Politics

The student union of Hong Kong’s Lingnan University has announced it will dissolve after nearly six decades in operation due to “changes in the situation both on and off campus”, marking the latest in a spate of closures among such organisations in recent years.In a social media post on Thursday, the student union said it had passed a resolution to dissolve after holding a recent joint meeting. Its decision means that only two of Hong Kong’s public universities still have active student unions, one of which is no longer allowed to operate on campus.“Since its establishment in 1967, the union has always upheld the spirit of unity and mutual help among students and actively maintained close ties with the university to seek the well-being of all Lingnan students,” it said.“Furthermore, the un...

Nominations for Hong Kong’s powerful Election Committee will take place in October, with the vote for 982 seats of the 1,500-member body – which picks the city’s leader and some of the legislative candidates – taking place a month later.A government spokesman said Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu had specified November 22 as the polling date for the committee’s subsector ordinary elections and that the relevant notice had been gazetted on Friday.The spokesman added that the nomination period would run from October 7 to 20, and that the chief electoral officer would publish “in due course” a notice specifying the period within which nomination forms were to be submitted.“The government will continue to work closely with the Electoral Affairs Commission to actively carry out preparatory work...

Hong Kong’s leader will deliver the city’s first five-year plan and his annual policy address on September 16, stressing that presenting the blueprints together will help residents better understand how they are deeply connected.Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced the move on Wednesday after he visited residents from lower-income households and inspected community services at Un Chau Estate in Sham Shui Po district to gather public views.Lee said unveiling the five-year plan and then his policy address shortly afterwards would help residents better grasp how they complemented each other in defining the vision for Hong Kong’s future.“The five-year plan draws the eyes of a dragon, while the policy address draws the entire dragon … but the public may not fully understand how they work ...

Hong Kong’s security chief has warned he will take down anyone who endangers national security, while also slamming an embattled press group for lacking credibility ahead of an already delayed leadership election.Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung said on Friday that the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) was “not a statutory organisation” and that candidates for its executive committee reportedly included no representatives from mainstream local media outlets, undermining its legitimacy.“All the candidates this time are reportedly from foreign media, so-called free media, or online media. There is not a single person from Hong Kong’s mainstream media,” he said. “How can it call itself the Hong Kong Journalists Association?”He also accused the group of running a “black box”...

Beijing has slammed Western nations for interfering in China’s internal affairs over their criticism of the conviction of the now-disbanded alliance that organised Hong Kong’s annual Tiananmen Square vigils and its former leaders for inciting subversion.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian used a regular press briefing on Monday to hit out at “certain countries and organisations” for using the case to smear Hong Kong and denigrate its rule of law.He made the comments in response to questions about expressions of concern from the US and other countries over a Hong Kong court ruling last week, which found the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, ex-chairman Lee Cheuk-yan and former vice-chairwoman Chow Hang-tung guilty of attempting to undermine th...

“History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.” This famous quote, widely attributed to Mark Twain, keeps playing in my mind as China mourns the death of former premier Zhu Rongji and reflects on his legacy.It was early afternoon on August 12 when I received a message from a friend on the mainland that made my heart sink: “Our much-respected Premier Zhu left us this morning!”As we anxiously waited for the official confirmation that would launch us into a frantically busy news day, my mind went back to those years when I, as a journalist, had multiple opportunities to encounter Zhu up close. I was as impressed by his statesmanship, wisdom and wit on the international stage as I was touched by the genuine love he showed Hong Kong.Zhu became the fifth premier of China in March 1998 as th...

Hong Kong authorities have hit out at “baseless slander and smearing” by Western countries over the convictions of the now-disbanded alliance behind the annual Tiananmen Square vigil and its former leaders for inciting subversion, stressing the High Court’s “well-reasoned and sound” verdict.In a strongly worded statement on Saturday, a spokesman for the city’s government said the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, its former chairman Lee Cheuk-yan and its former vice-chairwoman Chow Hang-tung had received a fair trial and been found guilty of trying to undermine the fundamental system of the People’s Republic of China.They were not prosecuted for their political beliefs, the spokesman stressed, rejecting assertions by Western countries that Friday’s v...

Hong Kong’s first five-year plan will be judged not by how many initiatives it assembles. Instead, it will be judged by whether it explains where the city intends to be by 2030 and how it will get there.The consultation document covers the expected ground. It includes the Northern Metropolis; Hong Kong’s roles as an international financial, trade, maritime and aviation centre; integration with the Greater Bay Area and supporting the Belt and Road Initiative; and social priorities such as housing, education and manpower. A final section covers culture, sports, tourism and green living.Much of this will sound familiar from past policy addresses and government documents. That is understandable in a consultation paper seeking public views before the plan is completed, but the final plan cannot...

Hong Kong’s first five-year plan will create more quality jobs and support young people seeking to start businesses, while the Northern Metropolis megaproject will help them move up the housing ladder, the city’s leader has said.At the second town hall meeting to gather public views on the five-year plan set to be unveiled next month and his annual policy address, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said on Sunday that the government would consider establishing an independent agency to handle building maintenance projects and provide homeowners with professional and credible services.The two-month public consultation on the five-year blueprint ends on Friday. Lee said he would release the plan in September, followed by his policy address, adding that he hoped to minimise the interval between ...

As the government completes a public consultation exercise to craft the city’s own five-year plan to align with national development, the first of this five-part series looks at key questions, starting with the need for such a blueprint.Economist Heiwai Tang has a line he likes to use on free-market purists: “The market is almost always right, but it’s not always right.”While Hong Kong has long been ranked the world’s freest economy, Tang, an associate dean at the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) Business School, said the government’s lack of overarching, long-term planning had contributed to a housing shortage, widening inequality and limited upward mobility, among other social problems.“We should not be the last defender of laissez-faire, which has created a lot of prosperity for many peo...