https://www.scmp.com/rss/505897/feed Two Sessions refers to China's annual parliamentary meetings, where the two main political bodies of China - the National People's Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) - reveal plans for China's policies involving the economy, military, trade, diplomacy, the environment and more. Normally held in March, the 2020 gatherings were postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Restoring the economy that was badly hit by the... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Beijing is cracking the whip on the mainland’s cutthroat tutoring market by introducing tighter regulations. At the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference meeting in March, President Xi Jinping described the country’s market for after-school training services as a “social problem”, noting that “the disorder among tutorial centres is an entrenched malady” and called for “all social aspects and related departments” to join hands to solve the problem. It’s not news that the education... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3135224/teaching-tutoring-centres-lesson-wont-get-root-chinese-students?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3135224/teaching-tutoring-centres-lesson-wont-get-root-chinese-students?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 31 May 2021 01:15:13 +0000 The political overhaul instigated by Beijing is nothing more than stifling a very rightful feeling of dissent. The pan-democrats never aimed at overthrowing the central government. They never aimed at independence. They never even challenged the fact that we’re a part of China. Their sole purpose was to preserve our unique identity and the promise that Hong Kong was to be governed by Hongkongers. All of this has been thrown out of the window now, since, according to Beijing, Hongkongers must be... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3124518/hong-kongs-can-do-spirit-will-not-be-crushed-despite-political?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3124518/hong-kongs-can-do-spirit-will-not-be-crushed-despite-political?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Mar 2021 23:00:17 +0000 The most baffling point of the national security law is that Hongkongers, the key stakeholders, were left completely uninformed of any details before being informed of its passage, which makes it absolutely unacceptable. If this is not authoritarian or totalitarian, tell me what is. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor herself said she was not clear about the law as she didn’t have the details, yet she urged the public to support it before its passage. How could one show approval of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3091687/hong-kong-people-let-down-lack-leadership-and-answers-security-law?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3091687/hong-kong-people-let-down-lack-leadership-and-answers-security-law?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 05 Jul 2020 23:00:08 +0000 Twenty-three years after returning to China, Hong Kong is facing another landmark transition with far-reaching ramifications for its future.  Beijing’s new national security law for the city is expected to be passed on Tuesday, the eve of the handover anniversary. This time, the party atmosphere will be lacking. But the uncertainties and concerns which occupied the minds of Hong Kong people in 1997 have returned. The manner in which the law is being passed is a timely reminder of the reason the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3090367/what-will-national-security-law-give-hong-kong-and-what-will-it?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3090367/what-will-national-security-law-give-hong-kong-and-what-will-it?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Jun 2020 22:30:13 +0000 Beijing is pushing ahead with its national security law for Hong Kong at a breathtaking pace. The National People’s Congress passed a resolution requiring its Standing Committee to enact the legislation less than a month ago. A draft was considered by the committee for the first time last week. But it will convene again on Sunday and the law, which aims to stop subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with external forces, is expected to be passed by the end of the month. This is a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3090148/release-draft-hong-kong-national-security-law-meaningful-debate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3090148/release-draft-hong-kong-national-security-law-meaningful-debate?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Jun 2020 14:37:22 +0000 It is not surprising that the central government has become impatient about the prolonged legal loophole in Hong Kong’s ability to protect national security and has decided to introduce a national security law for Hong Kong. Despite this, the Hong Kong government should seize the opportunity and take steps to legislate Article 23 of the Basic Law as well. Although the national security law and Article 23 do not seem to be fundamentally different, each law can plug each other’s loopholes and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3089643/hong-kong-should-welcome-national-security-law-and-legislate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3089643/hong-kong-should-welcome-national-security-law-and-legislate?