https://www.scmp.com/rss/266466/feed Occupy Central -- also known as the Occupy movement and the "umbrella movement" -- was a large-scale show of civil disobedience that began in Hong Kong on September 28, 2014. It called on protesters to block roads and paralyse the city's financial district if the Beijing and local governments did not agree to implement universal suffrage for the 2017 chief executive election and the 2020 Legislative Council elections according to "international standards". The movement was the brainchild of... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Oscar Liu Oscar Liu Former Hong Kong opposition lawmaker Shiu Ka-chun has said doctors performed emergency surgery to remove half of his stomach due to cancer and he has lost 15kg (33lbs) in weight as a result. Shiu, 55, revealed the stomach cancer diagnosis on social media on Sunday and shared pictures of himself on a hospital bed praying before eating a meal. He said a tumour analysis would determine whether he needed to undergo chemotherapy or other medical treatment. The former legislator from the social... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3285017/former-jialed-ringleader-hong-kongs-occupy-movement-shiu-ka-chun-reveals-cancer-battle?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3285017/former-jialed-ringleader-hong-kongs-occupy-movement-shiu-ka-chun-reveals-cancer-battle?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Nov 2024 11:06:23 +0000 Recently, a heartwarming scene unfolded at the Hong Kong Coliseum at the FIVB Volleyball Women’s Nations League. On June 15, after the Chinese team clinched a tough comeback victory over world No 1 Turkey, the crowd spontaneously erupted, singing Red Sun, the classic anthem by Hong Kong legend Hacken Lee Hak-kan. Clips of thousands of fans belting out the familiar Cantonese lyrics went viral on the mainland’s social media. The moment was a glimpse into the potentially unifying role of sports in... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3267606/nothing-brings-hongkongers-and-mainland-chinese-closer-together-sports?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/hong-kong-opinion/article/3267606/nothing-brings-hongkongers-and-mainland-chinese-closer-together-sports?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 25 Jun 2024 01:30:08 +0000 A core member of a team that partnered with the “Dragon Slaying Brigade” to plot a bomb attack on Hong Kong police in 2019 has told a court that a former district council election candidate financed purchases of firearms from the US and paid for a few men to receive military training in Taiwan. The High Court on Monday heard this and other evidence from prosecution witness Eddie Pang Kwan-ho, who said he and his team leader Ng Chi-hung had met in 2014 during the Occupy Central movement, and... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3265223/former-hong-kong-politician-major-backer-firearms-purchase-us-dragon-slaying-brigade-plot-court?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3265223/former-hong-kong-politician-major-backer-firearms-purchase-us-dragon-slaying-brigade-plot-court?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Jun 2024 11:58:40 +0000 How different 2024 is from 2003. Hong Kong is in a different world now. Many of the old assumptions about what the city was and how it connected with mainland China and the rest of the world have been completely upended. We need to recognise the new realities and develop a new vocabulary to talk about them sensibly. And that includes Article 23. It was in this completely changed world that last Tuesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu introduced a month-long public consultation on the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3250999/article-23-and-tragedy-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3250999/article-23-and-tragedy-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 Feb 2024 13:00:09 +0000 Evidence shows the eight fugitives with HK$1 million (US$127,600) bounties on their heads continue to threaten national security and seek to “destroy Hong Kong and intimidate officials” by calling for international sanctions, police have said. The seven men and one woman, aged between 26 and 74, included well-known names who had left the city during the peak of the 2019 social unrest and after Beijing’s imposition of the national security law on Hong Kong in 2020. Following police’s announcement... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3226444/hong-kong-national-security-law-who-are-8-targeted-hk1-million-bounties-calls-sanctions-links-2019?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3226444/hong-kong-national-security-law-who-are-8-targeted-hk1-million-bounties-calls-sanctions-links-2019?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Jul 2023 01:00:21 +0000 My parents are both from Fujian province in southeast China. My father moved to Hong Kong for work. In China, Hong Kong was seen as a city where your dreams could come true, it could be life-changing. Initially, he worked at a Chinese products store and when my rich great-great-uncle, who lived in Singapore, opened the three-storey Sanki Department Store in Western district on Hong Kong Island, he began working there. My father returned to Fujian and married my mother. I was the firstborn, in... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3221127/finding-god-without-church-artist-tozer-pak-religion-harnessing-art-good-and-loving-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3221127/finding-god-without-church-artist-tozer-pak-religion-harnessing-art-good-and-loving-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 May 2023 23:15:09 +0000 This article was first published in the South China Morning Post on September 29, 2014. It has been republished online as part of Hong Kong 25, which looks at how the city has changed since the handover, and what its future holds. By SCMP Reporters The streets of Central and Admiralty descended into chaos last night after police in riot gear fired tear gas at protesters as the Occupy Central campaign, a movement that promised “peace and love”, escalated. By midnight there was little sign of the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3179277/september-28-2014-hong-kong-police-fire-tear-gas-thousands?