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Hong Kong’s economic growth slowed to 2.5 percent in 2024, the city’s government said Monday, adding that the outlook for the year ahead was dimmed by “heightened uncertainties”. The Chinese financial hub saw a post-pandemic rebound in 2023 after the city reopened to international business and travel, but lost some momentum as China’s economic slowdown […]

Taiwanese star Barbie Hsu, who was hugely popular across Asia for her leading role in the 2001 television drama “Meteor Garden”, has died from a respiratory illness, local media reported Monday. She was 48. Hsu passed away after developing pneumonia during a family trip to Japan over the Lunar New Year holiday, the younger of […]

Eleven trail runners have completed an endurance challenge spanning all of Hong Kong’s four major hiking routes, the ultramarathon organisers said. The “four trails” – Maclehose, Wilson, Hong Kong, and Lantau – span a total distance of 298km, starting in Tuen Mun and ending in Mui Wo, marked with a green mailbox. The annual Hong […]

Around one in five social workers at the government’s Social Welfare Department say they may quit within the next five years, citing immense challenges at work and management problems, a survey has found. The General Union of Social Workers in Social Welfare Department surveyed 446 social workers working for the government in September and October […]

Hong Kong authorities have fined six restaurants for not complying with a disposable plastics ban since the policy was officially enacted in October. Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan said on Sunday that authorities had received 75 complaints in the three-odd months that the ban has been in effect. Among them, 59 restaurants were […]

Donald Trump’s new tariffs will probably not have a major impact on China’s economy but may herald the opening salvo of another bruising trade war with Beijing, analysts said Sunday. The US President on Saturday announced sweeping measures against major trade partners, with goods from China facing an additional 10 percent tariff on top of […]

For years, Alison Chan had not seen a Hong Kong film more than once in the cinema, let alone twice in one day.  A 27-year-old teacher, Chan enjoys going to the cinema to relax. When she went alone on a Saturday morning in November to watch The Last Dance – a melodrama set amid Taoist […]

The first month of 2025 saw a Hong Kong polling organisation and its chief executive investigated by national security police. Meanwhile, the trial of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai continued, and judges at the apex court heard the city’s first appeal against a conviction and sentence under a colonial-era sedition law. Pollster under investigation Robert […]

A wizened farmer leads a buffalo through a misty copse of gnarled trees in eastern China, closely followed by a woman in a straw hat heaving pails of water. It is a tranquil image of rural Chinese life — except for the overhead whirr of a drone, the hiss of a smoke machine and the […]

US prosecutors announced Friday that they have charged a former Federal Reserve advisor with spying on behalf of China while posing as a part-time lecturer at a local university. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said it had charged John Harold Rogers, a 63-year-old US national, with spying for Beijing while employed as a senior advisor […]

By John Barkdull and Paul G. Harris Every day brings news of the effects of climate change on human communities. For example, low rainfall and other factors associated with climate change have exacerbated the fires that are now consuming neighbourhoods in the Los Angeles area of California.  Globally, 2024 was the warmest year ever recorded […]

Hong Kong’s giant panda population grew by 200 per cent last year, and authorities hope that the bears’ presence can help boost domestic consumption following a continued decline in retail and restaurant spending. After Beijing announced that it would gift a pair of giant pandas to the city last summer, and the birth of panda […]

Philippine security officials said Thursday they took into custody five more Chinese spies, following the arrest of a compatriot for espionage this month. The arrests come as confrontations between the two Asian neighbours over contested reefs and waters in the strategic South China Sea have escalated in recent months. Two men were arrested at Manila airport […]

Flinging her male teammate into the air, performer Lin Xinmeng practises China’s world-famous lion dance with a troupe that is shrugging off centuries of patriarchal norms. Mixing acrobatics, martial arts and theatre, lion dancing is believed to bring prosperity and protection from evil spirits. Performed across China and around the world, at weddings or during business […]

Donald Trump’s commerce secretary nominee told his US Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday he favors “across-the-board” tariffs targeting countries rather than products, while signaling a hawkish China stance. “We can use tariffs to create reciprocity, fairness and respect,” said Howard Lutnick, a close Trump ally and billionaire CEO of Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald. Lutnick’s appearance […]

Chinese tech and e-commerce giant Alibaba on Wednesday announced the release of Qwen2.5-Max, an advanced artificial intelligence model that the company says outperforms several leading AI systems in key benchmarks. The launch follows Chinese startup DeepSeek’s recent release of models that stunned Silicon Valley and challenged assumptions about US dominance in the booming AI sector. […]

