Big Lychee, Various Sectors

From HKFP – Chief Justice Andrew Cheung Kui-nung uses the ceremonial opening of the legal year to state that courts are not designed to serve political ends…

The chief justice said on Monday that national security cases, despite attracting attention due to their “political sensitivity,” were no different from other cases processed by the city’s courts.

“The same principles of law apply in national security cases as in others,” Cheung said. “Judges at all levels are expected to, and indeed do, adhere to them in the adjudication of cases.”

“Judges, far from being designed to serve political ends, are bound by legal principles. Courts are not arbiters of public opinion, nor are they an extension of the prosecution authority; they are, above all, guardians of the law,” he added.

Lots of things perform roles for which they were not designed. But why does he feel a need to say this? Is it because NatSec courts have specially chosen judges, do not have juries, and nearly always side with the prosecution – ie the government? Hence opposition politicians, wearers of T-shirts, posters on Facebook and others being convicted for things that were never considered crimes up until around five years ago.  

As if to pre-empt this point…

[The CJ] also warned against drawing “sweeping conclusions” about the rule of law or judicial independence based on a few high-profile national security cases.

Mark Clifford, former SCMP editor and Next board member, and author of a book on Jimmy Lai, does an interview with The Wire China. Includes some ‘sweeping conclusions’…

Jimmy Lai was put in jail four years ago. He and I had been doing a lot of weekly live stream events through the second half of 2020. I was angry and exasperated, but I was also in disbelief. I couldn’t understand how the [Hong Kong authorities] could throw this guy in jail for basically practicing journalism. 

…I don’t quite understand the charges honestly. They seem to be about collusion with foreign forces, because he had met people like John Lewis or former vice president Mike Pence, or former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, or national security advisor John Bolton or Nancy Pelosi when she was Speaker of the House … Tung Chee-hwa was in the White House a lot more than Jimmy Lai was. 

…But the narrative seems to be that somehow he was this evil mastermind who got a couple of million Hong Kong people out to protest in 2019 and was convincing Hong Kong people that they should have something that, as far as Chinese are concerned, they don’t deserve and aren’t ready for. And that’s freedom. The Chinese authorities are really mad because they expected that Hong Kong people would buckle, that they could be bought off, bribed, bullied, controlled, and beaten…

…I think he’ll be found guilty. It’s a sham trial because the judges clearly are out to convict him, as they have convicted most national security law defendants. For a while the current Secretary of Security, Chris Tang, was able to boast of a 100 percent conviction rate, which is not really the kind of thing you usually like to boast about, because it only happens in a totalitarian society.

…It’s a reflection of how far Hong Kong has fallen. Instead of celebrating somebody like Jimmy, or the 45 civic leaders … you take your best and your brightest, whether they’re lawyers, journalists, professors or business people, and lock them up and deny society everything that they could create… 

The former US VP speaks at the UBS Wealth Insights summit in Hong Kong and calls for the release of Jimmy Lai…

One of the charges against Mr. Lai is an allegation that he met with the then-VP in 2019 to lobby for U.S. sanctions. Mr. Pence denies it. “Jimmy Lai did not ask for U.S. sanctions or any action against Hong Kong or China,” he recently told us. If Mr. Lai is being prosecuted for proximity to Mr. Pence, are the business leaders at this week’s summit at risk?

Marco Rubio, nominated to be the next Secretary of State, said in his confirmation hearings that Beijing has broken all the guarantees it made to Hong Kong. The big question for the city is how it can claim to be a global financial and trade center when it holds political prisoners and can confiscate a newspaper from its owner without so much as a court order.

The authorities encourage conferences to send a message of business as usual. They are helped by prominent speakers who show up, offer platitudes, and collect fat speaking fees. Mr. Pence opted instead to speak a hard truth on Hong Kong soil. The Chinese and Hong Kong governments would do well to put aside their irritation that he did so.