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3179277/september-28-2014-hong-kong-police-fire-tear-gas-thousands?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Jun 2022 08:30:15 +0000 A Hong Kong political scientist viewed as a rising star of local academia has left Education University of Hong Kong following attacks by pro-Beijing media over his alleged pro-independence stance. A university spokesman confirmed on Sunday that associate professor Brian Fong Chi-hang was “no longer” a member of staff but declined to comment further. His profile page on the university’s website was also no longer accessible. Fong was an associate professor and associate director of the Academy... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3166902/political-scientist-brian-fong-leaves-education-university?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3166902/political-scientist-brian-fong-leaves-education-university?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Feb 2022 15:04:10 +0000 Hong Kong’s trade office in Australia has sought to distance itself from a brewing controversy over allegations that it exerted political influence on the country’s largest Asian-themed festival to pull a cultural workshop that featured yellow umbrellas – a local protest emblem. The furore over the cancelled workshop was such that Australian foreign affairs minister Marise Payne waded into the fray during a Senate hearing on Thursday, saying Canberra would follow up on the matter. At the centre... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3154082/canberra-pledges-look-alleged-censorship-hong-kong-workshop?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3154082/canberra-pledges-look-alleged-censorship-hong-kong-workshop?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 Oct 2021 23:00:26 +0000 A Lingnan University academic known for his social commentary and for joining a class boycott during the 2014 Occupy movement said on Friday that he had been terminated, with no reason given. The adjunct professor of cultural studies, Law Wing-sang, confirmed he was sacked on Friday, a day after the university said his employment there had ended in September, without elaborating on the nature of his departure or the reasons behind it. The university also said another academic, adjunct associate... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3150955/hong-kongs-lingnan-university-terminates-2-professors-who?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3150955/hong-kongs-lingnan-university-terminates-2-professors-who?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Oct 2021 16:36:35 +0000 A former student leader who rose to prominence during the 2014 Occupy movement has taken the helm of a Washington-based advocacy group, arguing that foreign lobbying is indispensable to what he described as the “long game” of preserving Hong Kong’s freedoms and autonomy. Alex Chow Yong-kang, now 31, has been named the new board chairman of the two-year-old Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC), succeeding Anna Yeung-Cheung, who has retired. Currently pursuing a doctoral degree in geography at the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3149695/former-occupy-activist-takes-helm-washington-based-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3149695/former-occupy-activist-takes-helm-washington-based-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Sep 2021 09:59:11 +0000 One of the co-founders of Hong Kong’s Occupy movement has revealed that he is in Taiwan serving as a visiting professor at a university there, dismissing suggestions the move was an “abrupt” bid to flee the city. Sociologist Chan Kin-man on Tuesday said he had received an invitation from Taipei’s National Chengchi University while behind bars for his role in the 2014 civil disobedience movement. Chan was released in March last year after serving his 16-month sentence. The scholar’s departure... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3141824/occupy-founder-leaves-hong-kong-teaching-position-taiwan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3141824/occupy-founder-leaves-hong-kong-teaching-position-taiwan?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Jul 2021 09:38:36 +0000 Nine Hong Kong opposition leaders and activists have lost an appeal against their convictions for their roles in the 2014 Occupy protests. The Court of Appeal on Friday delivered its unanimous ruling to the challenge mounted by the final group to be tried over the 79-day protest, also known as the umbrella movement. Among them were the movement’s three founders: legal scholar Benny Tai Yiu-ting, retired sociologist Chan Kin-man and Reverend Chu Yiu-ming. The three-judge panel also unanimously... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3131704/hong-kongs-high-court-unanimously-rejects-appeal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3131704/hong-kongs-high-court-unanimously-rejects-appeal?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Apr 2021 02:38:09 +0000 Has 2047 arrived early for Hong Kong’s electoral politics? Having created functional constituencies to ensure safe hands would dominate the Legislative Council in the final years of British rule, the departing colonial authorities opened a few seats to direct election and infused the legislature with a sense of importance, such as by introducing governor’s question time. Beijing was willing to let Hong Kong experiment with elections then. It assumed that by 2007, a decade after the transition,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/hong-kong/article/3125821/hong-kong-election-reform-beijing-demanding-loyalty?