A total of 916 boars were ” humanely dispatched” in Hong Kong over the past two years, with the government citing the need to reduce “nuisance” caused by the wild animals.

Responding to a lawmaker’s questions in the Legislative Council on Wednesday, Secretary for Environment  and Ecology Tse Chin-wan said that the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) had deployed more CCTV cameras and installed new trapping devices in 2023 to more efficiently capture the wild boars.

The number of boars killed rose last year, with 41 wild pigs “humanely dispatched” on average per month, a 70 per cent increase from the monthly average of 24 in 2022.

Hong Kong’s population of wild boars was around 1,360 last year, a decline of 26 per cent from 2022, when there were 1,830.

Tse said in LegCo that authorities had installed 100 infrared cameras across the city to document the animals’ numbers and patterns of occurrence.

Since November 2021, the government has dropped its long-standing trap, neuter, return (TNR) policy, which stipulated that wild pigs in urban areas were captured and returned to the wild.

The policy change came after a police officer was bitten by a wild boar in Tin Hau. In 2021, authorities received 20 reports of people being injured by boars, a sharp increase from the number in 2020, when just three were injured.

Local media outlet reported in November 2021 that AFCD officers had used bait to lure boars to be killed, triggering criticism from the public and animal rights groups, who called it an “abhorrent” move.

Tse said, since the policy change, AFCD had regularly conducted operations to capture and “humanely dispatch” wild pigs in urban and rural areas where the animals have been sighted, human injuries have occurred, or the boars’ presence may pose potential risks to the public.

In 2013, former chief of food and health Ko Wing-man said in response to pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo’s question that AFCD injected general anaesthetics to euthanise the animals. The injection was normally performed first in the thigh or buttock muscle and then in the heart, in the presence of at least one field officer and one veterinary officer.

Human feeding

According to the government, “human feeding activities are one of the root causes of wild pig nuisance.”

Earlier this year, authorities sought to change the city’s wild animal protection laws to raise the maximum penalty for illegally feeding wild animals to HK$100,000 and imprisonment for one year. The amendment will come into effect in August if it passes the opposition-free legislature.

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Beijing has condemned an editorial by US newspaper The Washington Post on Hong Kong’s “painful descent into authoritarian repression” with the legislation of a new security law, accusing the outlet of “ignorance and double-standards” on Hong Kong affairs.

In an editorial published on Monday, The Washington Post mentioned the landmark national security trial involving 47 high-profile Hong Kong democrats.

The 47 were charged under a Beijing-imposed security law on February 28, 2021, over their roles in an opposition primary in July 2020 to select candidates who would help the pro-democracy camp win a controlling majority in an election expected later that year. 

Calling the primary “a normal exercise,” the newspaper said: “[t]he only plausible, credible verdict is ‘innocent,’ letting all 47 go free — even though 31 have already pleaded guilty in hopes of ending their long torment and perhaps getting a more lenient sentence.”

On Tuesday, the Commissioner’s Office of China’s Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong responded to The Washington Post in a statement, saying, “those charged are not as ‘innocent’ as you thought. ”

“When I read the part about the Jimmy Lai case, I just can’t help laughing,” the statement continued, refuting the US outlet’s claim that Lai, founder and owner of Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, was “exercising his right” to push a pro-democracy agenda and urge the US to place sanctions on Hong Kong officials “involved in rolling back freedoms.”

In response, the commissioner’s office statement read: “What about this: the owner of the Washington Post exercises his prerogatives of ordering you to editorialize in favor of foreign sanctions against U.S. officials?”

While the 47 democrats – most of whom have been detained for more than three years – are still awaiting a verdict following the trial of the 16 among them who pleaded not guilty, the trial of Jimmy Lai is ongoing.

The Washington Post editorial also said that while the Beijing-imposed national security law was “draconian enough”, Hong Kong’s local officials “feel the need to double down with a local version that will expand the repression further.”

The op-ed concludes: “Hong Kong had been something special, an outpost of freedom on Chinese soil that could mediate between Beijing and the free world. China has crushed what had been one of its greatest assets.”

Beijing slammed this conclusion, telling the US outlet to “relax.”

“Regarding your alarmist assertion that ‘China has crushed what had been one of its greatest assets’, well, just relax and take a deep breath. With the firm support of the Chinese government and the Chinese people, the Pearl of the Orient will only shine even brighter,” the Commissioner Office of China’s Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong said.

Rebutting foreign outlet

On Tuesday alone, Beijing and Hong Kong authorities have hit back at three foreign media outlets regarding their coverage of Hong Kong’s proposed security law, including Bloomberg, the Guardian and the Washington Post.

Hong Kong’s security chief Chris Tang slammed a Bloomberg opinion piece that called the draft security legislation “worryingly vague,” and called The Washington Post editorial for its “misleading and inappropriate” editorial.

The government also issued a statement condemning UK newspaper The Times after it published a “misleading” report suggesting that Hongkongers who had old newspapers could violate the proposed homegrown national security law.

Last Tuesday, the government said it “strongly disapproves of and condemns false reports” by Bloomberg, which suggested that that Hong Kong planned to ban some social media under its new security law. Authorities clarified that they had “absolutely no intention” of blocking social media, and Bloomberg later admitted an error.

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Hong Kong has hit out at British newspaper The Times after it published a “misleading” report suggesting that readers holding old newspapers could violate the proposed homegrown national security law.

The Times published the article with the headline “Hongkongers to be jailed for keeping old newspapers” on Monday afternoon. The first sentence of the article read: “Hongkongers could be convicted and imprisoned for sedition for keeping old copies of newspapers, the territory’s pro-Beijing authorities have said.”

The British media outlet added that “[s] ecurity laws being pushed through in Hong Kong would impose up to three years in prison for keeping copies of the defunct newspaper Apple Daily,” referring to the pro-democracy tabloid that shut in June 2021 following arrests and a police raid.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Hong Kong said the report was “extremely misleading.”

“Not only is the report extremely misleading, its headline is also completely wrong, which misleads people into believing that one can be imprisoned for possessing certain old newspapers, thereby generating panic among members of the public,” the statement read.

It added that as stipulated in the draft bill of Article 23, the homegrown national security law, the prosecution has to prove that the defendant possesses the publication “without reasonable excuse” before the defendant may be convicted by the court.

“It is not possible for a person who does not know that the publication concerned has a seditious intention to be convicted,” the statement reads.

‘Reasonable excuse’

Hong Kong authorities have been working to swiftly enact the homegrown security law. The bill was introduced last Friday, just nine days after the end of a one-month public consultation period.

Since Friday, the Bills Committee on Safeguarding National Security Bill has held meetings daily totalling 35 hours to review the draft bill, with extra sessions held on Saturday and Sunday.

Apart from introducing a series of new offences and measures for suspects, prisoners and absconders, the proposed legislation also raises penalties for many offences.

For example, the possession of “seditious publications” could be punishable by up to three years in jail, compared to two years under the current colonial-era sedition law.

During a meeting at the Legislative Council on Monday, pro-Beijing lawmaker Peter Koon asked if people would violate the law if they had copies of the Apple Daily newspaper at home.

Security chief Chris Tang said in response that it would depend if the person accused had a “reasonable defence.”

“[If someone said] I had [the newspaper] for a long time, I didn’t know it was still there, the aim was not to incite… then I believe that could be a reasonable defence,” Tang said in Cantonese.

The newspaper’s founder, media mogul Jimmy Lai, is currently standing in a national security trial in which he faces foreign collusion and sedition charges.

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Chinese multinational technology giant Alibaba has pledged to inject HK$5 billion into Hong Kong’s entertainment sector to finance promotion to an international audience.

Hong Kong-made television dramas, films, events and training of young creatives will receive funding from video platform Youku, Alibaba Pictures and other businesses under the media arm of Alibaba, the company announced on Monday.

The five-year project, dubbed the “Hong Kong Cultural and Art Industry Revitalisation Program,” would concentrate on film production and distribution, rights acquisitions and television series production, a government statement read.

Unveiled during the Hong Kong International Film and TV Market exhibition, the programme would also offer investments in concerts, collaboration with performance venues, and talent development.

The company would collaborate with film and television companies in Hong Kong to co-produce films, as well as television series for streaming platforms. Alibaba said Youku would support the production of a sequel to the popular newsroom drama “The QUEEN of News” by broadcaster TVB.

Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung, who officiated Monday’s press conference, said the government hoped that the investment plan would bring the city’s film and television entertainment sector “to the next level.”

“We eagerly hope that [Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group] will work more closely with the film and TV industry of Hong Kong to develop new modes of co-operation and explore business areas, to nurture new talent, and to create rich and diversified content for film and TV,” an English statement by Yeung read.

Last October, Chief Executive John Lee pledged during his Policy Address to help the industry draw capital from the private sector and expand new markets by injecting HK$4.3 billion to the Film Development Fund and the CreateSmart Initiative. The government also vowed to earmark HK$200 million to finance 20 local film projects to boost their chances of being released in mainland China.

Kenny Ng, associate professor of the Academy of Film of the Hong Kong Baptist University told HKFP at the time that the new scheme may be more attractive to filmmakers who were already familiar with the complicated procedures of getting a green light from mainland Chinese authorities for a film to be released.

Those who were not familiar with the rules may need to rely heavily on middlemen, the scholar said. 

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Six nurses at a Hong Kong private hospital have accused a member of senior nursing staff of sexual harassment, prompting an internal investigation.

HK01 reported on Monday that some female nurses in the intensive care unit (ICU) of at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Medical Centre had accused a male nurse, who was their superior in the unit, of sexual harassment. The hospital has confirmed the incident.

The alleged harassment involved verbal and physical acts, with at least six nurses filing complaints to the hospital.

Citing sources, the local media outlet reported that some nurses accused the hospital of not taking the matter seriously as it did not demote the nurse, instead transferring him to another department.

The hospital told local media outlets on Monday evening that it had received reports from nurses and conducted an internal investigation into the incident. It said that the hospital had taken disciplinary action against the accused, including issuing a warning letter and moving him out of the department.

The hospital added that it had not found sufficient evidence showing that the incident could constitute criminal offences, and therefore it did not report the case to the police. But the hospital said it did not prevent the staff involved from filing police reports.

Sexual harassment

According to the Sex Discrimination Ordinance, making an unwelcome sexual advance or an unwelcome request for sexual favours to a person, or engaging in other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, might constitute sexual harassment at workplace and educational institutions.

The ordinance, which is overseen by the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), stipulates that sexual harassment is an unlawful act that falls under civil jurisdiction. However, sexual harassment might constitute a criminal offence if it involves behaviour such as indecent assault and voyeurism.

According to the EOC, apart from reporting the case to employer, victims of alleged sexual harassment can also file complaints to the EOC within one year of the incident taking place or file a lawsuit in District Court within two years of it taking place.

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Charlene was gripped by a mixture of confusion, fear and shame at Hong Kong’s busy Wan Chai MTR station last July when she suddenly found her trousers were wet. 

“Was it a kid accidentally spilling water? I turned around… Everyone was busy shuttling past me in the station. I couldn’t see any suspects,” she recalled.

She immediately ducked behind a pillar. “Even my underwear was wet. It felt so shameful and disgusting… I couldn’t understand why there was water. Then I thought: was it sexual harassment?” 

She reported the incident to police based in the station but they said it would be hard to catch a suspect without CCTV in the area, Charlene, who asked to be identified only by her first name, told HKFP in Cantonese. 

“It was like being hit with a hard blow, but you don’t know who hit you, how they hit you. And no one helps. The matter was left unsettled, and it lingered, ” Charlene said.

More than six months later, she saw a video online posted by another woman whose bum had been splashed by an unidentified liquid in Mong Kok, and decided it was time to speak out. 

