Category Archives: Blog

The SCMP reports… Hong Kong’s top court has been asked to abolish an “extraordinary” and “inexplicable” law prohibiting calls to boycott the city’s “patriots-only” elections on the grounds that it violates residents’ rights to express disapproval of the political system … Continue reading →

…Chow Hang-tung in the HK Alliance ‘inciting subversion’ trial. A translation of part of her closing statement is here. From HKFP… A Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activist standing in a national security trial has urged the court to safeguard the … Continue reading →

Most people appearing in court under Hong Kong’s national security laws (incitement, subversion, sedition, collusion, etc) seem to be there for words rather than actions. But defendants or their lawyers rarely ask the judges to step back and view the … Continue reading →

A Michael Korvig piece in Foreign Affairs a week before Trump’s visit to Beijing… Trump should lead [the West] by example, eschew the mistakes of other visiting heads of state, and refuse ephemeral deals that deepen the United States’ dependence … Continue reading →

Joshua Wong appears in court on a ‘collusion with foreign forces’ charge… He was arrested in June last year while in jail. Wong is currently serving a four-year-and-eight-month jail sentence for his involvement in … election primaries in 2020, in … Continue reading →

Who can resist some bad news about New World? Drawing on a Bloomberg scoop, Reuters via the Standard reports that… Blackstone has walked away from a proposed US$4 billion (HK$31.2 billion) tie-up with Hong Kong’s New World Development after the … Continue reading →

China’s chances of successfully invading Taiwan anytime soon look slim. Military and logistic challenges aside, there are daunting social and political problems. For example, in a country of one-child families, every dead Mainland soldier means the end of his parents’ … Continue reading →

Donald Trump is about to visit Beijing. Inspired by Benjamin Netanyahu’s ability to sucker the tragic dementia case into launching a pointless war against Iran, Chinese officials will no doubt lure him into an irresistible ‘deal’. In return for withdrawing … Continue reading →

UK government statement upon summoning China’s ambassador after the conviction of two men for spying for China… It was made clear that the UK will not tolerate any attempts by foreign states to intimidate, harass or harm individuals or communities … Continue reading →

Book Punch – the store previously punished for serving sake at a book-reading and holding Spanish classes – gets fined again for hosting a stand-up comedy event last year. Was it a ‘staged event’ even though the venue did not … Continue reading →