Critical commentary and analysis on Hong Kong, China and Taiwan affairs from HKFP’s community of columnists, experts and advocates.
Hong 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 fill less just over a quarter of the seats for membership of the Election Committee, there were just 4,380 voters […]
Barely a democrat in sight as Hong Kong ushers in new political era on Sunday
Hong Kong, for now, is a tale of two cities. In one part of town, demolition work has moved into high gear as the police and the courts proceed to dismantle the old order with its democracy movement counter-current. The old order can now be defined as the first two decades of post-colonial rule, when […]
Short of land? Hong Kong picks on the small guy instead of challenging vested interests
One of the depressing characteristics that our government has inherited from its colonial predecessor is a tendency, when the circumstances require that someone should make sacrifices, to pick on the smallest kid in the class. There is no appetite for challenging vested interests. All too often this means that the burden of adjustment to new […]
Hongkongers are patriotic; their mistake was to believe the Joint Declaration’s predictions
All Hong Kong needs, we are told ad nauseam by mainland officials and their local proxies, is more patriotism—more appreciation, understanding and love of the motherland. Our opposition politicians failed the patriotism test—and that’s why so many of them had to be thrown in jail. Our teachers failed the patriotism test—and that’s why their largest […]
A gentrified mess: How Hong Kong’s Central Market restoration tarnished an architectural gem
The Central Market Revitalisation Project, led by the Urban Renewal Authority since 2009, is now complete, and the public can assess the authorities’ concept of “revitalisation.” An architectural gem has become a sterile cacophony of mostly unneeded shops. Like everything else in Hong Kong these days, the project was kept under wraps until it was […]
Hong Kong’s fair trial rules are routinely ignored – and no offender is safe
You may find this as puzzling as I do, but the one thing which really seems to annoy our national security enthusiasts is when an organisation that has been roundly denounced on all channels decides to shut down before the cops come to the door. This invariably produces accusations of cowardice and dark warnings that […]
‘Foreign agent’ claims against Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Massacre vigil organisers defy understanding
A pro-democracy alliance has vowed to defy what it calls a groundless order from Hong Kong’s national security police to hand over financial and operational information. It has a point. Seen from a historical perspective, it could not be more ironic that the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China is […]
Ignore the bigotry, the 2022 Gay Games will be a tonic for Hong Kong
Hong Kong, a cosmopolitan metropolis with a diverse population, has long touted itself as “Asia’s World City” – a global hub for commerce, fashion, gastronomy and art. In 2017, it was announced as host for the 2022 Gay Games, after fighting off rival bids from Washington DC and Guadalajara in Mexico. The Hong Kong bid […]
Danny Fenster: Jailed for telling the truth in Myanmar – with no end in sight
September 1 marked seven months since the military staged a coup in Myanmar and seized power. In the ensuing months, the junta has ruled with an iron fist, all but crushing a nascent democracy. Protests quickly broke out nationwide but were just as quickly suppressed by deadly force from the military. The Assistance Association of […]
How 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 not be up to venturing too far on their own. However, the local Quislings are really trying their best to […]
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