Two days later, she set up an Instagram page entitled “Pissed-us-off,” sharing her own trauma and appealing to others with similar experiences to speak up. 

To Charlene’s surprise, within just a month she had received 150 reports from people – 99 per cent of them women – who had been splashed in crowded areas like streets in Mong Kok, Causeway Bay and Wan Chai, an escalator at Lam Tin and a bus terminal at Tung Chung. 

The earliest case dated back to 2004 and nearly all victims had been splashed around the buttocks. While some said the liquid was water, others reported the smell of urine and some feared it may have been semen. 

The incidents triggered public attention. In late February, a 56-year-old man was arrested and accused of pouring unidentified liquid on a woman in Causeway Bay, before being remanded in a psychiatric ward. In 2008, a 40-year-old man with the same name was convicted of indecent assault for spilling semen on a woman’s bum in public.  

Police at the time said they had received nine reports between January 20 and February 18 from women aged 16 to 32 who were splashed with liquid in Mong Kok. One woman’s trousers were soiled twice in one hour.

In response to HKFP, the police said they had included courses on sexual violence in the curriculum of the Police College and its Detective Training Centre, touching on topics such as “psychological techniques for dealing with victims” and “empathetic listening.” Officers were also provided training to improve their sensitivity and communication skills when handling cases of sexual violence.

Charlene said catching one suspect did not bring the issue to an end. “I hope society will become more aware of sexual violence,” she said, adding that the issue should be tackled jointly by the media, the police and the government.

Hidden victims

Ruby Lai, an assistant professor of Lingnan University specialising in gender studies, has been studying the liquid-splashing cases. One of her friend’s, Lai told HKFP, had encountered this kind of sexual harassment twice.

“This is a kind of sexual violence classified as ‘street harassment.’ All around the world, reported rates of street harassment are low as the attackers can flee easily, and society hasn’t developed a clear awareness of this type of sexual violence. It therefore takes a lot of time and effort to report a case,” Lai said in Cantonese. “Many victims just bear it.” 

Nicole, a medic in her 30s who asked to be known by her first name, told HKFP that she now felt uncomfortable every morning when walking to the bus terminal in Tung Chung after being splashed with an unknown liquid while there twice.

The first assault was on May 11 last year. “Suddenly I felt my butt was warm and there was some liquid wetting me from outside to inside… I was too scared to look back at that moment. What if there was some pervert behind me?” she said in Cantonese.

“I thought of reporting it to the police. But there were no CCTV cameras at the bus terminal and I did not see any suspect.” 

She became suspicious during every morning commute, paying close attention to the people behind her at the bus terminal. But in August, she was assaulted again. 

“That day I was a bit relaxed and I was looking at my phone while I walked. As soon as I got on the bus, I found my butt was wet,” Nicole said. “It was so disgusting.”

She considered reporting the assault to police but did not do so in the end. “I was very cowardly… I felt scared until now. And you can’t do anything except check who is behind you, ” she said, bursting into tears.  

A feeling of fear still lingers for Charis, who told HKFP she encountered the same kind of sexual harassment in 2016.  

“I was hanging out with my cousin in Mong Kok. While we were just about to cross an intersection with the crowd, I suddenly found my buttocks wet and warm,” Charis who only offered her first name told HKFP in Cantonese. 

Confused and not sure what had happened, she did not report the incident to police. “But it haunts me. To this day, every time I pass the intersection, I put my hands behind my back to cover my buttocks.”

‘It’s not my fault‘

Lily, an office clerk, was harassed at the same intersection in Mong Kok at around 6pm on February 4. The episode haunts her. 

She remembered reading an online post about a similar sexual harassment and returned to the scene the next day, taking a short video about her ordeal and uploading it to Instagram with an appeal to watch out for suspects.

Lily struggled with her feelings before uploading the video. “I was afraid others might say: why were you targeted, was it because of what you did, like what you were wearing on that day?” She soon decided she should not blame herself. “It’s not my fault. It’s the fault of the pervert,” she said.

It was Lily’ post that encouraged Charlene to go public. 

“It’s hard for one person to take action,” Charlene said. “I would have felt scared. But now I am not alone, I am [backed by] a group of people. We’re a collective able to face the issue. That made a difference in our power.”

Responding to Lily’s video, 56 people left comments saying they had experienced the same kind of sexual harassment. 

More victims came forward, sending messages to the Instagram page or filling in online forms. Charlene studied characteristics of all the cases, published a map of “black spots” and rolled out guidelines for victims and witnesses. 

She avoided blaming the victims. “The page is not asking women to be more careful. That’s not reasonable. The responsibility should be borne more by passers-by. When you are in some hot spots for sexual harassment, can you put down your phone and notice your surroundings? Could you offer some help if someone encounters a liquid-splashing assault?”

Soon after Charlene launched her page, Nicole and Charis sent messages sharing their long- hidden trauma. “It still felt hard bringing up the incidents, but we need to stand up, ” Nicole said. 

A ‘neglected’ type of sexual violence

“While the general public still considers sexual violence as limited to rape and indecent assault, various types of sexual violence have long existed in daily life,” Florence Tsang, a social worker of the anti-sexual violence NGO RainLily, told HKFP. 

“Like image-based sexual violence, and the splashing of liquid on women’s intimate areas, they have been neglected. It was not until recently, thanks to the concern page, that we recognised such a social problem,” Tsang said in Cantonese. 

The gender studies scholar Lai said liquid-splashing, as a type of sexual violence, had its roots in pornographic videos usually tagged as “cum on women in public” or “ejaculation in the streets” on Chinese and English online porn platforms. 

HKFP found many videos apparently shot on mobile phones and uploaded to porn sites. They usually showed a man following one or more women in the streets, through shopping malls or up escalators. Often, the man appears to ejaculate onto the women without their knowledge. 

The BBC last June investigated a criminal group led by a Chinese national which organised a team of 15 people to grope women in public areas in China and to film the process. The group then sold the videos online for huge profits. 

“The criminals are smart – they know semen will contain DNA, therefore they turn to warm water or other unknown liquids,” Lai said. 

Tsang said attackers were not only seeking sexual release. Such incidents were more about demonstrating their power to manipulate and threaten women. 

News reports in Chinese show that liquid-splashing sexual assaults have been reported not only in Hong Kong, but also in cities in Taiwan and China. 

According to a search by HKFP, from 2007 to 2023, at least eight male suspects were arrested for splashing semen, sputum or unknown liquids on women in Taipei, New Taipei and Kaohsiung. 

In Guangzhou, a man was arrested last October for spilling unidentified liquid on a woman’s buttocks on a train. 

A grey area in laws

Hong Kong’s laws against sexual offences have not been updated to cover evolving types of sexual violence.

Lai said that while the offence of indecent assault criminalises touching without consent, and the Sex Discrimination Ordinance tackles sexual harassment in the workplace or educational institutions, no laws cover sexual harassment in a public place or sexual assault which does not involve direct touching. 

The 56-year-old  man arrested in Causeway Bay in late February was charged with outraging public decency, punishable by up to seven years in prison.

In early January, a 37-year-old man was arrested and charged with loitering after following a woman and splashing unidentified liquid on her. 

“The problem is, if they are not charged with sexual offences, their names will not appear in the Sexual Conviction Check Record even if they are convicted,” Lai said.

The Law Reform Commission has been reviewing legislation on sexual violence since 2006. In 2012 it proposed replacing the offence of indecent assault with a new one of sexual assault, which would cover behaviour such as ejaculating onto others or emitting urine or saliva. 

It also sought to broaden the definition of touching to include touching with anything or any part of the body. However, there have yet to be any reforms. 

“Our society has not been updating different types of sexual violence,” Lai said, adding that apart from updating the offence of indecent assault, Hong Kong could also learn from the UK, which last October passed a new law to protect against sexual harassment in public.

It criminalises behaviour such as catcalling, following someone and sending sexual images to others via Bluetooth, with a maximum penalty of two years in jail. 

Watch out for each other

The move to set up a concern page, to connect with other victims and to speak up online and to the media has helped heal Charlene after her ordeal. 

“Initially I felt scared, trembling, thinking I can’t change anything. Now as we have taken action, I have fought back a bit. I am not sure whether it will work, or whether people will forget about [the issue] very soon. But at least I feel a release,” Charlene said. 

Apart from the liquid-splashing, Charlene and Lily have long felt unsafe in public areas. They said they had encountered sexual assaults on buses and trains, when men had rubbed against them with their penises. 

Charlene twice reported such assaults to police but the cases remain unsettled. 

Speaking up over the past month has helped her shed her feelings of helplessness. She hopes the concern page will help other victims vent their feelings.

“People might think I am surrounded by negative emotions from lots of people after receiving messages from other victims. Actually, I felt love – I talked with everyone who sent messages to me. We’re supporting each other,” Charlene said. 

 “We don’t have eyes in the back of our heads,” she said, stressing the need for mutual support to stop sexual violence. “If everyone is watching out for everyone else, keeping an eye on those ahead of you, we won’t need to worry so much about what happens behind us.”

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By Peter Martell and Tenzin Sangmo

From teaching centuries-old crafts to cataloguing their language, exiled Tibetans guard the cultural identity of a homeland most have neither seen nor dare visit, and where they say Beijing is eradicating their heritage.

Crouched over a minutely detailed devotional “thangka” painting depicting Buddha, artist Lobsang Tenzin teaches students in northern India.

“It is important to keep the traditions of our history,” said the 49-year-old, dipping a needle-thin brush into rich blue paint made from crushed lapis lazuli as six young Tibetan trainees watch.

“These skills were nearly lost, but we pass on the skills by teaching young artists.”

Tibetans will on March 10 mark the 65th anniversary of the 1959 uprising against Chinese forces that led to their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fleeing into exile, followed by tens of thousands of compatriots.

Inside Tibet, the chaos of China’s 1966-76 Cultural Revolution left temples razed and monasteries reduced to ruins, destruction that continued in the decades that followed.

Today, activists decry what they say are Beijing’s determined efforts to erase what is left of Tibet’s cultural and religious identity.

Lhadon Tethong, head of the Tibet Action Institute, condemns what she calls “cultural genocide” — including Beijing’s sharp restrictions on Tibetan language, with children “indoctrinated” at state-run boarding schools.

Beijing, which maintains “Tibet is part of China”, fiercely rejects the accusations.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning this week said that people in Tibet are “living a happy life”, in response to UN rights chief Volker Turk’s assertion that China was violating fundamental rights.

Tibet enjoys “social stability, economic growth, solidarity among all ethnic groups and harmony among various religious beliefs”, she said.

‘Former glory’

Tibet scholar Robert Barnett, from SOAS University of London, called Beijing a “foreign ruler deciding what’s best for a people whose culture it barely knows”.

“There is a gradual whittling away of a culture and a history,” Barnett said.

“It is a process where you gradually eliminate all the elements of a history, a people, culture and of a society that are inconvenient to the new rulers.”

Tibetan authorities say there are 130,000 Tibetan exiles, many in India and Nepal but also in more than 25 countries worldwide — just a fraction of the seven million living under China’s control.

As the decades pass, that makes the preservation of cultural identity even more challenging.

Tenzin studied and now teaches at the Norbulingka Institute, a social enterprise centre training more than 300 men and women in painting, embroidery, weaving and woodcarving.

The complex of red and green Tibetan-style buildings, close to the Dalai Lama’s base in India’s Himalayan hill town of Dharamsala, was launched in 1995 to employ highly skilled artisans eking out a living with repair jobs.

“After the great masters came to India, they ended up doing odd jobs, trying to build their lives in a new country,” said Tsultrim Dorjee, a senior manager at the institute.

“The institute helped them use their skills… the goal was to return Tibetan art to its former glory.”

