Politics

Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings has stepped up legal action in response to what it called Panamanian authorities’ unlawful takeover of the operations of two ports at either end of the strategic canal.The group, led by the family of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, said on Friday it had submitted a supplement to its earlier petition against the Panamanian state for international arbitration.The supplement alleged that Panama continued to ignore the firm’s requests for communication while keeping the group in the dark about its occupation of the ports, property and personnel of its subsidiary, Panama Ports Company (PPC).CK Hutchison also said the Panamanian state made “various inaccurate remarks” related to PPC, which had aggravated the circumstances.“PPC continues to challenge the...

The Hong Kong government has ruled out chartering Cathay Pacific Airways flights to bring home residents stranded in the Middle East, given the potential danger of navigating partially reopened airspaces and challenges in securing take-off slots at foreign airports, sources have said.The South China Morning Post learned that officials had also weighed the option of repatriation flights from Oman, but the absence of direct Cathay services made the route “impractical” because obtaining aviation clearance could not be guaranteed in a short period of time.As the US-Israel war with Iran stretched into a week, more Hongkongers returned from Dubai on commercial flights on Friday evening, including the Hong Kong women’s football team with 27 players via Bangkok and a nine-member tour group, after ...

Chinese Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang has urged Hong Kong’s legislature to deliver more “practical outcomes” that align with the city’s actual conditions and meet Beijing’s expectations under the executive-led governance system.Emphasising the importance of the executive-led system for the second day in a row, the state leader reiterated on Saturday that its implementation was not solely the responsibility of the city leader or the government, as he outlined his expectations for the Legislative Council.Ding, head of the Central Leading Group on Hong Kong and Macau Affairs, cited governance requirements earlier set out by Chinese President Xi Jinping in response to the “new circumstances” and stressed that implementing the executive-led system was a shared responsibility of the legislature, ju...

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po delivered his latest budget on February 25. Over the past decade, under his stewardship, Hong Kong has weathered multiple economic shocks and recently returned to a respectable growth rate of 3.5 per cent. Yet the tasks ahead are formidable: addressing a structural fiscal deficit in the city’s capital account while ensuring sufficient resources for future growth, all against an increasingly volatile and dangerous global backdrop.Article 107 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law requires the government to “follow the principle of keeping the expenditure within the limits of revenues in drawing up its budget, and strive to achieve a fiscal balance”.Chan, however, was not the architect of significant expansions in recurrent public spending. Since the 2010s, successive c...

Hong Kong entrepreneurs with operations in the Middle East are recalibrating their global footprints to hedge against mounting geopolitical instability and losses resulting from the widening conflict in Iran.The shift in business strategy followed the outbreak of the US-Israel war with Iran last week, prompting firms to draw up contingency plans and pivot to Europe or Southeast Asia to de-risk their portfolios and ensure supply chain continuity.The war escalated with Iran’s retaliation, heightening tensions across the region. Several Middle Eastern countries sustained damage from missile and drone strikes, with some reporting casualties as key embassies, economic engines and passageways closed, while tens of thousands of flights were cancelled.“Our business is seriously affected by the war...

Escalating geopolitical tensions will not derail Hong Kong’s goal set out in the country’s 15th five-year plan and its efforts to implement the blueprint, former leader Leung Chun-ying has said, describing agility and adaptability as in the city’s DNA.The vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the country’s top political advisory body, also said that Beijing expected Hong Kong to serve national development more proactively, calling on the city to “step forward to raise our hand”.Speaking to the South China Morning Post in Beijing on the sidelines of the annual “two sessions” political gathering, Leung expressed confidence that Hong Kong could navigate the heightened geopolitical tensions.“Hong Kong has always been very quick off its feet, very adaptive,” h...

The annual “two sessions” in Beijing are under way, and this year the annual ritual of reading tea leaves in this city has been made easier for politics watchers. That is because Beijing has been blunt about the problems it thinks our city faces.There is the usual praise for the Hong Kong government and Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s leadership. One striking difference is that Premier Li Qiang included in his annual work report, delivered at the opening session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), a call on Hong Kong to improve its governance and align itself with the national plan. Li has made the central government’s position clear: improve the city’s governance and get with the programme already.Xia Baolong, Beijing’s point man in charge of Hong Kong affairs, warned the city in ...

Chinese Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang has acknowledged it is no “easy task” to truly implement Hong Kong’s executive-led governance system, stressing that it must be a “shared responsibility” of the legislative and judicial branches and society as a whole.But Ding, the head of the Central Leading Group on Hong Kong and Macau Affairs, said an executive-led governance system was “important and essential” for the city to align with China’s 15th five-year plan and advance its integration with the mainland.“It requires the chief executive and the government to strengthen their sense of being the head [of the city], and will need the coordination from all sectors of society.”Ding, the sixth-ranked Politburo Standing Committee member, added that putting the executive-led system into effect also requ...

A former Apple Daily senior executive jailed for national security offences in Hong Kong has lodged an appeal against his 10-year term, the first in a landmark trial that saw the founder of the now-defunct tabloid-style newspaper sentenced to 20 years in prison.Court documents reviewed by the South China Morning Post on Tuesday showed that Fung Wai-kong, former managing editor of Apple Daily’s English edition, had filed his appeal with the city’s High Court on Monday.Fung was sentenced to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign forces last month.The verdict was delivered by a panel of three judges who also handed down penalties to former media boss and Apple Daily owner Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, six senior executives of the newspaper, three firms associated with the n...

Hong Kong tycoons have expressed confidence in the Middle East’s economic outlook amid continued strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory attacks, stressing that the city’s economy is unlikely to be affected.Speaking to the media in Beijing on the sidelines of the “two sessions” – the nation’s annual parliamentary meetings – on Wednesday, Adrian Cheng Chi-kong, former heir apparent to Hong Kong property giant New World Development, said the Middle East’s economic prospects remained promising.“Most of the Middle East’s economies are mature; we are cautiously optimistic about their prospects,” the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) member said.Cheng also said the city could benefit from turmoil.“If Hong Kong continues as a superconnecto...