More than a decade ago, construction on an underground rail link connecting Hong Kong to mainland China began beneath Yau Tam Mei Tsuen, a village in the city’s northern New Territories. For some villagers, it was a warning that their homes would one day be ceded to further development. That day is drawing ever nearer. […]

By Montira Rungjirajittranon and Sarah Lai Chinese tourists visiting Thailand for Lunar New Year are worried about being kidnapped by gangsters to work in hellish scam centres, despite efforts to reassure them. Chinese nationals topped the list of visitors to Thailand last year, with nearly seven million making the trip to Thailand in 2024. But […]

Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in Tuesday’s airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said Wednesday, with local media suggesting the blaze may have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern […]

Portuguese photojournalist Gonçalo Lobo Pinheiro has spent 14 years documenting life in Macau. In his latest book, Urban Poetry, he has collected 100 colour images shot over the past five years, capturing moments lived during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond, and exploring as the territory evolves, 25 years after its transfer from Portuguese to Chinese […]

Hong Kong Free Press began 2024 not in its home city, but in Taipei, as voters headed to the polls to elect Taiwan’s next leader. We spoke to young voters about their concerns, and Hongkongers who had moved there in the wake of the 2019 protests and were casting their ballots for the first time.  […]

Chinese AI chatbot DeepSeek’s answers about the Hong Kong protests in 2019, Taiwan’s status and other topics echo Beijing’s party line, according to test questions posed by HKFP. Released outside China earlier this month, DeepSeek has become the most downloaded free app on Google’s and Apple’s app stores in Hong Kong. It also overtook rival […]

A foreign judge will sit on the panel for jailed ex-lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting’s hearing at the top court next month, in which the government is seeking to overturn his acquittal over disclosing the identity of an officer investigated for his role in the Yuen Long mob attack in 2019. Australian judge James Allsop is among […]

Chinese leader Xi Jinping struck a bullish tone during a speech on Monday ahead of Lunar New Year, after acknowledging “complex and severe situations” in recent months. Xi addressed the gathering of top Communist Party officials as China gears up for its biggest public holiday, which this year runs from January 28 to February 4 […]

Fears of upheaval in the AI gold rush rocked Wall Street on Monday following the emergence of a popular ChatGPT-like model from China, with US President Donald Trump saying it was a “wake-up call” for Silicon Valley. Last week’s release of the latest DeepSeek model initially received limited attention, overshadowed by the inauguration of Trump […]

An animal rights organisation has called for snakeskin to be banned from a Hong Kong fashion trade show ahead of the Year of the Snake. In a statement last Friday, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said it had released new footage showing snakes being “beaten, beheaded, impaled, and inflated,” at slaughterhouses, adding […]

Hong Kong regulators have imposed a HK$66.4 million fine on Hang Seng Bank for misconduct related to how it sold investment products between 2014 and 2023. The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) on Monday “reprimanded” Hang Sang Bank for what it described as “serious regulatory failures” linked to the financial institution’s sale of collective investment schemes […]

Hong Kong gym chain Physical Fitness has been ordered to wind up after a local court ruled that the company was unable to repay its debt, including more than HK$600 million owed by one branch. High Court judge Linda Chan on Monday ordered the gym chain’s parent company, Physical Beauty & Fitness Holdings Limited, and […]

Hong Kong authorities have condemned American lawmakers’ reintroduction of a bill urging sanctions on the city’s top officials, judges and prosecutors, calling the move “political grandstanding.” In a statement on Saturday, the government responded to US Representatives Young Kim and Jim McGovern’s updated Hong Kong Sanctions Act. The bill, published last week, asks US President […]

McDonald’s has fired Hong Kong activist-artist Luke Ching, who called for the fast food giant to reinstate paying workers for their meal breaks, accusing him of leaking its internal operations. Ching’s termination was effective starting Monday, according to a letter from MHK Restaurants, which operates Hong Kong’s McDonald’s branches, which was seen by HKFP. The […]

China said Monday it was “extremely unlikely” Covid-19 came from a laboratory, after the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said it believed the virus had more likely come from a lab rather than natural transmission. “The conclusion that a laboratory leak is extremely unlikely was reached by the China-WHO joint expert team based on field […]

Hong Kong pollster Robert Chung has been taken in by national security police to assist with an investigation for the second time in two weeks, according to local media. Multiple local media reports said on Monday that Robert Chung, the CEO of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (PORI), was taken from his home […]

A new wave of online harassment that followed a journalism students’ investigation into government “care teams” echoed an “organised attack” last year that saw dozens of reporters targeted, the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) has said. In a statement released on Sunday, the HKJA said posts on Facebook began appearing four days after Chinese University […]

