Category Archives: Hong Kong

Hong Kong plans to make politicians swear oath of loyalty to Beijing

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All election participants will have to swear allegiance or face five-year ban under bill to be tabled next month

Hong Kong’s government has announced electoral changes requiring office-holders to pledge and maintain an oath of loyalty to Hong Kong and Beijing, or face disqualification and a five-year ban on running for reelection.

A bill to “ensure patriots govern Hong Kong” has been endorsed by the chief executive council and will be tabled in March, the secretary for constitutional and mainland affairs, Erick Tsang, told a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

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HSBC looks to Asia after profits plunge 34%

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More executive roles are expected to relocate to home base of Hong Kong as part of Asia shift, where most of its earnings come from

HSBC, Britain’s biggest bank, has recorded a 34% drop in profit for 2020 as it prepares to double down on its operations in Hong Kong and China despite concern about the political crackdown in the former UK colony.

The bank said on Tuesday that pre-tax profit was down from $13.3bn (£9.4bn) in 2019 to $8.8bn in the 12 months to 31 December, while the adjusted profit before tax of $12.1bn (£8.6bn) fell 76% on the year before.

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Close loopholes so only ‘patriots’ can run Hong Kong – Chinese official

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Speculation grows China seeking to block opposition candidates and overhaul judiciary

A top Chinese official has outlined plans to ensure only “patriots” run Hong Kong, as Beijing seeks to neuter any remaining democratic opposition and take a more direct role in how the business hub is run.

The landmark speech by Xia Baolong, the head of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, came two weeks before the annual meeting of China’s rubber-stamp legislature and as speculation grew that further measures were being planned to sew up control of the city.

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Key pro-democracy figures go on trial over Hong Kong protests

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Veteran activist Lee Cheuk-yan accuses police and government of depriving Hongkongers of constitutional rights

A veteran champion of democracy in Hong Kong has described its legal system as an instrument of political suppression, after he and eight other high-profile figures went on trial in one of the biggest court cases linked to the protest movement that paralysed the city for more than a year.

“It’s the department of justice, the police department and the Hong Kong government who should be on trial because they have deprived us of our constitutional rights,” said Lee Cheuk-yan after the day’s proceedings. “This year is the year of the ox so we should be stubborn as an ox.”

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Hong Kong: alarm over proposed law that could ban anyone from leaving

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Barristers say proposal would give head of immigration ‘unfettered power’ to stop people leaving the city without any court process

The influential Hong Kong Bar Association has spoken out against a government proposal that could give “apparently unfettered power” to the immigration director to stop anyone leaving the city.

The Hong Kong Bar Association (HKBA) expressed alarm on Friday in a paper submitted to the city’s legislative council about the proposed law, which could bar any individual – whether resident or not – from boarding a carrier out of the financial hub.

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Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai to remain in jail as landmark security law case continues

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Media mogul is accused of foreign collusion and is the highest profile figure arrested under the national security law

Hong Kong media mogul and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai will remain in jail after the city’s highest court sided with authorities to keep him in jail pending further legal arguments, in the first real legal challenge to the national security law.

On Tuesday, the court of final appeal gave the department of justice leave to appeal against a high court decision to grant Lai bail while he awaits trial on foreign collusion charges under the national security law.

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‘Let’s learn about national security’: Hong Kong rewrites school rules

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Animation features an owl teaching young children about the need for the controversial law in crackdown on education

Hong Kong students as young as six will be taught about the national security law under a dramatic overhaul of the education curriculum.

Notices sent out on Thursday require schools to prevent participation in political activities, increase monitoring of employees and teaching materials, remove books and flyers deemed to endanger national security, and to report to authorities if necessary.

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Britain should welcome Hongkongers, but not the ‘good migrant’ narrative | Jeevan Vasager

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The idea that Hong Kong migration will give the UK an entrepreneurial rocket boost is based on imperial stereotypes

Ministers swell with pride as they speak of profound ties of history and friendship, while polling shows that a substantial majority of Britons are in favour and newspaper headlines are overwhelmingly positive.

Immigration has always been a contentious issue in Britain. So why, as the UK opens a path to citizenship for millions of Hong Kong residents, is it different this time?

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‘Ambush’ lockdowns: Hong Kong tries radical Covid testing strategy

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Authorities take to sealing off residential blocks without warning and can break into homes if people do not submit to testing

Hong Kong is locking down entire residential blocks without warning as part of a controversial new strategy to contain outbreaks of Covid-19.

Over the past 10 days, squads of Hong Kong police officers have launched “ambush-style” lockdowns of residences, forcing everyone to be tested for Covid-19 or be fined HK$5,000 ($645). Viral footage of one operation showed dozens of officers sprinting up a street, unfurling a roll of tape to cordon off a building and its occupants, as bystanders jump out of the way.

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Hong Kong migration agents report rush of inquiries for UK visas

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High level of interest in scheme launched on Sunday comes despite fears applications will be monitored

Migration agents in Hong Kong say they have had a rush of inquiries from people seeking to access the new visa scheme launched by the UK government on Sunday, despite fears their applications will be monitored.

Britain’s Home Office is expecting about 300,000 people to exercise a newly offered right to move to Britain and eventually seek citizenship in the next five years. The scheme was announced in July in response to the worsening security situation in Hong Kong, as the Chinese government tightens its control over the city with a draconian national security law.

