World News by Wild Rose

Hong Kong district councillor Peggy Wong Pik-kiu has resigned from office and several other community roles citing health reasons, following mounting controversy over her team’s alleged proxy-vote collection before last year’s fatal Wang Fuk Court inferno. Wong, a directly elected district councillor for the Tai Po South constituency, also stepped down from her duties as a member of the Tai Po South Area Committee and captain of the Tai Po Kwong Fuk and Plover Cove sub-district care teams. The...

Hong Kong’s Labour Department has terminated Kwai Chung-based catering firm Happy Up Corporation’s application to import workers after it failed to meet the required local hiring ratio. The company has also been barred from applying to import workers for a year. A department spokesman said on Tuesday that the administrative sanctions had taken immediate effect under the Enhanced Supplementary Labour Scheme (ESLS) following an application previously submitted by the company. He added that...

Senior police official Kelvin Kong Hok-lai has been named head of the force’s National Security Department, succeeding Andrew Kan Kai-yan, who began pre-retirement leave on Tuesday. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu appointed Kong as deputy police commissioner (national security) under Article 16(2) of the national security law. The appointment took effect immediately after Kong took the oath of office. Lee said Kong, formerly the director of national security, had served with the Hong Kong...

When Tung Chee-hwa died, the obituaries predictably described a Hong Kong shipping mogul who became the city’s first postcolonial chief executive. How his government navigated the Asian financial crisis and severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) epidemic and its retreat from Article 23 were highlighted. There was less attention paid to the political hybrid he embodied. Tung sat as vice-chairman of China’s top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference,...

Chinese President Xi Jinping and other top leaders sent condolences from Beijing as Hong Kong bade farewell to the city’s first postcolonial leader, Tung Chee-hwa, at a sombre yet poignant state funeral on Sunday. A report by the official Xinhua News Agency praised Tung, who died on September 8 at the age of 89, as “an outstanding contributor to ‘one country two systems’, a renowned patriot, an outstanding social activist and a close friend of” the Communist Party of China. “While Tung was...

Hong Kong’s education authorities have urged a local secondary school to review its rules and guidelines for events after a post alleging the school banned Cantonese in graduation videos sparked outrage online. In a response to the South China Morning Post on Sunday, the government said the school has activated its crisis management team to follow up on the issue and sent an email to all teachers and students to clarify the matter. “The Education Bureau has urged the school to review the...

The United States Congress has reportedly launched a probe after a shipment of sensitive F-35 fighter jet parts was said to have been unexpectedly diverted to Hong Kong and went missing, with the city’s authorities declining to comment on the case. A spokesman for the Hong Kong government said over the weekend that it would not comment on individual cases, a day after US media outlet Politico published the report. Citing three anonymous sources, Politico said the F-35 parts were shipped from...

Hong Kong is bidding farewell to its first post-colonial chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, on Sunday at a state funeral – only the third time a Hongkonger has received such an honour since the 1997 handover. Tung, who died at the age of 89 on September 8, led Hong Kong through a series of ups and downs, including the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 2003 Sars outbreak and the V-shaped economic recovery that followed. Sunday’s funeral follows a vigil held the previous day at the Hong Kong Funeral...

This weekend, Hong Kong mourns the loss of former chief executive and elder statesman Tung Chee-hwa. The shipping tycoon who became the city’s first leader after its transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997 died on September 8 at the age of 89, leaving a legacy of determined stewardship and dedicated public service. This weekend, a state funeral will be held to honour Tung, who was also a former vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). There will be a...

This weekend, Hong Kong mourns the loss of former chief executive and elder statesman Tung Chee-hwa. The shipping tycoon who became the city’s first leader after its transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997 died on September 8 at the age of 89, leaving a legacy of determined stewardship and dedicated public service. He is remembered for steering Hong Kong through uncharted waters following the end of colonial rule, as well as his tireless efforts as a state leader and business heavyweight to...

This is the second part of a Factsheet series on Hong Kong’s debut five-year plan and the 2026 policy address, click here for part one. The series was produced with support from the Hong Kong SAR government. To see the South China Morning Post’s coverage of the five-year plan, click here. This Factsheet will be available in the SCMP print edition on September 21. You can find it at newsstands and convenience stores. For any inquiries, contact printsupport@scmp.com.

This is the first part of a Factsheet series on Hong Kong’s debut five-year plan and the 2026 policy address, click here for part two. The series was produced with support from the Hong Kong SAR government. To see the South China Morning Post’s coverage of the five-year plan, click here. This Factsheet will be available in the SCMP print edition on September 21. You can find it at newsstands and convenience stores. For any inquiries, contact printsupport@scmp.com.