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/hong-kong/article/3125821/hong-kong-election-reform-beijing-demanding-loyalty?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Mar 2021 01:15:16 +0000 One of the co-founders of Hong Kong’s Occupy Central movement, Benny Tai Yiu-ting, has been sent back to jail to await the outcome of his appeal against his conviction and prison sentence over the 2014 protests. The Court of Appeal reserved judgment on the long-awaited appeal on Thursday, and revoked Tai’s bail at the conclusion of the three-day hearing. Prosecutors had objected to Tai’s release on the grounds he was “alleged to have committed a crime” while out on court bail. Tai is among the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3124100/benny-tai-sent-back-jail-await-hong-kong-courts-ruling?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3124100/benny-tai-sent-back-jail-await-hong-kong-courts-ruling?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Mar 2021 09:56:53 +0000 The three founders of 2014’s Occupy Central movement engaged in what was merely a “conspiracy to inspire”, not one to create a public nuisance – the actual charge they were convicted of five years later – their lawyers have argued on appeal. Opening the three-day appeal at the High Court on Tuesday, solicitor advocate Eric Cheung Tat-ming said this was the first case in Hong Kong in which the organisers of a peaceful demonstration had been charged with conspiracy and incitement, and severely... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3123820/hong-kong-court-hears-occupy-co-founders-engaged?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3123820/hong-kong-court-hears-occupy-co-founders-engaged?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Mar 2021 16:30:09 +0000 I refer to Cliff Buddle’s article and respectfully disagree with his opinion (“A fake news law is not the answer to misinformation”, February 6). The trouble with an independent media is that “acting responsibly” comes before you earn “independence”, and in this regard I strongly suggest the media has failed. In terms of the overall coverage of Hong Kong’s troubles, starting in 2014 with the Occupy Central disturbances, both the Hong Kong local and international media gave a consistently biased... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3121099/fake-news-law-hong-kong-media-will-have-only-itself-blame?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3121099/fake-news-law-hong-kong-media-will-have-only-itself-blame?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Feb 2021 23:00:21 +0000 Hong Kong will choose its next leader in March next year. As the election of this sixth-term chief executive draws near, the requisite qualities of a chief executive have again become a hot topic of discussion in political circles. In recent official statements on the prerequisites of the office, patriotism has emerged as the paramount quality. The most significant comment came from President Xi Jinping, who said at his virtual meeting last month with Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3120660/2014-occupy-protests-and-2019-unrest-leave-no-doubt-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3120660/2014-occupy-protests-and-2019-unrest-leave-no-doubt-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Feb 2021 01:15:13 +0000 Hong Kong pro-government activist Leticia Lee See-yin died on Wednesday, with postmortem testing revealing she had been preliminary-positive for Covid-19, according to two medical sources, though the cause of death was not immediately clear. Lee, 56, was declared dead upon arrival after being taken to Pok Oi Hospital, one of the sources added. A police spokesman confirmed the husband of a 56-year-old surnamed Lee had called for an ambulance at 12.17pm from a village block in Yuen Kong San Tsuen... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3114221/high-profile-hong-kong-activist-leticia-lee-champion-police?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3114221/high-profile-hong-kong-activist-leticia-lee-champion-police?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Dec 2020 12:29:20 +0000 As a child, I used to think that Santa Claus lived in Hong Kong. The clue was written on the back of the plastic toys he left under the Christmas tree: “Made in Hong Kong”. Given that his postal address was the North Pole, this was puzzling but aspects of Christmas were often inexplicable. My parents, for instance, moved house frequently yet Santa Claus always knew where we lived. Mysterious Hong Kong was part of the seasonal fairy tale. The rhyming words echoed Henny Penny and Chicken Licken... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3113515/northern-irelands-troubles-present-day-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3113515/northern-irelands-troubles-present-day-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 13 Dec 2020 02:15:09 +0000 Just once I want to hear a policy address that doesn’t put me to sleep or drive me to drink. Last week’s was a double whammy: within minutes I was drinking in my sleep. To be fair, it was not a complete disaster. There were some parts I quite liked. But there were also missed opportunities and some important areas were completely omitted. The good news is that the section on land for housing seemed quite strong. I counted more than a dozen sites and categories of land with indicative timings and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3111688/once-again-political-reform-left-out-carrie-lams-policy-address?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3111688/once-again-political-reform-left-out-carrie-lams-policy-address?