Pence follows with a stopover on the way home…

The news outlet cited a source familiar with the matter as saying that Pence decided to add the stop in Taipei to “see for himself.”

Pence also wants to remind Taiwanese that the US is an ally that “won’t allow what’s happened to Hong Kong to happen to Taiwan,” it added.

The Human Rights Watch 2025 report section on China contains quite a bit about Hong Kong…

After the SNSO came into effect, police arrested six people in May, including prominent activist Chow Hang-tung who is already imprisoned, for allegedly publishing “seditious” posts online to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. Three people were sentenced to between 10 and 14 months in prison for “sedition” for wearing a T-shirt, making online posts, and drawing pro-democracy graffiti on buses. The Hong Kong government used the new powers under the SNSO to revoke the Hong Kong passports of six exiled activists and to deny political prisoners early release for good behavior.

In May, three judges handpicked for national security cases convicted 14 activists and ex-Hong Kong lawmakers of “conspiracy to commit subversion” in the city’s largest national security trial to date, with 31 other defendants having earlier pleaded guilty. In November, the court sentenced all 45 to prison terms ranging from 4 years and 2 months to 10 years.

At least 304 people have been arrested for allegedly violating the National Security Law, the SNSO, and the now-revoked “sedition” law since 2020. Among the 176 individuals charged, 161 have been convicted. According to police figures, 10,279 people have been arrested in connection with the 2019 pro-democracy protests, among whom 2,328 “faced legal consequences” including conviction, many for non-violent crimes like “unlawful assembly.”

Press freedom declined further. Media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s national security trial, which began in December 2023, is ongoing. The 76-year-old Lai has been held in solitary confinement since December 2020. In September, two journalists of the now-defunct Stand News were sentenced to 21 and 11 months respectively for “sedition.” That month, the government denied work visa and entry into the city to an Associated Press photojournalist who took photos of Jimmy Lai in prison.

From HKFP, a good backgrounder on PORI – the polling group led by Robert Chung and recently raided by NatSec Police…

With dozens of civil society groups disbanded and large-scale protests [and, you could add, democratically elected lawmakers] disappearing since Beijing imposed a national security law, PORI’s polls are among the few remaining indicators of the public’s views on societal issues.

For example, a survey in October showed that those who did not want children cited the city’s education system, political environment and living space as the main reasons for remaining childless.

…State-backed media have long portrayed POP and PORI as an “anti-China” organisation that fabricates survey results to rally the opposition. One of the earliest criticisms of POP was that Robert Chung in 2004 received funding from the National Democratic Institute, an American NGO, to conduct a survey relating to the Legislative Council elections that year.

In 2015, an op-ed in Wen Wei Po suggested that POP’s survey outcome indicating that the majority of people supported the 2014 Occupy Central movement and wanted universal suffrage was false, and sought to doubt on how the research was carried out.

…Beijing-backed media have also been critical of the long-running PORI polls asking respondents about their sense of identity… In a Dot Dot News op-ed last year, the writer said PORI had used the question of asking people if they identified as Hongkonger and Chinese to promote Hong Kong independence.

“Naturally… people respond that they are a Hongkonger… PORI’s conclusion is that most people do not think they are Chinese, thereby openly supporting Hong Kong independence and localism,” the op-ed read.

Paul Krugman is pessimistic about China…

…China isn’t really retrogressing technologically; in fact, it has shown an impressive ability to compete on fairly advanced technologies. What these [total factor productivity] numbers probably reflect is a combination of massive amounts of wasted investment, especially in real estate, slowing progress in the economy outside sectors the government favors, and a general crackdown on the private sector.

…What’s remarkable is that China’s leadership seems completely unwilling to adjust to this changing reality.

As you can see from the chart above on investment shares, China hasn’t moved at all toward the kind of lower investment, higher consumption economy it needs to become. Instead, investment as a share of GDP has gone even higher, thanks to government policies that both fueled a monstrous real estate bubble and pushed investment in government-favored industries even when they already had excess capacity.

