~hong-kong-free-pres | Bookmarks (736)

On Thursday, pollster Robert Chung announced that the independent Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) would “suspend all its self-funded research activities indefinitely, including regular tacking surveys conducted since 1992… or even may close down,” citing the “current environment.” This is an alarming development. Robert Chung’s statement was apparently prompted by his run-ins with […]

Hayson Chan, business development director of rental company Rent to Rent Innovation, expects about a quarter of his subdivided flats to be deemed illegal under an unprecedented crackdown on unliveable dwellings in Hong Kong. Under a “rent-to-rent” arrangement, Chan’s company rents apartments from landlords, splits up the flats into subdivided units, and leases the individual […]

Animated Chinese blockbuster “Ne Zha 2”, based on traditional mythology, has smashed multiple box office records on its way to becoming the country’s most successful movie ever. The tale of a rebellious young deity who battles dragons is the first movie to earn over US$1 billion in a single market, overtaking “Star Wars: The Force […]

Thailand has deported 10 Chinese nationals linked to the high-profile alleged kidnapping of an actor who was rescued from a cyber-fraud centre in Myanmar, Thai police told AFP on Saturday. Scam compounds have mushroomed in Myanmar’s borderlands and are staffed by foreigners who are often trafficked and forced to work, swindling their compatriots in an […]

It appears – though the numbers published vary a bit – that our government is bleeding money on such a scale that the reserves will be run down in five or six years, placing us in the same boat as all those debt-addicted governments we have been looking down on. Of course, this will not […]

Hong Kong has unwittingly found itself caught in the US-China trade war, with US President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs on Chinese goods targeting the city’s products. Trump issued an executive order on February 1 to impose an additional 10 per cent tariff on all imports from China and Hong Kong – on top of the […]

By Tommy Wang with Anuj Chopra in Washington A deluge of disinformation about a flu-like virus called HMPV is stoking anti-China sentiment across Asia and spurring unfounded concerns of renewed lockdowns, despite experts dismissing comparisons with the Covid-19 pandemic five years ago. AFP’s fact-checkers have debunked a slew of social media posts about the usually […]

Chinese football team Shandong Taishan apologised to South Korea’s Gwangju FC on Friday after fans held up photos of a hated military strongman at an Asian Champions League match. An unknown number of home fans on Tuesday displayed images of Chun Doo-hwan, the autocratic former South Korean president, during the game against visiting Gwangju. Chun […]

The Hong Kong Journalists Association has cancelled its annual fundraising dinner after the Regal Hongkong Hotel axed its booking, citing “water leakage causing unstable power supply.” The journalists’ group said in an email to event attendees on Friday afternoon that the booking was cancelled on Thursday, two days before the dinner. “We offered some alternatives […]

A Hong Kong lawmaker has urged authorities to identify “high-risk” residents after an elderly man was found dead in a Tuen Mun flat he shared with a son who has an intellectual disability. The body of the 78-year-old man was found at his home in Butterfly Estate, in Tuen Mun, on Thursday after a security […]

A suspected gas explosion in a Taiwan department store killed at least four people and injured 29, authorities said on Thursday, with the force of the blast spraying large pieces of debris over the street below. The blast happened in the food court on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi department store in […]

Hong Kong activist Lau Ka-tung, whose social work license was suspended, has been warned by a licensing body that describing himself as a “social worker” or “former social worker” might violate the law. In a letter the Social Workers Registration Board sent to Lau – as seen by HKFP – the licensing body said it […]

Hong Kong has seen a 30 per cent increase in new cervical cancer cases over the past decade, reversing a downtrend since the 1980s, experts have said. Hextan Ngan, convenor of the HPV Prevention Alliance, said on Wednesday that nearly 600 new cervical cancer cases were diagnosed in 2021, compared with more than 450 new […]

HKFP has reported several new cases of harassment to the police and launched a new zero-tolerance policy. Hong Kong police are investigating fake complaints made to the authorities relating to HKFP, as well as a threatening message sent to its previous company secretary. In late 2024, a text message containing false claims about the newspaper […]

Harassment against journalists and news outlets has become more common around the world, and has seen an uptick in Hong Kong, according to press freedom NGOs. Independent media in the city have seen a surge of smear campaigns, trolling, surveillance, libel/defamation, message bombing, doxxing, cyberattacks, false/fake complaints to the authorities, unlawful use of branding or […]

China on Thursday said it was “happy” to see the United States and Russia “strengthen communication”, after US President Donald Trump said he expected to meet his Russian counterpart for Ukraine peace talks. Trump said he had a “lengthy and highly productive” call with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday — their first confirmed contact since the […]

China last year began construction on projects with the greatest combined coal power capacity since 2015, jeopardising the country’s goal to peak carbon emissions by 2030, according to a report published Thursday. The world’s second-largest economy is the biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that drive climate change, but also a renewable energy powerhouse. It […]

Hong Kong’s taxi drivers have threatened a citywide strike in early March if the government fails to crack down on unlicensed ride-hailing services such as Uber. More than 80 per cent of those present at a meeting held by the Hong Kong Tele-call Taxi Association on Wednesday agreed to hold a five-day strike starting March […]

Selina Cheng, chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), has accused her ex-employer, The Wall Street Journal, of breaching the city’s laws protecting employees’ right to join union activities by firing her after she took on the union’s leadership role. Cheng appeared in court on Thursday to initiate private prosecution proceedings against the US-based […]

The Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI) has announced it will suspend all self-funded research and may “even close down,” weeks after its CEO Robert Chung was investigated by national security police. Pollster Robert Chung has been taken in by police to assist with investigations twice since PORI’s former deputy CEO Chung Kim-wah, currently […]

Hong Kong police are investigating a murder-suicide case in Yuen Long after a teenager fell to his death at a housing estate on Tuesday. His father and grandfather were found dead in a nearby village home. Police received a call at 8.10pm on Tuesday from a man who reported that two people had died in […]

China said Wednesday that it opposes “politicising” issues involving technology and trade, after US Vice President JD Vance warned that “authoritarian regimes” were seeking to use artificial intelligence for increased control over citizens. World leaders gathered in Paris this week for an AI summit, with dozens of nations signing a statement calling for enhanced regulation […]

The Hong Kong government has estimated it would spend HK$2.8 million to renovate the former chief executive Carrie Lam’s new office in the government-owned Immigration Tower. Lam’s office will move to the Immigration Tower in Wan Chai as the tenancy of her office in Pacific Place in Admiralty expires in May, Chief Secretary Eric Chan […]

Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog has received complaints involving ticketing errors for the much-anticipated performance of K-pop girl group NJZ, formerly known as NewJeans, which left fans with the wrong dates on their passes. The Consumer Council said on Tuesday evening that it had received nine complaints from the South Korean group’s fans who said the […]