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 19 Jun 2020 22:20:10 +0000 China is the first country to produce a white paper on the coronavirus pandemic. It will not be the last to face some soul-searching on its response to the outbreak and scrutiny of lessons learned. Premier Li Keqiang set the stage for the release of the 37,000-word paper in his recent work report to the National People’s Congress, with a rare admission that “many weak links” had been exposed in public health emergency management. People had recommendations that “deserve our attention”. He... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3088687/weak-links-china-virus-fight-need-fix?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3088687/weak-links-china-virus-fight-need-fix?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Jun 2020 15:18:13 +0000 Frustrated by an increasingly hostile United States, the Covid-19 pandemic, a continuing protest deadlock in Hong Kong, and Taiwan’s dismissal of its “one country, two systems” overture, China has hit out on several fronts. From border skirmishes with India to tough posturing in the South China Sea, Beijing is flexing its muscles with a new go-it-alone resolve. On May 28, China’s National People’s Congress voted to pass on a weighty task to its Standing Committee – “establishing and improving... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087906/protests-national-security-law-and-donald-trumps-response-show-hong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087906/protests-national-security-law-and-donald-trumps-response-show-hong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Jun 2020 22:00:11 +0000 The notion that China will emerge stronger from the crisis and seek to fill the void in global leadership left by a retreating United States has become conventional wisdom among Western commentators. Judging by the long-delayed meeting this year of the National People’s Congress, though, Chinese leadership is more focused on managing its own economic woes than leading the world. Beijing holds its conservative maxim that no matter how complicated the international situation has become, China must... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087713/coronavirus-and-trade-war-pushing-china-focus-fixing-economy-rather?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087713/coronavirus-and-trade-war-pushing-china-focus-fixing-economy-rather?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Jun 2020 01:00:19 +0000 Two proposals submitted to the National People’s Congress have sparked lively online debates, and both concern the role of English in China. One delegate, Yang Weiguo of Hunan, called for a cancellation of English translation at government press conferences, arguing that it was a way to promote Chinese culture and demonstrate China’s cultural confidence. Another delegate, Tang Hailong of Beijing, who obviously adopted the same line of thinking as Mr Yang, proposed downgrading the importance of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087565/why-downgrading-english-boost-chinas-cultural-confidence-bad-idea?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087565/why-downgrading-english-boost-chinas-cultural-confidence-bad-idea?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Jun 2020 00:30:17 +0000 Over the past week I have spent much time flipping in shock between Fox News and CNN trying to understand what is going on inside the United States. I have been doing the same with China and its decision to introduce a security law in Hong Kong. The experience is surreal. How can intelligent, well-educated people watch the same events, absorb the same information, and yet reach such radically opposite conclusions? How can one man’s crisis of police brutality and racial discrimination be another... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087652/what-do-trumps-base-chinas-national-peoples-congress-and-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087652/what-do-trumps-base-chinas-national-peoples-congress-and-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Jun 2020 05:00:09 +0000 Before it was replaced by “five demands, not one less” last year, “time is money” had long been Hong Kong’s unofficial motto. Visitors and expatriates were amazed at how fast Hongkongers ate or walked, often at the same time. The “umbrella movement” in 2014, the first political movement in the city in which large segments of society took part for an extended period of time, ultimately failed because Hongkongers could not bear the inconvenience and extra time in going to work and going... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087338/chinas-national-security-law-poses-existential-threat-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087338/chinas-national-security-law-poses-existential-threat-hong-kongs?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Jun 2020 01:00:06 +0000 The Hong Kong government does take care of business; first and foremost, the business of its billionaire tycoons. But it also deserves credit for what it has done lately for Hongkongers as a whole, notwithstanding the confidence crisis caused by ramrodding the national anthem bill through the Legislative Council and abdicating to Beijing the enactment of a national security law as required by Article 23 of the Basic Law. Nevertheless, the news on Covid-19 from around the world has me thanking my... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087404/how-hong-kong-got-its-coronavirus-response-right-taking-care?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087404/how-hong-kong-got-its-coronavirus-response-right-taking-care?