Others take a more modern approach, like 29-year-old artist Tashi Nyima, with his bright cartoon-style canvases that nonetheless still reflect his people’s heritage and political battles.

Born and brought up in Dharamsala, where red-robed monks and nuns crowd streets alongside Tibetans in baseball caps and jeans, Nyima said younger generations struggle with a “very mixed identity”.

But he remains committed to the cause.

“I’ve always believed that Tibet will be free one day,” he said, in front of his painting of a shackled monk.

“If I didn’t have this belief in me, I wouldn’t have done these kinds of works — I would have just stopped.”

‘Long haul’

Another battle is keeping the language alive.

While Google Translate offers 133 languages, Tibetan is not among them — but exiles in 2022 released their own 223-volume dictionary, available online.

“Once the language is preserved, then everything falls in place,” said Dorji Damdul, director of Tibet House in New Delhi, founded by the Dalai Lama to promote his people’s heritage.

“Language is like the medium through which all the flow of culture and philosophy happens.”

But young Tibetans in India are increasingly seeking opportunities in Europe and North America.

Damdul, born in India in 1968 and a former translator for the Dalai Lama, admits that keeping an identity alive is a “major challenge”.

“In Tibet, assimilation by force happens with the communist Chinese,” said the Buddhist scholar. “In the West, natural assimilation can happen because it’s too free.”

Tibet’s Dharamsala-based government in exile says it is looking to keep the increasingly scattered community connected, including via online conferences teaching younger generations about their history.

“If they understand Tibet a little more, they could be the best advocates,” said Penpa Tsering, elected as the government’s sikyong, or leader, by Tibetans worldwide.

“Even though we are physically distant, we are mentally close together.”

Tsering’s administration oversees more than 60 Tibetan language schools in India and Nepal and supports nearly 300 monasteries and nunneries.

“We are here for the long haul,” said Tsering. “Don’t think that we’ll vanish just like that.”

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Maria Editha Garma-Respicio fondly recalls her teenage years writing for her school newspaper, reading in the library and penning poems about love. Growing up in Tuguegarao, a city in the northern Philippines, she sought solace in the written word when all else seemed to be falling apart.

“I wrote about everything,” Respicio, as she asked to be called, said. “I wrote about my emotions, being in love, everything.”

Decades later, writing continues to play a central role in Respicio’s life. The 45-year-old domestic worker in Hong Kong writes poems about life as a migrant worker, her two children back home and whatever inspires her in the moment.

“Writing is a kind of therapy for me,” Respicio told HKFP. “It’s healing.”

Respicio’s poetry has been published in a number of literary magazines. Most recently, two of her poems found a home in Ingat, a new anthology of poetry, photographs and sketches by the city’s migrant workers.

Released last Sunday, Ingat – meaning “take care” in Tagalog – is a collaborative effort by Migrant Writers of Hong Kong, photography non-profit Lensational and independent publisher Small Tune Press. It features the work of dozens of domestic workers telling stories about family, hardship, love and sacrifice.

All the works in the book are accompanied by Chinese translations with the aim of making it more accessible to Hong Kong readers. The anthology’s dusk jacket pays tribute to balikbayan boxes, or large cardboard boxes stuffed with food, clothes and other gifts that domestic workers send home to their families.

The city’s 340,000 domestic workers, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia, are the backbone of many Hong Kong families. Research has shown that domestic workers contribute significantly to the city’s economy, freeing up parents from childcare and other duties so they can enter the workforce.

Migrant worker activists have long campaigned for their rights, citing cases of domestic workers being denied rest days, food or their salaries.

Respicio wrote two poems for the anthology: Diaspora Spirit and Adios. The first is a tribute to the courage of migrant workers, while in the second, she described a tearful farewell to her family in the Philippines.

“Goodbye’s a torture, my tears shedding / I’ll no longer witness my baby’s milestone / Others children I will be caring / Making me numb like an ice stone,” she wrote in Adios.

Christine Vicera, one of the leaders of the project and co-founder of be/longing, an initiative supporting ethnically diverse communities, said the book aimed to carve out space for work that is “often forgotten or not as visible” on Hong Kong’s creative scene.

Born in the Philippines but having moved to the city as a toddler, Vicera – who co-edited the anthology – said she always wished there was more diversity in the literary scene.

“Growing up, I’ve always wanted to see works by people in our communities on bookshelves,” she said. “People from Hong Kong, people who are Filipino and of course, people who are migrant domestic workers.”

‘A very powerful story’

Established in 2021, Migrant Writers of Hong Kong unites domestic workers with a common love for the written word. The group partners with universities to organise writing workshops, poetry exhibitions and arts events on Sundays, the sole day off for most domestic workers.

Maria Nemy Lou Rocio co-founded the group after being inspired by Migrant Writers of Singapore. Noting an absence of such a community here, the 42-year-old set out to create a safe, inclusive space for domestic workers in Hong Kong to share their creations and hone their craft.

“Migrant workers are very talented. Every poem they write is a very powerful story,” Rocio, who came to Hong Kong as a domestic worker six years ago, told HKFP.

Shortly after establishing Migrant Workers of Hong Kong, Rocio told Vicera that she wanted to produce an anthology to showcase the writing of domestic workers. The idea was soon expanded to spotlight not just written work, but photos, art and other mediums.

Kristine Andaya Ventura’s contribution to Ingat is a sketch of a couple paddling a boat under the full moon. The 36-year-old Filipina has been working overseas as a domestic worker since she was 19, first in Lebanon and then in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Malaysia. She came to Hong Kong at the end of 2022.

“[My sketch] is about two hearts saying goodbye. No matter how happy they are today, tomorrow they need to say goodbye to separate, to have a good future,” she told HKFP.

Ventura is as much a writer as she is an artist, having penned dozens of poems over the years. She published a book of her poetry called She is a Lioness in 2021, telling stories about heartbreak over a failed marriage, battling depression, and life as a domestic worker in a foreign land.

Her main writing inspiration, she said, was her two children aged eight and 17.

“I want to dedicate [my poems] to them [to show] how I love them and miss them,” Ventura said. “When I miss them, I will express that I need to work outside the country for them… to give them financial support.”

“Writing helps me ease the pain,” she added.

Besides poems, Ingat also features around two dozen photos taken by members of Lensational, a non-profit that supports domestic workers interested in photography.

Felicia Xu, a volunteer at Lensational who curated the photo submissions, said photography was a powerful tool for migrant workers as it transcended the barriers of language.

Years ago, Lensational ran an event inviting domestic workers and their employers to view their work, she told HKFP. Some of the employers became emotional when they talked to their domestic workers.

“When [one of the employers] saw the photo, it raised her interest and she started asking questions,” Xu said.

“She got to know the struggles of the domestic worker that she basically spends every minute with, but she didn’t know anything about her emotions… and that photo broke the ice.”

Defying stereotypes

For the migrant workers who contributed to the anthology, writing poems and taking photos is a way for them to express their emotions. But more than that, they hope their work can prompt society to see a different side to them.

“I want [our] messages to be read by the locals… and I hope they can appreciate their domestic helpers more,” Rocio told HKFP, adding that she believed the anthology could be an “eye-opener” for many Hongkongers.

A study by researchers at Lingnan University last year found that domestic workers were unfairly represented by the city’s media outlets. According to an analysis of almost 400 reports about the mistreatment of domestic workers in Chinese-language media, outlets tended to use language that highlighted the “positive personality traits” of employers.

The anthology’s launch also comes as the government continues to crack down on what it calls domestic workers’ “job-hopping,” or prematurely ending their contracts to change employers. Lawmakers have alleged that domestic workers are induced to “job hop” by employment agencies offering them financial incentives, a claim activists deny.

The government is slated to announce new rules by July that could make it harder for domestic workers to switch employers.

Vicera said influencing policy-making was tougher nowadays as the legislature lacked lawmakers who campaigned for domestic workers’ rights.

See also: Without an opposition, Hong Kong’s ‘patriots only’ Legislative Council leaves marginalised groups behind

Since authorities overhauled the electoral system in 2021, only people deemed “patriots” by the government can run in leadership races. During previous legislature terms, when there was still an effective opposition, pro-democracy lawmakers worked with NGOs and activists to lobby for domestic workers’ interests.

Under these circumstances, visibility – through projects such as Ingat – is more important than ever, Vicera said.

“These stories are able to challenge certain stereotypes and at the end of the day, make people realise that beyond their identities as domestic workers, they are mothers, daughters, writers, photographers, and storytellers too,” she added.

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The Hong Kong government has announced it will cut funding for major NGOs starting from 2025 amid two straight years of budget deficits over HK$100 billion.

Labour and welfare chief Chris Sun told reporters on Thursday the cutback would affect 59 large NGOs which currently received more than HK$50 million per year each, local media reported.

Funding for each affected group will be reduced by two per cent for the fiscal year 2025-26 and further decreased by three per cent for 2026-27. Another 118 mid-sized and small NGOs will not be affected.

“We’ve considered it thoroughly. While our financial situation is tight, we hope to help those NGO whose capability [for fundraising] is not so strong and do not have much room for manoeuvre,” Sun said in Cantonese, adding that he met executives of the affected NGOs on Wednesday to explain the cutbacks.

“We hope those groups can understand the government’s work, ” Sun said.

Hong Kong’s government has faced deficits since the fiscal year 2019-20. The city logged a shortfall of HK$122 billion in 2022-23. Presenting his latest budget in late February, financial chief Paul Chan said Hong Kong expected a HK$101.6 billion deficit in 2023-24 as land sales revenue dipped.

Chan said in the Legislative Council in late December that all government bureaus and departments would have to cut recurrent spending by one per cent in the coming two fiscal years.

More patriotic, more funding?

In another development the Social Welfare Department, which assesses and approves funding for NGOs, has rolled out new measure to encourage them to host more patriotic activities.

Ming Pao reported on Monday that the department had added new criteria for assessing funding applications – whether the applicants had hosted any activities to support or respond to government’s policies.

It said these included celebrations of the city’s handover to Beijing, events to mark the founding of the People’s Republic of China, or support for government social welfare policies.

The department confirmed the new measure with Ming Pao, adding that the new measure would ensure social welfare services were provided by patriotic and pro-government groups, a move which would benefit the general public and the disadvantaged.

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The average waiting time for a rental flat in Hong Kong’s public housing system has increased to 5.8 years, with the government citing construction delays.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Housing Authority said the average waiting time for a public rental flat in the fourth quarter of 2023 had risen by 0.2 years to 5.8 years.

Around 13,700 public rental flats were allocated last year, a significant drop from the 26,400 in 2022. The Housing Authority said the longer wait times were due to the allocation of rental flats in 2023 being the “lowest in recent years.”

The statement said an industrial accident in September 2022, when a crane in Sau Mau Ping collapsed and killed three workers, caused production delays. After the incident, some construction projects were suspended for inspections.

Among the projects delayed were Lai Yiu Estate in Kwai Chung and Fu Tip Estate in Tai Po, which combined would have seen the allocation of over 7,500 flats, the Housing Authority said.

Meanwhile, the average waiting time for elderly one-person applicants increased by 0.1 year to 4 years.

The waiting time for flats in the New Territories was lower than in other areas. Around 46 per cent of applicants housed in the New Territories had waited five years or less, compared to around one-quarter elsewhere.

‘Clear upward trend’ in supply

The Housing Authority said there would be a “short-term increase” in the average waiting time for public flats, but supply would “register a clear upward trend” in the coming decade.

Projects in Tuen Mun, Tung Chung and New Territories North would be completed in the coming two years, it said.

Around 30,000 Light Public Housing (LPH) units are also expected to be finished early next year. The LPH scheme, unveiled by Chief Executive John Lee in his 2022 Policy Address, is a transitional housing project aimed at families queueing for public flats. Under the scheme, tenants can occupy the units for a fixed term of two years.