A recent report in the Wall Street Journal laid this failure to adjust squarely at the feet of Xi Jinping. Xi clearly distrusts the private sector and wants to strengthen central control; he also has views about consumption — which ultimately has to become the economy’s main support — that sound like a cross between German ordoliberalism and Tea Party conservatism:

…China may be only middling in terms of per capita income, but it has so many people that it’s an economic superpower — and by all accounts Xi is obsessed with expanding China’s power, economic and otherwise, in ways that would never occur to the leader of a smaller nation.

Former Jimmy Lai deputy Mark Simon thinks Trump will make life much harder for Beijing…

Maybe the CCP will continue on the same path they’re on now; belligerence, and a complete disregard for the interest of other nations.  I think Xi would like to continue on their destructive walkabout throughout the world.

But I don’t think that’s gonna be the case with Trump and a team of China Hawks now in the White House.

I fully expect Trump to drive the CCP crazy with his offers of great deals while at the same time smacking them around like a redheaded stepchild. I am convinced, after talking to many people over the past four years that Xi and his top folks loath Trump. That dislike of Trump is also probably what drove them in large part to their wishful thinking about a Harris victory.

There’s a lot of people making predictions about what China is gonna be doing in the next year. We are a few days away from a new president. My suggestion would be if you were making a prediction about what was gonna happen based on pre-election metrics, the Chinese thinking they would be opposite Harris, you might want to reconsider your conclusions.

We’ll see. I suspect the Chinese leadership will find it pretty easy to get Trump to give in on export controls, tariffs, TikTok, Taiwan, etc.

(Must say, I’m impressed by Trump’s pre-inauguration issuance of a cryptocurrency. Perhaps the most breathtakingly cynical of his scams yet. Are there people dumb enough to buy it and let the insiders cash out in a big way?)

What do the heavily manned and funded NatSec police do all day? We don’t know. What state of mind do you end up in if you have to spend weeks trawling through Facebook or surreptitiously inspecting people’s T-shirts in an unceasing hunt for seditious incitement? We don’t know that, either. Meanwhile…

An off-duty Hong Kong national security police officer attempted to seize a gun from a colleague inside a station on Wednesday after he was arrested for allegedly taking upskirt photos of a woman, with the suspect and two others injured during the struggle.

The constable, a member of the force’s National Security Department, grappled with two other officers inside Tsim Sha Tsui Police Station as he tried to snatch the gun, the Post learned.

No shots were fired.

(HKFP story here.)

Hong Kong’s political, legal, media and other institutions have become heavily patriotic and opposition-free in recent years. But the authorities and media are still pretty open about law enforcement personnel involved in such diverse wrongdoings as: money laundering (seven, yesterday), knocking someone off a speeding motorbike (fatally, last week), driving while drunk (two months ago), taking HK$1 million in bribes (recently in court), and beating and framing homeless men (ditto). Contrast with the flat-out rejection of documented allegations of excessive use of force during the 2019 protests. At least, it seems, no-one has the means or the willingness (or awareness?) to censor other sorts of disciplined services’ ill-discipline. If they would whitewash anything, surely it would be an alleged case of creepy and pitiful ‘upskirt’ photos.

PR companies salivate at the news that a tycoon is pledging a decent sum of money to ‘boost Hong Kong’s image’. The SCMP reports…

Tycoon Michael Kadoorie is spearheading a drive to raise US$50 million to promote Hong Kong through a worldwide PR campaign, the Post has learned, two months after a Beijing official told local business leaders to take “concrete actions” to support the city.

Sources said on Thursday that Kadoorie, chairman of CLP Group, the city’s largest electricity supplier, met several property tycoons including Peter Lee Ka-kit, co-chairman and managing director of Henderson Land Development, and Sun Hung Kai Properties’ Raymond Kwok Ping-luen, as well as representatives from Nan Fung Group and Alibaba Group Holding three weeks ago to share his grand plan. Alibaba is the owner of the Post.

