Columnist

SCMP Columnist

Alex Lo

Alex Lo is a senior writer at the South China Morning Post. He writes editorials and the daily “My Take” column on page 2.

US and China playing whack-a-mole with Canada

Opinion

US and China playing whack-a-mole with Canada

20 Jan 2019 - 10:40pm

Traffic gridlock remains a problem in Hong Kong. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Opinion

Hard to breathe easy with tunnels U-turn

18 Jan 2019 - 10:17pm 1

Children can be taught to respect the national anthems of all people, including their own.

Opinion

Anthem law offers a chance to educate

17 Jan 2019 - 10:40pm 5

Trudeau’s megaphone diplomacy a non-starter

Opinion

Trudeau’s megaphone diplomacy a non-starter

16 Jan 2019 - 10:26pm 27

Continuing rates rebates unchanged for Hong Kong’s landlords means the government will forego HK$17.8 billion a year, while it costs only HK$1 billion annually to keep the old-age allowance payment from 60. Photo: Sam Tsang

Opinion

Hong Kong government plays Robin Hood – but in reverse

15 Jan 2019 - 10:31pm 6

Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. Photo: Xiaomei Chen/SCMP

Opinion

Taxpayers’ money being buried under ground

14 Jan 2019 - 11:28pm 5

Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun, 18, (centre) with Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland, (right), as she arrives at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Saturday. Photo: AP

Opinion

Canada again takes the moral high ground

13 Jan 2019 - 10:21pm 22

Lawmaker Shiu Ka-chun at the Legislative Council Complex. Photo: Sam Tsang

Opinion

Devil in the detail for outraged DAB lawmakers

11 Jan 2019 - 10:50pm 1

The government is being condemned for a new plan under which those aged between 60 and 64 will receive close to a third less in financial support as the government raises the qualifying age to 65. Photo: Winson Wong

Insight & Opinion

Hong Kong government wrong to cut elderly welfare

10 Jan 2019 - 10:20pm 3

The reappointment of Arthur Li Kwok-cheung as HKU council chairman has triggered anger among student and staff leaders. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Opinion

Uni changes should be done with respect

9 Jan 2019 - 10:36pm 1

Don’t count Joseph Ha out of church race

Opinion

Don’t count Joseph Ha out of church race

8 Jan 2019 - 10:38pm 3

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po could have just handed out HK$3,000 to everyone and that would have been perfectly affordable and made everyone happy, or at least less grumpy. Photo: Winson Wong

Opinion

Lesson in handouts proves a costly one

7 Jan 2019 - 10:18pm 4

Hong Kong has devoted tremendous resources to defending the constitutionality of “co-location” at West Kowloon Station and claims the notification system would alert officials and families of locals who run into trouble with mainland law. The case in October has exposed a serious oversight. Photo: EPA-EFE

Opinion

Notification system is failing to notify

6 Jan 2019 - 10:35pm 7

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. Photo: AP

Opinion

Why ‘one country, two systems’ will work in Taiwan

4 Jan 2019 - 10:25pm 44

Given the already close economic ties across the Taiwan Strait, political reunification with the mainland is not only right but desirable. Photo: EPA-EFE

Opinion

Reunification not only right but desirable

3 Jan 2019 - 10:55pm 31

Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. Photo: Bloomberg

Opinion

US hack leads the charge against China

2 Jan 2019 - 11:07pm 11

There were no festive cheers for the final report submitted by the Task Force on Land Supply for housing to the government. Photo: Felix Wong

Opinion

Land task force does its job despite fights ahead

2 Jan 2019 - 2:26am 1

A protester holds a placard of Hong Kong's justice secretary Teresa Cheng (L) and Chief Executive Carrie Lam during a march on February 11, calling for Cheng to step down over illegal structures found at the homes she owns. Photo: AFP

Opinion

Justice suffers as distrust of Teresa Cheng deepens

31 Dec 2018 - 10:45pm 10

Opinion

News industry split into opposing camps

30 Dec 2018 - 10:30pm 4

Among those who rent public land are some of Hong Kong’s best known tycoons and their children, as well as wealthy politicians. Photo: Winson Wong

Opinion

Stop subsidising the rich with cheap land rents

28 Dec 2018 - 10:38pm

Disqualified Hong Kong lawmaker “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung. Photo: Edward Wong

Opinion

‘Long Hair’ Leung Kwok-hung could lead Long March tours

27 Dec 2018 - 10:15pm 3

A lion dance performance in Wong Tai Sin last year. Photo: Felix Wong/SCMP

Opinion

That Lion Rock spirit is not coming back

26 Dec 2018 - 11:56pm 2

The upcoming national anthem law will make abusing or distorting March of the Volunteers punishable by a maximum fine of HK$50,000 and three years in jail. Photo: Roy Issa

Opinion

Anthem law the pan-dems’ Waterloo

10 Jan 2019 - 2:44pm 8

Hong Kong justice minister Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah. Photo: Nora Tam

Opinion

Missing Teresa Cheng must be seen to serve justice

21 Dec 2018 - 10:31pm 2

In his farewell address this week, outgoing US House Speaker Paul Ryan described his country’s politics as “broken”, a problem that “frankly … I don’t have an answer for”. Photo: Getty Images/AFP