Tackling the city’s housing crisis was among the issues mentioned by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, when he visited the city in 2022 to mark the 25th anniversary of its Handover to China.

“Currently, the biggest aspiration of Hong Kong people is to lead a better life, in which they will have more decent housing,” Xi said at the time.

The number of applicants in line for public housing has fallen steadily in recent years, from 155,100 at the end of 2017 to 129,400 at the end of last year.

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Hong Kong awoke to another day with relative humidity reaching almost 100 per cent across the territory, according to the Observatory. It is predicted to hit 99 per cent in Tseung Kwan O later on Wednesday.

Visibility fell below 100 metres at Waglan Island on Wednesday morning, it said, owing to a humid southerly airstream across Guangdong.

Temperatures of up to 25 degrees Celsius are expected, though the mercury is predicted to dip on Thursday with lows of 16 degrees Celsius for the rest of the week.

“The northeast monsoon will gradually affect the coast of southern China today. It will be windy and cool over the region in the following few days. An upper-air disturbance is expected to bring unsettled weather to Guangdong early to midweek next week,” the Observatory said.

Social media users have shared images of damp corridors, rooms and walls.

“Sweating” walls are a result of cold air being rapidly enveloped by moist, warm air.

On Wednesday, the Marine Department urged vessels to navigate with extreme caution due to “restricted visibility of less than 2 nautical miles.”

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The delightful island of Peng Chau is an effective antidote to inner-city exhaustion. A day spent exploring, sunbathing and hiking will leave you feeling like you’ve just been on a relaxing holiday – especially if you go midweek. Located just 30 to 40 minutes by ferry from Central (depending on whether you take the slow or fast one), Peng Chau is easily walkable, offers incredible views, quiet, private spots to soak in the sun and enjoy the sea breeze, and a beautiful landscape of gardens and greenery.

With several secluded, soft-sand beaches, rambling paths for hikes, garden walks and breath-taking city views, you may have a hard time deciding what to do first. Exploring the entire island takes no more than a couple of hours, and it’s easy to do. If you’re keen on cycling, there are a few bike rental places offering options to hire one for the day, and the beaches are great for camping.

Peng Chau means “flat island,” so the name alone tells you navigating won’t be too hard, but don’t be fooled – there are a couple of steep hills and steps along some of the pathways. However, none is too extreme and even families with children can manage. 

How to get to Peng Chau

Take the Peng Chau ferry from Central Ferry Pier 6. Timetables can be found here. The fast ferry is always preferable but because Peng Chau isn’t that far, the slow ferry is also acceptable.

Hiking routes on Peng Chau

• North Peng Chau Walking Trail – an easy path along the water where you can stop along the way and have a picnic on the beach or just lie in the sun for a few hours.
• Finger Hill – a longer hike up to the highest point on the island.

Whether you’re hoping to do a long hike or just a short walk, there are a couple of options from which to choose. We started by going left off the ferry, where you will see bike racks and an oddly placed outdoor “gym” area (complete with stationary bikes and even a rowing machine spaced out along the promenade). You’ll pass the waterfront Treasure Cove villas, which may have you questioning whether city dwelling really is the way to live, and eventually you’ll see the circular garden area where the small Seven Sisters temple (Chek Tset Temple) is located.

Keep walking towards the North Peng Chau Walking Trail and Peng Yu Path. Soon you’ll see the signs for Peng Yu Path and Old Fisherman’s Rock Lookout Pavilion. Take that path upward (the path is paved). As you round each corner, stunning views and secluded beaches surprise you, each one better than the next. Keep following the path – there are a few stop-and-see spots with incredible city views on a clear day, as well as a tiny pavilion along the route – and when you get to the fork in the road, go left towards the village.

While walking in the village area, make sure to stop and enjoy the various banana and papaya trees planted alongside the path, while also checking out the vegetable gardens. Eventually you’ll come back down to the water and Tung Wan barbecue area. Keep going but take the first right onto He King Street back towards the village. This is where you can decide if you are finished with your stroll or want to keep exploring (we say opt for the latter).

Go past the Peng Chau Kam Fa Temple, and when you get to Peng Chau Wing On Street, make a left. Follow along the alleyway but keep an eye out for the hand-painted signs that say Room for Rent and Shery’s Leather Factory, which are hung over a little doorway.

Make sure you go through that alleyway, because what awaits you is the best part of this village. Beautiful and quirky artwork adorn the walkway, so keep your camera at the ready as you exit to a hidden little street where the former leather factory is situated. The area has been transformed into a gorgeous garden, complete with a café and a few antique shops. This spot is not to be missed.

If you’re ready to take on the other half of the island, head back where you came from and find your way back towards the pier. Once on the main drag, go left (if you’re just getting off the ferry, this would be on the right) and walk toward the delicately manicured garden area on the waterfront side. Take a rest at one of the many benches or keep going towards the signs for Finger Hill.

Follow the signs for Nam Shan Road and head upwards – a bit of a steep stretch here. Soon in the distance you’ll see Finger Hill, which seems like it will be a huge climb but it’s really just a matter of going up a long flight of stairs. It won’t be hard for the avid hiker, and we saw elderly people mastering the steps with ease.

While climbing the stairs make sure to stop and turn around because the view from the staircase is better than the view from the top. When we were there the top view was blocked in part by overgrown trees. 

Coming back into town is just as simple as the way you came, but you can also take the option to turn left at the bottom of the steps and continue on the Peng Chau Family Walk back towards the pier. It also offers a peek into village life and will take you to a few more beautiful beach spots with a stellar view of Hong Kong and Kowloon on a clear day.

Even if you decide not to follow these suggested routes, the island’s infrastructure has made wandering simple and a lot of fun, and discovering what lies ahead is what makes this place so special.

If you still haven’t had your fill of exploring, a bridge will take you to the tiny island of Tai Lei, which has a small beach and some good spots for taking snapshots. You can get there by making a left instead of going onto Peng Yu Path after the Seven Sisters Temple.

Shopping on Peng Chau

Peng Chau is similar to most islands, with various shops and alleyways selling everything from fruit and vegetables, fresh seafood, meat and other grocery items, as well as the usual backpacker items (elephant pants, anyone?)

There are local eateries and other restaurants, but if you’re hoping for more variety, taking a 10-minute ferry to Discovery Bay is just as simple. The pier for Discovery Bay and Mui Wo is just to the right side of the pier to Central.

Peng Chau’s Temples

For such a tiny island there are quite a few temples to see. There are clearly marked signs but the first is the most obvious – Tin Hau Temple – just off the ferry pier to the right.

Others include the Kam Fa Temple, Lung Mo Temple and the Seven Sisters Temple.

Where to eat on Peng Chau

There are quite a few places to eat on Peng Chau, but operating hours vary, so make sure to check before you go.

• According to its website, Second Serve Coffee (Shop 10, G/F, Monterey Villas No. 10, Po Peng Street) is “always open,” which means you can grab filling breakfasts such as scrambled eggs, oatmeal cups and bagels while also getting your caffeine fix, no matter the time of day.
• Some people can’t visit the islands without tucking into fresh seafood, so if that’s your game, Faai Che Cha Chaan Teng (快車茶餐廳 – G/F, 53 Wing On Street) will have what you’re looking for – everything from fish soup with deep-fried tofu balls, fresh shrimp and crab. 
• Exploring Peng Chau can whip up quite an appetite, so for some hearty Japanese fare, head to Chaya Daruma (G/F, 38 Wing On Street) for everything from Gyu Don (beef rice), Yaki udon eel, Japanese style deep fried pork and more.
• Yummy Café seems to be a local favourite, where you’ll find traditional Chinese dishes a plenty to sate your palate, but if dim sum is what you’re after, Hoi King Restaurant (G/F 13-15 Wing On Side Street) will have what you’re looking for.

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Bonds issued by the government will not be used to cover recurrent costs, Secretary for Finance Paul Chan has said, after his predecessor warned that the consequences of doing so would be borne by “generations to come.”

Chan told Metro Radio on Monday that Hong Kong would balance the books within three years, a day after former finance minister John Tsang said on Facebook that the government had fallen into structural deficit.

“It is undeniable that Hong Kong has fallen into an era of structural deficit,” Tsang wrote in Chinese, adding that the government needed to cut costs and consider new revenue streams.

Delivering his budget speech last Wednesday, Chan said Hong Kong expected to record a deficit of HK$101.6 billion for the current fiscal year.

Tsang said it was impossible to envision any measures to boost revenue that would not “bring great pain.”

‘A drop in the bucket’

Measures introduced last week, including a two-tier salaries tax system and progressive rates on residential property, would only bring in around HK$2 billion, Tsang said, calling the amount “a drop in the bucket” compared to the tens of billions needed to break even.

Rather than being used to cover the government’s recurrent costs, bonds should only be issued to finance large-scale development projects that yield economic returns, Tsang said. Given the high interest environment, residents would rather put their money in the bank than buy government bonds, he added.

“If bonds are issued year after year… it won’t be long before Hong Kong’s wallet dries up,” Tsang, who was the city’s financial secretary from 2012 until 2017, said. “To pay off interest on the debts, tax and fee hikes followed by drastic cuts to public services will be borne by generations to come.”

The government needed to cut recurrent costs and “keep an eye” on non-recurrent spending, “otherwise, there is no way out of the structural fiscal deficit,” Tsang said.

Investing in development

Chan said on Monday that the HK$120 billion bond issuance unveiled in last week’s budget would “definitely” not be used to fund recurring expenditure, and would instead finance infrastructure projects.

That would include the Northern Metropolis scheme and the Hung Shui Kiu Ha Tsuen New Development Area, the Financial Secretary’s Office told local media on Sunday.

Chan said the government’s operating account would be brought back to black in two years, and the consolidated account in three, adding that there was “no need to worry” about a structural deficit.

He said investing in development projects would ensure sufficient land and housing, adding that home prices tripled between 2007 and 2016 because the government underinvested in infrastructure and did not make enough land available.

“We will definitely take control of land supply and at the same time, we have been closely monitoring the property market to ensure an adequate supply of residential flats,” Chan said.

Echoing development minister Bernadette Linn’s remarks on Saturday, Chan also said the delayed Kau Yi Chau artificial islands project would not have an effect on land and housing supply.

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Almost 57 per cent of people living in subdivided flats have said they were “uncertain” about the details of a new pay-as-you-throw waste tax, a survey conducted by a Hong Kong NGO has found as it urged authorities to further postpone the citywide roll-out of the rubbish levy.

Originally slated for implementation on April 1, the municipal solid waste charging scheme will come into effect in August. Hong Kong’s environment minister announced in January that it would be pushed back, citing public concerns and a lack of understanding over how the scheme would be enforced.

See also: Hong Kong waste tax postponed until August, environment secretary Tse Chin-wan says

It marked the second time the scheme had been delayed since it was approved by the legislature in 2021. Under the scheme, Hongkongers will have to dispose of household waste using government-authorised bags or risk a HK$1,500 fine.

Anti-poverty NGO the Society for Community Organization (SoCO) on Sunday urged the government to further postpone the full enforcement of the waste tax until next April, citing a recent survey it had conducted in which underprivileged residents raised concerns about the affordability of the levy.

SoCO interviewed 306 people living in subdivided flats last month, more than 60 per cent of whom lived in Sham Shui Po, the city’s second-poorest district, according to government figures. The median age of respondents was 47-years-old, while their median household income stood at HK$11,000.

The NGO estimated that there were about 220,000 low-income renters residing in subdivided flats in Hong Kong, a statement added.

According to the survey, 76.8 per cent of the respondents agreed that the government should roll out environmentally-friendly policies that promote waste reduction. More than 90 per cent said they supported recycling measures, while 97.1 per cent said they had eco-friendly habits, such as carrying their own shopping bags and reducing their electricity and water consumption.

