Hong Kong extradition bill

The United States sent shock waves on Wednesday evening by certifying that Hong Kong was no longer highly autonomous from China. It’s a crucial move that could set the city on the path to losing preferential economic and trade treatment it enjoys from Washington. That assessment, announced by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, was regarded as a retaliatory action against Beijing’s plan to enact a national security law for Hong Kong. While protesters in Hong Kong cheered the US announcement, hoping it will force Beijing to abandon its hardline approach to the city, the business community fears the impact on the city’s reputation as an international financial center.  This is what the American

The Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was arrested on Friday in what a pro-democracy lawmaker has called “political persecution.” Lai, a publishing tycoon known for his anti-Beijing activism, was arrested for his role during the anti-government protests that swept Hong Kong last year. The police have also accused him of intimidating a reporter for a competing newspaper in 2017. A police source said the 71-year-old was held as part of an operation targeting those involved in a march on August 31 last year amid unrest sparked by a now-withdrawn plan that would have allowed the transfer of criminal suspects from Hong Kong to mainland China. Protesters against the bill feared that it would erode

A restaurant in Hong Kong posted this on Facebook: “From now on, we will only serve Hongkongers. Only Cantonese and English are allowed when placing orders. We do not serve Mandarin speakers.” An edited version of the post later said, “Update: Taiwanese people are allowed.” When I was standing in front of the restaurant with my friend, both of us from mainland China, we were anxious and a bit embarrassed. “Let’s order in Cantonese, and then we can speak Mandarin with each other,” I said, in Cantonese. She agreed. The coronavirus outbreak, which started in mainland China and has spread to Hong Kong, has become the latest fuel in the anti-mainland sentiment in the former British colony. The g

In the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, a hiring plan has been submitted aiming to win the hearts and minds of young people in Hong Kong. But a new survey suggests that's a tough mission.  Gordon Lam, a Hong Kong member of the Guangdong Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, submitted a proposal to the advisory body calling on the provincial government to set up an employment support agency for Hong Kong students. He also said a government liaison body should “provide them with financial subsidies and referral information” so the students can “help service the development of the Greater Bay Area.”  The Greater Bay Area plan is a grand vision by Beijing to turn nine Pearl

Months of violent protests have landed a heavy blow to businesses in Hong Kong. But for Clement Lai, a former elite bodyguard, the unrest has been a boon. His private security firm has been in high demand as the anti-government demonstrations in Hong Kong have intensified, underscoring the increased volatility of the unrest and fears of violence in the Asian financial center. Formerly a close protection officer in the Hong Kong Police Force’s VIP protection unit, Lai was responsible for the personal safety of visiting Chinese leaders including President Jiang Zemin and then Vice-President Hu Jintao, as well as overseas dignitaries such as US President Bill Clinton. He set up Clement Shield i

It all started with a simple poster doing the rounds on WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, asking people to show solidarity with students in India who had been assaulted while protesting against the country’s new religion-based citizenship law. A group of friends felt stirred by visuals, streamed onto their phones on Sunday night, of police forces entering the Indian capital’s Jamia Millia Islamia University firing tear gas into the college campus. “We felt we had to urgently send out a message of solidarity with the students and resist [the police actions], because if not, we could be next,” said a member of the group, Ruben Mascarenhas, a Mumbai-based activist. So they made a poster asking

Hong Kong malls were the target of "Christmas shopping" protests on Sunday.  After more than 6 months of demonstrations, the city had seen a relatively calm period, but on this day riot police once again entered shopping malls after businesses were vandalized. Multiple arrests were made and there was a heavy police presence on the streets. Rallies from both sides of the divide took place near each other in the early afternoon. Thousands attended a pro-police rally and hundreds of social workers called for their colleagues to go on strike in support of the protest movement.

Foreign experts advising Hong Kong’s police watchdog have abruptly announced they will “stand aside” from an ongoing review of officers’ actions during the anti-government protests. Last month, the five-member panel of overseas experts convened by the Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC) said the watchdog should be given more powers to conduct its own investigation over officers’ conduct during the protests. But council chairman Anthony Neoh, who had enlisted the members, all international experts with years of experience in policing and crowd behavior, rejected their proposal. In an interview with a mainland Chinese media organization, Neoh criticized them for a lack of understandin

Detectives in Hong Kong investigating the seizure of two powerful home-made bombs at a school campus believe they were intended for an attack on police at a democracy march that happened at the weekend, sources said on Tuesday. The apparent bomb plot, revealed amid long-running anti-government unrest, prompted a police union to describe the city’s security situation as at its “most alarming” in decades, even worse than during a wave of armed robberies in the 1990s. Force insiders believed the would-be bombers were forced to abandon the attack planned for Sunday after a group of their associates were arrested in a police swoop that morning, hours before the march – which attracted hundreds of

Hundreds of thousands of Hongkongers took to the streets on December 8, 2019, the day before the six-month anniversary of the anti-government protests. For the first time since August, the Civil Human Rights Front, the organizer of the march, received a letter of no objection from the police.