https://www.scmp.com/rss/308989/feed Dr Victor Zheng is assistant director of the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is also the coordinator of the university's Global China Research Programme, and co-director of the Centre for Social and Political Development Studies. His research interests are Chinese family business and inheritance, Hong Kong business culture and history, social indicators and social development, and global China studies. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com With tens of thousands of people crossing the border to or from Hong Kong during the holiday season, people in Hong Kong have been enjoying post-pandemic life for almost 10 months since the mask mandate was finally lifted at the beginning of March 2023. The city government has launched a series of campaigns such as “Hello Hong Kong” to boost tourism and “Happy Hong Kong” to lighten residents’ hearts as part of efforts to boost the city’s economy. Hong Kong is rising from the sickbed of Covid-19... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3246856/rising-liveability-doesnt-herald-hong-kongs-return-pre-covid-normal?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3246856/rising-liveability-doesnt-herald-hong-kongs-return-pre-covid-normal?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Jan 2024 01:30:21 +0000 Hong Kong, named the most liveable city in the world in 2012 by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), topped the ranking of 140 global cities mainly thanks to a special weighting in the index for the city’s green space, lack of sprawl, natural assets and connectivity. In the following years, the EIU’s ranking returned to its original five categories: stability, health care, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. After the change in methodology, Hong Kong not only lost the top... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3160401/peoples-perceptions-life-hong-kong-are-changing-better-could-be?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3160401/peoples-perceptions-life-hong-kong-are-changing-better-could-be?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 21 Dec 2021 22:45:11 +0000 The Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link opened this weekend, yet public excitement over the prospect of a brand-new high-speed rail link has been tempered by the numerous controversies that have surrounded it over the past eight years. History may help to define the future if we study the past. The Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCR) was the first cross-border railway connecting Hong Kong with mainland China. The railway has a British section and a Chinese section.... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2165244/how-kowloon-canton-railway-history-sheds-light?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2165244/how-kowloon-canton-railway-history-sheds-light?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Sep 2018 00:00:45 +0000 A few high-ranking government officials, business leaders and politicians recently urged the youth of Hong Kong to consider relocating to cities in the Greater Bay Area and commute to Hong Kong in the future. This proposal is close to being achievable, given the major transport infrastructure that will soon link Hong Kong and mainland China – the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the high-speed rail. Given the record-high housing prices in Hong Kong and the presumed opportunities on the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2148149/why-zhuhai-and-other-greater-bay-area-cities-are-not-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2148149/why-zhuhai-and-other-greater-bay-area-cities-are-not-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 May 2018 09:44:39 +0000 A public poll on the housing outlook conducted by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at Chinese University of Hong Kong last December confirms that most people don’t support the use of interventionist measures as a solution to tamp down surging home prices. Views are now equally split among the positive (rising), negative (falling) and neutral (stable). Actually, sentiment changed when the double stamp duty was raised to a flat rate of 15 per cent in November 2016 as some who used to be... https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2132727/tightened-mortgage-rules-may-have-done-more-harm-good-cooling?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2132727/tightened-mortgage-rules-may-have-done-more-harm-good-cooling?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 10 Feb 2018 01:15:30 +0000 In her maiden policy address, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor outlined a push for home ownership as the answer to the prolonged housing problems in Hong Kong. Through various schemes, such as the “Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme”, the better-off public housing tenants and middle-income families will get help to buy their own flats. A Starter Homes scheme to help young families will also be launched. Apparently, the government is trying to replicate Singapore’s public... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2121788/why-singapores-housing-model-wont-work-home-ownership-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2121788/why-singapores-housing-model-wont-work-home-ownership-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 27 Nov 2017 10:15:15 +0000 Hong Kong’s Exchange Fund surprisingly issued additional debt papers of HK$40 billion (US$5 billion) in August, supposedly to absorb excess liquidity in the banking system. However, the Hong Kong dollar had been trading on the weak side of the peg, i.e. over 7.8 per US dollar, for several months. People are wondering whether the move was in defence of the peg, or with other policy implications. Monetary statistics show that cause for concern is not unfounded. By definition, M3 of the Hong Kong... https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/2110313/hong-kongs-exchange-fund-has-case-answer-its-defence?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/2110313/hong-kongs-exchange-fund-has-case-answer-its-defence?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 08 Sep 2017 05:48:29 +0000 When the Innovation and Technology Bureau was set up in late 2015, aspirations were high and promises made. However, Hong Kong has fallen three places, to 16th, in this year’s Global Innovation Index. Why have all the government efforts in the past 20 years or so proved ineffective? The Global Innovation Index 2017 report, covering 127 economies, offers much insight. The main index is comprised of the input and output sub-indexes. It has five areas of innovation “input”: institutions, human... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2107724/why-shadowing-singapore-or-china-wont-help-hong-kong-climb?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2107724/why-shadowing-singapore-or-china-wont-help-hong-kong-climb?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Aug 2017 05:21:25 +0000 The report “The World in 2050”, published earlier this year by PricewaterhouseCoopers, predicts that China and the emerging economies will overtake the US and developed economies as the global growth engine. Hong Kong will have entered its second 50 years of post-reunification, and this shift will call for an innovative role, given that its traditional role as a “connector” between the East and the West is fading. The report forecasts that the emerging and developed economies together would... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2105937/financier-greater-china-hong-kong-has-unbeatable-edge?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2105937/financier-greater-china-hong-kong-has-unbeatable-edge?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Aug 2017 08:53:53 +0000 Last November, the Hong Kong government again raised the stamp duty for buying residential property, yet housing prices also reached a new high. Apparently, these additional “spicy” measures could not arrest the price hike. For the past four years, the government has endeavoured to stabilise the housing market, but in vain. So, why don’t these demand-side measures work? When the global financial tsunami hit in September 2008, Hong Kong’s housing market was already grossly imbalanced, with a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2072969/why-hong-kong-failing-rein-housing-prices?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2072969/why-hong-kong-failing-rein-housing-prices?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 22 Feb 2017 09:09:55 +0000 Since the Occupy Central movement, emigration has ­become an important talking point in Hong Kong. Local media have even compared this phenomenon to the “brain drain” in the 1980s and 1990s, triggered by the so-called “confidence crisis”. We want to know if there really is a big wave of emigration from Hong Kong. If so, who are the people who want to leave? And, what implications can we draw from this phenomenon? A city-wide phone survey was conducted from September 23 to 27 by the Hong Kong... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2042981/belt-and-road-offers-discontented-hong-kong-youth-vista?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2042981/belt-and-road-offers-discontented-hong-kong-youth-vista?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Nov 2016 02:01:50 +0000 In 2014, nearly 61 million tourists visited Hong Kong, 78 per cent of whom were from mainland China. Their visits have brought not only remarkable economic benefits to Hong Kong, but also huge social costs. Not only have the daily lives of Hong Kong people been affected, but social conflicts within the city and between Hong Kong and the mainland have also been heightened. A series of provocative protests against tourists and parallel traders have recently occurred. The influx of mainland... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1735165/hong-kong-must-find-rational-way-ease-tensions-over-mainland?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1735165/hong-kong-must-find-rational-way-ease-tensions-over-mainland?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Mar 2015 09:48:00 +0000 Benny Tai Yiu-ting’s Occupy Central campaign has provoked heated discussions among the local community. Supporters of the movement are confident the campaign will aid the struggle for universal suffrage, and even enhance civil society in Hong Kong and raise awareness of the rule of law. (In Tai’s words, rise from “needing to adhere to the law” to “achieving righteousness with the law”.) Opponents, however, feel that the campaign undermines the rule of law and could even shake the economic and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1295910/occupy-central-survey-what-people-think-protest-campaign?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1295910/occupy-central-survey-what-people-think-protest-campaign?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Aug 2013 16:00:00 +0000