“Kadoorie pointed out that Hong Kong has a bad name outside with its political problems and felt that there is a need to launch a campaign to turn the tide, telling the world that Hong Kong is safe and a good place to do business,” a source told the Post.

Looking forward to another Consulum saga!

The number of Hongkongers visiting Japan reaches all-time highs: 2.7 million in 2024, up 17% from 2019, and 285,000 in December 2024, up 14% from December 2023. 

Could it be that inbound tourism encourages the outbound variety? The more Mainlanders, Saudis, Eskimos and whatever the government attracts to Hong Kong (44 million last year), the more local people rush off somewhere else to escape hordes of selfie-taking cake-buyers clogging up their neighbourhoods. To make the circle complete, millions of Japanese must now head off to sunny Riyadh. 

The latest on desperate official attempts to boost visitor numbers…

Hong Kong may need to import halal food for all the Muslim tourists it aims to entice to the city, a minister said on Wednesday.

…Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk said as Hong Kong develops into a Muslim-friendly tourist destination, halal food could be brought in from abroad.

“Hong Kong may not have many Muslims, but we need to make a lot of halal food. There are many Muslim countries in Asean, and we can attract restaurants and import food from these nations,” he said.

So… Hong Kong has quite a few Muslims; there’s no problem in ‘making’ halal food – no special ingredients are required; there are two and a bit majority-Muslim countries in Asean (Indonesia and Malaysia, plus plucky little Brunei); and there is no need to import restaurants or specific foodstuffs from them (there are quite a few halal restaurants around). 

Strictly halal (ritually slaughtered) meat is sold in Hong Kong – there’s a butcher in Wanchai that’s been offering it for decades – but most Muslims aren’t too fussed, providing it’s not pork. 

Other government moves aimed at attracting more visitors from Muslim nations include encouraging hotels to set up worship facilities, and persuading taxi drivers to provide information in Arabic (why not Urdu, Turkish and Persian while they’re at it?).

What about providing worship facilities in taxis?

On the subject of Asean – Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth answers questions about it at his confirmation hearing. (This guy is not the stupidest nominee: the one for public health is an anti-vax whacko, and the one for intelligence is pro-Russia.)

Throwing caution to the winds, Reg comes up with some hard-headed suggestions on how to curb the government’s budget deficit by freezing civil service recruitment and pay. No-one likes you anyway, you’ve nothing left to lose – go for it.

NatSec police put pressure on family members of PORI deputy director and academic Chung Kim-wah…

The wife and son of wanted former pollster Chung Kim-wah have been questioned by national security police, local media has reported, a day after Chung’s ex-colleague was also questioned and his office was searched as part of a national security investigation.

It’s not the first time the authorities have brought in exiled dissidents’ family members for questioning. Since the chances of arresting the fugitives are zero (unless they surrender themselves by returning to Hong Kong), there seems to be little law-enforcement value in approaching relatives, friends or colleagues for ‘assistance’. Then again, there is no obvious purpose in putting ‘wanted’ posters of the 19 ‘absconders’ in the airport, housing estates and elsewhere. Even if members of the public hoped to turn one in for a million bucks, how would they go about it? It’s all a performance – and not a very attractive one.

Robert Chung of PORI opinion polls is questioned by NatSec Police for ‘assisting an absconder’ – his former deputy Chung Kim-wah, who is in the UK and is one of the latest batch of people to be declared wanted for ‘inciting secession and colluding with foreign forces’, with HK$1 million rewards…

Chung Kim-wah said on Facebook on Monday that he had not spoken to Robert Chung since leaving Hong Kong in April 2022, except for season’s greetings and during a PORI press conference at the end of that month, which he attended online as a commentator, and to exchange seasonal greetings.