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Jun 2020 22:30:06 +0000 For those who are old enough, we have seen this movie before. Once again, the Chinese communist bogeymen are coming to get us, or so the story goes. Last time, they would roll in tanks, like they did at Tiananmen in 1989. This time, it’s not even as tangible as tanks – it’s a national security law. Never mind that such a law was actually required under the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution. Before the 1997 handover, there was a mass emigration exodus. People worried about the brain drain.... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087825/never-bet-against-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087825/never-bet-against-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Jun 2020 17:26:12 +0000 Hong Kong was in the world news again last week. This was not because of our continued success in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, with only four deaths since the outbreak began. Instead, it was because of the National People’s Congress decision to pass a national security law for Hong Kong. The NPC – of which I am a Hong Kong delegate – passed a motion authorising its Standing Committee to draft and adopt legislation against separatism, subversion of state power, terrorist activities and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087511/hong-kong-must-have-faith-national-security-law-will-be-clear-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087511/hong-kong-must-have-faith-national-security-law-will-be-clear-and?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Jun 2020 01:30:13 +0000 It was a delight to read Yonden Lhatoo’s article in the Sunday Morning Post, wherein he took US politicians to task for their insidious support for the riots in Hong Kong (“Fix your own problems first, America, never mind ours”). Well said, sir. Sadly, chickens are coming home to roost for Senator Ted Cruz, Representative Nancy Pelosi and others of their ilk. Just as in Hong Kong, the law-abiding public suffers. The September 11 attacks brought home to politicians and the American public at... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3087508/us-or-hong-kong-when-politicians-show-support-violence-its-law?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3087508/us-or-hong-kong-when-politicians-show-support-violence-its-law?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Jun 2020 22:25:12 +0000 Beijing’s move to introduce a national security law for Hong Kong has sparked fresh upheaval and ominous threats from Washington, which has declared Hong Kong insufficiently autonomous from China. To many, the doomsday scenario for Hong Kong is near: highly mobile capital and human talent flee the city, Hong Kong’s role as an international financial centre quickly declines and China’s global standing suffers irreparable damage. The rapidly deteriorating situation is a cause for alarm. To get out... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087165/make-hong-kong-safe-again-both-sides-must-turn-pragmatic-compromise?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087165/make-hong-kong-safe-again-both-sides-must-turn-pragmatic-compromise?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 04 Jun 2020 01:30:12 +0000 The recently concluded National People’s Congress meetings delivered two important economic messages. First, Beijing has placed job and social stability ahead of an explicit growth target as this year’s economic priority. Second, fulfilling these objectives will not be easy and will require policy easing to fend off negative forces to keep the economy on an even keel. However, not announcing a growth target does not mean the authorities will accept any growth rate. A back-of-the-envelope... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087051/chinas-clear-message-jobs-and-stability-now-take-lead-economic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087051/chinas-clear-message-jobs-and-stability-now-take-lead-economic?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Jun 2020 13:00:11 +0000 Failure is not an option for any self-respecting superpower, but history’s guarantees for nations are few. For big as well as small, survival can prove a struggle. So, while humility might not be the top-ranked virtue of prudent superpowers, internalising at least a healthy measure of it would seem wise. A singular anniversary later this week, and a series of sad events this past week in the United States and elsewhere, make this point emphatically. On June 4, 1989, the government of the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087103/trump-and-us-should-focus-george-floyd-rather-hong-kong-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087103/trump-and-us-should-focus-george-floyd-rather-hong-kong-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Jun 2020 01:00:19 +0000 There is something wonderful about the fact that a small island in the Pearl River Delta rose to become a great trading city and commercial powerhouse of East Asia. Wonderful, but not accidental or fortuitous. Hong Kong succeeds because its people are free. They can pursue their dreams and scale as many heights as their talents allow. They can debate and share new ideas, expressing themselves as they wish. And they live under the rule of law, administered by independent courts. With their... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087252/hongkongers-fearing-their-way-life-britain-will-provide-alternative?