But 76.5 per cent said they were concerned about the extra financial costs involved in purchasing the designated bags and tags under the government’s new scheme. From August, a household that disposed of one 10 or 15 litre bag per day would pay about HK$33 to HK$51 a month in garbage tax.

While about 70 per cent of the respondents indicated that they would reduce the amount of domestic waste in light of the scheme, more than half said they would throw rubbish out less frequently, while 25 per cent said they may dump kitchen waste into the toilet.

“By reducing the use of garbage bags and the frequency of waste disposal, it could instead create household hygiene problems or cause blocked drains in the buildings, increasing repair costs,” SoCO said in its Chinese statement.

A total of 56.9 per cent of respondents said they were “uncertain” about the details of the waste tax, including how to purchase the designated bags and where to dispose waste. Over 43 per cent also said they were worried about unintentionally breaching the law once the waste tax became effective.

“Underprivileged residents may be lacking information; they are particularly dependent on the government for prompt and sustained [policy] education,” the NGO said.

SoCO proposed a “four-phase” plan for the new waste charge. For the first phase, the NGO suggested testing the waste tax on government departments and buildings. In the second and third phases, the government could further levy the tax on major residential estates in August, then on single block residential buildings in December.

The government should only introduce the new tax in low-income districts after the first three stages, and citywide law enforcement actions should not be conducted earlier than next April, the NGO added.

The government had already decided to test the new waste tax at governmental buildings from April, with environment chief Tse Chin-wan saying that such “on-site demonstrations” would help illustrate the working of the scheme to the general public.

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In the studio of Hong Kong art therapist Gigi Leung, recent visitors were met with an arresting spectacle — a wall full of well over 100 handwritten cards. These cards contained anonymous answers which earlier visitors had given to two questions:

“What troubled you when you were growing up?” and, “What did you do at the time to make the trouble go away?”

A 36-year-old wrote that they had suffered from severe headaches and bouts of vomiting because of immense academic pressure. A 26-year-old said their classmate had thrown bubble gum at them and shoved rubbish into their drawer. They tearfully begged their parents to put them in a different school, the card read, but the response they received was: “Just ignore [the bullies]!” 

Similar cards were displayed on an adjacent wall, but each of these was placed inside an envelope, showing only the respondent’s age on the edge of the paper. The cards – filled out by students – also posed two questions: 

“What troubles you and makes you unhappy?”

“What do you want the people around you to do for you?”

An 18-year-old said they felt distant from their family and were only able to find companionship from their stuffed toys. A seven-year-old said a classmate had said “bad things” about them, leaving them feeling very “upsad.” 

Rising youth suicides

These personal responses were part of a small exhibition which Leung curated last month called “I want to tell you, actually I am not happy.” The project, which lasted one and a half months, came at a time of growing alarm over rising youth suicides since the academic year began last September.

“The main theme of our exhibition was to provide emotional support for students. As an adult, if we want to learn more about students’ emotions, we have to take more initiative and take an extra step,” the 35-year-old therapist told HKFP in Cantonese last month. 

Hong Kong last year saw a decade-high number of suspected student suicides, with the Education Bureau receiving 31 reports in the first 11 months of 2023. Local health authorities revealed that more than 1,800 Hongkongers under the age of 18 had been diagnosed with depression at public healthcare facilities in 2022-23.

The government cited “greater challenges” faced by students after the full resumption of classes following the Covid-19 pandemic as one of the factors contributing to the trend.

Academic pressure

Clarence Tsang, executive director of the Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong, told HKFP that intermittent class suspensions had slowed students’ progress, and many schools were eager to catch up on the syllabus. 

Pressure also comes from the top of the education system, with school principals and decision makers under pressure to keep schools afloat amid a shrinking student population due to a low birth rate and an emigration wave, Tsang said. 

According to government figures, Hong Kong recorded 333,551 primary school students in 2022, the lowest since 2015. The decline in the number of secondary school students was sharper still, with the 2022 figure of 321,162 a 10-year low. 

More than 70 primary schools in Hong Kong had to cut primary one classes in the 2023-24 academic year, local media reported last September. Schools unable to meet student enrolment targets ultimately face closure.

“The survival of each school is dependent on the number of students they have. How does a school get more students? They usually try to boost academic performance to make parents want to place their children there,” Tsang said in Cantonese. 

Emily, a social worker based in a primary school, echoed Tsang’s remarks, telling HKFP in Cantonese that both teachers and students were under tremendous pressure as schools sought to improve their rankings. 

“The principal has made it very clear: there’s no student who can’t be taught well. In other words, the principal thinks it’s because the teachers didn’t do enough,” she said, requesting to be identified only by her first name for fear of retribution.

Bullying

Tsang said the pandemic meant children had limited interaction with their schoolmates over the past few years. Some struggled to fit in on their return to school, causing them to wonder why they were not accepted by their peers.

“Adults may think that psychological bullying is not a big deal. To students, however, not being accepted creates a lot of stress,” he said. 

Several students identified as high suicide risks have been referred to Emily since the beginning of this school year. Some had engaged in self-harm, while others had expressed thoughts of ending their lives to parents, teachers and social workers, she said. 

3-tier response system

In response to the upward trend in student suicides, the government rolled out a cross-departmental effort in December to help schools identify students at higher risk of suicide and provide early support. 

According to the first layer of a three-tier response mechanism, schools should review the mental health needs of students and give priority to caring for and counselling students with a high risk of suicide. Schools should provide timely assistance and help students in need find professional counselling or treatment, the authorities said. 

The reliance on schools to spot students with emotional distress may be “unfair” to teaching staff who already have an intense workload, said Tsang of the suicide prevention group. He questioned whether the mechanism was suggesting that teachers were to blame if they could not identify students with emotional issues. 

“Schools put a lot of pressure on teachers to handle academic matters, they don’t have much energy and time to take care of the emotional needs of students. It’s not that they don’t want to, it is whether they have the time to do so,” he said.

See also: Hong Kong parents and schoolchildren learn a harsh lesson from Covid closures

Some schools also saw a frequent change in teachers, which made it difficult for students to build trust and share their worries with educators. 

The wastage rate of primary school teachers in Hong Kong stood at 8.9 per cent in the academic year of 2022-23, more than double the four per cent in 2017-18, data from the Education Bureau showed. 

Secondary schools saw a teacher wastage rate of 9.9 per cent in the last academic year, a major increase from 4.9 per cent in 2017-18. 

Tsang also cast doubt on the training teachers received for handling students with mental health needs. On top of theoretical training, guidance and regular consultation with organisations that have frontline experience dealing with youth suicides is crucial, he said. 

More social workers at school

In 2019, Hong Kong vowed to earmark HK$130 million to hire an additional 370 school-based counsellors. The aim was to increase the number of social workers stationed at each government-funded secondary school from one to two. 

Still, Tsang said more school-based social workers were needed, as the process of helping students experiencing suicidal ideation was time-consuming. Students also preferred speaking to personnel they saw frequently on campus, as opposed to off-campus professionals – whom the government sought to engage in the second layer of its response system if schools did not have enough manpower to tend to the needs of students.  

“The most ideal ratio is one social worker to 100 students,” Tsang said. 

Under the third tier of the response system, students with severe mental health needs may be referred to specialist services at the Hospital Authority (HA). Their cases would be given priority, the government pledged, while a consultation hotline was set up for principals to seek professional advice. 

As of mid-January, the HA’s psychiatric department had received a total of 50 referrals from school principals, local media reported last month. 

Gov’t subsidy

Tsang urged the government to consider subsidising schools and students to seek professional help at private healthcare centres, as there was already overwhelming demand for public psychiatry services. 

Eric Chen, chair professor of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Hong Kong, told Ming Pao last June that most follow-up consultations at the HA would last just five or six minutes. Patients also saw a frequent change in doctors, as the HA’s psychiatry department struggled with a manpower shortage. 

In a bid to widen students’ access to professional help, art therapist Leung offered services at a “pay as you can” rate to more than 30 students, most of them at university. They paid around HK$100 for each session, she said. 

Many of her clients reached her through social media instead of being referred by schools or their parents. The therapist said money was the last thing students should worry about. 

“Perhaps my therapy doesn’t suit them, or they want to seek other services eventually and that’s okay. I just want them to remember their intention of wanting to seek help,” she said. 

The idea of collecting people’s childhood traumas and how they overcame them stemmed from a workshop Leung held with the director and an actor of Hong Kong film Time Still Turns the Pages. 

Directed by Nick Cheuk, the film revolves around a Hong Kong secondary school teacher trying to identify the student who penned an anonymous letter conveying suicidal thoughts. In the process the teacher, played by Lo Chun-yip, relives his own painful childhood memories that left him traumatised for years. 

The film has made a splash in the city since its public release in mid-November last year and fuelled debate about the rising youth suicide rate. Leung’s separate workshop for adults, which discussed childhood trauma with around 30 participants, made her wonder if an early intervention would have helped them better handle their pain.

Next exhibition

The therapist and her team are preparing for a second phase of the exhibition, which will ask participants to respond to the emotional distress expressed by others. The exhibition entitled “I know you are unhappy, but I want to tell you…” is set to be held in May or July, around the school examination period. 

Asked whether she would be open to bringing her therapy to school campuses, Leung said it would depend on the school’s policy on confidentiality. She always made sure the drawings her clients produced were kept confidential, even from parents. 

When asked if the services of an outside therapist in school may create labelling and stigma, Leung said such practices were common in Britain, where she obtained her qualification. Students may need time to get used to these professionals on campus, but it would help alleviate the burden on teachers and school-based social workers – described by some students as having “no headspace” to care for their emotional needs.

“I think any means that can allow students to have access to professional help is a good measure,” she said. 

Additional reporting: Hans Tse

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By Peter Catterall

Thousands of delegates from across China will convene in Beijing next week for the start of the country’s annual legislative meetings known as the “Two Sessions”.

The tightly controlled voting on legislation already pre-approved by the ruling Communist Party means there will be no major changes.

But the meetings do provide a rare glimpse into the top leadership’s priorities, with analysts eyeing support measures for China’s ailing economy as well as an expected increase in defence spending.

Here’s what you need to know:

What are the ‘Two Sessions’?

The first one, due to kick off Monday, is a gathering of China’s political advisory committee, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

The group’s members — who have included many of China’s most famous celebrities, such as Yao Ming and Jackie Chan — receive a lot of attention at home.

But its discussions are relatively low stakes: representatives provide lawmakers with policy suggestions that, more often than not, have little impact on national policy.

The real focus of the “Two Sessions” is the meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s legislature, starting Tuesday at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.

Two-thirds of the legislature’s members come from the Communist Party.

And most of the bills that will be passed have already been decided by party leaders well in advance, leading to it being described as a “rubber-stamp” parliament.

How important is it?

China goes to great lengths to make sure there are no embarrassing incidents during the parliamentary session, which is touted by the Communist Party as proof that it answers to the people despite its monopoly on power.

The meeting place in the Great Hall of the People is freshened up, traffic is shut down, factories are closed to guarantee blue skies, plainclothes policemen seem to lurk on every corner and political dissidents are rounded up and asked — or sometimes forced — to go on “vacation” somewhere far away from the capital.

It is also the one time each year when the country’s most powerful politicians are all in one place, making it a key venue for political horse-trading, glad-handing and backstabbing.

Every five years, the parliamentary session also sees the appointment of the president — last year, Xi Jinping began his third term in the position, complementing two top Communist Party positions he secured at a congress in 2022.

This year’s “Two Sessions” will also feature the first annual government work report presented by Premier Li Qiang since he ascended to the country’s number-two position at last year’s meeting.

What are the top issues?

