Category Archives: Blog

To a fanfare of scraped barrel bottoms, the Commerce and Economic Development Secretary Algernon Lau encourages Hong Kong’s young entrepreneurs to explore new opportunities in Central Asia, Latin America and Africa… Speaking at a luncheon hosted by the Chinese General … Continue reading →

Should the government end the civil service pay freeze imposed last year? Several lawmakers think it should (stories in HKFP, Standard). Persistent budget deficits suggest that expenditure needs to be trimmed, or revenues increased. It would be useful to know … Continue reading →

For diehard enthusiasts of scandal/serious murk, or those who have a taste for the surreal: kung fu movie star Lau Kar-leung’s widow Mary Jane Reimer delivers a one-hour video on the theft of her husband’s remains last year and the … Continue reading →

HKFP gets 2026 off to a good start, talking with Chiu Yan-loy to get perhaps the best description yet of how rotten the building maintenance industry really is… The “accompanying bids” tactic, where multiple construction firms are deliberately arranged to … Continue reading →

Commentary from Bloomberg on a possible New Year’s resolution for UK (and other) policymakers, referencing the book All That Glitters by Martin Thorley… Again and again, parties that appear independent and self-interested on the surface turn out to have connections … Continue reading →

After Hong Kong starts allowing up to 100 private cars a day to enter the city from the Mainland, a lawmaker complains that some are breaking local rules on tinted windows. That’s not the worst of it. Social media now … Continue reading →

Not a great holiday season for the man in his 70s who was badly injured in Yuen Long on Saturday when – walking on a sidewalk separated from the road by railings – he was hit by a car. The … Continue reading →

A letter in the WSJ from Mark Simon on the Jimmy Lai trial… Under China’s national-security law, the proceedings were a farce: hand-picked judges, no foreign lawyers, no jury. The city’s common-law heritage—which nominally rejected retroactivity in criminal law—was junked. … Continue reading →

In the New Statesman, Jonathan Sumption – former overseas member of the Court of Final Appeal – on the Jimmy Lai verdict. He blames the law, not the judges… Reading through this very long judgment (it runs to 855 pages), … Continue reading →

Eric Lai in the Diplomat… …the Lai verdict reveals something … troubling: local courts are endorsing authorities engaged in information manipulation about Lai and Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. The ruling represents more than just another conviction in a city where … Continue reading →