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087252/hongkongers-fearing-their-way-life-britain-will-provide-alternative?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Jun 2020 21:00:36 +0000 The press conference that follows the closing session of the National People’s Congress every year is show time for the Chinese premier. Unlike his predecessor, Wen Jiabao, who had a penchant for classical Chinese poetry, Li Keqiang favours a simple, unadorned style. But I believe that many were impressed by Li’s press conference wrapping up the NPC meeting on May 28, when he took a question about China’s policy orientation. “We have been saying that we won’t flood the market” with excessive... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087108/chinas-coronavirus-stimulus-geared-towards-economic-survival-no?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3087108/chinas-coronavirus-stimulus-geared-towards-economic-survival-no?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Jun 2020 09:00:08 +0000 Betrayal is the most apt word I can find to describe my feelings about Beijing’s foisting of a national security law on Hong Kong. I had been optimistic on July 1, 1997, when the city passed to Chinese rule, and ceased to be a British colony, under the “one country, two systems” concept of governance. There was no reason to disbelieve the assertions that the city would have a “high degree of autonomy”, and freedoms as they existed would remain and even be strengthened. Now, I am disappointed and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086820/national-security-law-bitter-betrayal-hong-kongs-promise-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086820/national-security-law-bitter-betrayal-hong-kongs-promise-and?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Jun 2020 01:00:17 +0000 The extradition controversy that exploded last June was like Mrs O’Leary’s cow, which ran amok, caused a fire in the family barn and apparently led to the Great Chicago Fire of October 1871. Hong Kong is ‘burning’, with some radical protesters chanting: “If we burn, you burn with us”, taken from Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games: Mockingjay. Considering the city on the verge of breakdown, the National People’s Congress took the unexpected step of approving a national security law, causing local and... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086829/national-security-law-how-burning-hong-kong-wore-out-beijings?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086829/national-security-law-how-burning-hong-kong-wore-out-beijings?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 01 Jun 2020 22:00:11 +0000 Former undersecretary for the environment Christine Loh Kung-wai gave an interesting history lesson on an RTHK talk show last week during a discussion of the proposed national security legislation. She reminded listeners she was a member of the Legislative Council in the 1990s. Before the handover, the council had a draft bill which “would have plugged the hole for Article 23”. She called it “a rather liberal version”. For various reasons, which Loh described as the “wisdom of the times”, the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086701/hong-kong-has-no-one-blame-itself-beijings-intervention-national?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086701/hong-kong-has-no-one-blame-itself-beijings-intervention-national?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 31 May 2020 08:00:11 +0000 Last Thursday, May 21, at the Two Sessions of the National People’s Congress and the CPPCC, Beijing announced that this year it was dropping its growth targets, which have been a feature of Chinese economic planning since 1990. One has to assume Beijing would have preferred not to have to drop the growth target. The Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting global recession has surely made any growth target very difficult to reach, not just for China but for all countries. In that context, this was... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3086769/chinas-decision-drop-economic-growth-target-blessing-disguise?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3086769/chinas-decision-drop-economic-growth-target-blessing-disguise?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 31 May 2020 03:30:18 +0000 Since the protests started, you have published a number of letters centred on the theme of the government not listening to the people. I refer to the one on May 25, titled “Hong Kong government must not forget who it serves”, written by Matthew Fung of Quarry Bay. May I be permitted to say that the Hong Kong government does listen, since I am sure that none of its members is deaf. They hear, but do not necessarily act, which is their prerogative, especially when what they hear are demands, often... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3086368/hong-kongs-violent-protesters-do-not-deserve-have-their-demands?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3086368/hong-kongs-violent-protesters-do-not-deserve-have-their-demands?