World News by Wild Rose

Hong Kong’s regulator for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) has referred a case to law enforcement agencies after a mainland Chinese influencer was suspected of offering to bring non-local surrogate mothers of LGBTQ parents to give birth in the city. Tan Zubiao, also known as Berlin Sun, had set up a company in the city and advertised on social media commercial surrogacy services for LGBTQ couples, according to Hong Kong media. Tan and his foreign husband, who have two children through surrogacy,...

Hong Kong and mainland Chinese police have arrested 33 people in a joint operation to crack down on a suspected credit card theft syndicate targeting city residents who travel across the border for leisure, with losses exceeding HK$1.8 million (US$229,500). Superintendent Tsang Chun-kit of police’s crime Kowloon East Regional Headquarters said the syndicate had allegedly stolen Hongkongers’ credit cards in Shenzhen, and then immediately brought those cards back to the city to make purchases for...

Private recreation leases have a long and contentious history in Hong Kong. Complaints about the inequity of granting land leases to private clubs at a nominal premium for the exclusive enjoyment of a small number of members have been raised many times. This issue is increasingly pressing. Twenty-seven sites are involved and almost all the leases for these sites are set for renewal next year. In response to this perceived inequality, the government reviewed its policy for clubs with private...

The Fire Services Department will bear “ultimate responsibility” for following up on fire safety complaints across Hong Kong, the security chief has said, pledging legal reforms after the deadly Tai Po blaze, as an independent committee’s report is expected to identify the department as among those responsible. Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung made the pledge a day after the judge-led committee submitted its final report to the government. Sources said the report would identify...

Beijing has slammed “irresponsible remarks” by Britain after a UK report said Hong Kong’s national security law had further diminished the openness that underpinned the city’s success. In the United Kingdom’s latest six-month monitoring report on Hong Kong, released on Thursday, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said he was “deeply concerned and disturbed” by the continued imprisonment of former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, who was jailed for 20 years over national security offences. “We continue...

Giant pandas, open-top bus rides, a Chinese cooking class, traditional opera, a harbour cruise, the Big Buddha, and The Peak are among the highlights of a packed social programme for VIPs attending this week’s meeting of Apec finance ministers in Hong Kong, the South China Morning Post has learned. According to official itineraries obtained by the SCMP, about 500 delegates and guests from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum’s 21 member economies have been offered a range of activities...

Is Hong Kong its own country? No, it is a special administrative region of China, with its own laws, currency and 90-day visa-free entry for Americans. The post Is Hong Kong Its Own Country appeared first on The Rio Times.

United States authorities could deport Hong Kong residents granted extended stay under the Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) programme and have not ruled out the option of doing so after a dozen were reportedly detained at local airports. “The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is not precluded from placing aliens with such temporary administrative designation into removal proceedings, nor is it currently removing them,” a department spokesman said in a reply to the South China Morning Post...

Two US lawmakers are pushing for a bill that would allow Hongkongers in the country to apply for permanent residency, but authorities and observers have dismissed it as a political move unlikely to succeed. Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, and Representative James McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, announced the Hong Konger Promise of Refuge Act, seeking to provide a pathway to green cards and ultimately citizenship for Hong Kong residents in the US currently protected under the...

A Hong Kong court has sentenced a university student to seven years in prison for raping and sexually assaulting five women, with most of the offences taking place during orientation camps. The 31-year-old defendant was sentenced on Friday at the High Court after the jury found him guilty of one count of rape, another of voyeurism and three indecent assault charges. The five convictions concerned offences between January and August 2023. The defendant, identified only by his initial YLH, was a...

The murder trial of Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung has been delayed again while the court addresses legal issues raised by lawyers in the high-profile case. Deputy High Court Judge Brian Keith told the nine-member jury on Friday that the hearing would resume on Monday, once the legal arguments had concluded. Choi’s mother, Cheung Yin-fa, had been expected to face cross-examination by counsel for Choi’s ex-husband, Alex Kwong Kong-chi, on the fifth day of her testimony. He is standing...

Hong Kong national security police have charged a man with publishing seditious material on social media, while court proceedings did not reveal details of his posts. The force’s national security department said on Friday it had charged a 52-year-old man for posting seditious material with the intent to provoke hatred towards the central Chinese authorities, the Hong Kong government and the judiciary. The defendant had attended the first hearing on Wednesday afternoon, according to the force’s...

The United States has downgraded Hong Kong to the lowest tier in its annual human trafficking report, citing shortcomings in prosecutions and victim identification, an assessment the city’s government rejected as “entirely unfounded”. The US State Department’s 2026 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, released on Thursday, moved Hong Kong from the Tier 2 Watch List, where it had been listed for two consecutive years, to Tier 3. That places the city alongside mainland China and Macau among 20...

Hong Kong police have arrested a man for allegedly splashing red paint at the joint office of two lawmakers, accusing them of being unhelpful. A source said on Thursday that police arrested a 66-year-old man over the incident at the shared office of Kowloon East lawmaker Bill Tang Ka-piu and insurance-sector legislator Chan Pui-leung. The force said it received a report at 6.40am from a security guard at Sau Mau Ping Estate that red paint had been splashed at an office in the estate’s Sau Chi...

More than 300 people signed up for Hong Kong’s Election Committee poll as the nomination period opened on Wednesday, vying for seats on the body that chooses the city’s leader. The nomination period for committee subsectors for the November 22 election will run until October 20. The 1,500-member body will select Hong Kong’s next chief executive in March next year. The Registration and Electoral Office received 305 nominations for candidacy on Wednesday. It also received two nominations from...

Hong Kong will strengthen its regulatory regime and impose stiffer penalties to ensure strong deterrence against building violations, the city leader has pledged, following a series of substandard construction scandals including the latest controversy involving a luxury residential development in Stanley. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu vowed to safeguard the high professional standards of the city’s construction industry on Tuesday in the wake of a debacle involving a house at One Stanley,...

The owners of 14 subsidised sale flats have applied for a grace period to comply with Hong Kong’s new regulatory regime for subdivided homes, the housing minister has revealed, raising concerns that public resources were being abused. The cases were disclosed on Monday at a Legislative Council housing panel meeting when lawmaker Mark Chong Ho-fung asked Secretary for Housing Winnie Ho Wing-yin about the use of subsidised sale flats as subdivided units for renting. Chong said flats sold under the...