By Holmes Chan After 13 years in Hong Kong as a refugee, John received plane tickets that would grant his family new lives in the United States — only for them to be snatched away with a stroke of the pen by President Donald Trump. Trump’s executive order to suspend all refugee admissions and halt […]

A Hongkonger who was rescued from a Myanmar scam farm a week ago is set to arrive in Hong Kong along with a Security Bureau-led task force on Monday, the government has said. The task force met the Hongkonger at a Thai detention centre, where the victim had been sent following their rescue from Myanmar, […]

Executive Council convenor and Legislative Council member Regina Ip recently asked Secretary for Justice Paul Lam questions that highlighted the government’s repeated loss of court cases focusing on the recognition of same-sex marriage. Ip asked why the government “insisted on lodging appeals despite considering that the cases would have a low success rate.” Put more bluntly, […]

Train stations and airports across China saw the biggest peak in travellers on Saturday ahead of the Lunar New Year, as millions of people returned home to spend the holidays with their families in an annual migration that is expected to be a record. The Chinese New Year, the Year of the Snake, begins Wednesday. […]

Cheung’s life has turned upside down since he survived a serious injury at work almost two years ago. He lost his health, then his savings, his family, and eventually his home. All the while, he has not received the compensation he is entitled to under Hong Kong’s labour law. In March 2023, Cheung – who […]

By Holmes Chan and Yan Zhao Tourists in Hong Kong are flocking to the 300-year-old village of Kuk Po, whose decaying mansions and reed fields offer a respite from the city’s famously frenetic pace. The seaside village was once home to Hakka people from southern China but was mostly abandoned in recent decades, even as […]

By Shaun Tandon US Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashed with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi over Taiwan on Friday, with Donald Trump’s top diplomat denouncing Beijing’s “coercive” moves. Rubio, a longtime China hawk, spoke with Wang for the first time by telephone at the end of his first week in office, which he began […]

To celebrate the Year of the Snake, and mark the 26th year of its snake rescue efforts, Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden has launched an art and education exhibition “Side by Side in Harmony: Snakes, Nature and Us.” The exhibition, which will run until March 3, takes visitors through the farm and its forests, where […]

For the past four months, Noelyn Patricio Arzaga’s bedroom has been bigger than any provided by a previous employer – not that square metres are a consolation. The 40-year-old is staying at a church because she was fired last August after deciding to undergo chemotherapy for breast cancer, against her former employer’s wishes. Since then, […]

By Juan José Rodríguez US President Donald Trump’s threat to seize the Panama Canal over alleged undue Chinese influence may really be aimed at limiting Beijing’s growing diplomatic and economic presence in Latin America, experts say. Actually using force to take the interoceanic waterway, which carries five percent of world maritime trade and 40 percent […]

Jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s email exchanges with US officials in 2020 showed the group discussed potential targets of US sanctions before Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong, the tycoon’s national security trial has heard. Lai, 77, told the court on Friday that he only had a “vague” understanding of the Magnitsky […]

Hong Kong’s transport minister has likened Greater Bay Airlines to an infant that needs assistance learning to walk, after the low-cost carrier cancelled 128 flights scheduled for February and March. Talking to the press during a media luncheon on Thursday, Chan said the incident reflected the carrier’s strategy as a budget airline, its flight scheduling, […]

Children as young as eight may soon be able to enter licensed billiards halls, the government has announced, saying it hoped to promote the development of the sport in Hong Kong. “Licensed billiard establishments which meet relevant requirements for relaxing the entry restrictions for youth” will be eligible to apply, “so as to facilitate more […]

US President Donald Trump said he would “rather not” impose tariffs on China, after repeated pledges on the campaign trail to hit America’s biggest economic rival with hefty import levies. Asked in an interview with Fox News if he could make a deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Taiwan and trade, Trump replied: “I […]

The Brazilian diplomat who will chair the next UN climate summit on Thursday praised China as an example in the fight against climate change while admonishing rich countries for shirking their responsibilities. Andre Correa do Lago, who will preside over the first climate conference in the Amazon rainforest in November, praised China’s “extraordinary progress” on […]

The new chairperson of the Hong Kong Bar Association (HKBA) has expressed optimism that new foreign judges would join the city’s top court, even after five left last year, including one who said Hong Kong was “slowly becoming an totalitarian state.” José-Antonio Maurellet was elected the new chairperson of the HKBA on Thursday. Addressing reporters […]

Three men have been jailed for up to five years and three months after pleading guilty to rioting during a mob attack in Yuen Long in 2019. Handing down the sentences on Thursday, local media reported that District Judge Adriana Noelle Tse Ching said the Yuen Long mob attacks, a watershed moment during the 2019 protests, […]