Category Archives: Blog

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 →

From HKFP… The Hong Kong government has given new identification numbers to lamp posts that inadvertently referenced the date of the Tiananmen crackdown, with the numbers “8964” and “6489” erased in favour of new codes. Article includes a real, non-stock-photo, … Continue reading →

Lingua Sinica on the decline of TVB – which you may or may not see as an allegory of the whole of Hong Kong. …In the “golden decade” of Hong Kong pop culture in the 1980s — when a small … Continue reading →

Three pieces that assume Donald Trump really will erect serious barriers to Chinese exports. (In other words, any attempts to manipulate him will fail.) The irony is that it would ultimately be good for the people of China – and … Continue reading →

Participants in the Hong Kong Tycoon Demise Stakes have been losing money every year since 2020, when 98-year-old Stanley Ho died amid unseemly wives-and-kids bickering. Madam Kwok Kwong Siu-hing carries on as Sun Hung Kai matriarch at the age of … Continue reading →

HKFP op-ed on the incredibly slow pace at which the legal system is dealing with people arrested five years ago… According to the latest figures, of the 10,279 people arrested [following the 2019 protests], 2,974 had been or were being … Continue reading →