opinion
Once again our government appears lost as it contemplates how to manage Hong Kong’s growing mountain of garbage. The logic of the endlessly postponed solid waste charging scheme is clear: if you charge residents to throw rubbish away, they will seek to minimise the charge by sorting it for recycling. Behaviour change. However, critical infrastructure and incentives are missing from the solid waste management scheme. Political leadership that prioritises the issue is also apparently absent. Rather, the government hasembarked on yet another trial to better understand the problems. In Hong Kong s...
Hong Kong Free Press
The finer points of civil servant staffing are not usually a hot news topic. But the latest grim update from the Civil Service Bureau was eagerly covered by Hong Kong’s English-language newspapers. It was not surprising that different reporters made different choices. The “source” was the Civil Service Bureau’s written replies to questions from legislators in response to the budget speech. These were all published on the same day, involved a great deal of repetition, and ran to no well over 300 pages. Having browsed in this heap of information, I think I would have gone for staff dismissals as...
Hong Kong Free Press
By Kris Hartley In February 2024, Hong Kong police announced plans to instal 615 new surveillance cameras in areas of the city with “high crime figures and high pedestrian flows.” The announcement also mentioned the possibility of equipping the cameras with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. This news follows a January 2024 announcement that 2,000 surveillance cameras would be installed around the city this year. According to an RTHK article, Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk “added that he understood some people had privacy concerns, but said many other places had more CCTV cameras ...
Hong Kong Free Press
Two recently published books shed light on the relations between central and local authorities in mainland China, and provide valuable lessons for Hong Kong. In one, we see that local politicians in Wuhan failed to learn the lessons of SARS, repeating mistakes during the outbreak of Covid-19 that had disastrous consequences for the country and the world. They operated in a system designed centrally that prioritised politics and stability above all else. In the other, we see that local politicians not only accepted instructions and advice from central authorities, but also actively, persistentl...
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong’s first attempt in 2003 to pass a homegrown security law failed in the face of mass protests. After the seismic changes which have shaken the city since then – culminating in the 2019 protests and unrest and the subsequent clampdown – the latest move to legislate the Basic Law’s Article 23 is a vastly different ballgame. If the legislative version watered down by the Tung Chee-hwa government in the wake of the 500,000-strong protest was rightly described as a “toothless tiger,” the 2024 proposal is a fierce beast with sharp teeth and powerful claws. When and how they will be used is ...
Hong Kong Free Press
In Hong Kong, where East and West collide, a crucial piece of legislation has long remained unresolved. Article 23 of the Basic Law, which pertains to national security, has been the subject of contentious discussion for numerous years. It is imperative to acknowledge the urgency and the meticulous coordination that the legislation necessitates as we attempt to address this long-overdue responsibility. In this article, I intend to address the relevance and significance of Article 23, the challenges it raises, and the commitment to clarity and transparency. Our capacity to navigate this complex...
Hong Kong Free Press
By Michael Boyle & Victoria Amaral Hong Kong has struggled to return tourism to pre-covid levels, leading to the government seeking novel strategies for enticing visitors back to the city. One of the recent suggestions is the staging of monthly fireworks displays over Victoria Harbour at the cost of HK$1 million per show, which the government hopes will persuade tourists to “stay an extra night.” Whether or not the questionable strategy proves successful in terms of visitor satisfaction, we can be sure of one thing: its negative impact on local wildlife. Research has shown that birds take flig...
Hong Kong Free Press
Regular readers will recall that a couple of months ago I complained that the director of audit had devoted the resources of his department to some nit-picking criticisms of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). I thought there was a danger that this might look like a contribution to the general barrage of abuse from government-friendly quarters which had led to the departure of the university’s vice chancellor. However it appears from the director’s annual report that this is not what is going on at all. What is going on is a violation not of the separation of powers but of an even olde...
Hong Kong Free Press
As I told a friend the other day: “If you see someone taking photos of the buildings behind us, chances are they’re tourists coming to see the Monster Building.” I’m a Quarry Bay kaifong, or local, and every time I visit a neighbourhood bakery or florist, I see people – mostly in their 20s and 30s and speaking in different languages – strolling along King’s Road. Some ask for directions, some take photos from the opposite side of the street. I can tell instantly that they are searching for the Monster Building. For us locals, it’s just one of the ordinary residential structures of the 1960s. W...
Hong Kong Free Press
For months during 2019, Hong Kong was rocked by increasingly violent anti-government protests. Demonstrators focused initially on an unpopular extradition bill that the government seemed determined to legislate despite strong opposition. Authorities eventually withdrew the bill, but by that time street rallies drew protesters numbering in their hundreds of thousands who called for “five demands and not one less.” These demands included a kind of universal suffrage, which for many protesters meant popular, not authority-controlled nominations. The Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, identi...
Hong Kong Free Press
閲覧を続けるには、ノアドット株式会社が「プライバシーポリシー」に定める「アクセスデータ」を取得することを含む「nor.利用規約」に同意する必要があります。
「これは何?」という方はこちら