The economy, beset by slumping consumer activity and a prolonged crisis in the property sector, will be the most closely-watched topic at this year’s gathering.

The conference will see delegates set official growth targets for 2024, following a reported national GDP expansion of 5.2 percent last year — the lowest rate in decades, excluding the pandemic years.

The release of details on military spending will offer signals as to China’s confidence in current geopolitical conditions, as tensions persist across the Taiwan Strait and Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its third year.

Observers will also be closely assessing any plans announced on the allocation of public resources into the tech sectors or major infrastructure development projects.

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Hong Kong will have to be prudent when selling land in the coming fiscal year, development minister Bernadette Linn has said, as the government announced eight residential sites, six of which were rolled over from last year’s programme.

Linn announced the land sale programme at a press conference on Thursday, saying the eight residential sites would provide about 5,690 flats.

Two commercial sites in Kai Tak and Sha Tin would provide about 120,000 square metres of gross floor area, and a site designated for industrial use would provide a floor area of 544,000 square metres.

The eight residential sites would include two new sites in Siu Lek Yuen in Sha Tin, and six unsold ones located in Kai Tak, Sai Kung, Stanley, Cheung Sha, Tung Chung and Tuen Mun rolled over from the current fiscal year’s programme.

See also: Hong Kong suspends residential, commercial land sales amid sluggish market

The first residential site to go up for tender in the first quarter of the 2024-25 fiscal year will be one of the Siu Lek Yuen sites, which is capable of providing some 280 flats, according to the Development Bureau.

The government “will continue to provide land to the market for economic and housing development in a prudent and paced manner, in order to maintain a sustained and steady land supply,” Linn told reporters in Cantonese on Thursday.

Last year, the government planned to sell 12 residential sites, three commercial plots and three areas designated for industrial use.

But the city saw a record six failed land tenders amid high interest rates and a bleak property market outlook that curbed developers’ appetites for new plots, as home prices fell 23 per cent from the peak in September 2021, according to official figures.

Finance minister Paul Chan said on Wednesday that the HK$19.4 billion the government made in land sales revenue was “substantially lower” than the original projection of HK$65.6 billion.

The government recorded an estimated deficit of HK$101.6 billion for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Prime site excluded

Linn also said a commercial plot at Queensway Plaza would not be included this year, citing weak market sentiment. She called it a prime “treasure” site that the government was not prepared to include in the upcoming land sale programme.

With the eight residential sites, the MTR Corporation and the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) will produce a total of about 15,150 flats in the coming fiscal year, exceeding the government’s annual supply target of 13,200 flats.

The railway operator plans to put a residential development project at Tung Chung East Station up for tender in the coming year, providing about 1,200 flats. The URA, meanwhile, plans to provide 2,680 flats in Kowloon City, Mong Kok, and Kwun Tong, with an additional 5,400 units to be redeveloped by the private sector.

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Hong Kong can expect more tourists this year but they will be spending less per head, according to the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau. Visitors are expected to spend an average of HK$5,800 on overnight stays this year, a 16 per cent decrease from last year.

The bureau’s estimated that per capita expenditure by overnight visitors stands at HK$5,800, according to figures released in the 2024 budget on Wednesday, down from last year’s HK$6,939. Overnight visitors spent HK$6,614 in 2018.

See also: Hong Kong finance chief defends monthly HK$1 million fireworks after pushback from residents

Those figures are based on the Hong Kong Tourism Board’s departing visitor survey.

Meanwhile, the bureau expects a 35.3 per cent increase in visitor arrivals this year, from 34 million to 46 million. In 2018, Hong Kong saw 65.15 million total arrivals.

Hong Kong has struggled to revive its tourism industry since years-long Covid restrictions were lifted. Visitor figures have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, while tourism-related sectors have said recovery is being stalled by a manpower shortage.

According to Tourism Board data, the return of international visitors has been outpaced by tourists from mainland China, many of whom come to Hong Kong for day trips or low-cost tours, industry experts say.

Visitors staying for shorter periods

According to the 2024 budget figures, overnight visitors stayed an average of 3.6 nights last year but are expected to stay just 3.2 nights this year. Tourism minister Kevin Yeung told lawmakers last month that about half the tourists who visited Hong Kong last year stayed overnight.

The government’s provision for the tourism board, meanwhile, is expected to increase by 8.8 per cent this fiscal year, from HK$1.39 billion in 2023-24 to an estimated HK$1.52 billion.

Inbound tourism expenditure is expected to increase by 16.5 per cent, from HK$177.9 billion to HK$207.3 billion.

The bureau also listed matters requiring “special attention” in the 2024-25 fiscal year, including spreading “positive word-of-mouth” messages through media partnerships, organising familiarisation trips with influencers, staging mega events, and promoting the Greater Bay Area tourism brand.

Finance minister Paul Chan announced on Wednesday a HK$1.1 billion drive to promote “mega events” and boost tourism in Hong Kong, including monthly fireworks displays that would each cost HK$1 million.

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Hong Kong’s finance chief has defended plans for monthly fireworks shows that would cost HK$1 million each and are intended to entice tourists to stay longer in the city.

Responding to residents in a Cantonese televised phone-in programme on Thursday morning, including one who suggested focusing on big-name concerts instead, Paul Chan said having monthly fireworks displays and concerts were not “mutually exclusive,” and tourists could schedule their stays around the fireworks.

That would entice visitors to “stay an extra night,” he said.

Responding to a caller’s concerns over whether the novelty of the displays would wear off due to their frequency, Chan said it would depend on the way they were staged and this would be left to the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

See also: Hong Kong Budget 2024: Over HK$1.1 billion to ‘soft sell’ city, inc. monthly drone and fireworks shows

The monthly fireworks are part of a broader HK$1.1 billion drive to promote “mega events” and boost tourism in Hong Kong. Each fireworks display would cost HK$1 million, Chan told reporters on Wednesday afternoon after presenting the 2024-25 budget.

Another caller, surnamed Cheung, told Chan he was dissatisfied with the plan to issue HK$120 billion in bonds for the 2024-25 fiscal year, saying: “In a few years, the bonds will have to be repaid… who’s going to clean up after the mess?”

Of the HK$120 billion, HK$70 billion will be retail bonds for small investors, while HK$50 billion would be Silver Bonds reserved for the elderly, and HK$20 billion worth of green bonds and infrastructure bonds.

Chan said on Thursday the bonds would not be used to finance the government’s recurrent spending but instead to “invest in the future.”

“Investing in the future yields returns,” Chan said. “Whether it’s in land supply or housing, or developing innovation and technology… [bond issuance] is a very normal fiscal arrangement.”

Stamp duties

Another caller, Yiu, said that withdrawing extra stamp duties on home purchases would only allow property owners to “maintain property value” and would not help the middle class buy their own homes.

See also: Hong Kong Budget 2024: Extra stamp duties axed in bid to revive housing market

Since 2010, authorities have imposed extra stamp duties to curb property speculation and prevent home prices from soaring. But the housing market has slumped over the past three years. Property sales plunged from around 74,000 units in 2021 to 43,002 last year, according to the Land Registry.

Chan said the government would keep an eye on the market and could reinstate the extra stamp duties at any time, adding that it would leave the matter to market forces under normal circumstances.

Chan said the government must “carefully consider” whether to introduce new taxes, as the city’s tax regime was one of its selling points for investors, and must consider Hong Kong’s international competitiveness.

“The government has to be prudent in its actions” amid a transforming economy and a complicated geopolitical situation, Chan said, adding that the government expected to break even in a few years. “There is no need to introduce new taxes at the moment.”

Chan announced on Wednesday that taxpayers whose net income exceeded HK$5 million would be subject to an increased tax rate of 16 per cent – from 15 per cent previously – on earnings over that amount.

Chair of the New People’s Party Regina Ip suggested on Wednesday that more tax brackets should be included . For instance, a higher tax rate could be imposed on earners with net annual income of more than HK$20 million, she told reporters.

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Hong Kong’s finance chief has asked for the public’s “understanding” over a lack of sweeteners in this year’s budget, as a lawmaker said he was disappointed that the annual speech did not address societal problems.

The Secretary for Finance Paul Chan said in a press conference on Wednesday that given the city’s “financial situation,” authorities were unable to offer more benefits for residents this year.

Hong Kong is expected to log a deficit of HK$101.6 billion in the fiscal year ending in March, almost double Chan’s earlier estimate.

“I hope everyone understands that because of the financial situation, the room that we have to work with is relatively limited,” Chan said in Cantonese in response to a question about tax cuts this year, which will be subject to a ceiling of HK$3,000, half of last year’s.

For the 2023-24 financial year, the government also offered residents HK$5,000 in consumption vouchers to boost spending. Such handouts were absent from this year’s address.

Chan also said the government would review two transport subsidy schemes that had resulted in significant expenditure over the years. The “HK$2 scheme,” named for the flat amount paid by the elderly and disabled people on buses and other transport modes, as well as the Public Transport Fare Subsidy Scheme that offers rebates to commuters, could see alterations.

Meanwhile, the government will allocate HK$1.1 billion to boost tourism and “soft sell” Hong Kong as the city struggles to bounce back from years of strict Covid-19 restrictions. Victoria Harbour will play host to monthly pyrotechnics and drone displays, while the nightly sound-and-light show will also undergo a revamp.

In response to another question about the lack of sweeteners, Chan said that government relief measures should not be relied on for boosting people’s income.

“When the economy is better, residents’ income will also be better. Everyone will be happier and they will have more money to spend,” the finance chief said.

“That’s why we put our resources into boosting economic development… [we] hope that… high-spending tourists will come here, stay overnight, spend money and hang out here,” he said. “That can stimulate our economic [sectors], including sales… and food and beverage.”

‘Sadness’ behind the fireworks

While pro-establishment legislators largely praised the budget, social welfare lawmaker Tik Chi-yuen said he was “disheartened.” The annual speech “had a lot about organising mega events and pyrotechnics shows,” but there was no mention of how the government would address problems in society.

At a press conference, Tik – the legislature’s sole non-establishment lawmaker – held up a manipulated photo showing an elderly person pushing a trolley with cardboard, while fireworks lit up the skies in the background.

“Behind the fireworks is sadness,” he said.

Tik also referred to the fact that government departments would see a one per cent cut to recurrent expenditure extended until the 2026-27 fiscal year. The government had earlier announced the cut for two years from the upcoming fiscal year.

“The cut would have a big impact on NGOs and make things very difficult for them,” Tik told HKFP in Cantonese, adding that Chan did not discuss measures relating to caregivers, elderly homes and poverty alleviation.

Lawmaker Junius Ho, however, said he did not think that the budget had an “overwhelming lopsided” focus on attracting tourists to Hong Kong while ignoring social welfare.

“I think [attracting more tourists to Hong Kong] is the right thing to be done,” he said in response to a question from HKFP.

Livelihood issues were “already covered” in the budget, Ho said, adding that the government was giving an extra allowance equivalent to half a month’s worth of subsidies to recipients of social security programs.

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Hongkongers will not receive perks such as consumption vouchers as the government scaled back one-off relief measures offered to the public during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Finance chief Paul Chan did not mention the consumption voucher scheme when he unveiled tax cuts and other relief measures for residents while delivering his annual budget speech to the legislature on Wednesday.

Salaries and profits tax is set to be reduced by 100 per cent, subject to a ceiling of HK$3,000, which is half of last year’s HK$6,000.

The proposal would benefit 2.05 million taxpayers and reduce government revenue by HK$5.1 billion, Chan said in Cantonese.

Chan proposed allowances for residents living on social security, the elderly, and disabled people, as well as low-income households, which he said would involve an additional cost of HK$3 billion.

Consumption vouchers or cash handouts ranging from HK$5,000 to HK$10,000 were given to residents for three consecutive years amid the Covid-19 outbreak in a bid to boost local consumptions.

