, an associate dean at the University of Hong Kong’s...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 11Hong Kong considers lowering heat-stress warning thresholds amid criticismHong Kong authorities are considering lowering the threshold for activating higher-tier heat stress warnings during abnormally hot weather, following public criticism that the alert was not upgraded even as the city sweltered through its hottest day on record. Commissioner for Labour Sam Hui Chark-shum said on Tuesday that the warning system was currently more responsive to “muggy weather” than conditions of purely high temperature and strong solar radiation, but the government would seek to...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 11Hong Kong-based mediation body ‘ready to tackle state disputes, serve as Asian legal hub’A former Hong Kong justice minister who now heads an intergovernmental mediation body based in the city has said the organisation is ready to handle state-to-state disputes, with six countries having nominated more than 100 mediators from the legal, diplomatic and academic fields. Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah, secretary general of the International Organisation for Mediation (IOMed), told the South China Morning Post that Hong Kong is uniquely positioned to serve as an international legal capital in...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 9Hong Kong’s 5-year plan needs ambition to match Beijing’s expectationsHong Kong’s first five-year plan will be judged not by how many initiatives it assembles. Instead, it will be judged by whether it explains where the city intends to be by 2030 and how it will get there. The consultation document covers the expected ground. It includes the Northern Metropolis; Hong Kong’s roles as an international financial, trade, maritime and aviation centre; integration with the Greater Bay Area and supporting the Belt and Road Initiative; and social priorities such as...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 8‘Addiction is irreversible’: Hong Kong urged to ban under-16s from social mediaHong Kong should follow international peers in legislating to bar children under 16 from social media to combat cyberbullying and addiction, education experts and lawmakers have said, while stressing the need for broad social consensus. At a panel discussion on Saturday to examine proposals to restrict social media access for under-16s, educators and lawmakers argued that legislation was needed to signal the government’s stance and drive efforts to prevent the next generation from being harmed...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 7Endanger Hong Kong’s national security, and I’ll take you down, Chris Tang warnsHong Kong’s security chief has warned he will take down anyone who endangers national security, while also slamming an embattled press group for lacking credibility ahead of an already delayed leadership election. Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung said on Friday that the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) was “not a statutory organisation” and that candidates for its executive committee reportedly included no representatives from mainstream local media outlets, undermining its...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 7Nominations for Hong Kong’s Election Committee to run from October 7 to 20Nominations for Hong Kong’s powerful Election Committee will take place in October, with the vote for 982 seats of the 1,500-member body – which picks the city’s chief executive and some of the legislative candidates – taking place a month later. A government spokesman said Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu had specified November 22 as the polling date for the committee’s subsector ordinary elections and that the relevant notice had been gazetted on Friday. The spokesman added that the nomination...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 7Hong Kong ‘actively considering’ dedicated offence to fight persistent child sex abuseHong Kong is “actively considering” creating a dedicated offence to target persistent sexual abuse of children, after more than 90 per cent of suggestions from a month-long public consultation backed a proposed overhaul of laws tackling sex crimes. Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung said on Friday that more than 6,000 suggestions were received throughout the consultation period, which began on July 7 and wrapped up on Wednesday. “All in all, over 90 per cent of suggestions supported...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 7Hong Kong’s Lingnan University student union ceases operations after 6 decadesThe student union of Hong Kong’s Lingnan University has announced it will dissolve after nearly six decades in operation due to “changes in the situation both on and off campus”, marking the latest in a spate of closures among such organisations in recent years. In a social media post on Thursday, the student union said it had passed a resolution to dissolve after holding a recent joint meeting. Its decision means that only two of Hong Kong’s public universities still have active student unions,...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 6Criticism of Hong Kong’s economy and rule of law is baselessRecent criticism of aspects of Hong Kong’s economic development and work on safeguarding national security, by a so-called expert on Hong Kong, is factually baseless. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government rightly rejects the allegations. We must set the record straight. Since the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law and the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, Hong Kong residents’ livelihoods and Hong Kong’s business environment have steadily improved,...South China Morning Post
POLITICSAug 6Hong Kong must be realistic and flexible in re-engaging with the USThe recent decision by the US government not to extend its Hong Kong-related state of emergency saw the effective lifting of sanctions on nine mainland Chinese and Hong Kong officials. At a Ministry of Commerce press briefing, a spokesman called it “an important step in fulfilling the consensus” reached in negotiations. Some view the move as a part of the wider attempt at stabilising bilateral relations after US President Donald Trump’s visit to China in May and ahead of Chinese President Xi...South China Morning Post
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