If you thought we had heard the last of ‘soft resistance’, you were wrong. Security Secretary Chris Tang warns against the phenomenon ahead of the 10th National Security Education Day on April 15…
“Citizens must think critically and not be misled by the lies spread through soft resistance,” Tang said, calling on residents to cherish Hong Kong’s “hard-won” stability post-2019 unrest.
Tang said a series of events has been organized to mark the National Security Education Day, including a thematic exhibition at the National Security Exhibition Gallery at the Hong Kong Museum of History, featuring robot-guided tours.
A territory-wide interschool national security knowledge challenge is ongoing to enhance recognition of national security among primary and secondary students.
Educational comics and animations featuring characters “Andy” and “Security Bear” produced by the bureau were also launched to illustrate national security concepts, he said.
…Tang criticized Hans Yeung Wing-yu, a former Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority history manager, for allegedly exploiting a student’s suicide during a mainland exchange to incite anti-government sentiment.
Yeung, who had fled to the United Kingdom, previously sparked outrage with an exam question framing Japan’s 1900-45 invasion of China as having “more benefits than harms.”
“He is anti-China, humiliates the nation, and panders to Japan – his actions endanger national security,” Tang said.
He also accused Chung Kim-wah, ex-deputy head of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, and commentator Stephen Shiu Yeuk-yuen of similar tactics.
I am guessing that’s Security Bear up there on the right (the one in blue), though it could be Andy, or one of the robot exhibition-guides. Seen here, anyway.
From the census officials via stats guru Joel Chan – changes in population in Hong Kong by district, at year-end 2024 compared with end-2023 and end-2019. In part…
Hong Kong Island 1,160,500 ↓1.0% / ↓5.7%
– Central and Western 229,400 ↓1.3% / ↓4.7%
– Wan Chai 162,000 ↓0.7% / ↓9.3%
– Eastern 514,400 ↓1.1% / ↓5.9%
– Southern 254,700 ↓0.5% / ↓3.8%
Parts of the New Territories have gone the opposite way…
New Territories 4,058,600 ↑0.1% / ↑3.5%
– Kwai Tsing 491,600 ↑0.2% / ↓2.3%
– Tsuen Wan 306,200 ↓1.4% / ↓1.8%
– Tuen Mun 531,000 ↓0.2% / ↑7.4%
– Yuen Long 671,100 ↑0.2% / ↑4.2%
For the city as a whole, the changes are very small…
Hong Kong 7,432,500 ↓0.2% / ↑0.1%
Not sure how the government manages to track the number of residents in each district to the nearest 100 year by year. But if they say Wanchai District has lost nearly one in ten of its population, who are we to doubt it? Though not exact, there is noticeable correlation between population changes and median household income by district (2023 figures here). Wanchai (which includes Happy Valley, Tai Hang and Causeway Bay) and Central and Western are the wealthiest areas, while Tuen Mun and Yuen Long among the least well-off.
Simple predictable explanation: expat and local middle class leaving, Mainlanders arriving.
It would be interesting to see data for residential property prices. Have they fallen more on northern Hong Kong island than in NT? What about rents?
“Citizens must think critically and not be misled by the lies spread through soft resistance,” Tang said, calling on residents to cherish Hong Kong’s “hard-won” stability post-2019 unrest.”
At the risk of sounding dystopian…
The drift to NT is mostly due to the decanting of poorer folk to public housing estates out on the fringes under URA and other urban ‘renewal’ programmes that replace their small units with equally mini but more costly new developments.
Plan was to replace them with upwardly mobile newcomers but the downturn in the residential market has slowed the demand for overpriced kennels.
What is a ‘thematic’ exhibition, I wonder?
Off topic but in the news today –
It’s official!
HKFP demotes HK to ‘southern Chinese city’.
https://hongkongfp.com/2025/03/31/arsenal-tottenham-to-play-pre-season-north-london-derby-in-hong-kong/
How many star players will be left behind in London?
Don’t they know what the temperature and humidity are like in HK in July?