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 May 2020 23:55:15 +0000 In 1921, economist Frank Knight wrote a book about risk, uncertainty and profit. Risk is where the outcome is unknown, but it is possible to measure the odds of the risk happening; these are known unknown events. Uncertainty, in Knight’s world, is where the outcome is unknown and it is not possible to measure the odds. These black swan risks are inherently unpredictable even though we know they exist; these are unknown unknowns. Investors manage risk daily with their buy and sell decisions and... https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3086324/beijings-national-security-law-heightens-risk-and-uncertainty-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3086324/beijings-national-security-law-heightens-risk-and-uncertainty-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 May 2020 17:00:13 +0000 With the expected passage of the National People’s Congress resolution on national security this week, mainland and Hong Kong officials assure us that the proposed law will be narrowly drafted and pose no threat to basic freedoms and the rule of law in Hong Kong. This assurance should be doubted. The claim that public officials are reliable people who will only go after the bad guys underlies the People’s Republic of China’s tradition of rule by law. It presumes that a society of laws is one... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086269/will-hong-kongs-rule-law-survive-challenge-beijings-national?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086269/will-hong-kongs-rule-law-survive-challenge-beijings-national?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 May 2020 01:00:07 +0000 Your columnist Yonden Lhatoo hits the nail on the head when he asks, “Is Hong Kong American or Chinese territory?” (May 23). Since World War II, US hegemony in the Asia-Pacific has not been seriously challenged, not because they are right but simply because of their might. Now we have two bullies in the playground, the People’s Republic of China and the United States. So what does the US offer that makes the black-clad protesters wave the Stars and Stripes? As yet, neither the pro-democratic... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3086296/hong-kong-national-security-law-pro-democrats-lost-their-chance-now?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3086296/hong-kong-national-security-law-pro-democrats-lost-their-chance-now?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 May 2020 23:40:09 +0000 Last Friday, after Beijing dropped a bombshell of imposing a national security law on Hong Kong, a foreign journalist asked if I was scared. As a journalist myself, I have to admit I fear the law could harm my work. When China’s parliament enacts the law, would I still be able to write that I detest the country’s authoritarian government? Would I break the law if I urged the United States to protect Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy that the Basic Law promised? Beijing has only laid out... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086275/why-beijings-national-security-law-hong-kong-leaves-too-many?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086275/why-beijings-national-security-law-hong-kong-leaves-too-many?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 May 2020 22:30:08 +0000 This is a seminal moment for Hong Kong and its 23-year experiment with “one country, two systems”. The drafting of the national security law in Beijing, bypassing the Hong Kong legislature, sends a worrying signal to the international community at large, along with the international business community. The reaction from the United States is also likely to be swift and hard. Hong Kong has now truly become a lightning rod in rising geopolitical tension. Calm heads need to prevail or this gem of a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086291/us-business-wants-hong-kong-succeed-companies-need-clear-details?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086291/us-business-wants-hong-kong-succeed-companies-need-clear-details?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 May 2020 17:00:13 +0000 As China’s national legislature deliberates a draft decision on establishing and improving the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for Hong Kong to safeguard national security, huge criticism has poured in from the West. Leading the charge was US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who urged China to “reconsider its disastrous proposal” and “abide by its international obligations”. Chris Patten, the last governor of the former British colony, also aired his views, having never failed to seize... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086099/new-cold-war-dawns-and-us-pursues-strategic-competition-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3086099/new-cold-war-dawns-and-us-pursues-strategic-competition-china?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 May 2020 22:15:05 +0000 Is there a right to undermine the safety and territorial integrity of your own country? Put the question this way, and few people in their right mind would say yes. But if you ask: is there a right to insist on your political beliefs even if it means the destruction or disintegration of communist China, a lot of people would jump up and say yes! So it should surprise no one that the draft decision put forward last Friday during the third session of the 13th National People’s Congress to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3085949/distrust-china-has-blinded-hongkongers-beijings-intent-pushing?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3085949/distrust-china-has-blinded-hongkongers-beijings-intent-pushing?