Big Lychee, Various Sectors

Presidential candidate Kamala Harris is popular among many Asian-Americans. For example, she has long enjoyed support from Cantonese-speaking San Franciscans, who know her as ‘Ho Kam Lai’. But some feel differently. China Media Project analyzes content in simplified Chinese on social media typically used by first-generation Mainland immigrants…  

…In this world, Harris is known by another name — wu ji (烏雞), or “the black chicken” Meanwhile, her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz, is called “Bai Feng,” or “white phoenix.” Taken together, the first characters in these nicknames, “Wu” and “Bai,” allude to the fact the candidates are darker and lighter-skinned. Together, the two names also come very close to “Wuji Baifeng Wan,” the name of a proprietary Chinese medicine that claims to be “an all-purpose gynecological treatment.” To a certain extent, this coincides with Trump and his supporters calling Walz a “tampon man,” emphasizing the femininity of the Harris-Walz duo, while at the same time drawing the reader’s imagination to the female body and sexual organs. The word “ji” (雞), the second character in this name for Harris, is even more obscene, directly linking it to the Chinese words for “chicken” and its homophone “prostitute” (妓). 

…content aimed at Douyin [Chinese TikTok] users [uses] the United States to highlight China’s advantages. Unlike the US, for example, China does not have so many feminists who are unwilling to have children. Or China does not have the “zero-dollar shopping” phenomenon — meaning the raiding of businesses by black rioters, a trend of fake news on Chinese-language social media — that they absurdly allege was caused single-handedly by Kamala Harris. Her Asian identity in these videos is narrowed down to “Indian,” which in turn triggers a series of discriminatory stereotypes about Indians. Or the discrimination centers on failed women who are unmarried and childless, especially when contrasted with Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, the Goddess of America, a woman who has money, children and a career.

Everyone says they can’t wait for this US election nightmare to end. But I must confess: as a almost-lifelong aficionado of surrealism, I’ve really enjoyed it.

A great moment in the history of all-patriots lawmakers as one proposes a new way to boost Hong Kong’s ultra-low birth rate…

…Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions lawmaker [Bill Tang] suggested that government should promote the idea that “babies are cute” and look like “mini” versions of their parents by showing images of infants around government offices.

“[C]ould the government add more baby photos as decorations for all offices? So that civil servants can see babies when they go to work, which will stop them from wanting to work overtime and instead go home to be with their wives,” he said in Cantonese.

Under Secretary for Labour and Welfare Jonathan Ho Kai-ming, responded by saying Tang’s recommendation was “very innovative.” He would discuss with the Civil Service Bureau to see if more baby photos could be displayed, the official said.

Meanwhile, in the US voters could today be choosing an administration that will include a health czar who is anti-vaccines, anti-fluoride in water and anti-pasteurization of milk. 

Some reading matters for an otherwise uneventful Tuesday…

Foreign Affairs on Xi Jinping’s ‘axis of losers’…

…Washington’s aim should be to make clear to Chinese President Xi Jinping how counterproductive and costly to Beijing’s interests these new relationships will turn out to be. That means effectively countering Iran, North Korea, and Russia in their own regions, thereby demonstrating to China that tethering itself to a bunch of losers is hardly a path to global influence.

…What truly binds the axis is not ideology but a common opposition to U.S. power and the international system it sustains—fueled by a belief that this power represents a mortal threat to their regimes’ interests, aspirations, and even survival.

ASPI Strategist looks at the tiny Pacific island nation of Palau’s problem with Chinese tourism…

China has already put Palau through a cycle of what it thought was economic inducement and punishment. Last decade, it ramped up tourism numbers to the country but then knocked them down again by revoking Palau’s status as an approved destination, punishing it for continued diplomatic recognition of Taiwan.

…When tourists from China come, ‘they have these charter flights coming in, where a Chinese company owns a hotel in Palau, owns a tour company in Palau, owns the airplane that’s bringing them into Palau, so all this money that is being made from these tours is not trickling down to the local economy,’ says a former Palauan tour guide…

…Palauans have seen tourism drive inflation and expect that a renewed surge in arrivals from China will do the same again. ‘This kind of mass tourism will tend to push up the price of mass produce and local resources…,’ says the senior official. The price of giant coconut crabs, for example, was US$7 per pound before last decade’s tourism surge, the official says. Now it is US$60 per pound.