Chan said earlier this month that people the government heard from during a consultation period did not think that more consumption vouchers were unnecessary. The government must also consider whether it could afford such measures, he added.

Hong Kong is expected to log a shortfall of over HK$100 billion in the current fiscal year ending in March, almost double the forecast given by the government last year.

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Beijing’s top official overseeing Hong Kong’s affairs has reassured businesses that investments and assets will be protected, the head of the city’s largest commerce group has said.

Betty Yuen, chairperson of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC), addressed reporters after a meeting on Monday with Xia Baolong, the director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO), local media reported.

“[Xia]… said Hong Kong’s ‘One Country, Two System’ has been effective and that there was no need to change it,” Yuen said, referring to the governance system that accords the city a degree of autonomy from mainland China.

“Investment and assets in Hong Kong will be protected and [he] told us to rest assured to invest and to boost Hong Kong’s prosperity,” Yuen said. She added that Beijing would roll out more measures to support Hong Kong.

The business group head also said that Xia repeatedly mentioned Chinese leader Xi Jinping in his discussion.

The top Beijing official arrived in Hong Kong last Thursday for a week-long visit to understand Hong Kong’s economic development and district administration matters, according to a statement from the HKMAO. The city’s leader John Lee was seen alongside Xia throughout his time in the city.

The meeting with commerce representatives, which was also attended by the heads of the Austrian and Malaysian commerce chambers, was among a number of sessions Xia attended on Monday. In the morning, he met with representatives from the finance sector, and later had lunch with the city’s financial regulators.

The city’s leader Lee told reporters on Monday that topics such as attracting foreign investment to the Greater Bay Area and boosting tourism were discussed, HK01 reported.

Lee mentioned that some commerce representatives asked Xia questions about the impending national security law, which Hong Kong is obligated to pass under Article 23 of the Basic Law, according to HK01. Lee said the representatives generally supported the legislation.

Xia’s visit was met with a protest by pro-Beijing activist Chan Ching-sum on Monday morning, who urged the official for clarification on “soft resistance” and the “bottom line” of the national security law. Chan said Hongkongers were afraid to speak up due to a lack of certainty around what was legal.

The activist planned to deliver her petition outside Beijing’s Hong Kong Liaison Office in Sai Ying Pun. However, she said police “suggested” that she do so near the MTR station instead, about an eight-minute walk from the Liaison Office.

After a 10-minute demonstration, in which she read out a statement to Xia, Chan submitted two letters to a man who refused to reveal his identity.

A ‘tough time’

Beijing’s visiting official met with district officers, the heads of the city’s 18 District Councils and some district councillors last weekend to understand matters of local administration, according to a government statement last Saturday.

Xia also met Hong Kong’s hometown associations on Monday evening, groups representing people from different parts of China. Irons Sze, chairperson of pro-establishment group the Federation of Hong Kong Beijing Organisations, said on Monday that Xia had asked all the associations to unite together to support the government.  

“[Xia] said that ‘Lee is having a tough time now,’ and the whole society is working hard. Hometown associations and people from all walks of life need to support [Lee], especially in terms of boosting the economy and improving people’s livelihood,” Sze said in Cantonese.

On Tuesday, Xia went to the West Kowloon Cultural District in the morning, where he visited the Hong Kong Palace Museum and exchanged views with around 30 young people, local media reported. He then met with finance experts in the afternoon.

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Introducing monthly fireworks displays and drone shows above Victoria Harbour would have a limited impact on Hong Kong’s tourism sector, an industry representative has said.

Sara Leung, chair of the Hong Kong Tourism Industry Employees General Union, told RTHK on Tuesday that she was not optimistic about the plan, which is expected to be revealed during the city’s annual budget address on Wednesday.

Leung said the displays would at most attract tourists from “neighbouring areas” but not those from overseas. “There would definitely be [visitors], but would it be a large number? I don’t think so,” she added.

She said that the displays – which would also be expensive – would also lose their novelty if they are held every month. The government should instead invest its resources in attractions that displayed Hong Kong’s special characteristics, she suggested.

Leung also said injecting funds into the catering industry and supporting small businesses would be more effective in stimulating the tourism industry, pointing to a manpower shortage that has crippled bars and restaurants.

Hong Kong’s finance chief will make the city’s annual budget address on Wednesday, during which spending plans for the coming year will be announced. The city expects a deficit of more than HK$100 billion for a second consecutive year.

Ahead of the address, government sources told local paper Sing Tao Daily that authorities are considering holding monthly fireworks and drone shows above Victoria Harbour in a bid to revitalise the city’s tourism industry. The cost of “hundreds of millions” will be borne by the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

See more: HKFP Lens: Hong Kong rings in Year of the Dragon with Lunar New Year parade, fireworks

The government would also commission the board to revamp the nightly “Symphony of Lights” light show and organise seasonal, themed events such as city walks to cater to tourists looking for more “in-depth and cultural experiences,” the paper reported.

Post-Covid tourism lull

Hong Kong has struggled to revive its tourism industry since years-long Covid restrictions were lifted. Visitor figures have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, while tourism-related sectors have said recovery is being stalled by a manpower shortage.

The return of tourists from mainland China has outpaced that of international visitors, data from the Tourism Board showed.

Speaking on the same RTHK show, lawmaker Kitson Yang said he did not think monthly fireworks and drone shows alone would be enough to draw tourists to the city.

A revamp of the Symphony of Lights may also be insufficient, Yang said, adding that the city should consider introducing themed light shows.

Simon Lee, an honorary fellow at the Asia-Pacific Institute of Business at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told Oriental Daily that fireworks displays mainly attracted mainland tourists. Many of whom were on day trips or low-cost tours, meaning their visits yielded limited economic benefits for the city.

Hong Kong did not need monthly fireworks displays, only on major festivals, he said.

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A construction worker has been remanded in a psychiatric centre pending trial for outraging public decency after allegedly pouring liquid onto a 17-year-old girl.

The West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court on Monday obliged with a request from the prosecution to adjourn the case to March 11 to obtain psychological evaluations and determine whether 56-year-old Li Kwok-ding was fit to enter a plea.

On February 23, Li “[committed] an act of a lewd, obscene, and disgusting nature, which outraged public decency” by splashing the girl with an “unknown liquid” on Great George Street in Causeway Bay, according to a charge sheet.

Li has been remanded in Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre.

An officer caught the suspect in the act on Friday night, Senior Inspector Yee Hiu-yin of the Mong Kok district crime squad told reporters on Saturday.

Initial investigations showed that Li had carried the liquid in a vacuum flask, poured it into his palm, and quickly walked up to the victim from behind, Yee said.

The liquid was odourless, but had some colour and was “slightly warm,” said Senior Inspector Leung Sin-yi of the Mong Kok district intelligence unit. The liquid has been confiscated for further inspection.

Police received nine reports between January 20 and February 18 from women aged 16 to 32 who said they were splashed with liquid in Mong Kok, Leung said, adding that one woman had her buttocks soiled twice in one hour.

Yee also said the police were aware that victims had shared similar experiences online, and called on victims to come forward.

Speaking out

An Instagram page set up to call attention to the liquid-splashing cases, meanwhile, has received more than 100 submissions from victims in the three weeks since it was set up.

In a Chinese statement, sexual assault crisis centre RainLily said: “We are concerned about cases of ‘splashing unknown liquid on private parts’ in which the suspect had displayed a behavioural pattern of targeting women. We believe this is a social phenomenon rather than an isolated incident.”

Li appears to have a criminal record dating back more than a decade. An Oriental Daily report dated March 8, 2008 mentions a man with the same name, then aged 40, being sentenced to three months in jail for indecent assault.

He was arrested and charged after a 22-year-old woman noticed liquid on her dress while walking in Victoria Park. It was identified as semen and later found to match DNA obtained from Li’s underwear.

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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. We didn’t call it Monster Building until it was introduced to a global audience by the Hollywood blockbuster Transformers: Age of Extinction.

When unfamiliar faces approach, bakery staff will point out the building before even being asked. The tourists have themselves become part of Quarry Bay’s topography. 

A recent music video by Pharrell Williams and friends for a song called Airplane Tickets was set in Hong Kong’s streets.  The locations include the vernacular residential buildings, high-end commercial towers and a hotel, the cross-harbour tunnel, taxis and the stunning Victoria Harbour. 

The small size of urban Hong Kong encouraged the construction of skyscrapers across the whole city, creating a stunning and uniquely attractive backdrop for films and videos. Cool and sleek skyscrapers, the claustrophobic streetscape, or the spectacular harbour have long been an integral part of local or overseas movies.  

The critically acclaimed animated sci-fi film Ghost in the Shell in the 1990s and its Hollywood remake in 2017 were largely modelled on the cityscape of Hong Kong. Causeway Bay’s landmark circular footbridge was used as the setting of the concluding fistfight in the 2017 version.

And recently, the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront, where families stroll in the evenings or at weekends, became a runway for Louis Vuitton. The French luxury goods giant staged its menswear show there last November, with the harbour and the skyline of Hong Kong Island as a backdrop.

YouTube videos of what was probably the world’s most spectacular fashion runway have been seen by millions.

The overlapping of the city’s physical and cinematic space helps boost the city’s cultural identity and image. 

On Valentine’s Day came the two-week Chubby Hearts campaign presented by the Hong Kong Design Centre, with the giant balloons flying over different parts of the city. Photos of the big red hearts have flooded social media. The design centre reveals the locations of the photos every morning on its website.

So far, the big red hearts have visited, among other places, the flower market in Mong Kok and Lam Tsuen in Tai Po. I hope they will also overfly more mundane neighbourhoods in Kowloon and the New Territories and make yet more people appreciate the charm of our cityscape. 

Since travel resumed after Covid curbs were lifted, a common justification for failing to spend weekends and public holidays locally is that Hong Kong does not have much to see. This is a laughable statement which only reveals the speakers’ ignorance. Hong Kong has much to see and to contemplate. The collective vitality of its people makes our city a rich place to explore. 

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Hong Kong police will install 15 sets of security cameras in Mong Kok next month, as part of a trial run for a new surveillance programme targeting crime blackspots in the city.

The devices to be installed in the commercial district in Kowloon will be used for testing the technicality of the police plan of setting up 2,000 new security cameras across the city for crime detection and prevention, the Security Bureau wrote in a paper submitted to the Legislative Council (LegCo) on Wednesday.

Police identified various districts with high crime figures and high pedestrian flows and decided to install security cameras at 615 locations, including government buildings and lampposts. Following the test run next month, the police will begin installing the remaining 600 sets of devices in mid-2024, the LegCo document submitted to the Panel on Security read.

The security cameras would be operated under the city’s privacy laws and the footage would be deleted automatically after 30 days from the date of recording, the bureau said. But if the footage was useful for criminal investigation, the law enforcement officers may duplicate the footage in accordance with police internal procedures and guidelines on the proper preservation and handling of video recordings.

Face recognition

Earlier this month, Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu cited surveillance measures around the world and said installing 2,000 security cameras in Hong Kong was “really relatively not enough.” He also did not rule out the possibility that the city’s CCTV cameras would be equipped with face recognition functions.

The LegCo paper on published on Wednesday did not mention whether the CCTV cameras to be installed in Mong Kok will have face recognition functions. But the authorities would actively study ways to use technology effectively to “maximise the public interest,” the bureau said.

“To further enhance the effectiveness of crime prevention and detection, HKPF is studying the feasibility of equipping the CCTV system with artificial intelligence technology to facilitate law enforcement,” the paper read.

HKFP has reached out to the police to clarify whether the artificial intelligence technology mentioned in the LegCo document included face recognition.

