Some reading from the weekend…
Bloomberg report on Hong Kong migrants in the UK unable to get their Mandatory Provident Fund savings…
Leo moved to Manchester in 2022 on his BN(O) passport, and in March 2023 started the process of claiming the £50,000 ($65,000) from his HSBC pension account in Hong Kong. The core issue, he said, is that the bank won’t recognize his BN(O) passport as an official document that would allow him to access the cash.
And although he should be able to withdraw the money when he turns 65, he needs the cash now and is concerned about the Hong Kong stock market, which the money is heavily invested in. The Hang Seng Index, which is composed of the largest companies that trade on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, is down more than 39% since a peak in February 2021.
A HSBC spokesperson said it follows the MPFA’s requirements for processing early withdrawals.
“In the case of permanent departure, scheme members are required to provide evidence of the right of abode outside of Hong Kong,” the spokesperson said. “The MPFA has publicly confirmed that a BN(O) passport cannot be used as such evidence.”
The MPF authority and HSBC are implementing a political decision the government made presumably to make life harder for those leaving Hong Kong. (As a sovereign nation, the UK has the right to grant residency to anyone it wants – but Beijing reacted badly to London’s measure for BNO passport holders.) The wider problem here is that the rule sets a precedent. If NatSec Hong Kong can arbitrarily block access to one group’s retirement savings, how can anyone be sure it won’t happen to others? For example, as retaliation against a particular country’s citizens, or to penalize individuals engaging in ‘soft resistance’, or just other emigrants?
Titles pulled from book fair…
The Trade Development Council has reminded exhibitors at the Hong Kong Book Fair to abide by national security laws after the organizer advised the removal of five books by former lawmaker Shiu Ka-chun and veteran journalist Allan Au Ka-lun from shelves.
According to Ng Chi-ching, a representative of publisher Bbluesky, the HKTDC had repeatedly approached the company prior to the start of the seven-day book fair to “remind” it to remove two sensitive books authored by Au and Shiu, despite these books being allowed in last year’s fair.
On Saturday, HKTDC staff insisted that a total of five books be removed, including “The Last Faith,” “Turbulence” and “2047 Nights” by Au, as well as “The Psychology of Imprisonment” and “Words from Within the Prison” by Shiu.
The HKTDC claimed the cited books contained “sensitive” content without specifying the reasons, saying they had received “complaints” about the material.
Only ‘insensitive’ books are allowed!
HKFP op-ed on the government’s longstanding strange hang-up about outdoor dining, despite its obvious popularity among both local people and the ever-so-important tourists…
Years ago, you found them all over the place; Luard Road, for example. A much wider road than traffic required, the Wan Chai thoroughfare was regularly reduced to two lanes by a row of street food stalls on each side.
Over the years they have gradually disappeared. This does not appear to be the result of a lack of custom. Most observers diagnose a classic case of official hostility.
There are numerous possible explanations for the al fresco phobia. One is that officials on principle detest the whole concept of cheap or rent-free space for small businesses. Another (related) one is that they want consumers to dine in buildings owned by landlords, either to look after the tycoons or to prop up land values. A third is that much of the street food – curry squid balls! – is unhealthy and they care about you symbolizes Hong Kong local culture, when the emphasis today must be on Chinese identity. A fourth is that officials want space for private cars to park rather than for the other 90% to use. A fifth is that authentic grassroots nightlife embarrasses the geniuses who dreamed up the dismal fake Night Vibes stuff.
We could go on and on. But the most likely reason is simply bureaucratic laziness: why organize tiresome hygiene inspections and sanitation, when you can just ban the whole thing?
Still lots of street food in Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea – and the Mainland.
An SCMP article looks at yet more Hong Kong residents going to Shenzhen on their days off – overseas domestic helpers…
They gathered at 7.30am at the Lo Wu checkpoint and took a two-hour bus ride to the destination, a resort offering natural scenery and amusement rides.
She had a thrilling time walking on a glass bridge, experienced the chill of artificial snow, and had a blast riding a roller coaster and a bumper car. The group returned to Hong Kong at around 8.30pm.
The tour package included a group visa, a lunch meal, a tour guide, a bus ride, insurance and entrance fees, and cost HK$350 (US$45) per person. Candaza said she spent about HK$300 more on street food, snacks and souvenirs.
…The growing interest in exploring the mainland among helpers has boosted the business of travel agencies offering low-fare day trips across the border.
Filipino Rizza Mae Zorilla Zubiaga, a 30-year-old former helper, now works part-time gathering helpers for such tours organised by a travel agency, after she went on the trips herself while working in Hong Kong last year.