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 29 Nov 2020 20:00:15 +0000 Chef Sunny Zie lived a lifetime in those seven days. Cooking non-stop, he says, he survived on barely any food and no more than nine hours’ sleep in total on a cold, tiled floor, on the verge of liver failure. “I was afraid that if I ate too much I would fall into a relaxed state and then a deep sleep. But I had to stay awake to cook for the protesters and help them recharge their batteries,” Zie says. The 39-year-old Hong Kong chef remembers his “cooking battle” in a Hong Kong Polytechnic... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3109228/hong-kong-protests-chef-polyu-siege-recalls-trauma-cooking-more-1000?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/3109228/hong-kong-protests-chef-polyu-siege-recalls-trauma-cooking-more-1000?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 10 Nov 2020 23:15:19 +0000 All in all, it has been a very Jeffrey Wasserstrom kind of year. Hardly a week has gone by in which global headlines have not seemed like an extension of his own interests as a historian, scholar and one of the West’s leading sinologists. Wasserstrom’s profile page at the University of California, Irvine (where he is Chancellor’s Professor of History) lists those interests as “China, Protest, Globalization, Gender, Urban”. Very 2020. How have decades of research into youth protest move­ments... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3108550/future-hong-kong-uncertain-and-unpredictable?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3108550/future-hong-kong-uncertain-and-unpredictable?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Nov 2020 03:15:15 +0000 3.5/5 stars Socially conscious Hong Kong feature films are rapidly becoming extinct. Given that commercial film financiers are allergic to content that might appear even remotely unfriendly to Beijing’s narrative, and creative expression risks being further curtailed by the ill-defined yet all-encompassing reach of the national security law, it is unlikely we will ever again see a movie make even mild mention of the city’s political reality. All of which makes Apart feel like a last hurrah.... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3107841/apart-movie-review-political-activism-meets-young-love-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3107841/apart-movie-review-political-activism-meets-young-love-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 Oct 2020 08:15:17 +0000 It has been more than 100 days since the imposition of the national security law on Hong Kong on June 30. In the third part of a series, the Post looks at how it has led to the emergence of a group of exiled dissidents who have sought refuge abroad and another group who have chosen to stay and fight. See parts one and two here. Nathan Law Kwun-chung has barely stepped out of his flat in London since fleeing his hometown days before Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong on... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3104917/national-security-law-and-hong-kongs-exiled-dissidents-worlds?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3104917/national-security-law-and-hong-kongs-exiled-dissidents-worlds?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Oct 2020 23:30:06 +0000 Last month, retired bishop Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun flew to Rome, aiming to meet Pope Francis and ask him to choose a bishop for Hong Kong as soon as possible. In an interview with the Post, he stressed that politics should be kept out of the selection process (“Cardinal Zen appeals to Pope to keep politics out of Hong Kong bishop decision”, September 30). His good intentions might have gained the support of many who also believe that religion should be separated from state power. Yet, the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3104362/why-hong-kong-catholics-need-not-worry-about-future-city?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3104362/why-hong-kong-catholics-need-not-worry-about-future-city?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Oct 2020 22:45:10 +0000 A one-time Hong Kong independence activist has been sued by police for more than HK$170,000 (US$22,000) for allegedly injuring four officers during an Occupy protest six years ago. The District Court claim filed against Billy Chiu Hin-chung, 35, was calculated based on 148 days of sick leave granted to four senior constables and compensation for one of those officers’ permanent loss of an estimated 1.5 per cent of his earning capacity due to injuries. The case stemmed from a police clearance... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3100743/government-seeks-damages-against-hong-kong-activist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3100743/government-seeks-damages-against-hong-kong-activist?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Sep 2020 12:51:39 +0000 From over-the-top induction activities for freshmen to rowdy protests at convocation and graduation ceremonies, students in local universities make headlines for the wrong reasons from time to time. While the Covid-19 pandemic and social-distancing restrictions have dampened such incidents, a spoof of the University of Hong Kong’s welcome video has stirred controversy. The two-minute clip by the student-run Campus TV welcomed students to the “University of Xiang Gang”, the Mandarin romanisation... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3100395/parody-video-may-fuel-further-mistrust?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3100395/parody-video-may-fuel-further-mistrust?