https://www.scmp.com/rss/307630/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Three controversial bills which would allow gay citizens to marry and adopt are going through Taiwan’s legislative process will, if passed, make it the first Asian – and Chinese – society to legalise same-sex marriage. Has the time come for Hong Kong to face this issue? First recognised in the Netherlands in 2001 and now legal in more than 20 countries, same-sex marriage attracted local attention in 2012 after the coming-out of a newly elected legislator and two pop singers who went on to form... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/2049736/has-time-come-hong-kong-legalise-same-sex-marriage?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/2049736/has-time-come-hong-kong-legalise-same-sex-marriage?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Nov 2016 05:15:45 +0000 The continued dispute between opponents and proponents of a “universal” pension scheme raises a question: are Hong Kong people willing to contribute to retirement funds for one another? Professor Nelson Chow Wing-sang, architect of the so-called “regardless of rich or poor” (non-means tested) model as a result of a government-commissioned study – only to be criticised by the chief secretary for lacking expertise on public finances – said on TV, “it is not a money matter; it is about ethics and... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1915235/if-society-has-duty-ensure-needs-hong-kongs-elderly-are-met?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1915235/if-society-has-duty-ensure-needs-hong-kongs-elderly-are-met?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Feb 2016 08:15:45 +0000 Face recognition technology to help “tag” friends in photographs, fingerprint recognition to unlock smartphones, and fingerprint door locks are just some of the ways in which biometric data has been used in recent years. In Asia, developments include palm vein authentication technology for payments and mobile terminals, or “biocarts” that take photos and fingerprints of passengers for immigration processing in Japan; fingerprint authentication for ATMs in Vietnam; and facial recognition... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1892471/rise-face-and-fingerprint-recognition-technology-just-how?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1892471/rise-face-and-fingerprint-recognition-technology-just-how?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Dec 2015 04:23:32 +0000 What would Confucius say about same-sex marriage? This question set China's social media abuzz after the US Supreme Court last month ruled that same-sex marriage was legal. Affirming "the centrality of marriage" to human lives, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote: "Confucius taught that marriage lies at the foundation of government." To traditionalists, marriage and procreation form the core of Confucian family order. "Husband and wife" come third in his five cardinal relationships, below "ruler and... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1842211/can-confucian-modern-china-accept-same-sex-marriage?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1842211/can-confucian-modern-china-accept-same-sex-marriage?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 20 Jul 2015 20:49:29 +0000 In mainland China, some people had their lives ended, quite literally, "with a bang". Not anymore. For years, strip shows have been a part of some rural funerals, where barely-dressed dancers stripped on stage against a picture of the deceased with cheering mourners, including families and children, watching. Allegedly a decades-old practice in Taiwan, strippers were there to draw a crowd. "It is to give the family 'face'," a villager explained, alluding to a traditional belief that a large... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1808849/demise-strip-shows-more-fitting-send-afterlife?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1808849/demise-strip-shows-more-fitting-send-afterlife?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 May 2015 22:30:45 +0000 With more than 500 species of bird, 50 species of mammal, 100 reptile and amphibian species and countless species of insect - including several that are unique to the territory - Hong Kong's rich biodiversity should be treasured; protecting it should be a broad community endeavour. The international Convention on Biological Diversity was extended to Hong Kong in 2011. It requires the government to develop, in collaboration with the community, a biodiversity strategy and action plan that ... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1660308/hong-kongs-rich-biodiversity-threatened-lack-public?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1660308/hong-kongs-rich-biodiversity-threatened-lack-public?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Dec 2014 04:05:48 +0000 The Environmental Protection Department's decision to grant an environmental permit to the Airport Authority to build a third runway is set to be challenged, with some members of the public planning to file a judicial review against its decision. The fact that such a court challenge has apparently become a routine part of the environmental impact assessment process reflects public doubts about its credibility. The Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance, which took effect in 1998, requires... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1649846/environment-regulator-must-be-more-stringent-hong-kongs-mega?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1649846/environment-regulator-must-be-more-stringent-hong-kongs-mega?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Nov 2014 03:45:45 +0000 Speculation abounds about how China will turn words into action following last month's fourth plenum of the 18th party congress, which was unprecedented in being devoted to "the rule of law" or "ruling the country by law". The proposed reforms, though laudable, may lead one to ponder how these could take root in a society that, according to Randall Peerenboom in China's Long March toward Rule of Law, possesses "a low level of legal consciousness". In The Concept of Law, H.L.A.Hart argues the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1647836/chinas-traditions-make-it-hard-rule-law-root?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1647836/chinas-traditions-make-it-hard-rule-law-root?