Category Archives: Blog

The SCMP begins a series on Hong Kong’s talent-attracting visa initiatives, which in effect target mostly Mainlanders… Kira Xiong, a 23-year-old finance graduate with degrees from universities in Melbourne and Sydney, arrived in Hong Kong in July full of hope. … Continue reading →

The government stops using a ‘poverty line’ to measure the number of hard-up households… Hong Kong’s labour minister has said using a poverty line to measure inequality was “inadequate,” after pausing the publication of statistics after 2020 despite opposition from … Continue reading →

The government wants to make better use of the Kai Tak cruise terminal… In last week’s Policy Address, Chief Executive John Lee said the SAR will publish an action plan on developing cruise tourism to enhance the terminal’s role as … Continue reading →

Hong Kong is cutting the tax on high-end liquor in order to somehow boost tourism. And now it’s thinking about reducing the minimum age for admission to horse-races… Secretary for Culture, Sports, and Tourism Kevin Yeung on Monday told an … Continue reading →

A 40-minute Law and Disorder legal podcast in which British civil rights lawyer Helena Kennedy and others interview Lord Jonathan Sumption about his decision to leave Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal. As the person who sends me the link … Continue reading →

Boston Review links economic inequality with Hong Kong and Taiwan’s declining faith in Beijing. This downplays the historic, identity and cultural aspects – which makes a change, perhaps… In 2014, [older Hong Kong pan-democrats’] cautious approach was superseded by a … Continue reading →

The CE’s policy address reflects the usual paucity of ideas, or an inability to admit that old ones don’t work, or a dread of embracing new ones. Eliminating subdivided apartments by requiring them to have a window, a toilet and … Continue reading →

Officials investigate a sudden outbreak of death among monkeys at the little zoo section of the Botanical Gardens. Nine – the latest being a white-faced saki – have died in recent days. The Standard adds that ‘another De Brazza’s monkey … Continue reading →

Still recovering from: a) jet lag; b) surprise at how nice Yorkshire is (they could turn up the heating, but otherwise lovely places and people); and c) an aversion to clicking on Hong Kong news to see what’s going on.

Today would have been my mother’s 100th birthday (she died at 85).  Her parents were of minor landed-gentry stock, who were both educated in Germany (a thing in the late 19th Century) and who both converted to Catholicism – a … Continue reading →