Plucky little Palau – population just under that of Discovery Bay  – also has an election today. The tiny republic has diplomatic relations with the Republic of China/Taiwan, so Beijing takes a keen interest. The foreign affairs spokesman recently urged the micro-state to make the ‘right decision’ on the matter.

WhatsOnWeibo reports on China’s crackdown on female-oriented erotic fiction…

Yunjian, a prominent author on Haitang, has been writing for over a decade, producing tens of millions of words. Her detention not only forces her to forfeit all the royalties earned over the past ten years—now labeled “illicit earnings”—but also means she faces time in prison. While “Rain Painted on a Sunny Day” acknowledged her sister’s “offense” in the post, she explained that the resulting heavy fines have left their family deeply in debt, struggling to make ends meet. After the post went up, many of Yunjian’s readers expressed heartbreak over her situation and began donating to help.

A gentle start to the week. From HKFP, an interesting look at how neighbourhood restaurants and customers are adapting to the new rules against plastic and polystyrene disposable items…

[Customer] Lam, who was buying lunch at a “two-dish rice” shop in Western district, brought his own reusable plastic lunchbox. He aimed to reduce waste, not to replace one type of waste with another, he said.

…[Restaurant manager] Lam … said he was concerned about hygiene, as the paper utensils were more prone to mould.

In Sham Shui Po’s Dragon Centre, a shop selling rice noodles in soup had stocked up on paper bowls. Its owner Yu said his old supplier had yet to design a bowl that could withstand the temperature of hot soup.

Officials are not enforcing the new rules yet, but proactively explaining them to restaurant owners. Contrast with the government’s failure to implement its green household waste bags.

At a restaurant far away: Hong Kong artist duo Lumli Lumlong unveil a beguiling mural at the Fishing Village Kitchens in Manchester, England. Would be a good poster for a Terry Gilliam movie…

Which sort of leads us to a thread (with video) on a BBC interview with Election etc film director Johnnie To on plans for the future and the current state of Hong Kong.

First, visit the HKFP merch store. I’ve already ordered some mango and cranberry chili sauce.

A couple of Tweets from HK Public Opinion Research Institute on Hong Kong’s birth rate, which has now dropped below South Korea’s as the world’s lowest, at 0.7… 

And here…

An online panel survey conducted by #HKPORI in October found that 79% of Hongkong women aged 18 to 39 without children do not want to have children, while only 9% expressed a desire to have children.

Also, one from the Committee for Freedom in HK, with a link to their report on Hong Kong and Russian (and other) sanctions-evasion. 

From NBC, the discovery in Hong Kong of the diary of a Chinese naval officer who took part in D-Day.

China gets into ‘Britishcore’, which apparently entails Tesco supermarkets, Paddington Bear, Peppa Pig, etc…

The cultural trope is extending into China, where the nation’s youth is embracing the British lifestyle, but through its own lens.

Earlier this year, mainland Zoomers jumped on Britain’s “indie sleaze” trend, a style heavily inspired by mid-to-late noughties Britain. On apps like Xiaohongshu, creators introduced Chinese shoppers to the aesthetic via styling tips and in-depth explainers on its origins.

As British culture continues to sweep the nation, how can brands join in?

…“British subcultures offer China’s Gen Z a style that’s not only aesthetically appealing, but culturally rich and symbolic of self-liberation, self-expression, and a counter-normative edge,” says Fong Fong Lee-Collins, Account Director at K11 Consulting, adding that the messy, carefree nature of British trends like ‘indie sleaze’ “feels like an exciting departure from the polished and highly curated style seen in many Chinese trends.”

For the terminally bored, hardcore fans of graphematics, or people who found Chinese too easy – a serious but accessible guide to how written Japanese (with four different writing systems) works.

From HKFP…

An elderly activist who took banners to a Hong Kong park did not breach the law because his act of displaying them was not permanent, his lawyer has argued.

Chan Ki-kau, 78, appeared at the Kowloon City Magistrates’ Courts on Wednesday morning to hear the closing arguments from the prosecution and the defence. He is on trial for allegedly violating country park laws after displaying banners atop Lion Rock with a Chinese phrase that suggests standing firm when faced with condemnation last September.

Under the Country Parks and Special Areas Regulations, visitors cannot display signs, notices, posters, banners or advertisements in places under the regulations unless they have permission.

