Tag: Hong Kong

Agnes Chow, a Hong Kong Activist, Not Likely to Return from Canada

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Agnes Chow, a prominent pro-democracy activist in Hong Kong who was arrested as part of a sweeping crackdown, said that she has fled to Canada and planned to skip bail, in a bold challenge to the authorities. Ms. Chow had been arrested in 2020, along with several other dissidents, including the newspaper mogul Jimmy Lai, after Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong to curb dissent. The authorities were investigating Ms. Chow on suspicion of collusion with external elements, a vaguely defined political crime that carries a maximum…

China Evergrande Gets Reprieve in Talks With Foreign Investors

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Once China’s most prolific property developer, China Evergrande has narrowly averted liquidation. A Hong Kong bankruptcy judge on Monday gave Evergrande another two months to work out a deal with foreign investors who lost money when the company defaulted two years ago with hundreds of billions of dollars in debt. The judge set another court hearing for Jan. 29. It was an unexpected development in a bankruptcy lawsuit filed 18 months ago by one investor trying to get paid by forcing the dismantling of Evergrande. The judge, Linda Chan, had…

China Evergrande May Finally Meet Its End in Hong Kong Court

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Once China’s most prolific property developer, China Evergrande may soon be its biggest and messiest corporate breakup. In a Hong Kong courtroom on Monday, a bankruptcy judge could force Evergrande to liquidate and pay back creditors who are owed tens of billions of dollars. It would mark an end to two years of limbo for investors who lent Evergrande money in Hong Kong and have tried to negotiate for a piece of the debt-saddled corporate behemoth that defaulted in early December 2021. A liquidation of Evergrande was once unimaginable. For…

Fears raised after Hong Kong journalist fails to return from China trip

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Friends and colleagues of a Hong Kong journalist have raised concerns after she failed to return from a defence and security forum in Beijing a month ago. Minnie Chan, a reporter for the South China Morning Post, has not been in contact since she went to the Xiangshan Forum, Japan’s Kyodo News reported on Thursday. Chan filed several stories from the forum, the most recent of which was published on 2 November. Kyodo News reported that her friends, whom it did not name, were concerned she was under investigation. The…

China influencing leading British universities, documentary claims

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Leading British universities have been influenced by Chinese agents, with diplomatic and unofficial pressure resulting in censorship on campus, according to a Channel 4 documentary. The Dispatches documentary, Secrets and Power: China in the UK, alleges that the University of Nottingham closed its School of Contemporary Chinese Studies in 2016 in response to pressure from Beijing. The former head of the institute, Prof Steve Tsang, has openly criticised the Chinese Communist party (CCP) on several occasions, but said that university management asked him not to speak to the media during…

Gold Bars and Tokyo Apartments: How Money Is Flowing Out of China.

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Affluent Chinese have moved hundreds of billions of dollars out of the country this year, seizing on the end of Covid precautions that had almost completely sealed China’s borders for nearly three years. They are using their savings to buy overseas apartments, stocks and insurance policies. Able to fly again to Tokyo, London and New York, Chinese travelers have bought apartments in Japan and poured money into accounts in the United States or Europe that pay higher interest than in China, where rates are low and falling. The outbound shift…

Hong Kong to restructure primary education to make it more ‘patriotic’

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Hong Kong is to introduce “patriotic” education in all primary schools by 2025, in the government’s latest push to “systematically cultivate” a sense of national identity among schoolchildren Under the new framework, primary school pupils are expected to learn about national security and will also be taught about the opium war and Japan’s invasion of China, two key events in Beijing’s narrative of a “century of humiliation”, which it pushes as a reason for nationalism. Students will also learn about significant Chinese historical figures and national achievements under the leadership…

Hong Kong lecture by British barrister linked to Jimmy Lai trial cancelled

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A lecture in Hong Kong by the British barrister embroiled in a legal battle over whether he can represent the pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai has been cancelled without explanation, raising concerns about the diminishing space for free speech in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. Timothy Owen KC was due to give a talk entitled “Judges, Democracy and the Criminal Law” at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) on 17 November. But on Tuesday, the lecture was cancelled without explanation, with the university citing “unforeseen circumstances”. The website for the law faculty…

Gay Games delight Hong Kong amid China’s growing hostility to LGBTQ+ community

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After months of pandemic-related delays, Asia’s first Gay Games was held in Hong Kong last week, with nearly 2,400 athletes competing. At the opening ceremony, Regina Ip, the convenor of Hong Kong’s executive council, said the competition represented the city’s commitment to “equal opportunity and non-discrimination”, and praised Hong Kong’s courts for the “numerous judgments” handed down in favour of the LGBTQ+ community in the past decade. This was met with bemusement by activists and lawyers, who pointed out that Ip’s government has opposed each of those judgments, losing in…

Country Garden Says Executives Have Not Fled China

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Facing a potential financial collapse, the embattled Chinese property developer Country Garden on Thursday denied rumors that its two most prominent executives had fled China. Country Garden took the unusual step of issuing a statement on its WeChat social media account declaring that Yang Guoqiang, the company’s founder, and his daughter Yang Huiyan, its chairwoman and majority shareholder, were “currently working normally in China.” It said rumors that the two had left the country were having “an adverse impact” during “a difficult period” for the company. The statement, issued on…