Still no word on whether Xi Jinping will appear live and in person for the July 1 handover anniversary/inauguration bore-fest. But Wanchai is being fortified, with an MTR station being completely closed, and activists and a pollster are being told to keep their heads down. (The idea of NatSec Police and LSD people sitting down together for a friendly chat – albeit one denying the group basic rights – seems almost touching these days. Jails too full for preventive detentions?)
Some light relief from the Standard. The paper (part of Sing Tao) has always talked up developers’ new projects, and the property market in general. Today it carries a glowing business news ‘story’ about Mainland group Kaisa offering, by tender, a ‘special’ furnished high-floor apartment at a development called the Concerto in exotic and classy Cheung Sha Wan.
Sounds like a sprawling luxury penthouse with its own swimming pool and private elevator. But it turns out that it’s 294 sq ft – barely two car parking spaces, some of which will be a tiny balcony. And among other exciting exclusive features…
The bedroom has space for additional furniture, such as a wardrobe, for convenience and comfort. The room’s nearly floor-to-ceiling glass windows provide lighting and outdoor vistas, enhancing the sense of space.
An open kitchen with a gray marble worktop is practically designed with cupboards house [sic] appliances and utensils.
The bathroom has a separate shower cubicle to keep the wet and dry areas separate, with a recess on the wall for toiletries. There is also a window in the bathroom to enhance brightness, increase air circulation and keep the area dry.
Oh, and you get a floor! Light-coloured wood!
Real Hong Kong luxury apartments get bought by daughters of Uzbek dictators and mysteriously sold for the equivalent of 68 million Canadian dollars – which vanishes – before post-revolutionary justice has time to catch up. Good investigative work from the Globe and Mail. (And of course a glowing Standard report at the time on what seems to be the place.)
“Real Hong Kong luxury apartments get bought by daughters of Uzbek dictators and mysteriously sold for the equivalent of 68 million Canadian dollars – which vanishes – before post-revolutionary justice has time to catch up.”
And here’s your newest and actually most workable “hub” attraction for Asia’s Chinese City. Well…maybe not newest.
Am I yet AGAIN missing something?
Surely having a few of the usual suspects protesting on the fringes could be used as proof that HK folk have not lost their right to peaceful demonstration?????
Allowing Long Hair out for the morning would have attracted bonus brownie points.
As has often been pointed out, our government is in serious need for an overhaul of its PR operations as shoot in the foot is still the guiding principle.
Would that be the same Mainland group Kaisa that defaulted on four sets of bonds in November and December and then had to restructure its US$11.8bn of outstanding debt?
The Kaisa the HKEX suspended trading shares of for a week on the 8th of December?
The Kaisa whose executive director and vice chairwoman Kwok Hiu-ting, the daughter of Kwok Ying-shing (Chairman of Sing Tao News) and co-CEO of Sing Tao News, suddenly resigned from the day before the company defaulted on principal and interest payments on a US$400 million note “to devote more time in other business commitments”, three days after her two sisters, Kwok Ho Lai and Kwok Hiu Yan, resigned from the board of a Kaisa Group healthcare subsidiary “to devote more time in their personal commitments”?
I can’t for the life of me think why Sing Tao News’ the Standard, is pimping that (but won’t name the “Staff reporter”).
Kaisa first defaulted in 2015. And then again in 2021. Surely this time is different.
Good one, Knowing.
What is it they say about subsequent generations of tycoon children?
floor to ceiling glass windows allow you to see the outside world, which makes you realise how puny the flat is in size would surely be more honest?
“after assessing the situation”,
“after a risk assessment”
….
New Hongkonese for “having been threatened (TERRORIZED??) with an arbitrary interpretation of the “rule of law”???
HK Popo are now the official enforcers of the CCP. They don’t even pretend anymore.
“But Wanchai is being fortified”
…by a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage, and control the flow of information?