Chan’s lawyer refers to a 2021 court ruling that a law against displaying unauthorized posters on streets applied only to items displayed with ‘a degree of permanence and habitual regularity’. The prosecutor disagrees, pointing out that that was a different ordinance, and banners etc could ‘create a disturbance or affect the environment in a country park’ – such as a tour guide’s flag.

Except tour guides can and do wave their little flags when escorting groups around country parks. Also seen in such locations: large, garish banners saying ‘Happy Birthday’ erected by a group of picnickers. Yet the perpetrators mysteriously never end up in court.

Chan came to the attention of the public (and presumably authorities) as a supporter of youngsters during the protests. At Lion Rock, he held up scrolls with a couplet by Lu Xun. Lu Xun is, apparently, ‘complicated’ these days. The early 20th-century writer was admired by Mao and is regarded as pro-revolutionary. But Hong Kong’s Central public library pulled his works from the shelves along with George Orwell’s apparently for some sort of NatSec reasons a couple of years ago. HKFP adds…

Chan faces a fine of up to HK$2,000 or three years’ imprisonment.

Maybe a senior citizen who can climb up to Lion Rock at the age of 78 deserves a medal.

Trying to ignore US election forecasts. The media want a knife-edge cliff-hanger so badly that the coverage would fit better in the sports pages, and pollsters’ credibility is pretty much exhausted. 

I’m also still unable to fathom how more than, say, 20% of voters could be so debased, unhappy and/or ignorant that they will back someone who – among other things – is clearly owned by Vladimir Putin and infantile tech billionaires. (One Trump-voter I know moans that ‘we don’t know who Kamala is’.)

I was trying to think of a possible bright side to a Trump victory. This isn’t one, but it’s the best I could manage, in that it would resolve longstanding global economic imbalances one way or another.

If we assume that the former President has a real chance of winning, we must assume that there is a chance that the US will impose broad tariffs on imports. His ideas on this are either simplistic or all over the place, but he has suggested a base level of a 10-20% tariff across the board, and 40% or more on Chinese exports.

As numerous grown-ups have explained, this would cause significant increases in US consumer prices and many manufacturing costs. It would also – as Trump likes to point out – lead to more manufacturing within the US, though the goods produced would be more expensive to consumers than the replaced imports. Net out the costs and benefits, and let’s say the US people would suffer a decline in economic well-being of x%. (A typical recent forecast: 680,000 jobs lost, 1% off GDP, household costs up by US$1,700 a year.)

Big net exporters (Japan, Germany, but especially China) would no doubt weaken their currencies in an attempt to maintain exports to other markets. And other countries, especially those that run trade deficits, would no doubt introduce tariffs of their own to protect their own industries. With the world’s biggest market cut off and international trade slumping, the world as a whole – minus the US – would see a hit to economic well-being of, let’s say, 2x%.

But for China, the impact would be far worse. The country today accounts for 31.6% of global manufacturing and 28% of global investment, yet only 20% of the global economy and just 13% of global consumption. More than anywhere else in the world, China would see factory closures and a sharp rise in unemployment. Its people would experience a drop in economic well-being of what – 3x%, 4x%?

Hong Kong’s suffering would be at that end of the scale as well, with sharp falls in trade, financial services, tourism, etc, along with plummeting stock and property markets.

So Trump’s crude trade policies would hurt the whole world – but the US would suffer relatively less, and China far more. 

His apologists could argue that the threatened tariffs are a negotiating tactic and would be far less extensive if Beijing – somehow, frantically – found ways to curb exports to the US and boost domestic consumption. Cynics might suspect that Beijing would play Trump by lavishing him with praise, offering his family some business deals, and buying a few million tons of soybeans so he could brag about his superb negotiating skills and good relationship with his great friend Cheezie Bing. 

But, with Trump also ditching Taiwan, Beijing could decide to divert its own population’s attention and make the most of the chaos by doing something desperate. Things could get interesting – and not in a good way.

While we’re at it – for military geeks only – a recently published US Naval College paper (pdf) on Operation Causeway – the US plan to invade Taiwan at the end of WW2, and Japan’s plans to resist. 

