Hong Kong extradition bill

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.

K-pop singer Choi Siwon — from the popular boy band Super Junior — has apologized to his 16 million Chinese fans for “liking” a post on Twitter about the Hong Kong protests. Choi, 33, liked – and later unliked – a Tweet from the South Korean newspaper Chosun on Sunday which linked to an interview with Chow Pak-kwan, the 21-year-old Hong Kong protester who was shot by a police officer at point-blank range on November 11.  Mainland internet users called for Choi to leave Super Junior. He is another public figure from the Asian entertainment world who has sparked an online backlash from nationalistic Chinese over alleged support for the anti-government protests in Hong Kong. Many commenters on

The Chinese government has tried to brush aside a historic election win by Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp by downplaying the results in news reports and preventing internet users from talking about it.  Pro-Beijing politicians suffered a bitter defeat in Sunday’s district council elections, losing most of the seats they previously held to rivals who campaigned on their support for the monthslong anti-government protests. About 57% of the voters backed pro-democracy candidates, most of whom openly support protesters’ demands, which include an investigation into police conduct and democratic reforms.  The stunning win by the pro-democracy camp has made international headlines. It is seen as

A good friend was waiting at a bus stop in Wanchai, Hong Kong the other day while crowds of people milled past on their way to lunch. Listening to the chatter around him, he made an interesting observation. All the older people were talking about the crazy rioters and how they had wreaked terrible and unnecessary destruction on public property in Hong Kong. In the cold light of day, the senseless devastation is reminiscent of a war zone. The younger commuters were chatting about the many videoed instances of dazed demonstrators lying on the ground being kicked in the head by a reinforced police boot and the government’s lack of support for Hong Kong people. It has been a battle between a ra