The Security Chief goes to some lengths to stress that the authorities are not persecuting PORI for its polls, which do not always reflect well on the government. It is probably worth assuming that any communication with a wanted dissident in exile could invite trouble.

A post by another of the ‘absconders’, Carmen Lau…

Feeling weird when someone sent me these – A total of 19 wanted notice are now posted at ALL borders of Hong Kong, government buildings & almost every lobbies of public estates. Even a murderer or sexual perpetrator doesn’t receive such treatment. What have I actually done? Urgh.

The government hits back at negative overseas press coverage – not about NatSec or human-rights issues, but its housing policy…

The Housing Bureau on Monday clarified the varying quality of subdivided flats and announced significant plans to boost public housing and address the city’s housing challenges.

Their comments came after the Australian Broadcasting Company and The Guardian recently highlighted issues surrounding Hong Kong’s housing situation, specifically pointing out the 110,000 subdivided flats on the market and inaccurately categorizing them as “low-quality.”

In response, the bureau emphasized that the quality of these subdivided flats varies significantly. Some are of good quality and meet the needs of working-class individuals, small families, and students who prioritize convenience for work and school. However, they acknowledged that there are also smaller units of poorer quality.

Authorities also noted that economically developed cities worldwide face similar challenges in accommodating diverse living needs through various types of housing units.

Does anyone live in a subdivided apartment because of the convenience? (Actually, I know of two people who lived in such places some years ago and could in theory have afforded something slightly less horrible further away from Hong Kong Island. But to say 100-sq-ft hovels are ‘good quality’ is a joke. And this is a government-created problem, arising from a deliberate shortage of affordable housing, with a dash of increased Mainland immigration post-1997.)

The report goes on to describe the government’s plans to increase public housing supply. (Can’t see a press release at either the government’s central or Housing Bureau site.) 

Hong Kong launches a breast milk bank. Lactating mothers donate milk, which ends up at a central facility at HK Children’s Hospital and is distributed to other hospitals to feed premature and other newborn babies who would otherwise be given less-healthy formula. Site here.

This is no mega-event or vast infrastructure project. Nor is it groundbreaking: Singapore started such a service several years ago, and most developed countries have similar systems. But you would think that the Hong Kong government, if it is concerned about its popularity at home (or its reputation overseas), might have indulged in a little more self-congratulatory fanfare – for example by having the CE show up. This relatively small measure will provide more public benefit than ‘wanted’ notices for activists overseas, millions of panda bear stickers or desperate attempts to justify a half-trillion-dollar land reclamation.

This is pretty much a restaurant-review-free-zone (apart from once, maybe), but a few comments on Tanya Chan’s Taipei private kitchen Red Cotton…

As a pro-democracy politician, the former Civic Party lawmaker was last heard of in Hong Kong being hounded by the newly patriotism-minded Bar Association over her activity during the 2014 Umbrella Protests. By that time two years ago, following health problems and a suspended prison sentence, she had relocated to Taiwan and started culinary training. Like more than a few Hongkongers who have moved overseas, she now celebrates her home town through food.

Red Cotton, where she is head chef, produces Cantonese cuisine served banquet-style, as many of us have had at weddings or corporate dinners. Gastronomic-level Cantonese fare, with its light seasonings (or ‘emphasis on freshness’) might not always appeal to fans of more dazzling Sichuan, Thai, Vietnamese and other cuisines. And not everyone likes the multi-course format, with its endless procession of face-giving, even pretentious, dishes. But for such people, Red Cotton will be something of a revelation.

Tanya uses the best local ingredients, and has obviously worked hard honing her cooking skills. The result is rich and addictive braised beef and roast chicken, one of the best steamed fish dishes I’ve ever had, and often-iffy delicacies like abalone and goose foot done so well that you want more of them. (Portions are more than adequate: a Hong Kong emigre family in our party went away with boxes of leftovers.) Even the red bean soup – so often drab sugary goo – was more-ish, presumably because of superior cane sugar and the inclusion of orange peel.