If you absolutely must watch a talking head on the election, you could do worse than plain-talking political scientist Rachel Bitecofer, here. In a country where half the population don’t bother voting, she says, the race comes down to whether Trump can get more anti-immigrant men or Harris can get more pro-abortion rights women out to cast a ballot.

The High Court refuses Chow Hang-tung’s application to call overseas witnesses to give evidence remotely in her trial. Normally, judges could permit such a request, but an amendment made earlier this year to the Criminal Procedure Ordinance bars such testimony in national security cases. She is accused of ‘inciting subversion of state power’ as an organizer of the Tiananmen vigils…

The activist … said she suspected that the authorities had enacted the new rule specifically to prevent her from being able to call overseas witnesses in her trial.

Chow said she first raised the matter of wanting to call on overseas witnesses to testify in mid-January, around two weeks before public consultation documents outlining the draft of the proposed law were published.

A reference to a proposed amendment regarding testifying in trials virtually was only made in early March, when the draft of the new national security law was tabled to the Legislative Council, she said.

The “reasonable inference” is that before knowing of Chow’s intention, the authorities had no plan to make that amendment, and upon learning of it did not have time to include it in the consultation papers, Chow said.

…Chow told the court she intended to summon five people to testify: American political science professor Larry Diamond; the artist behind a well-known Tiananmen crackdown statue Jens Galshiot; and Chinese [Tiananmen-era] activists Fang Zheng, Zhou Fengsuo, Wu’erkaixi. Except for Diamond, all had been denied entry to Hong Kong before, she said.

From a thread by Xinqi Su… 

Chow, defending in person, said the new ban created unjustified differentiated treatments between parties in nat sec trials and parties in non-nat sec trials. “This legislation means the court is not trusted to be able to come to appropriate decisions in national security cases. That is why its discretion must be completely taken away,” Chow said. 

She added that “the greatest tempering (of witnesses) comes from here instead of overseas. Due to the local political environment, witnesses here cannot feel safe and free to testify , and they even fear the act of testifying per se can beget oppression, whereas overseas witnesses can tell their experiences and opinions without worries”.

The authorities would obviously not welcome the four who are apparently barred from Hong Kong appearing in a live broadcast in a court (it would probably be asking for trouble to have any of them appear online in a local conference or seminar). And pro-government figure Regina Ip is probably also relieved that the fifth, Larry Diamond, cannot appear: he was her supervisor when she did an advanced degree at Stanford back in the 2000s, and, as an expert witness, would most likely embarrass her by contradicting many of her more recent ‘patriotic’ positions on Hong Kong politics.

We can only guess at what sort of testimony supporting Chow Hang-tung the court – and public – will now never hear.

In 2021, many pan-democrats were purged from Hong Kong District Councils for taking part in the July 2020 primary elections and/or oath-taking technicalities (here and here). The authorities then started to hear complaints that the friendly young people who used to help elderly and other neighbourhood residents were no longer around. So the government decided to fill the gap with ‘community care teams’ run by ‘patriotic’ and pro-government – United Front – organizations.

Now the government plans to train team members as ‘tutors … to promote national security education’…

On Friday, [Home and Youth Affairs Secretary Alice] Mak said was no “strict indicator” for the number of tutors a care team should have. But each tutor should promote national security awareness to around 30 residents in their district per year, through organising various activities, visits, talks, or by handing out publicity materials, the official said.

What other new tasks will these teams get in future?

Sorting out photos from my recent trip to the UK. Curious sign in a rail station somewhere in Northern England (maybe Leeds?). At the bottom it says ‘20m 43ch’. Turns out it is a distance marker showing the location to be 20 miles and 43 chains from somewhere else. A chain is one 80th of a mile – 22 yards, or 66 feet.

The SCMP begins a series on Hong Kong’s talent-attracting visa initiatives, which in effect target mostly Mainlanders…

Kira Xiong, a 23-year-old finance graduate with degrees from universities in Melbourne and Sydney, arrived in Hong Kong in July full of hope.

Armed with a two-year visa under the Top Talent Pass Scheme introduced by the city in 2022, she expected to land a job in finance. But the reality has been sobering.

After spending nearly three months sending out more than 100 resumes, lowering her salary expectations and considering work not related to her majors, she settled for an administrative job in a local company.

…Cambridge economics graduate Peter Zhang, 24, secured a junior financial analyst position in March, after a six-month job hunt, sending out more than a dozen resumes.

