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Peter Lam is set to return as chair of the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), replacing outgoing chief Pang Yiu-kai on April 1. Lam, 67, served as HKTB chair from 2013 to 2019. He currently heads the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) and is chair of Lai Sun Group. Lam will serve as the […]

The sweeping tariffs threatened or already imposed by US President Donald Trump risk triggering inflation, market distortions, and even a global recession, China said Tuesday at the World Trade Organization. After returning to office on January 20, Trump hit China, the world’s second-biggest economy, with an additional 10 percent levy on products entering the United […]

Hong Kong’s Democratic Party will not rule out discussion on potentially disbanding during an upcoming meeting this week, its chairperson has said following reports that the party may shut down. Chair Lo Kin-hei told reporters on Wednesday that the executive committee of the Democratic Party will convene on Thursday. “Our discussion will not be limited, […]

Hong Kong is set to raise the statutory minimum wage from HK$40 to HK$42.10 per hour in May, but an anti-poverty group has said the new rate still fails to meet “basic living needs.” The Hong Kong government announced on Tuesday that it would adopt the Minimum Wage Commission’s recommendation to increase the hourly base […]

The Cook Islands’ prime minister on Tuesday defended a new partnership pact with China and urged his country not to depend on handouts from “big brother” New Zealand. Prime Minister Mark Brown said the accord signed with Beijing offers his small Pacific nation opportunities in trade, infrastructure and the sustainable use of ocean resources. “We […]

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee has warned that “drastic action” by taxi drivers would not gain public support, ahead of a deadline for a citywide strike demanding government regulation of unlicensed ride-hailing services. The city’s leader made the comment on Tuesday, a day before the deadline set by the Hong Kong Tele-call Taxi Association last […]

The Hong Kong Police Force has launched an AI-powered website to help people leave the Kai Tak Sports Park. The website was tested when around 50,000 civil servants and residents took part in another stress test at the facility on Sunday. The venue is set to open on March 1. “The platform facilitates the spectators […]

The Hong Kong government has condemned wanted ex-lawmaker Ted Hui’s “unfounded smear” after he slammed a court order allowing HK$800,000 of assets to be confiscated from him and his family members. Hui, who is now based in Australia and is wanted by Hong Kong’s national security police, said on Facebook on Monday that the High […]

Creamfields Hong Kong 2025 music festival has been cancelled, with organisers promising full refunds for customers in a social media announcement on Monday. The electronic dance music festival was set to take place in Central from March 8 to 9. The event was also removed from the government’s “mega events” list on Thursday. Organisers have […]

China condemned the United States on Monday for removing a reference to the status of Taiwan from the State Department website, urging Washington to “correct its mistakes”. Beijing views Taiwan as part of its territory and has refused to rule out using force to unify with the self-ruled island one day. The United States does […]

A new round of applications for more than 5,000 temporary housing units will open next Monday, with tenants expected to gradually move in from the fourth quarter of this year, the Hong Kong government has said. The second phase of the Light Public Housing (LPH) scheme will provide around 5,060 flats in four different locations: […]

By Hieun Shin Chinese AI app DeepSeek will not be available to download in South Korea pending a review of its handling of user data, Seoul authorities said Monday. DeepSeek’s R1 chatbot stunned investors and industry insiders with its ability to match the functions of its Western competitors at a fraction of the cost. But […]

Hong Kong police have taken in a third relative of ex-district councillor Carmen Lau, who has a HK$1 million bounty on her head for alleged national security law violations. A female relative of Lau was brought to Tuen Mun Police Station on Monday morning to assist with an investigation into the activist who fled the […]

Chinese President Xi Jinping held a meeting Monday with top private business leaders including Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, state media footage showed. Since coming to power more than a decade ago, Xi has consistently sought to bolster the role of state enterprises in the world’s second-largest economy and warned against the “disorderly” expansion of the […]

An eight-month-old infant has undergone heart transplant surgery after receiving Hong Kong’s second organ donation from mainland China, according to the city’s health authorities. The heart transplant operation on the baby girl, Whitney, was performed on Sunday evening at the Hong Kong Children’s Hospital in Kai Tak, the Health Bureau and the Hospital Authority said […]

Hong Kong has made its first arrest over possession of the drug “space oil” after the substance was included under the city’s dangerous drugs law on Friday. The Customs and Excise Department on Saturday seized one vape stick containing suspected space oil from a 28-year-old woman at the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal in Sheung Wan, […]

Hong Kong housing authorities are mulling a longer grace period for operators of subdivided flats to make repairs and for tenants to relocate, Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho has said. “We have received views saying that the grace period should last 36 months, and that would allow both landlords and tenants more time to move […]

President Ferdinand Marcos put Beijing firmly centre stage on the campaign trail on Saturday, saying his predecessor’s administration was all too happy for the Philippines “to be a province of China”. Speaking in the heart of Rodrigo Duterte’s stronghold Mindanao ahead of May mid-term elections, Marcos blasted the former president — without mentioning him by […]

On Thursday, pollster Robert Chung announced that the independent Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) would “suspend all its self-funded research activities indefinitely, including regular tacking surveys conducted since 1992… or even may close down,” citing the “current environment.” This is an alarming development. Robert Chung’s statement was apparently prompted by his run-ins with […]

Hayson Chan, business development director of rental company Rent to Rent Innovation, expects about a quarter of his subdivided flats to be deemed illegal under an unprecedented crackdown on unliveable dwellings in Hong Kong. Under a “rent-to-rent” arrangement, Chan’s company rents apartments from landlords, splits up the flats into subdivided units, and leases the individual […]

Animated Chinese blockbuster “Ne Zha 2”, based on traditional mythology, has smashed multiple box office records on its way to becoming the country’s most successful movie ever. The tale of a rebellious young deity who battles dragons is the first movie to earn over US$1 billion in a single market, overtaking “Star Wars: The Force […]

Thailand has deported 10 Chinese nationals linked to the high-profile alleged kidnapping of an actor who was rescued from a cyber-fraud centre in Myanmar, Thai police told AFP on Saturday. Scam compounds have mushroomed in Myanmar’s borderlands and are staffed by foreigners who are often trafficked and forced to work, swindling their compatriots in an […]

It appears – though the numbers published vary a bit – that our government is bleeding money on such a scale that the reserves will be run down in five or six years, placing us in the same boat as all those debt-addicted governments we have been looking down on. Of course, this will not […]

Hong Kong has unwittingly found itself caught in the US-China trade war, with US President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs on Chinese goods targeting the city’s products. Trump issued an executive order on February 1 to impose an additional 10 per cent tariff on all imports from China and Hong Kong – on top of the […]