Yearly Archives: 2024

Ocean Park is losing money, even though it is attracting large numbers of visitors and now has six panda bears.  I went to Water World a few times back when it existed. But my first (and only) ever visit to … Continue reading →

Interviewed on Sky News, Sebastian Lai says he doesn’t think his father has long to live. The Wall Street Journal has an op-ed on the Jimmy Lai trial (article probably paywalled, but you should be able to see the video … Continue reading →

Interesting Substack article about Chinese state media’s limited success in using overseas social media to influence foreign audiences, with special reference to Twitter… As yet, not many state media influencers have migrated over [to BlueSky]. Will they? Almost certainly. These … Continue reading →

Some interesting stats about demographic changes in Hong Kong.  On the relatively lighter side, Bloomberg notes that residential rents in mid-range middle-class areas have risen strongly in the first 10 months of this year (relatively cheap Tung Chung up 16.4%, … Continue reading →

Not all Trump’s nominees for national security advisors are nuts like Seb Gorka. A sharper one is Alex Wong, a former State Dept official who outlines a no-nonsense analysis of why China inevitably sees the US as an adversary in … Continue reading →

The FT asks whether Beijing can find a way to flatter/cajole Trump into doing its bidding… “They were scrambling around Washington and New York to find connections to Trump. They were asking Democratic analysts how to manage the Trump team,” … Continue reading →

A former chair professor of law at HK University makes a key point about the HK47’s trial: if it is illegal for lawmakers to reject a government budget, why does the Basic Law set out procedures that follow such an … Continue reading →

Most of Hong Kong’s leading pro-democracy figures are sent to prison for trying to win an election. The sentences could have been even harsher. Maybe that’s going to be the narrative: government appeals for longer spells in prison after oh-so … Continue reading →

Full background from HKFP. Update here. People were lining up outside the court yesterday. There are only five seats available to the public in the main courtroom.  Reuters says… Jail terms are expected to range from several years for participants … Continue reading →

…a Standard op-ed from last week. The author argues that prison sentences for landlords who fail to upgrade subdivided apartments would be excessive… The ugly truth is that all possible solutions to this problem are tricky and contentious, not least … Continue reading →