In short, Red Cotton has achieved something that’s more in the Fook Lam Moon class (I’d guess – never been) than the predictable verging-on-dismal Cantonese onslaught we get at tiresome functions. The surroundings have some suitable Hong Kong nostalgia, and the music includes Anita Mui.

You can’t just walk in. Booking is via this site.

Hong Kong retail sales down 7.3% in November year-on-year, and 8.3% by volume/inflation-adjusted. Big falls in cars, electronics, Chinese medicine, furniture and many other consumer items, except supermarket goods. In volume terms, sales are around 30% lower than in 2015-19. 

With China’s economy doing badly and tourists not spending like they used to, Hong Kong chose a bad time to lose several hundred thousand middle-class residents. I would like to help – but I’ll be in Taiwan for the coming week.

Some other things…

Gwulo – of the superb Hong Kong history website of the same name – gets a British Empire (that’s what it’s called) Medal in the UK’s New Year Honours. I don’t think he has been awarded so much as a Bronze Bauhinia Thing in the city itself. 

ChineseCiv Substack review of a contemporary political philosopher/polemicist Zhao Tingyang’s book Redefining a Philosophy of World Government, which proposes a Chinese-influenced system of world government system…

Most of Zhao’s arguments are founded on what can only be described as extreme ethnic bias. His historical claims about Western civilization are almost all negative while his claims about Chinese civilization are bizarrely optimistic. His definition of “China” is based on three “consensuses” about Chinese history, but none of them are accepted by mainstream international scholars outside the PRC. The oft repeated and increasingly ridiculous claim that China is the only civilization that is “uninterrupted” begins his list of three fake consensuses. He claims many times, against even the most cursory reading of Chinese history, that the current extensive land area of the PRC was slowly collected in a completely peaceful way and never through imperialism, war, or genocide. Is there a single international historian who would agree with this? So much of his book is founded on these myths. In one section, he spends numerous pages discussing the imaginary battles of an ancient deity as if these events were actual history that provided proof for his historical interpretations.

…The problem with Zhao’s thinking, and one that has increasingly infected PRC society over the last few years, is that China is now so isolated that it no longer knows how isolated it is. 

… it’s clear by Zhao’s shrill angry denunciations of Christianity and the West that he suspects, on some level, that the Christian church and America have already achieved a more substantial world system than anything China has ever built or is likely to build in the foreseeable future.

CNN investigation of China’s expansion of anti-corruption detention facilities…

Since taking power in 2012, Xi has launched a sweeping campaign against graft and disloyalty, taking down corrupt officials as well as political rivals at an unprecedented speed and scale as he consolidated control over the party and the military.

Now well into his third term, the supreme leader has turned his relentless campaign into a permanent and institutionalized feature of his open-ended rule.

And increasingly, some of the most fearsome tools he has wielded to keep officials in line are being used against a much broader section of society, from private entrepreneurs to school and hospital administrators – regardless of whether they are members of the 99-million-strong party.

The expanded [extra-judicial] detention regime, named “liuzhi,” or “retention in custody,” comes with facilities with padded surfaces and round-the-clock guards in every cell, where detainees can be held for up to six months without ever seeing a lawyer or family members.

…The lawyer, who requested anonymity due to fears of retribution from the government, said many of their clients had detailed abuse, threats and forced confessions while in liuzhi custody.

“Most of them would succumb to the pressure and agony. Those who resisted until the end were a tiny minority,” the lawyer said.

…High-profile liuzhi detainees include Bao Fan, a billionaire investment banker, and Li Tie, a former English Premier League soccer star and coach of China’s national men’s team. (Li was sentenced to 20 years in prison for corruption this month.) At least 127 senior executives of publicly listed firms – many of them private businesses – have been taken into liuzhi custody, with three quarters of detentions taking place in the past two years alone, according to company announcements.

