Politics

Authorities are expected to spend about HK$2.8 million (US$359,350) on renovating the new office of former Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who will move from a prime commercial tower to a government building.The Office of Former Chief Executives last month confirmed that Lam’s workplace at One Pacific Place in Admiralty, where the annual rent of HK$5.67 million had sparked concerns about how taxpayers’ money was spent, would be relocated to the 23rd floor of Immigration Tower in Wan Chai when the three-year lease expired in May.In response to an inquiry by lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun on Wednesday, No 2 official Eric Chan Kwok-ki said renovation work on Lam’s new office had started and would cost an estimated HK$2.8 million.He added the government previously spent about HK$6....

A prominent Hong Kong polling institute has suspended all self-funded research activities indefinitely in a “transformation” that may see it close down completely.The Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (Pori) made the announcement on Thursday, just weeks after president and CEO Robert Chung Ting-yu was questioned by national security police as part of an investigation into whether he or his organisation had aided an absconder.“[Pori] will suspend all its self-funded research activities indefinitely,” the institute said.It added that the suspension, effective from Thursday, also covered regular tracking surveys the institute had conducted since 1992, and all of its recently introduced feature studies.Efforts would be focused on preparing and executing existing commissioned studies,...

Hong Kong’s leader has tasked his senior officials with following up on directions given by Beijing’s point man on city affairs, urging his ministers during a meeting to further cross-border cooperation through large-scale development projects.Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu held the meeting on Thursday morning, two days after he returned from the Asian Winter Games in Harbin, emphasising efforts must be stepped up on the development of the Northern Metropolis and Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone.Lee was out of the city when Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, met ministers as he made a three-day fact-finding trip to Shenzhen starting on Saturday.“We need to streamline procedures to better integrate the efforts of the...

Hong Kong’s ride-hailing firms are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel after more than a decade of operating mostly illegally and locking horns with the taxi industry.Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan is intent on legalising ride-hailing and opening the sector to all players.A framework for regulating the platforms is expected to go before lawmakers this year and, going by the experience of other jurisdictions, Hong Kong is unlikely to limit the number of ride-hailing operators.Experts told the Post that the new regulations, aside from covering the safety and security of users, should ensure a level playing field for taxis and ride-hailing platforms, and safeguard cabbies’ livelihoods too.But the taxi sector’s opposition to the platforms was on display again this week, a...

Beijing’s top man in Hong Kong has urged mainland Chinese enterprises to continue to increase their investments in the city and actively participate in the Northern Metropolis megaproject, saying they should shoulder more responsibility with greater contributions to public welfare and innovative reforms.Zheng Yanxiong, director of the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong, made the call on Friday evening as he noted that 2025 marked the closing year of the national 14th five-year plan.It was a “pivotal year” for the city to accelerate its transition from governance to prosperity, he said in a speech at the Hong Kong Chinese Enterprises Association’s spring reception, which was attended by more than 1,000 guests.“I hope that Chinese-funded enterprises will leverage Hong Kong’s un...

Friends, relatives and members of the public gathered on Saturday to mourn former opposition Hong Kong lawmaker Shiu Ka-chun, who died at the age of 55 after battling stomach cancer.A memorial service was held at the Methodist International Church in Wan Chai for the career social worker. He died in January after suffering complications following a surgical operation for gastric cancer.The service’s public session started at 9am and saw dozens of people queue to pay their respects to Shiu, who represented the social work constituency at the Legislative Council between 2016 and 2020.About a dozen plain-clothes police officers were also stationed outside the church.Shiu’s photos and belongings, including his published books, accessories and a name board that used to hang in his Legco office,...

Some Hongkongers in the United States are at risk of deportation if President Donald Trump scraps the special protection extended to them by previous American leader Joe Biden.Amid Trump’s high-profile crackdown on immigration, some experts said the future of the Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) programme for Hongkongers was uncertain as his administration had already revoked special protections for other groups.According to a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) document seen by the Post, there were 122 Hongkongers who had been issued final orders to leave the country as of last November. Their current status is not known.Responding to the Post, the city’s Security Bureau said it had completed the verification of identities and other related procedures concerning the repatriation...

Hong Kong authorities are pressing on with efforts to attract European companies in the UK and France to set up in the city, despite heightened global geopolitical challenges.The government’s Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES), created to attract firms in targeted fields, also confirmed it was approaching several top-tier pharmaceutical firms overseas, with at least one seeing promising results.In an exclusive interview, OASES director general Peter Yan King-shun told the Post that some were keen on the potential for collaboration between Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area, which includes Macau and nine cities in Guangdong.British-Swedish pharmaceutical multinational AstraZeneca had already established its Hong Kong headquarters, he said.As part of his unit’s efforts to wo...

Hong Kong’s security chief has condemned an “unfounded and fact-twisting” article published by the BBC in which the city’s youngest fugitive wanted for alleged national security offences shared how she became an opposition activist.The city’s national security police on Monday also brought in an aunt of Carmen Lau Ka-man, another wanted activist, for questioning.In a letter to the BBC’s editor on Sunday, Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung accused the British news outlet of “depriving readers of their right to the truth” by not including the Hong Kong government’s response in the interview with wanted activist Chloe Cheung Hei-ching.“We are also extremely appalled that you have chosen not to include the response of the [Hong Kong] government in the article despite your inquiry on ...

If we search for information about the Hong Kong government’s work on implementing the 14th five-year plan, which laid out specific roles for the city in the development of the country, we could be excused for being a little confused.That is because there is not much information out there, if we consider what the government has released. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu established a steering group on integration into national development in 2022, but not much seems to have happened since mid-2023 – at least according to the relevant website. That could lead some people to think that the work has perhaps been completed.But that wouldn’t explain why Xia Baolong, Beijing’s point man on Hong Kong and Macau affairs, has been so busy recently. Director of both the Communist Party’s Hong Kong an...