US Congress questions HK: Beijing vets HK politicians; is HK not China? “Experts” say Washington appeases Beijing, but the big issue: Don’t pee in the international pool, consider HK’s Hague membership. Washington and Beijing have only found excuses to raise… Read More ›
While thousands of young elites risked their career future to launch an Occupy Central campaign for democracy (focus on free nomination for government’s chief executive candidateship), more than half of the Hong Kong citizenry disagreed with either their ideals or… Read More ›
Taiwan hit headlines again this week. More popular than New York, London, and Paris for New Years Eve. Home to a just-finished military head quarters after an 18-year construction project. An ever unpopular President facing oil-food scandal bribery allegations. And,… Read More ›
Recent protests in Hong Kong caused me to reflect once more on my short stay in this Pearl of the Orient. If Hong Kong was dreading its return to mainland China in 1997 for political reasons, with the battle of… Read More ›
Ma Jijiang and his once poor family are the flesh and blood of China’s modern economic miracle, living proof of how radically the country has been reshaped since the late Deng Xiaoping changed the world in 1978 by proclaiming that… Read More ›
Disunity delayed Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement. A policeman turned pro-occupy, then called a retreat, but not after expressing his distaste for a recent swelling arrogance in the Hong Kong police force. And reality sets in that 2017 won’t look how… Read More ›
Last Friday, as the Occupy Central protests convulsed Hong Kong, James Bang, a twenty-eight-year-old digital-strategy consultant, found himself holding down the front line in the district of Mong Kok, his arms linked with other young protesters as they fended off… Read More ›
Hong Kong police violence was as angering as it was unusual. Hong Kong woke up, then Hong Kongers woke up the world. Beijing will neither listen nor crackdown. Instead, they make fools of themselves. No Tiananmen part deux, condolences to… Read More ›
The Hong Kong protesters know that what’s hailed in the West as ‘the China dream’ is a hoax. Whatever comes next with the demonstrations in Hong Kong, they’ve already performed a historic service. To wit, they remind us of the… Read More ›
Last’s week’s misunderstanding quickly transformed to rage with images of police, out of harm’s way, calmly reaching to pepper spray non-threatening bystanders, one at a time. Hong Kongers’ support for Occupy Central soared from “geek” to “peak” within a day…. Read More ›
China’s Communist Party has warned of “unimaginable consequences” if demonstrations by pro-democracy campaigners in Hong Kong continue. The threat, made in the party-run People’s Daily, came as China’s government appeared to be losing patience with the protesters, who have threatened… Read More ›
Recent events in Hong Kong present the Chinese Communist Party with an unprecedented opportunity to consolidate power in the territory. After the teargas used on the first night backfired, figuratively and at least once, literally, it’s time to reassess your options…. Read More ›
In my post on March 31 titled “College students are China’s hope for democracy; Over 100,000 protest in Taiwan,” I said, “We Chinese are proud of our college students. “They are the driving force of Chinese history. “See how similar… Read More ›
If China had honoured the political commitments it made before taking control of Hong Kong from Britain in 1997, it is likely there would be no protests in the city streets and no crackdown over the weekend by riot police… Read More ›
Inside Report—Hong Kong has one problem that is unaddressed in the media: Hong Kong can’t and doesn’t have its own military. Military service is the unwritten rule of any democracy. As much as Hong Kong needs freedom, they aren’t big… Read More ›
The main topic in the press, though strange: China vs the Environment. Hong Kong’s democracy movement progresses, their opposition (mostly professors and members of government) also get louder. The US even piped in, stating that they were likely to endorse… Read More ›
Just days before China was set to deliver its edict on electoral reform in Hong Kong, Beijing’s most senior official in the city held a rare meeting with several local lawmakers whose determined push for full democracy had incensed Beijing’s… Read More ›
The Taiwan military rhetoric of last week was compounded by a food oil scandal affecting many large Taiwan food suppliers. The ultimate effect will hurt the pockets of the de facto pro-Beijing KMT Nationalist party controlling Taiwan. As the spirits… Read More ›
If there is one issue sure to make the business community nervous about the future of Hong Kong, it is the prospect of the leaders in Beijing miscalculating the political situation in the city. This looms as a larger concern… Read More ›
Pro-democracy activists vowed on Sunday to bring Hong Kong’s financial hub to a standstill after China’s parliament rejected their demands for the right to freely choose the former British colony’s next leader in 2017. The Standing Committee of the National… Read More ›
You know that point… where you’ve been trying to persuade a friend to get smart, think about his actions, and change his ways… and you’ve finally convinced him to open his eyes and he sees his situation… but then he… Read More ›
Hong Kong was regarded as a goose that laid gold eggs when it was handed back to China. The “One Country Two Systems” policy aims at maintaining the goose’s ability to lay golden eggs for China. It has never been… Read More ›
Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers have joined pro-democracy protests on the streets of the Chinese territory in a massive show of defiance against Beijing’s vision for the city’s political future. Pro-democracy protests on July 1 — the anniversary of… Read More ›
Perhaps the 1995 rumours of the death of Hong Kong weren’t exaggerated after all. Nineteen years ago this month, Fortune ran its infamous “Death of Hong Kong” cover. By 2007, the magazine had changed its tune, deciding, in the Mark… Read More ›
Nearly 600,000 votes have been cast in three days of an unofficial referendum on democratic reforms in Hong Kong, part of a civil campaign that has been branded illegal by the former British colony and by Communist Party authorities in… Read More ›
For years after the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, China’s leaders surprised the world by adhering scrupulously to Hong Kong’s unusual political set-up of “one country, two systems”. Under the terms of the handover, Hong Kong… Read More ›