At one job interview, he found himself competing with more than 100 candidates for three available junior positions, and nearly half of them were also top talent visa holders.

…Many asked whether they should just give up and become insurance agents, described as an easy way to ensure their visas would be extended.

As of last month, 100,972 people had applied for two-year Top Talent Pass visas; 81,463 had been approved, and 66,109 had arrived in Hong Kong. Even all-patriot lawmakers are grumbling that the recipients are not always what Hong Kong needs.

I’ve heard plenty of friends-of-friends anecdotes of Mainlanders planning to use the permits as a stepping-stone to the West or in the hope that they will be able to bring parents here to enjoy free healthcare. It looks like the authorities saw it as a numbers-exercise – a quick way to replace the educated younger people who have emigrated in recent years. Note also that youth unemployment has hit over 20% in the Mainland according to a new statistical methodology introduced after the figure hit 40% in some regions. (It says here: ‘average starting salaries for fresh graduates this year are 5,843 yuan (HK$6,380) in Guangdong, HK$19,806 in Hong Kong, and 14,996 patacas (HK$14,560) in Macau’.)

Former CE CY Leung, a real-estate agent by trade, warns in the Standard/Sing Tao against oversupply of housing, suggesting that demand ‘will not grow forever – especially when you factor in the northern New Territories plans. If he is right, it suggests Hong Kong’s historic expansion in terms of both population and economy is at an end, and that the Lantau reclamation is unnecessary. The reporters didn’t ask.

Some weekend reading…

A longish paper, but worth a read: Carl Minzner on China’s Age of Counter Reform…

The ideological openness of the reform era is disappearing … the ideological closure reflects a broader, decades-long drift back to the securitization of China’s state and society. Stability-obsessed CCP officials, ever on guard against potential risks, see them everywhere. Back in the early 2000s, it was public-interest lawyers who seemed to be vectors for anti-CCP ideas. By the 2010s, social media, civil society, and academia had joined lawyers on the list. Everywhere, Party controls have been reasserted, arrests and jail terms doled out, and the desired “chilling effect” reestablished.

The trend toward closure is spreading. Security officials regularly fan fears of foreign espionage, particularly around April 15, designated since 2016 as National Security Education Day. A 2023 anti-espionage crackdown on consulting firms shocked foreign corporations trying to conduct statistical research and due diligence. China’s LGBTQ+ groups, meanwhile, are worried by fresh official messages that not only their organizational activities but their members’ own sexual and gender identities themselves may be politically problematic. New laws criminalize defamation of regime-designated martyrs and heroes. Access to commercial and academic databases has been curbed. Even large state-sponsored efforts such as the Qing History Project (writing the official narrative of China’s last imperial dynasty) or China Judgments Online (making tens of millions of court documents publicly accessible) have come under suspicion and been politically rectified.

Economically, China continues to slow. Covid lockdowns, a rapidly aging population, and the implosion of a massive property bubble have taken a toll on the once buzzing economy. Annual growth, which registered 6.7 percent as recently as 2016, has steadily fallen. For 2024, the official rate is expected to come in at no higher than 5 percent (the IMF projection) and could be as low as 3 percent (per the New York–based Rhodium Group).

In a similar vein, a Diplomat interview with former Oz PM Kevin Rudd…

Xi has significantly moved the ideological needle – making China more Leninist, more Marxist, and more nationalist. In doing so, many party members who grew up and flourished professionally under previous Dengist ideological assumptions have been alienated. 

It is an open question whether Xi’s framework is therefore durable for the long term – i.e. beyond his term in office, however long that may be. I estimate it would take another 20 years of Xi-ism for it to become fully entrenched in the ranks of CCP, given the youthful age of those who have known no previous system. That would require Xi in turn to be in office until he was approaching 90. 

The WSJ on the ‘rush to get money out of China’ – more on how rather than why…

…the stampede for the exit in the past few years appears to dwarf the outflows that occurred in 2015 and 2016, when an earlier property downturn propelled what at the time was the biggest episode of capital flight from China, in dollar terms, according to economists and a Wall Street Journal data analysis.  

The Journal’s tally suggests as much as $254 billion might have left China illicitly in the four quarters through the end of June. That is a larger sum than fled the country almost a decade ago, when outflows raised fears of a possible financial crisis. However, estimates of such outflows are inherently imprecise and overall capital flight appears to be smaller today as a share of China’s overall economy, which is now much larger. 

