Beyond the Feed |When Mozart meets modern Beijing
About 1 million employees in Hong Kong will be allowed to move their entire Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) balance to a different provider once a year under the “full portability” arrangement, effective from December 21 for the first phase of implementation. The Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority, which manages the city’s mandatory pension plans, said on Sunday that the “full portability” arrangement would be carried out in two phases to ensure a smooth and orderly implementation. In a...
Hong Kong’s major property developers are shifting investment in mainland China from residential projects to commercial assets, including hospitality, as weak home sales and fewer attractive investment opportunities prompt them to focus on existing properties, recurring income and debt reduction. “In recent years, after we recycled the capital from our projects, we haven’t really found many good opportunities on the mainland,” Stephen Ng, chairman and managing director of Wharf Holdings, said at...
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 berlinsun, 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, were...
Beijing has a formula for tackling African conflicts and hot-button issues, and during a meeting this month with Togolese leader Faure Gnassingbe, Chinese President Xi Jinping outlined it in four principles linking peace to development. The principles entail focusing on African-led security free from outside intervention; upholding sovereignty and UN Charter principles; rejecting force and sanctions and favouring ceasefires through dialogue; and focusing on both immediate security concerns and...
Sherry Shum has embraced a new shopping routine after finding a smart vending machine near her home in Chai Wan. The 37-year-old retail worker uses her phone to scan a QR code, opens the smart machine’s door, picks up a bottle of Coca-Cola, an oolong tea and a pack of potato chips, closes it and walks away with HK$60 (US$7.70) worth of goods. The whole process is so seamless that the only time she spends is deciding what to buy. The moment Shum takes an item from the shelf, the machine detects...
Senior United Nations officials have reaffirmed the world body's unwavering adherence to UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 2758, as Sunday marks the 55th anniversary of the restoration of China's lawful seat at the UN.
Young Chinese people enjoy Japanese pop culture such as anime and music, but many draw a firm line at symbols of Japanese militarism. That line was tested recently at Moscow State University, where Chinese students confronted a classmate wearing Japan’s rising sun flag in class and called for his repatriation, state-run newspaper Global Times reported on Sunday. Many countries, including China, view the flag as a symbol of Japanese militarism and aggression. Japan’s Self-Defence Forces still use...
Hong Kong’s civil service has long enjoyed a reputation for efficiency, professionalism and probity. It has also been a pillar of stability, particularly during the transition from British to Chinese rule. Outside the general and administrative grades, many civil servants spend much of their careers in relatively specialised areas of responsibility. This allows them to develop deep expertise and makes them dependable regulators and administrators. However, it can also make it harder to adapt...
Hong Kong schools handled an average of 496 bullying cases each academic year from 2022 to 2025 – a 32 per cent jump compared with the previous three years, according to the Education Bureau. A youth group attributed the increase to greater reporting driven by heightened mental health awareness, but also students struggling to distinguish playful jokes from bullying. According to the bureau, public primary and secondary schools recorded an average of 496 bullying cases each year between 2022 and...
Plenary sessions of the Central Committee, the upper echelon of China’s ruling Communist Party, are major events on the country’s political calendar. In the fourth part of this series, William Zheng looks at how the next generation of the party is being formed. When China’s political elites gather behind closed doors in Beijing for the Communist Party’s fifth plenum on Monday, much of the attention will be on the quiet preparations for allocating hundreds of pivotal roles in next year’s 21st...
Police have arrested a 34-year-old man who allegedly mixed rat poison into food left for stray cats in a Kowloon park and was found in possession of a knife. The force said it received a report at around 3.30am on Saturday that a man was suspected of putting poison in cat food that animal welfare volunteers had placed near tennis courts in Shek Kip Mei Park. Officers arrived at the scene and seized a packet of suspected rat poison and a fruit knife measuring around 14cm (5.5 inches) in length...