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 05 Sep 2020 17:46:50 +0000 Ever since the future of postcolonial Hong Kong became an issue in the early 1980s, the quest for universal suffrage, narrowly equated with democracy, has in some quarters become the be all and end all of the “one country, two systems” project. The outgoing British rulers deftly managed to escape censure for not granting Hongkongers universal suffrage much earlier, but China got blamed for allegedly breaking its “promise” of democracy in the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the future of Hong... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3097364/why-hong-kong-does-not-need-more-democracy-right-now?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3097364/why-hong-kong-does-not-need-more-democracy-right-now?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Aug 2020 00:00:14 +0000 More than 3,900 academics, students and members of the public have signed a petition calling on two Hong Kong universities to retract their decisions to sack a pair of academics over their involvement in the 2014 Occupy Central protests. The joint petition said the dismissal of Benny Tai Yiu-ting, a law scholar at the University of Hong Kong, and Baptist University social work lecturer Shiu Ka-chun was reflective of the political repression facing dissidents as well as shrinking academic freedom... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3097510/academics-students-sign-petition-calling-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3097510/academics-students-sign-petition-calling-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Aug 2020 09:42:08 +0000 As an undergraduate student reading law and politics at the University of Hong Kong, I think I have to agree with Benny Tai Yiu-ting, my former teacher, that his dismissal over the convictions from the Occupy Central movement marked “the end of academic freedom in Hong Kong”. An HKU statement said it had acted “in light of the judgment of the courts” and decided on termination for “good cause”. HKU’s mission is to develop a pluralistic and supportive intellectual environment for scholars and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3096955/hong-kong-protests-firing-benny-tai-did-mark-end-academic-freedom?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3096955/hong-kong-protests-firing-benny-tai-did-mark-end-academic-freedom?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 12 Aug 2020 22:30:06 +0000 On reflection, post-1997 Hong Kong charts the history of an uphill battle for democracy. To many, we now seem to be back at square one. The Basic Law allows for the transition from a partial democracy to full electoral democracy, subject to constitutional review and consensus. This laid the ground for a continuous tug of war between the pan-democratic camp demanding “double universal suffrage” – for electing both the chief executive and the legislature – and Beijing insisting on gradual change... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3096838/hong-kong-needs-win-democratic-progress-however-small?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3096838/hong-kong-needs-win-democratic-progress-however-small?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 11 Aug 2020 22:15:15 +0000 Last month, the American Political Science Association announced it would relocate an upcoming workshop, themed “Contentious Politics and its Repercussions in Asia”, to Seoul, South Korea, due to concerns Hong Kong’s new national security law would “limit free academic inquiry and exchange”. Also last month, the Association for Asian Studies, which has about 6,500 members worldwide, called on universities to be “extremely cautious” about recording, storing and transmitting recordings of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3096370/national-security-law-hong-kong-scholars-fear-unknown?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3096370/national-security-law-hong-kong-scholars-fear-unknown?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Aug 2020 23:30:08 +0000 Your editorial on the University of Hong Kong’s dismissal of former associate professor Benny Tai Yiu-ting (“University challenge: HKU must work to restore its academic reputation”, July 30) shows a lack of understanding of the concept of academic freedom as provided in Article 137 of the Basic Law, which states that: “Educational institutions of all kinds may retain their autonomy and enjoy academic freedom. They may continue to recruit staff and use teaching materials from outside the Hong... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3095942/why-university-hong-kongs-firing-benny-tai-does-not-violate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3095942/why-university-hong-kongs-firing-benny-tai-does-not-violate?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Aug 2020 23:00:16 +0000 Lawyers for a mechanic facing jail after his repairs resulted in a garage explosion that claimed three lives told a Hong Kong court on Tuesday that he was only following his employer’s instructions. But Madam Justice Judianna Barnes observed that Lai Chun-ho, 39, knew he was not qualified in repairing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanks when his handling of a taxi resulted in an explosion at a garage on Wan Fung Street in Wong Tai Sin on April 26, 2015. “Evidence shows that there had been... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3095978/hong-kong-mechanic-whose-repairs-resulted-deadly?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3095978/hong-kong-mechanic-whose-repairs-resulted-deadly?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Aug 2020 09:25:52 +0000 More than 2,500 students, staff and alumni at the University of Hong Kong have signed a petition demanding its governing council withdraw the dismissal of legal scholar and Occupy movement co-founder Benny Tai Yiu-ting. In the petition, submitted to the university on Monday, the student union, which organised the campaign, also urged the council to make public the justifications for Tai’s dismissal within a week and amend the existing procedures of having government-appointed members sitting on... