Ah Man*, 28, was forced to leave Hong Kong at the end of 2020 after being arrested at the height of the pro-democracy protests, when millions took to the streets in defiance of the growing influence of Beijing. But the UK has felt anything but a safe haven for the former Hongkonger after a string of incidents involving Chinese activists. In 2021, pro-democracy campaigners were reportedly attacked in Chinatown, central London; again in 2022 outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester; and once more this summer in Southampton. “Of course there…
Tag: Hong Kong
Art Auction in Hong Kong Draws Lower Bids Than Expected
The largest auction ever held by Sotheby’s in Asia of a single owner’s art collection raised less money than expected on Thursday, a sign that rising global interest rates may be starting to weigh on the market for fine art. A portrait by Amedeo Modigliani sold for considerably less than predicted, and 10 other artworks failed to sell when bidding fell short of reserve prices. The auction, which was held in Hong Kong and streamed online for bidders around the world, produced total sales of $69.5 million including commissions, Sotheby’s…
Liu Yiqian, China’s Top Art Collector, Is Selling a Modigliani
Few Chinese art collectors have made a bigger splash at global auctions in the past decade than Liu Yiqian, a former Shanghai taxi driver who amassed a fortune through big bets on Chinese real estate and pharmaceutical stocks. He was a profligate purchaser of Chinese antiquities and other artworks. In 2014, Mr. Liu paid a record $36.3 million for an ancient Chinese porcelain cup, and $45 million for a 600-year-old silk wall hanging. He paid $170.4 million for Amedeo Modigliani’s risqué “Nu Couché” painting a year later. One Shanghai museum…
China Evergrande’s Founder: The Rise and Fall of Hui Ka Yan
Hui Ka Yan founded the real estate behemoth China Evergrande. His promise to transform rural villages to metropolises with middle-class comforts made him one of China’s wealthiest people. He rubbed shoulders with officials in the highest levels of government, celebrating the Communist Party’s 100th anniversary in 2021 at Tiananmen Square. Now, he is being investigated by the authorities for suspected criminal behavior. Mr. Hui’s life story, from impoverished village boy to property magnate, once made him a symbol of the great promise of China’s economic rise. Buyers flocked to buy…
Jimmy Lai: Hong Kong mogul, activist … and now a prisoner for 1,000 days
It was not the first time in his long and eventful career that media mogul Jimmy Lai became the story, and it wouldn’t be the last. But it was certainly the most dramatic. On 10 August 2020, about 200 police officers frogmarched 72-year-old Lai out of the offices of his embattled newspaper, Apple Daily, as they conducted a raid on the publication, which had vigorously supported Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests. More than 10,000 people tuned in to watch as the newspaper’s reporters defied police warnings and streamed the scene live…
China Evergrande Suspends Trading as New Trouble Roils Property Market
Just a few weeks ago, China Evergrande, the world’s most debt-saddled property developer, was writing its final chapter and working to resolve financial disputes with its creditors. Then a stream of bad news came and the pages were torn up. Staff at the company’s wealth management arm have been detained by the authorities. Two former top executives are reportedly being held and its billionaire chairman is under police surveillance. Investors have fled, selling off their shares and sending the company’s already depressed stock down more than 40 percent over the…
Hong Kong Says It Calls the Shots, Not Beijing. Investors Are Wary.
Isolated from the world and pulled closer into Beijing’s orbit over the past three years, Hong Kong is finding that its fortunes are tied more than ever to China. The city’s stock market, which is seen as a proxy for China’s economy, is among the world’s worst performing this year. The rivers of money that flowed into companies, minting new wealth, have slowed to a trickle. And there is the gnawing feeling that the once-vibrant international city that staked its reputation on being separate from China has itself become more…
China orders foreign consulates in Hong Kong to hand over staff personal details
China has given foreign consulates in Hong Kong a month to submit the names, home addresses and job descriptions of their local staff, according to diplomatic sources and documents seen by several media outlets on Tuesday. The documents include a letter in English and Chinese bearing Monday’s date from Beijing’s Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (OCMFA), as well as two forms for consulates to fill in with their local staff details. The letter gave consulates until 18 October to “return the completed forms to the…
Exiled Chinese dissidents alarmed by ‘spy’ arrest of Westminster researcher
Finn Lau’s meeting with a Westminster researcher who was later arrested on suspicion of spying for China lasted just 20 minutes. Nearly a year later he is mulling the potential consequences. Lau, an exiled Hong Kong pro-democracy activist with a £100,000 bounty on his head, has a lingering suspicion that some of his ideas for putting more pressure on China appear not to have made it beyond their meeting. Exiled Chinese dissidents such as Lau, as well as Hong Kong activists and others including advocates of Tibetan independence and China’s…
Storms Deluge Hong Kong and Southern Chinese Cities
Torrential rains have pounded southern China, flooding low-lying homes and roads, choking expressways, and prompting officials to suspend classes while the record-breaking storms lingered over the region. By Friday morning, Shenzhen, a southern Chinese commercial city next to Hong Kong, had endured nearly eight inches of rain overnight, in the most intense downpour since records began in 1952, according to the city’s official news service. Hong Kong was hit by about six inches of rainfall in several hours. The Hong Kong Observatory headquarters recorded over six inches in just one…