The New Year means a ton of novels, art, film, music and other things coming out of copyright. This year (depending on jurisdiction): Popeye, Tintin and works by Frieda Kahlo, Virginia Woolf, Charles Ives, Hemingway, Duke Ellington, and others. 

The COMAC C919 aircraft makes its first commercial scheduled flight into Hong Kong, receiving a rapturous reception from RTHK…

The homegrown passenger jet, operated by China Eastern airlines and carrying around 160 passengers, took off from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport at 8.15am on Sunday and landed in the SAR about two and a half hours later.

Passengers were treated to an exceptional travel experience, with each of them receiving a special framed boarding pass – printed with the flight number, date, as well as the letters “C919” – as a souvenir.

…13-year-old Joe, a flying enthusiast, flew solo.

“I think the control of noise is very nice. Because it’s the first aircraft of China and in some ways it’s even better than Boeing and Airbus. The seats… are really comfortable,” he said.

“The meal was really good… We had this sort of Shanghai cake and another cake that had C919 letters on it and it was very delicious.”

This is its first ‘international’ flight, though no-one wants to use that word. Local officials do all they can to talk it up…

The inaugural flights of the domestically-produced C919 aircraft between Shanghai and Hong Kong have opened a “new chapter” for the SAR as an international aviation hub, transport and logistics chief Mable Chan said on Wednesday.

…Speaking at a welcoming ceremony at the Hong Kong International Airport, Chan said she feels honoured to witness the historic moment on New Year’s Day.

“Hong Kong is the first city beyond the other mainland cities to have this kind of commercial flight. So we are especially happy to see this flight materialise on the first day of 2025,” she said.

“We hope that through this commercial flight, we can bring this historical innovation breakthrough in the mainland’s production of civil aviation aircraft to our Hong Kong citizens, as well as to the international visitors coming to Hong Kong.”

An expert says the new model will help Hong Kong become an aviation engineering hub…

“In the past 50 or 60 years, Hong Kong has worked as an [aviation hub], but due to the lack of a local aircraft manufacturer, it is not an aircraft or aviation engineering hub,” Jason Li told RTHK.

He noted that Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), the Shanghai-based manufacturer of the C919, was increasing its engineering investment in the SAR.

“Now, as you can see… COMAC is putting more China-produced C919 into Hong Kong. They are building an engineering team in Hong Kong,” said Li.

“You can see that aviation [requires] a comprehensive engineering team. There are so many different parts; mechanical, electronic etc. So there will be much more career opportunities for local young people,” he said.

He said the choice of Hong Kong as the C919’s first destination outside mainland China shows the city’s important role in advancing the national aviation sector.

“China is encouraging and letting more enterprises demonstrate their newest technology and the business in Hong Kong,” he said.

Any new model of aircraft flying into any city will generate some extra maintenance requirements. That’s it. 

So what is the C919? The name was deliberately chosen to echo Boeing’s system of classifying aircraft – B707, B727, B737, etc. Although it is touted as China’s first wide-bodied airliner, the most important parts – like the avionics and engines – are mainly Western-designed. The model is similar to an Airbus A320/Boeing 737, aimed at serving short- to medium-range routes. But, despite being more recently developed, it has a shorter range, lower passenger capacity, and higher per-passenger fuel consumption than its rivals, plus (as a new model) higher operating costs. But it is cheaper to buy (by some estimates, half the price). It is still awaiting certification in major international markets. Maybe the C929, C939 etc will be more impressive.

The WSJ wishes China a happy new year…

China’s property meltdown has since 2021 destroyed around $18 trillion of Chinese household wealth [equivalent to US$60,000 per household], according to an estimate by Barclays, eclipsing the losses suffered by Americans in the financial crash of 2008-09. That hit, along with the trauma of Beijing’s heavy-handed response to the Covid-19 pandemic, helps explain why Chinese consumers aren’t spending freely. 

