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Hong Kong’s economic growth slowed to 2.5 percent in 2024, the city’s government said Monday, adding that the outlook for the year ahead was dimmed by “heightened uncertainties”. The Chinese financial hub saw a post-pandemic rebound in 2023 after the city reopened to international business and travel, but lost some momentum as China’s economic slowdown […]

Taiwanese star Barbie Hsu, who was hugely popular across Asia for her leading role in the 2001 television drama “Meteor Garden”, has died from a respiratory illness, local media reported Monday. She was 48. Hsu passed away after developing pneumonia during a family trip to Japan over the Lunar New Year holiday, the younger of […]

Eleven trail runners have completed an endurance challenge spanning all of Hong Kong’s four major hiking routes, the ultramarathon organisers said. The “four trails” – Maclehose, Wilson, Hong Kong, and Lantau – span a total distance of 298km, starting in Tuen Mun and ending in Mui Wo, marked with a green mailbox. The annual Hong […]

Around one in five social workers at the government’s Social Welfare Department say they may quit within the next five years, citing immense challenges at work and management problems, a survey has found. The General Union of Social Workers in Social Welfare Department surveyed 446 social workers working for the government in September and October […]

Hong Kong authorities have fined six restaurants for not complying with a disposable plastics ban since the policy was officially enacted in October. Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan said on Sunday that authorities had received 75 complaints in the three-odd months that the ban has been in effect. Among them, 59 restaurants were […]

Donald Trump’s new tariffs will probably not have a major impact on China’s economy but may herald the opening salvo of another bruising trade war with Beijing, analysts said Sunday. The US President on Saturday announced sweeping measures against major trade partners, with goods from China facing an additional 10 percent tariff on top of […]

For years, Alison Chan had not seen a Hong Kong film more than once in the cinema, let alone twice in one day.  A 27-year-old teacher, Chan enjoys going to the cinema to relax. When she went alone on a Saturday morning in November to watch The Last Dance – a melodrama set amid Taoist […]

The first month of 2025 saw a Hong Kong polling organisation and its chief executive investigated by national security police. Meanwhile, the trial of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai continued, and judges at the apex court heard the city’s first appeal against a conviction and sentence under a colonial-era sedition law. Pollster under investigation Robert […]

A wizened farmer leads a buffalo through a misty copse of gnarled trees in eastern China, closely followed by a woman in a straw hat heaving pails of water. It is a tranquil image of rural Chinese life — except for the overhead whirr of a drone, the hiss of a smoke machine and the […]

US prosecutors announced Friday that they have charged a former Federal Reserve advisor with spying on behalf of China while posing as a part-time lecturer at a local university. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said it had charged John Harold Rogers, a 63-year-old US national, with spying for Beijing while employed as a senior advisor […]

By John Barkdull and Paul G. Harris Every day brings news of the effects of climate change on human communities. For example, low rainfall and other factors associated with climate change have exacerbated the fires that are now consuming neighbourhoods in the Los Angeles area of California.  Globally, 2024 was the warmest year ever recorded […]

Hong Kong’s giant panda population grew by 200 per cent last year, and authorities hope that the bears’ presence can help boost domestic consumption following a continued decline in retail and restaurant spending. After Beijing announced that it would gift a pair of giant pandas to the city last summer, and the birth of panda […]

Philippine security officials said Thursday they took into custody five more Chinese spies, following the arrest of a compatriot for espionage this month. The arrests come as confrontations between the two Asian neighbours over contested reefs and waters in the strategic South China Sea have escalated in recent months. Two men were arrested at Manila airport […]

Flinging her male teammate into the air, performer Lin Xinmeng practises China’s world-famous lion dance with a troupe that is shrugging off centuries of patriarchal norms. Mixing acrobatics, martial arts and theatre, lion dancing is believed to bring prosperity and protection from evil spirits. Performed across China and around the world, at weddings or during business […]

Donald Trump’s commerce secretary nominee told his US Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday he favors “across-the-board” tariffs targeting countries rather than products, while signaling a hawkish China stance. “We can use tariffs to create reciprocity, fairness and respect,” said Howard Lutnick, a close Trump ally and billionaire CEO of Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald. Lutnick’s appearance […]

Chinese tech and e-commerce giant Alibaba on Wednesday announced the release of Qwen2.5-Max, an advanced artificial intelligence model that the company says outperforms several leading AI systems in key benchmarks. The launch follows Chinese startup DeepSeek’s recent release of models that stunned Silicon Valley and challenged assumptions about US dominance in the booming AI sector. […]

More than a decade ago, construction on an underground rail link connecting Hong Kong to mainland China began beneath Yau Tam Mei Tsuen, a village in the city’s northern New Territories. For some villagers, it was a warning that their homes would one day be ceded to further development. That day is drawing ever nearer. […]

By Montira Rungjirajittranon and Sarah Lai Chinese tourists visiting Thailand for Lunar New Year are worried about being kidnapped by gangsters to work in hellish scam centres, despite efforts to reassure them. Chinese nationals topped the list of visitors to Thailand last year, with nearly seven million making the trip to Thailand in 2024. But […]

Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in Tuesday’s airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said Wednesday, with local media suggesting the blaze may have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern […]

Portuguese photojournalist Gonçalo Lobo Pinheiro has spent 14 years documenting life in Macau. In his latest book, Urban Poetry, he has collected 100 colour images shot over the past five years, capturing moments lived during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond, and exploring as the territory evolves, 25 years after its transfer from Portuguese to Chinese […]

Hong Kong Free Press began 2024 not in its home city, but in Taipei, as voters headed to the polls to elect Taiwan’s next leader. We spoke to young voters about their concerns, and Hongkongers who had moved there in the wake of the 2019 protests and were casting their ballots for the first time.  […]

Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek’s answers about the Hong Kong protests in 2019, Taiwan’s status and other topics echo Beijing’s party line, according to test questions posed by HKFP. Released outside China earlier this month, DeepSeek has become the most downloaded free app on Google’s and Apple’s app stores in Hong Kong. It also overtook rival […]

A foreign judge will sit on the panel for jailed ex-lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting’s hearing at the top court next month, in which the government is seeking to overturn his acquittal over disclosing the identity of an officer investigated for his role in the Yuen Long mob attack in 2019. Australian judge James Allsop is among […]

Chinese leader Xi Jinping struck a bullish tone during a speech on Monday ahead of Lunar New Year, after acknowledging “complex and severe situations” in recent months. Xi addressed the gathering of top Communist Party officials as China gears up for its biggest public holiday, which this year runs from January 28 to February 4 […]