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The US Senate on Tuesday confirmed President Donald Trump’s political ally David Perdue to be ambassador to China, a key trade partner that the Republican president has hit with punishing tariffs. Perdue, a 75-year-old multi-millionaire business executive, served as a Republican senator for Georgia from 2015 to 2021 — but failed in a bid for […]

Hong Kong national security police have arrested and charged a 22-year-old man under Article 23, the city’s homegrown national security law, after he allegedly published online posts with “seditious intentions.” The man was arrested on Monday in the Kowloon district, the force said in a statement released Wednesday. He was charged with one count of […]

Hong Kong’s corrections department has defended the use of private vehicles for the release of four former lawmakers who completed their jail terms for their involvement in an unofficial 2020 primary election. The Correctional Services Department (CSD) told HKFP on Tuesday that it would “make appropriate arrangements” for the release of prisoners based on factors […]

Staff at some Marks and Spencer (M&S) stores in Hong Kong have been using pen and paper to process details of orders for several days amid a cyberattack disclosed by M&S UK last week. The retailer’s Hong Kong app has also been suspended. “We are currently experiencing some technical issues, some systems are offline in […]

A Hong Kong activist behind a landmark lawsuit allowing trans people to be issued ID cards matching their gender identity has launched another legal challenge over the new requirements. In a writ seen by HKFP, Henry Tse’s lawyers submitted that the Immigration Department’s new policy still requiring “partial” gender-affirming surgery and ongoing hormone treatments was […]

A restaurant fire in northeastern China killed 22 people and injured three on Tuesday, Beijing’s state media said, with footage posted online showing fierce flames engulfing the building. The blaze erupted at lunchtime in Liaoyang City, about 580 kilometres (360 miles) northeast of the capital Beijing, according to state broadcaster CCTV. “The incident has resulted […]

Four Hong Kong activists who pleaded not guilty to offences linked to holding street booths in 2023 declined to make their arguments during their trial, with one saying that “the truth is already very clear.” Three members of the pro-democracy League of Social Democrats (LSD) – Chan Po-ying, Dickson Chau and Yu Wai-pan – as […]

A Hong Kong man has been arrested for voyeurism after being accused of secretly filming a female nursing student inside a hospital ward and sharing the content on social media. According to police, a 51-year-old male patient surnamed Tong was apprehended at Caritas Medical Centre in Sham Shui Po on Monday after hospital staff reported […]

By Nina Larson China is deploying a growing army of organisations masquerading as NGOs to monitor and intimidate rights activists at the UN, a new investigation by the ICIJ media consortium said on Monday. Dubbed “China Targets”, the fresh investigation involving 42 media organisations delves into the various tactics Beijing uses to silence critics beyond […]

An artwork by famed Taiwanese sculptor Ju Ming, which includes figures in yellow raincoats, will not be reinstalled at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre despite the completion of the restoration work, the government has said. Ju’s sculpture “Lining Up” featured 10 figures standing in a line. Some wore black suits, two were in yellow raincoats, […]

Four former pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong have been released from prison after serving time for their involvement in an unofficial 2020 primary election. Claudia Mo, Gary Fan, Jeremy Tam, and Kwok Ka-ki were the first group of 45 democrats to be discharged from prison in the early morning of Tuesday after being sentenced in […]

A former employee at a Hong Kong care home for people with intellectual disabilities has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman five times last year after facing an additional charge of rape. Prosecutors on Monday slapped the fifth count of rape against Chung Pui-kei, 38, formerly an assistant warden at the Hong Chi Pinehill […]

The Hong Kong government’s proposed laws to curb smoking, including banning the possession of e-cigarettes in public, will have no impact on tourism, a legislator has said. David Lam, chairperson of the Panel on Health Services in the Legislative Council (LegCo), said on an RTHK programme on Monday that cases from other places around the […]

Hong Kong police have arrested 10 people for allegedly providing services related to surrogacy and sex selection of embryos overseas. A total of four men and six women – aged between 30 and 70 – were arrested during raids on an office in Central and their homes on Friday and Saturday on suspicion of violating […]

China and the Philippines on Monday defended their claims to a disputed reef in the South China Sea, after Manila accused Beijing of seeking to “intimidate and harass” with a state media report that suggested the area had been seized. The Sandy Cay reef lies near Thitu Island, or Pag-asa, where the Philippines stations troops […]

Keith Yip, director of crime and security, has been appointed deputy commissioner of police (operations), replacing Joe Chow, who was promoted to police chief earlier this month. Yip assumed his new role on Monday, weeks after Chow took up the post of police commissioner on April 2. Yip joined the police force as an inspector […]

A Hong Kong women workers’ group has called on the government to suspend the city’s “enhanced” labour import scheme, saying it has negatively affected employees’ working conditions. Around 15 members of the Hong Kong Women Workers’ Association (HKWWA) unfurled a banner and held signs outside the Central Government Offices (CGO) on Sunday, ahead of the […]

China’s coast guard said Sunday it had “dealt with” a situation involving six Filipinos who it accused of illegally landing on a disputed reef, after Beijing’s state media said the tiny sandbank had recently come under Chinese control. Beijing claims sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea and has waved away competing assertions […]

Independent media outlet Channel C has halted operations a week after police arrested a director at the outlet’s parent company for alleged government loan fraud. Meanwhile, authorities say the outlet is behind on pension contributions totalling HK$230,000. In a response to local media enquiries on Saturday, the Mandatory Provident Fund Scheme Authority said that the […]

China’s foreign minister has hit out at the “extreme selfishness” of tariffs, hinting at the steep levies imposed on Beijing by US President Donald Trump. “Certain countries” resort to “pressure and coercion, and trigger unjustified trade wars… This extreme selfishness only harms their credibility,” top diplomat Wang Yi told his Uzbek counterpart Bakhtiyor Saidov, according […]

This feature is the first in HKFP’s Partners in Pride series, which looks at how same-sex couples navigate life, death and everything in between ahead of the government’s October deadline to enact a framework to recognise same-sex partnerships. Jennifer has always wanted kids. As a primary school teacher in Hong Kong, she is surrounded by children […]

When the Dalai Lama turns 90 in July, the Buddhist monk, who for many exiled Tibetans personifies dreams of a free homeland, will ask if they want a successor. For the charismatic Nobel Peace Prize-winning leader, his landmark birthday will be a time to encourage people to plan for an eventual future without him and address […]

US President Donald Trump has insisted Chinese leader Xi Jinping called him despite Beijing denials of any contact between the two countries over their bitter trade dispute. In an interview conducted on April 22 with TIME Magazine and published Friday, the US president did not say when the call took place or specify what was discussed. […]

By Mary Yang and Michael Zhang, with Isabel Kua in Beijing In a small church tucked into a side street in northern China’s Hebei province, a group of around 10 people gathered for their weekly meeting, the day after Pope Francis died aged 88. The Vatican on Monday announced the death of the Argentine pontiff, […]