The article goes on to say that the wealth ‘destroyed’ is equivalent to the entire market cap of China’s stock market, or one year’s GDP. No overtaking the US economy before mid-century – if ever. And then: the shrinking population; government, household and corporate debt approaching 300% of annual GDP; and over-investment (including 80 million empty homes) and outsized industrial production, causing looming disputes with overseas trading partners.

From Sixthtone, one of the millions of personal stories behind the bursting of China’s property bubble – a 28-year-old woman who bought an apartment that was never finished, but she moved in anyway…

As the building had no electricity, during the decoration phase I had hired an electrician to help wire my apartment to a temporary power box in the hallway. The developer’s workers would disconnect the wire every night. I didn’t know how to connect it myself, so on that first night in my new home I remained in near darkness.

For the first few nights, I’d turn on a tiny light. The developer had issued a statement saying that, as the site was still under construction, people were not allowed to live there. Security guards patrolled with flashlights at night, so I didn’t dare make my room too bright. But no matter how small the light, because the whole building was pitch black, I think it could still have been seen from outside.

Sometimes the security guard would knock on my door and ask why I hadn’t left yet, thinking I was just working on the place. I said I’d leave immediately after installing something. He didn’t think I actually lived there. But sometimes I would think, “This is my apartment. Why should I act like a thief and hide every day?”

The government’s new tourism blueprint – looks a lot like all the existing banal initiatives bundled up into one document, plus something called ‘bleisure travel’. Eco-tourism, mega-events, East-meets-West culture, ‘coastal platforms’, pandas, Lantau, Lamma, hotels, spas, horse-racing, cruise tourism, and so on. Whole thing here. The objective is to create jobs, which might need to be filled by imported workers (don’t ask).

A social worker loses his licence for five years for national security reasons. Security Secretary Chris Tang talks of the struggles he endured while working on the Article 23 legislation…

“I remember the time when I suffered from inflamed eyes due to a lack of sleep. My frozen shoulder and gout also relapsed. However, witnessing all my colleagues tirelessly working day and night, I forgot about these minor inconveniences. At that time, none of us could even keep track of how many takeaway meals we had,” he said.

“We were driven by a determination to face challenges head-on, so we persevered. Eventually, the legislation was passed unanimously, allowing me to feel truly honoured to have completed this historic mission hand in hand with my comrades. Upholding national security is our mission. Promoting national security and patriotic education is also our duty.”

Another quote from HKFP…

“I faced slander, attacks and threats from the outside…”

Can’t resist mentioning the all-you-can-eat hotpot/buffet at the Aquatic Market in Tsuen Wan Plaza (I think they have a branch in Kowloon Bay as well). The deal is around HK$380 per person for two hours, during which time you get unlimited beef, lamb, chicken and grilled stuff (for the first 90 minutes), and shellfish, sliced fish, live prawns, fish maw, squid, greens, mushrooms, noodles, fishballs, soup refills, sauce components, etc that you collect yourself at the supermarket-type shelves for the hotpot, plus equally unlimited all-you-can-consume soda, juice, beer, shochu, ice cream etc, etc from 7-Eleven-size fridges. Think I saw salad.

Obvious question is: how does the company make money? Obviously, the ingredients are not top-quality (though not terrible, either). The place is massive, serving hundreds of families and groups, so presumably they rely on high volume. They could cut corners on staff, but there are lots of them constantly delivering the meat (ordered on an app) and carrying away empty plates. And they are – by Hong Kong standards – quite friendly, which suggests they are not too undermanned. 

The customers are certainly having fun. Even if the food is not top-of-the-range, there is something almost hilarious about thousands of square feet of tables full of raucous happy Hongkongers determined to eat more than they pay. My party was a bit disorganized, but seasoned professionals seem to come with choices of ingredients already planned, and then assign people to urgently gather them all up. Deserves four stars for the people-watching.