Hong Kong authorities have hit out at a US congressional commission for colluding with “anti-China politicians” to hold a hearing on jailed former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and introducing a bill to “intimidate” local national security officials with sanctions. The government issued the condemnation on Thursday night after the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) held a hearing the previous day on Lai, founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper. During the hearing,...

In the final instalment of our series of previews on the five-year plan and policy address, to be announced on September 16, Natalie Wong and Matthew Cheng look at how national security spans areas such as finance and technology and what Hong Kong must do to earn Beijing’s trust. Read part one here, part two here, part three here and part four here. With the recent sentencing of former leaders of Hong Kong’s Tiananmen Square vigil concluding a key high-profile subversion case, it would be easy...

There is no “red line” set for approving public assemblies, Hong Kong’s police chief has said, while warning that national security risks persist despite the landmark conviction and imprisonment of organisers behind the city’s annual Tiananmen Square vigil for inciting subversion. The Hong Kong government on Saturday also strongly condemned Western countries, anti-China media, overseas organisations and politicians for launching “malicious attacks” over the trial of the disbanded Hong Kong...

A Hong Kong court sentenced three former organizers of annual vigils marking China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

A former vice-president of Hong Kong’s stock exchange operator has been charged by the city’s corruption watchdog with allegedly failing to comply with a statutory order to declare his assets during a probe. Geoffrey Tong Po‑hang, 39, former vice-president of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), faces a count of failing to comply with a notice issued under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said on Thursday. He was released on bail...

A Hong Kong court has sentenced two men with autism to up to three years and two months in prison for their involvement in a pro-independence group seeking to separate the city from Chinese sovereignty. District Court Judge Ernest Lin Kam-hung on Thursday found that courier Chan Tai-sum, 27, and waiter Ng Chi-tung, 25, had been heavily involved in the Taiwan-based Hong Kong Democratic Independence Union between November 2024 and July 2025. He said the pair had jointly devised a “full plan” to...

Tung Chee-hwa, who served as Hong Kong’s first chief executive and oversaw the 1997 return of the city to Chinese rule, has died. The former vice-chairman of China’s top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), died on Tuesday at the age of 89, according to a statement from his office issued in the early hours on Wednesday. He was last seen in public in July 2021 when he attended the premiere of a film to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding...

Beijing has recommended the largest-ever cohort of civil servants from Hong Kong to take on roles in United Nations agencies this year, expecting the deployments to broaden their global perspective and strengthen the city’s position as a bridge between China and the international community. The batch of 16 officers sent under the UN Junior Professional Officer (JPO) scheme came from 13 grades and departments, including customs, police and the city’s anti-corruption agency. The number surpassed...

The head of the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (EuroCham) aims to “reset” perceptions about the financial hub during the organisation’s first-ever “door-knock” mission to Brussels, emphasising that the city remains “significantly, fundamentally” distinct from its mainland Chinese counterparts. With Hong Kong set to unveil its first five-year plan on September 16 – the same day the mission begins – chairman Johannes Hack told the South China Morning Post that the city lacked a clear...

Lawmakers and a government adviser have called for anti-stalking legislation to close a loophole that makes prosecuting repeated harassment difficult in Hong Kong, following the acquittal of a man who followed a teenage girl to her secondary school classroom. Some experts said the government should revisit a proposal for such legislation raised 26 years ago, after the magistrate who acquitted the defendant of a loitering charge also noted the absence of laws to criminalise stalking under certain...

A mainland Chinese man has been deemed unfit to stand trial for his alleged involvement in a deadly shooting during a botched robbery in Hong Kong three decades ago, after he was diagnosed with a cognitive impairment caused by lung cancer. A High Court jury of four men and three women ruled on Friday that Shenzhen resident Wen Wenye, 61, could not be held criminally liable for murder and attempted robbery because he was unable to understand the legal proceedings and give instructions to his...

A leading Hong Kong charity has called off a student eco-bag design contest meant to counter domestic violence following public backlash over its directive for pupils to draw inspiration from objects commonly linked to household abuse. Po Leung Kuk confirmed on Thursday that it had scrapped the competition, which was organised by its family crisis support service and funded by the Social Welfare Department. The charity said the event “might have caused misunderstanding and concern”, although its...

Retired Catholic leader Joseph Zen Ze-kiun and four other activists have lost an appeal against their convictions for failing to register their legal defence fund for those involved in the 2019 anti-government protests in Hong Kong. The Court of Appeal on Thursday upheld a magistrate’s findings that the now-defunct 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund fell within the definition of a society under the Societies Ordinance and its members were required to register the group with police or ask for an...