Opinion

The price of ‘eternal vigilance’ is boredom

20 Dec 2018 - 10:17pm 5

Four Hong Kong men have been jailed for life in the Philippines for drug possession after a police raid on their boat off the coast of Zambales province, northwest of Manila, in 2016. Photo: Handout

Opinion

Beijing is right to take up Hong Kong’s drug case in Philippines

19 Dec 2018 - 10:24pm 8

According to a latest survey, the average couple in Hong Kong only have 1.2 to 1.3 children, well below the replacement number of 2.1 to keep a population stable. Photo: Edward Wong

Opinion

Mainland to answer Hong Kong population woes

18 Dec 2018 - 11:26pm 5

America to the world: do as I say, not as I do

Opinion

America to the world: do as I say, not as I do

18 Dec 2018 - 9:42am 34

Young people shouldn’t dismiss out of hand the possibility of working in the ‘Greater Bay Area’, which comprises Hong Kong, Macau and nine other cities – including Shenzhen, above – in Guangdong. Photo: AFP

Opinion

Political ideology does not pay the bills

17 Dec 2018 - 10:50pm 9

Despite the facade provided by the Hong Kong Policy Act, Americans already treat Hong Kong as “just another mainland city” when it comes to the trading of strategic commodities. Photo: AP

Opinion

For the US, Hong Kong is already ‘just another mainland city’

14 Dec 2018 - 10:40pm 13

Former Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Opinion

CY Leung’s tormentor is a political spent force

13 Dec 2018 - 10:15pm 1

Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig has been detained in China. Photo: AP

Opinion

‘Boy Scout’ Canada caught in a nasty fight between two superpowers

12 Dec 2018 - 10:08pm 15

The US wants the government of Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to devote extra local resources to checking the re-exports of strategic commodities. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Opinion

How Hong Kong has become a pawn in US-imposed trade war

11 Dec 2018 - 10:25pm 2

The decision to bar dissident Chinese author Ma Jian from attending a literary festival at Tai Kwun arts centre was subsequently reversed. Was it political censorship? Or just bad management? Photo: AFP

Opinion

All art is political – maybe more so in Hong Kong

10 Dec 2018 - 10:23pm 1

One can only shake one’s head when American prosecutors go after foreigners with long jail time while portraying them as criminals for breaching US-imposed sanctions, writes Alex Lo. Photo: AFP

Opinion

US sanctions against Iran purely political

12 Dec 2018 - 8:48pm 18

Huawei’s chief financial officer Sabrina Meng Wanzhou. Photo: Reuters

Opinion

Huawei more wronged than doing wrong

12 Dec 2018 - 8:51pm 76

Patrick Ho, a former Hong Kong home affairs secretary, has been convicted in New York on seven of eight counts of bribery and money laundering. Photo: SCMP

Opinion

The long – and political – arm of US law

12 Dec 2018 - 8:55pm 17

Opposition luminaries are busy flying to Europe and the US to convince Western politicians that Hong Kong deserves to remain a separate customs entity from the rest of China. Photo: Dickson Lee

Opinion

Pan-dems hurting city they say they love

5 Dec 2018 - 9:59pm 13

The Task Force on Land Supply is finalising its report on a public consultation on the way forward to meet Hong Kong’s housing needs. Photo: Edmond So

Opinion

How to win over the public for planned Lantau metropolis

4 Dec 2018 - 10:18pm 5

Labour Party stalwart Lee Cheuk-yan. Photo: Sam Tsang

Opinion

Fear and loathing as pan-dems court localists

3 Dec 2018 - 10:19pm 2

Before the elections, Wang Dan, exiled student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, predicted there was no way for the KMT’s charismatic Han Kuo-yu (pictured) to win the mayoral race for Kaohsiung, a DPP stronghold. Photo: AP

Opinion

DPP apologists blame Beijing for election losses

2 Dec 2018 - 10:36pm 6

Hong Kong lawmaker Junius Ho Kwan-yiu. Photo: David Wong

Opinion

Time for the CCP to come out of the shadows

30 Nov 2018 - 10:08pm 7

Opposition lawmakers have resorted to scaremongering by questioning why soldiers from the Hong Kong garrison were allowed to help in the Typhoon Mangkhut clean-up. Photo: Nora Tam

Opinion

Pan-dems stoke fear of the PLA bogeyman

29 Nov 2018 - 10:08pm 10

Eddie Chu Hoi-dick plans to run in the coming rural representative election for the non-indigenous villagers’ head post at Yuen Kong Sun Tsuen, in Yuen Long. Photo: Edmond So

Opinion

Eddie Chu already proved his eligibility

29 Nov 2018 - 4:28pm 4

Chan Hoi-yan defeated two veteran Hong Kong pan-democratic rivals in the by-election for the Kowloon West seat in the legislature. Photo: Sam Tsang

Opinion

Pragmatism the real winner in Hong Kong, Taiwan elections

29 Nov 2018 - 4:30pm 8

Rebecca Chan Hoi-yan (centre), who won the Kowloon West by-election, thanks voters in Kowloon City. Photo: Robert Ng

Opinion

Voters veto the Legco hopes of opposition

26 Nov 2018 - 11:20pm 4

If Facebook is ready to break Hong Kong laws and let local ethnic minority groups and their champions suffer online abuse, then it shouldn’t operate in the city. Photo: Reuters

Opinion

Facebook needs to face up to hate speech

26 Nov 2018 - 6:11am 3