Category Archives: Hong Kong

Security chief who led pro-democracy crackdown set to be Hong Kong’s new leader

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John Lee is the only candidate in the running to succeed Carrie Lam as chief executive

At the height of Hong Kong’s protests in the summer of 2019, angry pro-democracy legislators shouted in the Chinese territory’s legislative council: “down with John Lee!”, as the veteran security chief defended his force’s treatment of the protesters and journalists.

“I hope people will understand the chaotic situation and the pressure faced by each and every one at the scene on that day,” Lee said, unapologetically. “I hope members of the public will not vent their dissatisfaction of the government on police officers, because they are only discharging their duties.”

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From India’s highs to Thailand’s lows, Asia’s weather is hitting extremes

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Analysis: As the heatwave in India and Pakistan starts to intensify again, Thailand and China are recording strangely cold May days

The final days of April saw further unbearable temperatures recorded in India and Pakistan. Temperatures peaked at 49C in Jacobabad, Pakistan on 30 April, with a high of 47.2C observed in Banda, India. The Indian Meteorological Department confirmed that average temperatures in April were the highest for northern and central parts of the country since records began over 100 years ago.

Heatwaves are a common occurrence at this time of year in India and Pakistan, but scientists believe the intensity, duration and arrival time of the conditions witnessed so far this year are caused by rising global temperatures. Despite a slight respite in the extreme heat over the past few days, temperatures are set to intensify once more this weekend and into next week with maximum temperatures expected to approach 50C in parts of north-west India and Pakistan.

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Hong Kong’s Human Rights Press Awards scrapped over security law fears

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Foreign Correspondent’s Club’s decision sparks outrage from journalists and resignations from press freedom committee

Hong Kong’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club has scrapped its annual human rights press awards just days before it was due to announce winners, out of fear it would violate the city’s wide-ranging national security law.

The decision sparked a number of resignations from the club’s press freedom committee, and public criticism from journalists and former award winners, who described the move as sad, and evidence that it could no longer serve in its mission to defend the press.

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Prominent Hong Kong journalist Allan Au reportedly held on sedition charge

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Reporter and lecturer’s arrest in dawn raid another blow to city’s press amid Beijing crackdown

A veteran Hong Kong journalist has been arrested by national security police for allegedly conspiring to publish “seditious materials”, a police source and local media said, in the latest blow against press freedom.

Allan Au, a 54-year-old reporter and journalism lecturer, was arrested in a dawn raid on Monday by Hong Kong’s national security police unit, multiple local media outlets reported.

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Hong Kong security official to stand as chief executive

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John Lee’s bid for top political post is sign of power security officials are gaining

Hong Kong chief secretary John Lee, a security official during the global financial hub’s prolonged and often violent 2019 pro-democracy protests, has resigned in a bid to run in an election in May to become the city’s new leader.

Lee, 64, a former deputy commissioner of police, was promoted to the role in 2021 in a move that some political analysts said showed Beijing’s priorities for Hong Kong were security rather than the economy.

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Carrie Lam: a divisive leader in Hong Kong’s turbulent times

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Tenure of woman who rose through ranks to become governor marked by controversies and scandals

Carrie Lam came to office pledging to unite Hong Kong, but she will leave accused of being a divisive leader of a politically turbulent city.

Lam entered Hong Kong’s civil service in 1980, with her colleagues labelling her a “houdadak”, or “good fighter”, because of her strong will in a bureaucratic battle. She eventually rose through the ranks to become the first female governor of the key financial hub in 2017. She announced on Monday that she will not seek a second five-year term of office.

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Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says she will not seek second term

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Chief executive to leave office at end of June after five years marked by upheavals of anti-government protests

Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, who has governed the Chinese region since 2017, has announced she will not seek a second five-year term of office.

Lam’s tenure as the chief executive of one of Asia’s most significant financial hubs has been marked by the upheavals of anti-government protests and, more recently, Covid-19. Critics have accused her of helping Beijing to curtail Hong Kong’s freedoms.

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UK judges withdraw from Hong Kong’s court of final appeal

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Judges resign saying administration has ‘departed from values of political freedom and freedom of expression’

UK judges have withdrawn from Hong Kong’s court of final appeal, citing concerns that their continued participation would appear to endorse the current administration amid dwindling political liberties and freedom of expression in the Chinese territory.

Lord Reed, the president of the UK supreme court, the country’s highest court, said he and his colleague Lord Hodge had submitted their resignations as judges of the Hong Kong court of final appeal (HKCFA) with immediate effect.

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Cathay Pacific plans world’s longest passenger flight, avoiding Russia

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Airline could set distance record by rerouting its New York to Hong Kong service over the Atlantic instead of the Pacific, covering more than 16,600km

Cathay Pacific is planning the world’s longest passenger flight by rerouting its New York to Hong Kong service over the Atlantic instead of the Pacific, the airline has said, in a new path that steers clear of Russia.

The flight path will cover “just under 9,000 nautical miles” (16,668km, or 10,357 miles) in 16 to 17 hours, Cathay said in a statement to Agence France-Presse.

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Hong Kong hospitals will no longer separate Covid-infected children from parents

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U-turn comes after health policy caused outrage among families and campaigners in city

Hong Kong hospital authorities have made a U-turn to allow parents of Covid-positive children to accompany them in paediatric wards, regardless of their own Covid status, as the city’s “fifth wave” of the virus eases.