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The free Hong Kong that made me an overnight popstar? That city has vanished

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It’s hard to believe just how quickly the vibrant city has changed since I first arrived in 2013 to perform a song at a protest. A blanket of fear covers it now

My first experience of Hong Kong was, I must admit, unusual. It was 2013, I was 30 years old, and I’d just flown 6,000 miles to perform a song at a huge protest.

I’d written the song six years earlier. It was called This Is My Dream, and it was a defiant song about not giving up. At the time, I was a struggling singer-songwriter living in the small English retirement town of Worthing; I posted the song on a website for unsigned musicians, and then mostly forgot about it.

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Leave Hong Kong before it’s too late, say those who now call Britain home

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Former residents who have chosen to take their chances in the UK after Beijing’s clampdown speak out

Aragon starts work on Monday as an estate agent in London, focused on finding clients who want to move to Britain’s capital from his home city of Hong Kong, a move he made himself four months ago.

His job is one of the first created by a new visa scheme that opens today, giving millions of Hong Kong residents the right to move to Britain and eventually seek citizenship, in response to a Chinese government crackdown in the city.

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Britain launches new visa for millions of Hongkongers fleeing China’s crackdown

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Scheme allows Hong Kong residents with a BNO passport to live and work in the UK with a pathway to citizenship after five years

A new visa scheme offering millions of Hong Kong residents a pathway to British citizenship will go live on Sunday as the UK opens its doors to those wanting to escape China’s crackdown on dissent.

From Sunday afternoon, anyone with a British national overseas (BNO) passport and their dependents will be able to apply online for a visa allowing them to live and work in the UK. After five years they can then apply for citizenship.

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Hong Kong: China will no longer recognise British national overseas citizens

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Move comes after UK says people with status can move to Britain and eventually settle

China has announced it will no longer recognise the passports of British national overseas citizens just hours after the UK launched its scheme to give passport holders a path to residency as political freedoms decline in Hong Kong.

“From 31 January, China will no longer recognise the so-called BNO passport as a travel document and ID document, and reserves the right to take further actions,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters, according to AFP.

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HSBC denies taking political stance over China’s crackdown in Hong Kong

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Bank’s chief executive, Noel Quinn, claims business not in position to question police requests

HSBC’s chief executive has denied taking a political stance on China’s crackdown in Hong Kong, claiming the bank was not in a position to question police requests when it agreed to freeze accounts of pro-democracy activists.

Questioned by MPs on the foreign affairs committee on Tuesday, Noel Quinn ruled out exiting the Hong Kong market in light of Beijing’s controversial new security laws, saying it “would only harm” local customers.

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Life in hotel quarantine: ‘I’m on day two. It’s around day 11 things get difficult’

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Ian Samson, originally from Edinburgh, describes his experience of Hong Kong’s strict isolation rules for travellers

I have a pile of 20 bananas in my hotel room here in Hong Kong, a spin bike I’ve had delivered and some rapidly dying flowers that the hotel gave me on the first day as a morbid reminder of how little sunlight I would be getting for the next 21 days.

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Hong Kong orders thousands to stay home in city’s first Covid lockdown

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Officials plan to test everyone inside a designated zone of Kowloon Peninsula’s Jordan neighbourhood during two-day lockdown

Thousands of people in Hong Kong have been ordered to stay in their homes in the city’s first coronavirus lockdown, as authorities battle an outbreak in one of its poorest and most densely packed districts.

The order bans about 10,000 people living inside multiple housing blocks within the neighbourhood of Jordan, on the Kowloon Peninsula, from leaving their apartments unless they can show a negative test.

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Dominic Raab calls QC acting for Hong Kong government ‘mercenary’

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David Perry is giving China a PR coup by acting against pro-democracy activists, foreign secretary says

David Perry QC, the barrister acting for the Hong Kong government in its efforts to jail pro-democracy activists, is behaving in “a pretty mercenary way” and providing the Chinese government with a PR coup, the foreign secretary Dominic Raab said on Sunday.

Perry has agreed to represent the Hong Kong government in prosecuting nine activists, including the media proprietor Jimmy Lai, arising from demonstrations in August 2019. The trial is due to begin next month.

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Wheelchair climber hauls himself 250 metres up Hong Kong skyscraper for charity

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Lai Chi-wai spent 10 hours pulling himself up the tower to raise money for spinal cord patients

Lai Chi-wai has become the first in Hong Kong to climb more than 250 metres of a skyscraper while strapped into a wheelchair, as he pulled himself up for more than 10 hours on Saturday to raise money for spinal cord patients.

The 37-year-old climber, who was paralysed from the waist down in a car accident 10 years ago, could not make it to the top of the 300 metre-tall Nina Tower on the Kowloon peninsula.

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British QC prosecuting activists in Hong Kong fought to be allowed to take case

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David Perry faces accusations of ‘making the wrong choice’ after applying despite local objections

David Perry, the British QC under fire for agreeing to prosecute pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, had to go to court himself to win permission to take the controversial case.

The nine activists facing a potential seven-year jail sentence for alleged unlawful assembly in 2019 include Jimmy Lai, the independently minded newspaper proprietor, and Martin Lee, the so-called father of Hong Kong democracy.

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