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Nov 2014 21:15:45 +0000 In February 1989, Deng Xiaoping coined a phrase that would become one of the Communist Party's guiding principles: "The need for stability overwhelms everything else." New measures show just how far the leadership is prepared to go - and how much it is ready to pay - to uphold Deng's motto. Under the mainland's sprawling domestic security apparatus, numerous dissidents have allegedly been detained ahead of politically sensitive events. Now, some well-known activists and their families are taken... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1576257/there-no-better-choice-china-putting-price-peace?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1576257/there-no-better-choice-china-putting-price-peace?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Aug 2014 20:18:50 +0000 Politics is the art of the possible," said Otto von Bismarck, Germany's first chancellor after the Treaty of Versailles. A group of 18 local academics, myself included, have risen to this challenge in putting forward a proposal for electing the chief executive by universal suffrage in 2017. An acceptable plan borders on the impossible amid the current impasse. On the one hand, members of the pan-democratic camp insist on nominating chief executive candidates by civic nomination to achieve "true... https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1469226/civic-choice-and-nominating-committee-are-not-mutually-exclusive?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/article/1469226/civic-choice-and-nominating-committee-are-not-mutually-exclusive?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Apr 2014 09:45:45 +0000 A controversy is raging over the growing phenomenon of "baby hatches" on the mainland amid Guangzhou's abrupt suspension of its new facility after being overwhelmed by abandoned babies. Baby hatches, which originated in Europe in the 18th century and still exist in many countries, including Japan, Italy, Germany and South Africa, are believed to help save infants who would otherwise be dumped in the streets. Mainland China's first baby hatch, or "baby safety island" as it is called in many... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1461883/baby-hatches-are-no-substitute-social-welfare-system?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1461883/baby-hatches-are-no-substitute-social-welfare-system?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 31 Mar 2014 20:03:32 +0000 Are the mainland's anti-smoking efforts merely a smokescreen masking a very different reality? In December, the Communist Party banned officials from smoking in public places and buying cigarettes using state funds. It also barred government offices from selling tobacco products or displaying tobacco advertisements. Then last month, the National Health and Family Planning Commission announced that it was "actively trying to have the National People's Congress (NPC) pass a law to contain the harm... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1429752/320m-yuan-day-habit-mainland-finds-hard-quit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1429752/320m-yuan-day-habit-mainland-finds-hard-quit?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Feb 2014 21:11:10 +0000 Should parents be allowed to educate their children at home? A legal loophole has opened the way for an increasing number of mainland parents who are disillusioned with the education system, amid more and more reports of child abuse in schools, to follow a controversial overseas practice. Subject to regulations, homeschooling is legal not only in many Western countries including Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States, but also in Asian nations such as India and Indonesia as an... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1399191/legal-loophole-opens-chance-homeschooling?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1399191/legal-loophole-opens-chance-homeschooling?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 06 Jan 2014 19:15:15 +0000 Gone may be the days when sensational stories set the mainland's internet abuzz with cuddly sounding characters named "Brother Watch" or "Uncle House". Over the past year, online revelations of officials sporting deluxe watches or owning multiple properties led to a series of corruption probes and brought down a number of low-tier bureaucrats. But a recent legal interpretation may tone things down. On September 9, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate released a joint... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1326574/new-ruling-brings-harsher-penalities-online-rumours?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1326574/new-ruling-brings-harsher-penalities-online-rumours?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 07 Oct 2013 16:00:00 +0000 What money can't buy, the theme underlying Harvard professor Michael Sandel's latest book, may prompt some head-scratching in the mainland's market-driven society. New to the list of household luxuries among its super-rich is breast milk - sometimes straight from the source. Hiring women to nurse the young was a common practice in imperial families. But Mao Zedong called it "decadent", and for decades, the mostly poor masses under his reign clung to breast milk as the only affordable nourishment... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1302087/can-only-be-judged-court-public-opinion?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1302087/can-only-be-judged-court-public-opinion?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Sep 2013 16:00:00 +0000 Three recent news stories conjure up a messy picture of the mainland's rule of law. Liu Hui, brother-in-law of jailed Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, received an 11-year jail term on June 9 after being found guilty of defrauding his business partners of 3 million yuan (HK$3.8 million). The criminal investigation was dropped last autumn and the money returned, but the case was reopened in February. According to the defence lawyer, the private dispute should have been dealt with in a civil... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1263119/strange-workings-mainland-courts-suggest-selective-leniency?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1263119/strange-workings-mainland-courts-suggest-selective-leniency?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:00:00 +0000