Many toddlers were hospitalised during the Omicron-fuelled outbreak, which peaked this month, government data showed. But until recent days, only parents who also tested positive were allowed to remain in the same ward as their children.

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Shanghai begins locking down millions as China’s Covid cases surge

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China will shut down city in two stages as it sticks to a ‘zero-Covid’ strategy amid growing outbreaks

Shanghai has begun its phased lockdown as an Omicron-fuelled Covid-19 wave spreads through mainland China’s most significant financial hub, resulting in the highest caseloads in the country since the early days of the pandemic.

The eastern side of the Huangpu River, which divides Shanghai, would be under lockdown between Monday and Friday, officials said, followed by similar restrictions across its western side from 1 April. Massing Covid testing across the city is also under way.

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Hong Kong eases travel rules in apparent shift from zero-Covid policy

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Ban on flights from nine countries lifted for fully vaccinated residents and quarantine reduced to seven days

Hong Kong will lift a ban on flights from nine countries and reduce hotel quarantine alongside a “roadmap” towards eased restrictions that suggest a departure from the territory’s zero-Covid policy, its leader has announced.

From 1 April, fully vaccinated Hong Kong residents who have received a negative PCR test will be allowed to enter on flights from the UK, Australia, Canada, France, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and the US. Arrivals have to undergo seven days’ hotel quarantine, down from 14 previously.

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China reports first coronavirus deaths in over a year amid omicron surge

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Two deaths reported on Saturday, the first since January 2021, as China continues to pursue ‘zero-Covid’ strategy

China’s national health authorities reported two Coronavirus deaths on Saturday, the first recorded rise in the death toll since January last year, as the country battles an omicron-driven surge.

The deaths, both in north-eastern Jilin province, bring the country’s coronavirus death toll to 4,638.

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Hong Kong demands UK-based rights group shut down website

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‘We will not be silenced,’ says CEO after government accuses Hong Kong Watch of endangering China’s national security

A UK-based rights group has pledged not to remain silent after Hong Kong’s government demanded it shut its website and accused it of endangering China’s national security.

While China heavily restricts the internet on the mainland, Hong Kong does not generally censor the web, allowing residents to access sites and content that might be critical of Beijing.

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Hong Kong protests documentary breaks Taiwan box office record in opening weeks

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Revolution of Our Times looks at the 2019 demonstrations, which some Taiwanese saw as a warning sign about their own future

A film on the pro-democracy protests that rocked Hong Kong in 2019 has broken a box office record in Taiwan for an overseas Chinese-language documentary within the first fortnight of its release.

Revolution of Our Times, directed by Hong Kong film-maker Kiwi Chow and which premiered at the Cannes film festival last year, has grossed around $17m NTD (US$600,000) as of Wednesday, the film’s distributor said.

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China builds new bridge to Hong Kong to rush in workers as Covid cases surge

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The temporary bridge will aid work on a makeshift hospital as the city’s Covid death rate reaches world’s highest per 1m people

A temporary bridge linking Shenzhen and Hong Kong has been erected to help workers and materials from the mainland to enter the city as work began on a Covid-19 makeshift hospital to relieve pressure on the city’s overwhelmed medical system.

Almost 2,000 Chinese contractors from the China State Construction Engineering are in Hong Kong this week to build the makeshift facility near Hong Kong’s border with the mainland, which is expected to provide 1,000 more hospital beds and quarantine rooms for up to 10,000 people.

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Hong Kong shops ration food and drugs to curb panic buying amid Covid lockdown fears

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Government is planning to test entire population for virus but insists it will not impose ‘complete lockdown’

Soaring Covid-19 cases in Hong Kong have led to court services being suspended for a month as the two largest consumer retail chains ration certain items.

The Asian financial hub has recorded more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases for the third consecutive day in what the authorities called a “fifth wave”, overwhelming hospitals and shattering the city’s zero-Covid strategy.

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European countries dominate half of Asian shark fin trade, report reveals

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Despite nearly a third of shark species nearing extinction, Spain supplied 51,000 tonnes of shark fins from 2003-20, says IFAW

European countries are selling so many shark fins to Asia that they dominate nearly half the trade, a study has found.

Shark populations continue to decline, driven by the global shark fin trade. Last year, scientists found a third of sharks and ray species have been overfished to near-extinction, jeopardising the health of entire ocean ecosystems and food security for many countries.

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Hong Kong to allow in doctors from mainland China as Covid cases overwhelm hospitals

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City, which is pursuing a zero-Covid strategy, is registering thousands of cases a day in its worst-ever wave of the virus

Hong Kong’s government has invoked emergency powers to allow doctors and nurses from the Chinese mainland to practise in the financial hub as it struggles to tackle a spiralling coronavirus outbreak.

“The regulation will provide a legal framework for the CPG (central people’s government) to render the necessary emergent support to Hong Kong in a more effective and expeditious manner,” the government said in a statement.

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Hong Kong domestic workers left homeless after being fired for contracting Covid-19

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Dozens of live-in workers have been forced to sleep rough in the Hong Kong winter after bosses refuse to allow them back in the house

Live-in domestic workers in Hong Kong have been left homeless after they were diagnosed with Covid-19 and their employers fired them or refused their return to the residence, support groups have said.

Many of the workers, who are mostly women from Indonesia and the Philippines, were also left without insurance to cover their medical bills.

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