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Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te arrived in the Marshall Islands on Tuesday, after visiting the United States on the first stop of a Pacific tour that has angered Chinese leaders. The Marshall Islands is one of 12 remaining nations that recognise Taiwan’s claim to statehood after others jumped ship to China following promises of aid and […]

A court decision that could affect plans for a large-scale public housing project on part of a golf club popular among Hong Kong’s high society will not have a significant effect on housing supply goals, Chief Executive John Lee has said. Lee made the comment on Tuesday, a day after the city’s High Court sided […]

Hong Kong’s budget deficit is expected to double to HK$100 billion this financial year, finance chief Paul Chan has said, citing a property market slump that weighed on government coffers. Chan, at a meeting with the Legislative Council (LegCo)’s panel on financial affairs on Monday, said the deficit for the 2024/25 fiscal year would more […]

Jailed Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai told a US think tank in 2019 that Hong Kong was fighting a new Cold War with China at “the frontier,” the tycoon’s national security has heard. Lai, 76, continued to take the witness stand on Monday as his high-profile trial entered its 100th day. The Apple Daily newspaper founder […]

Hong Kong social worker Jackie Chen has pleaded not guilty again to rioting during a protest in 2019, in a retrial that came after the government appealed against her acquittal four years ago. At the District Court on Monday, Chen denied one count of rioting in relation to a protest on August 31, 2019. That […]

Hong Kong Cantopop singer Pong Nan has vowed to “keep performing,” after his concert scheduled for next January was axed due to a venue cancellation by the city’s art hub. West Kowloon Cultural District said they had no comment on the matter. Nan broke his silence on Sunday, two days after Sunchase Productions announced it […]

The Bay Market returns for its 4th edition at K-Farm in Kennedy Town on Saturday – with thrift stalls, food, and live music, just in time for Christmas. Join us in celebrating sustainability, community, and the joy of second-hand clothing. HKFP will hosting a one-off fundraising merch pop-up with discounts, organic HKFP t-shirts, and – […]

Japanese math-rock legends toe, Hong Kong post-hardcore band An Id Signal, and Taiwan’s Gigantic Roar took to the stages at Clockenflap on Sunday, closing out the 2024 edition of the music festival. Jack White, formerly of rock duo the White Stripes, Britpop pioneers Suede, UK DJ Jamie xx, French electronic duo Air, and critically acclaimed […]

Deeply divided negotiators failed on Sunday to reach a landmark global treaty to curb plastic pollution, missing a self-imposed deadline, and agreed to extend their talks. For a week, delegates from nearly 200 nations meeting in South Korea have wrestled with how to stop millions of tonnes of plastic waste entering the environment each year. […]

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te discussed “China’s military threats” towards the island in a call with former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday, his spokeswoman said in Hawaii, Lai’s first stop on a Pacific trip that has enraged Beijing. Pelosi’s long-standing support for Taiwan has infuriated China, which responded to her visit in 2022 to […]

Two giant pandas gifted to Hong Kong’s Ocean Park by Beijing made their debut appearance in front of the press on Monday. An An and Ke Ke are both five years old. The public will be able to visit them from Sunday. The city’s largest theme park has put its faith in pandas to boost […]

A whale stranded in Hong Kong waters has died, hours after authorities found it wounded and in a weak condition. Experts discovered a canvas bag measuring about half a square metre in the animal’s belly, after it died at midnight on Sunday. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said in a Sunday statement that […]

A Hong Kong man has been charged with murder over a deadly fire that killed 17 people in a karaoke bar in 1997. It follows his capture in mainland China after nearly three decades on the run. Chan Wai-leung, now 52, appeared at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Saturday. He was denied bail and ordered […]

When Anushka moved to Hong Kong from India in 2021, she could never have imagined the fate that awaited her. She knew that her first 21 days in her new home would be spent in isolation, part of the city’s stringent Covid-19 curbs in place at the time. Beyond that, she said, she expected “positive […]

One of the distressing things about writing for the media in Hong Kong these days is that there is one law for the government’s supporters and another for the rest of us. The system is, as a Brazilian president once put it, “for my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.” So, during the trial […]

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te arrived Saturday in the United States for the start of a week-long tour in the Pacific that he said would usher in a new era of democracy, but has sparked fury in Beijing. Lai landed in the US island state of Hawaii shortly before 7:30 am local time (1730 GMT), said […]

President-elect Donald Trump on Monday threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on the BRICS group nations if they undercut the US dollar. “We require a commitment… that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty US Dollar or, they will face 100 percent Tariffs,” Trump […]

More than four years after a Beijing-drafted national security law came into force in Hong Kong, 45 leading democrats finally learned their fate when a mass trial under the legislation ended on November 19. Most had been detained since February 2021. Another high-profile national security trial, which involves the media mogul Jimmy Lai and six […]

Hong Kong property developer New World Development said on Friday that Eric Ma will step down as chief executive officer after having spent just two months on the job. The sprawling business empire, run by Hong Kong’s third-richest family, reported an annual loss of over US$2.5 billion in late September. Former Hong Kong development minister […]

Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun on Friday fulfilled a promise he made after spending $6.2 million on an artwork featuring a banana duct-taped to a wall — by eating the fruit. At one of Hong Kong’s priciest hotels, Sun chomped down on a banana in front of dozens of journalists and influencers after giving a speech […]

Jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has told his national security trial that he hoped the US would impose “more draconian sanctions” on China to stop an imminent national security law promulgated by Beijing in mid-2020. Lai, 76, said on Friday that the US sanctions would “hopefully” force Beijing to reconsider the security law, […]

Hong Kong journalist-turned-activist Gwyneth Ho, who received one of the longest jail terms in the city’s largest national security case, has sought to challenge her conviction and sentence. Ho was jailed for seven years last Tuesday, when judges handed down the sentences for 45 convicted democrats. The case revolved around a primary election in July […]

Over 2,000 Hong Kong construction workers and subcontractors have seen delayed wages and project fees in the first 11 months of 2024, involving a total of HK$300 million. The amount of money involved is so large a union said it is the highest in 40 years. The Hong Kong Construction Industry Employees General Union, a […]

A Beijing court on Friday sentenced veteran Chinese state media journalist Dong Yuyu to seven years in prison on espionage charges, his family said. Dong Yuyu, a senior columnist at the Communist Party newspaper Guangming Daily, was detained in February 2022 along with a Japanese diplomat at a Beijing restaurant. The diplomat was released after […]