She said she had seen more helpers signing up for the tours since the border reopening. She brought about 10 to 20 helpers to join the day trips every Sunday or every other Sunday, with more joining on public holidays.
Also in SCMP – Hongkongers are going to Shenzhen and beyond for quicker and cheaper medical treatment. Some scary stats on waiting times for procedures in Hong Kong public hospitals…
“I make these long, arduous trips across the border to get life-saving medication I cannot afford in Hong Kong,” 59-year-old Liu said.
Single and living alone, she quit her job in social services after she was diagnosed with lung cancer more than two years ago.
Then the cancer spread to her brain. She was told she needed a targeted drug which would cost more than HK$30,000 (US$3,800) a month in Hong Kong.
Unable to afford it, she went to mainland China, where the same medicine cost about 5,000 yuan (US$687) a month, less than a fifth of that in Hong Kong.
…Experts said the trend was largely market-driven, but also reflected the state of Hong Kong’s overwhelmed public medical system, with its notoriously long waiting times, while private care was beyond the reach of most people.
Meanwhile, lawmakers struggling to think up suggestions for the CE’s policy address call for Hong Kong to be a ‘healthcare hub’ for Mainlanders blah blah.
Happening later today Hong Kong time – at the Hudson Institute…
In recent years, the city has emerged as a top sanctions violator, a money laundering hub, and a transshipment center that plays a key role in providing Russia dual-use technology for its war effort.
Experts will discuss new evidence of how the Chinese Communist Party is using Hong Kong to sow instability and conflict around the world and how the United States can better counter these illicit activities.
Angry press release on the way…
“souvenirs” from Shenzhen? In the old days they required medical attention.
How long before the foreign domestic help are told going to Shenzhen for fun is verboten and one must use one’s hard earned money within HK in order to prop up those businesses housed in properties owned by the rent seekers that sit on the various committees of the HKCCPSAR government?
Would I be allowed to distribute copies of Karl Marx “Das Kapital” at the book fair?
Is it suitably ‘insensitive’ given the CCP predilection for Marxist worship?
How about a book with a couple of hundred blank pages called “Good Hong Kong Stories”. It could be sold as a notebook, in case anyone got the wrong idea it was some kind of, um, gesture. Would that be allowed?
“Also in SCMP – Hongkongers are going to Shenzhen and beyond for quicker and cheaper medical treatment. Some scary stats on waiting times for procedures in Hong Kong public hospitals…”
It took 2.5 years to merely see for the first time – and even then, for just a few minutes – a public hospital specialist for a condition that had gotten me hospitalised… until I was kicked out to make room for fifth wave body bags in the ward. I swear, their process hopes you’ll PK before they finally get around to you.
I don’t see ethnically-inferior/non-Hon/non-human HKers being too terribly inclined – nor likely to fare as well – heading up to Shamchun because of the dog’s breakfast that our public health care system has become.
Heck, the Hospital Authority still hasn’t gotten around to handing out hard hats to protect us from spalled concrete or when yet another buggered-up screw/poxy plastic roll plug drops an overhead light or some other sorta clanger on your head.
@Young Winston: Aiyaaa…blatant soft resistance (found in the same section as “Christian Morality”)!! Off with your head!
Re The War on Fishballs
I think mostly it boils down to the fact that, unlike Taxis, there was no scam involved in hawker licensing that got all the toadie legislators rich: it was just “poor plebs” ekeing out a living.
This being the case, the toadie legislators just saw street food in terms of problems: making the streets messy, lowering the land and rent values outside the soulless yet-another-copy-paste mall that they and their mates had invested in.
Furthermore as these self-serving narcissists deem themselves “too good for street food”, they have a complete cognitive blindspot on the appeal to both locals (cheap n tasty snacks) and tourists (authentic local street food that you don’t get in the soulless yet-another-copy-paste malls back home — and even if, despite the queue, you’re too scared to eat it, you’re going to take some pics of the local colour).
Ironically, this appeal means there’s more foot traffic for their mates’ shitty soulless yet-another-copy-paste mall, but our toadie legislators have all the farsightedness of a dead mole.
Those calling for taxis without the licence scam and ride-hailing services take note — the “government” will be as enthused of these services run by “poor plebs” ekeing out a living as they were of street food services run by “poor plebs” ekeing out a living.
@MeKnowNothing
AFAIK, for the ethnically-challenged, Thailand is the preferred place to go to avoid the dog’s breakfast on the cheap. Only the
stupidbold and brave would go to Shenzhen.