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3095825/more-2500-hku-students-staff-and-alumni-sign-petition?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3095825/more-2500-hku-students-staff-and-alumni-sign-petition?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Aug 2020 09:20:12 +0000 The head of the University of Hong Kong body responsible for sacking Benny Tai Yiu-ting over his court convictions for the Occupy protest movement has rejected suggestions the decision was a result of political interference, as he declared the institution could not have the criminal on its staff roll. In an exclusive interview with the Post, the chairman of HKU’s governing council Arthur Li Kwok-cheung said none of its members had been approached by outsiders or encountered other forms of... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3095411/university-hong-kong-governing-council-chief-defends-benny?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3095411/university-hong-kong-governing-council-chief-defends-benny?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 30 Jul 2020 23:00:30 +0000 Sacking an employee in the wake of a criminal conviction may not necessarily seem unreasonable from the perspective of management. But the decision by the University of Hong Kong’s council to dismiss associate professor Benny Tai Yiu-ting, who was sentenced to 16 months in prison last April for two public nuisance offences in relation to the 2014 Occupy protests opposed by Beijing, has deepened concerns among academia in our polarised environment. The move by the university’s governing body is... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3095245/university-challenge-hku-must-work-restore-its-reputation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3095245/university-challenge-hku-must-work-restore-its-reputation?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 Jul 2020 16:20:19 +0000 The University of Hong Kong has made the right decision to sack legal scholar and political activist Benny Tai Yiu-ting. No reputable public institution or private company should keep someone with a criminal conviction on staff. It’s as simple as that. Tai was convicted and jailed for his part in the 2014 Occupy protests that he helped launch. But the drawn-out way university management went about with the firing has generated unnecessary controversy and allowed both sides – the yellow... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3095232/why-both-sides-get-benny-tais-case-wrong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3095232/why-both-sides-get-benny-tais-case-wrong?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 Jul 2020 13:54:56 +0000 Is Benny Tai a deeply religious and committed campaigner for greater democracy or an anti-government separatist who has misled young minds as a legal academic at the University of Hong Kong? He has been called both, depending on who is speaking. The scholar was on Tuesday sacked by the university over criminal convictions for his role in the 2014 Occupy movement. Allies said Tai, a Christian, had always been an optimistic person, touting how he raised proposals for activism often deemed... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3095156/who-benny-tai-some-say-sacked-university-hong-kong-academic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3095156/who-benny-tai-some-say-sacked-university-hong-kong-academic?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 Jul 2020 09:30:16 +0000 Occupy movement co-founder and legal scholar Benny Tai Yiu-ting is to appeal his sacking by the University of Hong Kong to the city’s leader, even though he admitted it was futile. A day after the HKU governing body voted to immediately remove him from his tenured post, Tai announced on his Facebook page he would take the issue to Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who in her official capacity is the default chancellor of the publicly funded institution. “Though I know this is a futile... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3095120/sacked-legal-scholar-benny-tai-challenge-hong-kongs-leader?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3095120/sacked-legal-scholar-benny-tai-challenge-hong-kongs-leader?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 Jul 2020 05:53:39 +0000 The University of Hong Kong’s governing council sacked legal scholar Benny Tai Yiu-ting on Tuesday over his criminal convictions for the Occupy protest movement he co-founded in 2014. Tai, an associate professor of law and outspoken opposition activist, learned his fate on Tuesday night after the HKU council reversed a recommendation by the university’s senate earlier this month that there were not enough grounds to dismiss him although his actions amounted to misconduct. Responding to his... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3095043/university-hong-kong-governing-council-sacks-legal-scholar?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3095043/university-hong-kong-governing-council-sacks-legal-scholar?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Jul 2020 12:09:00 +0000 Photojournalist Laurel Chor Lik-fung walks into a cafe in Hong Kong’s Central district, camera dangling from one hand. Being prepared is crucial. “I might have to head to the Metropark Hotel. It’s just been named as the location for Beijing’s national security office,” she says. Born in Canada – she left Vancouver and moved to Hong Kong with her family aged five – she says that as with many industries, Covid-19 has created a tough climate for freelance journalists. Gone for now are the days of... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3093877/hong-kong-photojournalist-laurel-chor-protests-primates-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3093877/hong-kong-photojournalist-laurel-chor-protests-primates-and?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Jul 2020 11:15:17 +0000 Beijing has issued its strongest condemnation yet of a controversial election primary held by Hong Kong’s opposition parties, singling out organiser and long-time activist Benny Tai Yiu-ting, whom it accused of “illegally manipulating” the city’s polling system, challenging the new national security law and acting as a political agent for foreign forces. In a scathing statement on Tuesday, the cabinet-level Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) lashed out at those behind last weekend’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3093175/hong-kong-elections-beijing-issues-strongest-condemnation?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3093175/hong-kong-elections-beijing-issues-strongest-condemnation?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 14 Jul 2020 12:25:46 +0000 The nomination of candidates to run in the upcoming Legislative Council elections begins at the end of the week. Many people, from across political lines, expect the results of the September poll to be a game changer for Hong Kong – so much so that the pan-democratic primaries held over the past two days became not only the focus of political junkies, but also that of Erick Tsang Kwok-wai, the new secretary for constitutional and mainland affairs who has been in the job for less than three... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3092677/legco-elections-benny-tais-35-plus-strategy-will-take-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3092677/legco-elections-benny-tais-35-plus-strategy-will-take-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Jul 2020 01:00:19 +0000 A legal scholar found guilty of creating a public nuisance during Hong Kong’s pro-democracy demonstrations has cleared the first steps of a review by his university into whether he should be fired, the Post has learned. But Benny Tai Yiu-ting could still be sacked from his tenured job as an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) during the final round of the inquiry. Tai, 55, was sentenced to 16 months’ jail in April last year after being convicted of two public nuisance... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3092744/hong-kong-protests-legal-scholar-convicted-over-role?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education/article/3092744/hong-kong-protests-legal-scholar-convicted-over-role?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Jul 2020 14:24:37 +0000 The Hong Kong body politic has a serious underlying health condition that makes our city particularly vulnerable to political viruses. Assuming we survive the national security flu outbreak, we will still need to go back and address the underlying problem. The simple truth is that our administration knows how to administer but not to govern. The opposition knows how to obstruct but not how to work the system to get things done. In short, we have a bad case of chronic immaturity syndrome. The... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3090625/national-security-law-looms-heres-what-really-ailing-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3090625/national-security-law-looms-heres-what-really-ailing-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Jun 2020 06:30:14 +0000 Former Occupy student leaders Joshua Wong Chi-fung and Nathan Law Kwun-chung have thrown their hats into the ring for the opposition camp’s primaries in the lead-up to Hong Kong’s Legislative Council elections, despite facing disqualification under the impending national security law. Announcing his bid to seek the camp’s endorsement for a Kowloon East seat on Friday, Wong warned he could be slapped with harsher penalties over his political stance, should the legislation being tailor-made by... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3089858/former-occupy-student-leaders-joshua-wong-nathan-law-bid?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3089858/former-occupy-student-leaders-joshua-wong-nathan-law-bid?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Jun 2020 12:00:07 +0000 Britain has appointed a former top envoy to Hong Kong during the “umbrella movement” as its next ambassador to China, a move that comes as London hardens its stance on Beijing amid the row over its former colony. The appointment of Caroline Wilson – who was consul general to Hong Kong and Macau between 2012 and 2016 – was announced by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on Monday. She is expected to take up her ambassadorial role in September, succeeding Barbara Woodward. Wilson is... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3089176/former-hong-kong-envoy-chosen-new-british-ambassador-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3089176/former-hong-kong-envoy-chosen-new-british-ambassador-china?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Jun 2020 17:11:05 +0000 A year ago this week the events that propelled Hong Kong to the position it finds itself in today began with one of the biggest marches the city has ever seen. It was a peaceful protest over the now-shelved extradition bill. There was no warning of what was to come. Within days, tens of thousands surrounded government headquarters at Admiralty, delaying passage of the bill. Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Protest violence soon escalated to unprecedented levels, including the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3088898/damaged-hong-kong-can-get-back-track-through-peace-and-stability?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3088898/damaged-hong-kong-can-get-back-track-through-peace-and-stability?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Jun 2020 14:43:43 +0000