The government had cited security reasons in refusing a lawmaker’s request for details relating to CCTV cameras. Disclosing such information might unveil the government’s security arrangements and the investigatory techniques of law enforcement agencies to criminals, the government said.

Hong Kong logged over 90,000 reported crime cases in 2023 – a 28.9 per cent increase from a year earlier. The rise was led by a surge in fraud-related offences and violent crime, including robbery and rape, according to police data released on Tuesday.

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Owners of a Hong Kong pro-democracy cafe, who had complained of weekly government inspections which scared customers away, have been fined a total of HK$3,500 for stains in its washroom.

Not One Less Coffee has announced it will shut down because of a slump in business and the frequent visits by various different departments. InMedia reported that the cafe sometimes received dozens of fines a month.

Eastern Magistrates’ Courts fined the cafe over two hygiene offences on Wednesday, Ming Pao reported. According to the first summons, authorities found a grey stain of around six square metres on the ceiling of the men’s restroom last September.

The second summons related to a permanent black stain inside the toilet bowl of the men’s restroom found last October.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) charged the cafe with two offences – “unhygienic conditions in the food premises” and “unclean and improperly maintained sanitary facilities.”

The cafe manager pleaded guilty but said staff had been working hard to keep the premises clean and took immediate action once they found the stains.

Owners of the shop said last December on Facebook that revenue had dropped around 80 per cent last year even after Hong Kong dropped Covid controls in early 2023.

The cafe “was visited by various government departments every week, ” including the FEHD, the Fire Services Department, the Agriculture Fisheries and Conservation Department, the Inland Revenue Department, the Police Force, the Labour Department and the Building Department, the owners said.

“Many clients were too terrified to come in when they saw government personnel… [We] received penalty tickets every month… and were fined frequently, ” the post added.

The owners announced on February 3 that the cafe would shut down at the end of this month. Opened in 2020, it identified as a “yellow” business, which supported the 2019 protests and unrest and the city’s pro-democracy movement.

‘High pressure’ law enforcement

Other “yellow” businesses in the city have complained of excessive government inspections.

But Ngan Lung Cafe, a cha chaan teng which supported the police during the 2019 protests, said on Weibo last April that the cafe was frequently visited by FEHD personnel.

“In four years [after the protests], things have returned to peace and business was really slow.. The only one that still remembers us is… FEHD,” the post read.

Paul Tse, a pro-establishment lawmaker, said in the Legislative Council in late January that authorities were conducting “high-pressure and high-profile” law enforcement actions which left people “stressed, burdened and despondent.”

“I am not sure whether [these enforcement efforts] are due to the treasury’s limited revenue. Law enforcement officers have issued fixed penalty parking tickets day and night, imposed heavy penalties on those who obstruct the streets, and plainclothes police lurk to catch jaywalkers,” Tse said.

He said various government departments had also employed different ways to punish bookstores and small canteens in industrial buildings.

The remarks prompted a sharp response from the city’s leader John Lee, who called Tse’s words “dangerous.” Lee said it reminded him of the language used by the opposition during the 2019 protests and of “soft resistance.”

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Hong Kong’s upcoming national security law should increase the penalties for sedition, security minister Chris Tang has said, describing the current two-year maximum prison term for a first offence as “insufficient.”

Tang and Deputy Secretary for Justice Cheung Kwok-kwan met the press on Wednesday after exchanging views with lawmakers about Article 23 – the city’s homegrown national security law due to be passed by the Legislative Council this year.

More than three years after a Beijing-imposed national security law came into force, Hong Kong authorities began the process of enacting a new domestic security law – as mandated by Article 23 of the city’s Basic Law or mini-constitution. A four-week public consultation period ends next Wednesday.

The law will cover new offences against to safeguard against activities such as “external interference,” “sabotage activities,” and “insurrection. ” It also provides a definition of “state secrets,” and introduces new measures for suspects, including barring detainees from consulting specific lawyers.

It also seeks to broaden the definition of “seditious intention” and raise the penalty for sedition when compared with the current colonial-era law which was revived after half a century.  

When asked why the government wants a tougher penalty, Tang mentioned the sedition case linked to a series of children’s picture books about sheep and wolves.

In September 2022, five Hong Kong speech therapists were sentenced to 19 months behind bars over publishing a series of illustrated books that according to the judge effectively “brainwashed” young readers.

“It [the case of the children’s books] uses misleading information to incite people not to believe in the government, to hate the government, and therefore trigger chaos in society. That’s a very serious crime, ” Tang said in Cantonse, “We reviewed the situation and considered the current penalty is insufficient. We should set a sufficient penalty to reflect the impact these offences have on national security. “

He did not say what he thought the punishment should be and the official consultation document on the new law does not suggest possible penalties. The earlier Beijing-imposed legislation gives life imprisonment as the highest penalty for some security offences.

Broadened definition

According to the Article 23 consultation paper, “seditious intention” should cover incitement of hatred against “the fundamental system of the State, ” which is defined as “the socialist system led by the Communist Party of China” according to the Constitution of China.

It also penalises the intention to incite hatred “amongst residents of HKSAR” or “among residents of different regions of China.”

Tang said some Hongkongers are worried that criticising the government may be deemed sedition under the new legislation.

“I want to state again, this will not happen. The sedition law exists now, targeting seditious and provocative speech; criticism which is based on fact and appropriate will not violate the law,” Tang said in Cantonese.

Unwelcome criticism

Jasper Tsang, a pro-establishment politician and former Legislative Council head, has questioned whether the broader definition of seditious intention under the new law “will cast too wide a net.”

Tsang, writing in Ming Pao in early February, also urged the government to be patient when responding to the “concerns and worries” of the general public.

The comments triggered a counter-attack from a member of a pro-establishment party. Joephy Chan, a lawmaker and a member of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, who criticised Tsang for not showing full support for the legislation.

In comments on YouTube last Friday, Chan said she was confused and felt uncomfortable as a result of Tsang’s comments about the possibility of “casting too wide a net.”

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Hong Kong’s year-end population has grown by 0.4 per cent to 7.5 million, according to provisional government figures for 2023, despite a continuing decline in the number of young people in the city.

The Census and Statistics Department released its latest population figures on Tuesday, which provisionally showed that Hong Kong’s population had risen to 7,503,100 by the end of 2023, from 7,472,600 at the end of the previous year.

A department spokesperson attributed the population increase to “a net inflow of 51,700 Hong Kong residents,” led by 40,800 One-way Permit holders, referring to a document issued to mainland Chinese with family ties in Hong Kong allowing them to settle in the city.

In 2014, there were 1.54 million people in this age range in Hong Kong, accounting for 21.3 per cent of the total population. Last year, the government recorded 1.23 million people aged 20 to 34, or 16.3 per cent, according to year-end population data.

Hong Kong was hit by a emigration wave following the 2019 protests and unrest, which coincided with lengthy and strict Covid-19 controls and the enactment of a Beijing-imposed national security law in 2020. After recording a peak population of 7.52 million at the end of 2019, by 2021 the the number of residents had fallen to 7.4 million.

See also: How to measure Hong Kong’s mass exodus

Hongkongers have settled in the UK, Canada, Australia and Taiwan, along with other destinations that have incentivised workers to migrate. According to the British government, some 135,400 Hongkongers arrived in the country between early 2021, when it launched a residency route for holders of British National (Overseas) passports, and September 2023. 

Despite the rebound in overall population data, Census and Statistics Department figures showed a noticeable decline in the number of young adults in Hong Kong, particularly those aged 20 to 34.

Last October, a survey conducted by international recruitment firm Robert Walters found that 52.3 per cent of professionals were considering leaving Hong Kong. Among them, 51 per cent were millennials aged 27 to 42.

Conversely, the city’s elderly population is growing whilst the city’s workforce shrinks. Last year, local media reported that Chief Executive John Lee said Hong Kong had lost 200,000 workers in recent years.

The government has launched initiatives to plug labour shortages by importing low-skilled workers on a short-term basis and launching new visa schemes to attract professionals to the city. Among the latter was the much touted Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS), which grants graduates from top universities and high-earners a two-year visa without first having to receive a job offer.

Labour chief Chris Sun said at the Legislative Council last month that, as of the end of last year, the government had approved around 51,000 applications under the TTPS since it was launched in late 2022, and some 36,000 had “arrived in Hong Kong.”

“In addition, more than 51 000 dependants were approved to come to Hong Kong under the TTPS, and nearly 36 000 of them arrived in Hong Kong,” Sun added.

Hong Kong, which last year had the lowest fertility rate in the world, saw a slight uptick in the number of babies born in 2023, recording 33,200 births up from 32,500 last year. During last year’s policy address, authorities announced that they would give a HK$20,000 cash bonus for each new baby born in the city in an effort to boost fertility. Earlier this month, the government announced it had started disbursing the money to eligible parents.

However, a number of people HKFP spoke to last year said the handout was not enough to incentivise them to give birth, with a sociology professor citing a lack of childcare options, uncertainty in society, and gender inequality as among the reasons Hong Kong couples were choosing not to have children.

‘Mobile residents’ buoy overall figure

The 2023 year-end population was buoyed by a 10.2 per cent rise in “mobile residents,” or those who do not live in the city on a full-time basis. There were provisionally 274,500 such people in the city at the end of last year, up from 249,000 in 2022.

The government describes mobile residents as those who “have stayed in Hong Kong for at least one month but less than three months during the six months before or for at least one month but less than three months during the six months after the reference time-point.” The reference point is not provided.

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Two construction workers have died and three have been injured after a section of bamboo scaffolding collapsed on a construction site in Kai Tak.

The scaffolding, which was approximately 15 metres tall by eight metres long, collapsed from the external wall of a new residential building on Tuesday afternoon, Ming Pao reported. Two female construction workers on the ground who were hit by the scaffolding were pronounced dead soon after being admitted to hospital.

Another female construction worker who was working on the scaffolding when it collapsed was severely injured. She was in critical condition after leaving the intensive care unit.

Two other workers were injured, and were in hospital in a stable condition, local media reported.

Multiple government departments met the press on Tuesday evening. A police spokesperson said they would work with other departments to investigate the incident and would pursue prosecution if any negligence was identified.

The construction site for the residential project Pano Harbour was being developed by Fame Well Creation, a joint venture formed by the China Resources Land and the Poly Property Group – developers from mainland China. The contractor for the project was Hip Hing Construction Company.

Wan Chi-ping, assistant commissioner (occupational safety) for the Labour Department said a temporary work suspension notice had been issued for the construction site, which meant the contractor could not alter, dismantle or construct any bamboo scaffolding.

According to Hong Kong’s construction site safety regulations, scaffolding must be inspected by a “competent person” before being used for the first time and at regular intervals. If any major alterations were made to the scaffolding, another inspection should be conducted.

Wan said they would investigate the design, construction, and use of the bamboo scaffolding to determine the cause of the fatal accident.

Fay Siu, chief executive of the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, told HK01 she had assisted the families of the victims, and that the two deceased workers were aged 68 and 54 and were the breadwinners of their family.

Siu urged the contractor and all employers linked to the accident to respond as soon as possible and support the victims’ families.

Multiple accidents linked to same company

In April 2023, a cleaner fell from 11th floor at another construction site in Tai Kak and died after being admitted to hospital. The construction site was also managed by contractor Hip Hing Construction Company.

The Kowloon City Magistrates’ Courts ruled last June that Hip Hing had violated the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance and the Construction Sites (Safety) Regulations and should be fined HK$130,000 over the fatal accident.

The construction company has also been involved in multiple other industrial accidents in recent years.

In May 2022, a working platform around two metres high collapsed at the construction site of the new Immigration Department headquarters in Tseung Kwan O, killing a 48-year-old construction worker. The site was managed by Hip Hing.

In December 2022, a crane at the same construction site collapsed, although no one was injured.

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