Why the Hong Kong gov’t has a problem with remembering the past
Hong Kong has a problem with history and the recent incident of official vandalism at the more than century-old Roman-style underground reservoir at Bishop’s Hill in Shek Kip Mei serves as a timely...
View ArticleSave Hong Kong’s Covid-stricken economy, don’t fritter away our reserves on...
Governments around the world are stirring themselves to prepare for a new era once the Covid-19 pandemic has been brought under control. Not so in Hong Kong, where what passes for a government is...
View ArticleHow Hong Kong’s Carrie Lam went from blunder to blunder in the fight against...
Has the hapless Lam administration ever put a foot wrong? If you care to enter the Alice in Wonderland land of government propaganda you will be entranced to discover that even in the extraordinary...
View ArticleForget stability in the Year of the Ox, it’s time to challenge Hong Kong’s...
So, here we are in the Year of the Ox – kung hei all round. Apparently the characteristics of the year promise stable growth because the good old ox is both stable and honest. It is not for me, a mere...
View ArticleSteve Vines: Does Hong Kong’s quarantine centre need to be quite so hellish?
Cell, or rather Room, 173-02, has no bars on the windows and in theory – but only in theory – you can open the door and exit, except that the option of exit is strictly forbidden without permission....
View ArticleA vexing problem for Hong Kong’s Covid vaccine programme – lack of transparency
Is the Hong Kong government putting lives at risk with its mainland-focused vaccination programme? The simple answer is that we don’t know but the fact that we don’t know explains why this vital means...
View ArticleHong Kong’s cultural revolution has arrived at the arts
It was always going to be a matter of time before the new Cultural Revolution surge sweeping through Hong Kong would focus on the arts. This is, after all, intrinsic to the idea of a revolution...
View ArticleFears of Hongkongers casting blank protest votes speaks to the paranoia of...
Why are Beijing’s most avid supporters in Hong Kong so terrified over the prospect of people casting blank votes? This is despite the fact that they have solemnly assured us that the sweeping changes...
View ArticleHong Kong’s ruling-class hypocrisy: how ‘patriotic’ enablers of the crackdown...
Hypocrisy is a nasty business whichever way you look at it. Unsurprisingly it is on flagrant display among the honourable members of Hong Kong’s legislature as they scramble over each other to be the...
View ArticleHong Kong’s discriminatory Covid-19 policies are placing politics above science
It is hard to tell whether this was a case of unthinking racism, deliberate racism or mere stupidity. But what is clear is that targeting foreign domestic helpers in the fight against Covid had...
View ArticleIt’s ‘business as unusual’ in the new Hong Kong and people are voting with...
As the hammer blows rain down on the freedom to conduct business in Hong Kong, the people wielding the hammer busy themselves with assurances that there is nothing to worry about. To do so involves...
View ArticleWhy an empty Victoria Park in Hong Kong on June 4 could be an even more...
Authoritarian governments have always had a problem with remembering the dead. They are determined to keep control over history’s narrative and the deceased have a habit of disrupting their version of...
View ArticleHong Kong’s Gay Games success blighted by obsession with sex
I am endlessly amazed by the assumption of homophobes that same sex relationships are more attractive than cross sex relationships to the extent that any relaxation of official discrimination against...
View ArticleRest in peace Apple Daily Hong Kong: Raucous, independent and proud
The enemies of liberty have cause for celebration as do the people who despise Hong Kong’s way of life that was so raucously celebrated by Apple Daily during its 26 years of publication. The Quislings...
View ArticleWhat’s wrong with Hong Kong becoming a police state?
What’s wrong with Hong Kong becoming a police state? According to anti-democracy legislator Alice Mak, not much. Before realising that honesty is not the best policy in these matters she said, “If...
View ArticleHong Kong needs a recovery strategy, not inefficient shopping voucher handouts
No sane person would turn their nose up at the prospect of money for nothing, but then again no sane government would embark on a policy of aimlessly throwing cash around to everyone regardless of...
View ArticleForeign passport rules for the election committee again expose the hypocrisy...
In the midst of the gloom engulfing Hong Kong comes a scintilla of light relief. It emanates from the alarm and indignation among the Quislings who are scrambling to jump aboard the newly-enhanced...
View ArticleSteve Vines: Loving Hong Kong has become a suspect activity – why, at last,...
When I arrived in Hong Kong some 35 years ago, what impressed me most after I sped through immigration at the old Kai Tak airport was the sight of a great many school students sitting in the Arrivals...
View ArticleBritons do know – and care – about the plight of Hong Kong
“Hong Kong must be terrible,” said a woman standing behind me in a London suburb pharmacy after we fell into discussion, as you do when queues are long. She had no clear idea about what is going on,...
View ArticleHow Hong Kong’s tyrants are taking baby steps towards dictatorship
Hong Kong’s tyrants in diapers have yet to be fully weaned. In fact, it may never happen because their “parents” seem reluctant to allow them to fully develop as they worry that the offspring might...
View ArticleHong Kong’s small-circle election: an incompetent, predictable farce
Giving farce a bad name is rarely a good idea, and it gets a lot worse when the farce is designed to give legitimacy to a process designed to achieve representative government. Sunday’s election to...
View ArticleWhy did Hong Kong need 8,000 police to help it celebrate National Day?
Unless I am very much mistaken, it has been decreed that the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China is supposed to be a joyous occasion with much to celebrate. Why then in Hong...
View ArticleIn the new Hong Kong, is there nowhere for people to seek redress against the...
Is the Hong Kong police force subject to any form of public accountability? If the experience of the Hong Kong Journalists Association is anything to go by, the answer is no. After a wait of two...
View ArticleSteve Vines: The future of press freedom in Hong Kong
How many of us in the often dubious occupation of journalism are qualified “to continue the red blood line,” not forgetting the ability to “adhere to the correct innovation?” Yet these requirements...
View ArticleThe case of Tennis star Peng Shuai only widens China’s credibility gap
It is possible, albeit unlikely, that the tennis star Peng Shuai, one of China’s most successful sportswomen, is safe, secure, and not subject to intimidation after several publicised appearances...
View Article‘Patriots’ election: Why did the Hong Kong government set itself up to be...
What were the Hong Kong government and its masters hoping to achieve with the farce described as an election under a “perfected” system? Set aside for a moment the fact that despite inducements,...
View ArticleHong Kong 25: Did it have to end like this, after all the early optimism?
Was it always going to turn out like this? The effective termination of the One Country, Two Systems concept, the trashing of the electoral system, the clampdown on civil society and, well, all the...
View ArticleBeijing’s ruling on foreign lawyers: A blow to Hong Kong’s legal system
The national security law, drafted in Beijing without any input from Hong Kong, was rapidly enacted just over two years ago, now it is being reinterpreted because of fury in Beijing that the SAR’s...
View ArticlePress Freedom Day: Vestiges of independent media still detected in Hong Kong
The idea that Hong Kong’s leaders will join in celebrations marking World Press Freedom Day on Wednesday is akin to Jackie Chan finally admitting that his acting is embarrassing. Newspapers in Hong...
View ArticleDistrict Council overhaul: Hong Kong never had democracy, but that is no...
It is axiomatic that election winners do not rush to change the election system. Losers are quite another matter, losers who have lost really badly are even more desperate for change. That is why it...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....