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 May 2020 01:00:09 +0000 After an extraordinary year marked by months of civil unrest and the Covid-19 outbreak, there were hopes that normal life might finally return to Hong Kong. But as most of the world continues to battle the deadly pandemic, Hong Kong faces an existential threat of a different kind. Beijing’s decision to impose a new national security law on the city has plunged it into a new era of fear and uncertainty. The details are not yet known and officials are scrambling to offer reassurance. But once this... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3085831/can-we-trust-beijings-security-law-will-target-hong-kongs-violent?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3085831/can-we-trust-beijings-security-law-will-target-hong-kongs-violent?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 May 2020 01:00:17 +0000 Premier Li Keqiang has delivered a government work report that reflects the times to the national legislature. It is shaped to brace for the social and economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the fallout of deteriorating relations with the United States. Amid all the uncertainties, Li set the tone by breaking with the practice of setting a target for economic growth, or gross domestic product. Bypassing a GDP growth target takes some pressure off local governments to blindly pursue growth... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3085726/report-li-keqiang-reflects-challenges-ahead-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3085726/report-li-keqiang-reflects-challenges-ahead-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 May 2020 13:55:21 +0000 The annual session of the National People’s Congress is getting the market’s full attention these days since Beijing is expected to announce a strong stimulus package to stabilise the Chinese economy amid the Covid-19 shock. However, to my mind, the market might be overly focusing on short-term issues, while to some extent ignoring some policies over a longer time horizon. To take a step back, the Chinese authorities have in the past few months published a series of documents pledging to push... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3085593/coronavirus-or-not-china-must-focus-big-picture-economic-reforms?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3085593/coronavirus-or-not-china-must-focus-big-picture-economic-reforms?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 May 2020 05:59:44 +0000 Chaos, fear and suffering has a habit of focusing the mind and highlighting what really matters. While much of Europe is easing out of lockdown, globally the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic is still very much on. Once mighty nations have ground to a halt in the space of weeks, with populations confined and economies stalled. We are still collectively facing terrible suffering and death tolls. Yet history tells us that, out of cataclysms, we can build anew. The League of Nations was born from... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3085219/truly-multilateral-order-can-emerge-ashes-coronavirus-pandemic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3085219/truly-multilateral-order-can-emerge-ashes-coronavirus-pandemic?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 20 May 2020 19:00:16 +0000 As one of the first countries to emerge from what may still just be the first wave of this coronavirus crisis, China also has an opportunity to lead the world in demonstrating what a green economic revival can look like. Already, China’s emissions – like those across the rest of the world – have dropped sharply as a result of this crisis. In the four weeks after Lunar New Year, it is estimated that domestic emissions dropped by as much as 25 per cent, equivalent to around 200 million tonnes of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3084603/china-can-show-world-what-green-economic-recovery-looks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3084603/china-can-show-world-what-green-economic-recovery-looks?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 May 2020 01:30:10 +0000 The May Day national holiday weekend beginning tomorrow is a test of the mainland’s success in combating the coronavirus. If there was any doubt about confidence that it has been brought under control it has been answered by the announcement of new dates for the “two sessions” – the annual meetings of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) – postponed from the usual date in early March because of the pandemic. The NPC, China’s... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3082205/two-sessions-dates-tell-world-china-back-business?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3082205/two-sessions-dates-tell-world-china-back-business?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 Apr 2020 13:02:16 +0000 To resume work or not to resume work? That is the tough question China’s leaders, from central government to the local authorities, are grappling with for the moment as the novel coronavirus outbreak has basically put the whole country in lockdown mode for the past three weeks. There is no easy answer as they are caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, officials encouraged by a recent fall in new infections hope to restart production as soon as possible to mitigate the impact on... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3050695/coronavirus-going-ahead-chinas-two-sessions-normal-would-be?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3050695/coronavirus-going-ahead-chinas-two-sessions-normal-would-be?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Feb 2020 01:30:13 +0000