In China Books Review Jude Blanchette discusses a new book by Steve Tsang and Olivia Cheung on the political thought of Xi Jinping…

According to Tsang and Cheung, “Xi Jinping Thought” is a body of evolving ideological and governance concepts that, unlike Mao Zedong Thought, is not wedded to Marxist principles of permanent revolution, but instead focuses on reinvigorating the Leninist tendrils that keep the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in power domestically, and channeling China’s formidable resources to establish China as a comprehensive global superpower.

The Guardian looks at Beijing censors’ attempts to eradicate the use of puns and other tricks to voice dissent on-line…

The “clear and bright” campaign is targeting “irregular and uncivilised” language online, particularly jokes, memes, and wordplay, the Cyberspace Administration of China and the ministry of education announced this month.

“For some time, various internet jargons and memes have appeared frequently, leaving people more and more confused,” said an editorial by the Communist party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily.

“They also form a hidden erosion on the daily communication and ideological values ​​of minors, which can easily lead to adverse consequences.”

…Authorities are in a near-constant race to catch new ways of describing Xi without mentioning him, which in the past have included a series of three arrows to represent the tones in his full name, or references to Winnie-the-Pooh because of suggestions Xi resembles the character.

VOA on Taiwan’s plans to prepare for a possible Chinese blockade…

According to the [Agriculture] ministry, the current rice stockpile can sustain Taiwan for seven months, and its fish feed inventory is enough to support fishing in ponds for over three months if sea fishing is not possible. The government said it is also drafting plans to prepare for rice rationing during wartime.

In the event of a Chinese military blockade, Taiwanese authorities said they would dedicate more farmland to grow rice and use additional ponds to grow aquaculture. The crops that Taiwan would prioritize growing in the event of war include sweet potatoes, soybeans and fresh vegetables.

…Maintaining Taiwan’s oil supply is another concern. Taiwan imports close to 70% of its oil from the Middle East, which some legislators worry could be affected if China pressures regional countries to halt exports to the island during a blockade. Hu said the island has diversified its oil procurement from other countries, such as the United States and Indonesia.

The government stops using a ‘poverty line’ to measure the number of hard-up households…

Hong Kong’s labour minister has said using a poverty line to measure inequality was “inadequate,” after pausing the publication of statistics after 2020 despite opposition from NGOs.

Sun instead touted the importance of “targeted” poverty alleviation that focuses on demographics including the elderly and subdivided housing tenants. His comments came after Chief Executive John Lee made no mention of the poverty line at last week’s Policy Address.

…Hong Kong introduced a poverty line, defined as any household making less than half the median monthly household income as living in poverty, in 2013. The city released annual figures for the number of people living below the poverty line, but stopped doing so after publishing the figures for 2020.

In a way, officials have a point. Let’s say the median four-person household income in Hong Kong is HK$10,000. That means only those families earning below HK$5,000 would qualify as poor, when most of us would accept that those on, say, HK$8,000 would be struggling. Conversely, if median income was HK$1,000,000, it would be absurd to claim that every family living on less than half a million was desperate.

Officials can also argue that the poverty line measurement is inaccurate, as it does not include universal benefits like health-care and transport subsidies for the elderly. Nor does it consider any assets the household might be sitting on.

But is the theoretical irrelevance or inaccuracy of the poverty line really the problem? In other words, why have officials stopped using these statistics? Cynics might wonder whether it was because the numbers were looking so bad in 2020.

A possible clue: academics and NGOs prefer having a poverty line benchmark because it provides a clear year-on-year picture of how well or badly the government is tackling poverty.

Now, the government is going to ‘focus’ on specific groups…

In May, the government identified around 950,000 elderly people, single-parent households, and tenants of subdivided flats as targets for its poverty alleviation programme.

Sun said that while the government had a comprehensive social security system, it needed to identify and provide assistance to those at the “end of the queue.”

It sounds as if so many people are now falling below the old official poverty line that there’s not much we can do to help them all. It would be more convincing if the recent policy address included real plans to boost welfare for near-indigent elderly and replace subdivided apartments with proper homes. But – over four years after Beijing essentially took tighter control over Hong Kong – the authorities are still unable or unwilling to get serious about these issues.