AMANI ALAWWAD WRITES – On Feb 6, Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal ruled against the government’s mandate requiring transgender people to undergo sexual reassignment surgery prior to using their preferred gender on identity cards. The landmark ruling is widely viewed as a victory that may lead to greater recognition…
ANYA CHINAPPI WRITES – On Thursday, February 2, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-Chiu announced a new tourism campaign called “Hello Hong Kong,” designed to encourage visitors and overseas residents back to the island following the Covid-19 shutdown. The campaign features over 500,000 free plane tickets, special events, and…
SERENA GONZALEZ WRITES – To celebrate the Year of the Tiger, Italian high-end luxury brand and fashion powerhouse Gucci has come under fire for using live tigers in its latest advertising campaign – a move that has shocked animal welfare organizations, conservationists, and consumers alike. The campaign, branded #GucciTiger, portrays…
JARED SIVILA WRITES — After two long years, COVID-19 still rages on, plaguing the world not just with a contagious disease but with fear, paranoia, and absolute desperation. While some countries have reimplemented lockdown protocols, others have embraced a lax stance for the pandemic. Hong Kong appears to have clamped…
TOM PLATE WRITES — Do dead sculptures tell no tales? Perhaps they still do. Recently the Pillar of Shame statue in Hong Kong, long displayed, was removed from the University of Hong Kong campus by the powers that be. The sculpture had shaped the famous Tiananmen Square incident in terms…
EXECUTIVE EDITOR ZHI JIAO DANIELLE GOH WRITES — Legend has it that an apple a day keeps the lie away. That was the slogan of Apple Daily, the most vocal pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong. But what happens when the apple tree falls? On Thursday, Apple Daily printed its last…
HEATHER CREAMER WRITES — It’s a short 25-minute train ride from Central Station in Hong Kong to Quarry Bay, a tightly packed neighborhood on the Eastern side of Hong Kong. The number of commercial buildings in this district has increased exponentially over the past two decades, and more buildings go…
MONICA KELLY WRITES — Is prison population growth an indicator of justice in Asia? On November 2, Hong Kong officials announced a record-breaking seizure of over half-a-ton of methamphetamine reportedly worth $39 million USD. Drug trafficking is not new to Asia: the continent’s meth trade is estimated to be worth…
JOANNE PANG WRITES – COVID-19 continues to spread amongst communities, and Hong Kong’s zero-case streak has been reset now to over 100 cases daily. The government urges citizens to stay at home unless necessary; but for the gamers out there who want to play with their friends, what can be…
TOM PLATE WRITES – I wouldn’t mind being 20-Something again. It was the only time in my life that I had not yet made blunders of which I was aware, and – as best as I can recall – it was the only time I felt sure I knew just…
SARA SHARPE WRITES — Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, countries have been scrambling to create effective and realistic economic stimulus packages. China has promised a year-long fiscal stimulus package amounting to 3.6 trillion yuan ($500 billion USD) in an attempt to continue its strong rate of economic growth,…
(ORIGINALLY POSTED ON SCMP) COLUMNIST TOM PLATE WRITES — For no self-respecting ‘superpower’ is failure an option. But history’s guarantees for nations are few: For big as well as small, survival can prove a struggle. And so, while humility might not be ranked as the first virtue of prudent superpower-ing,…
MANAGING EDITOR SENAY EMMANUEL WRITES — From Minneapolis to Miami, Boston to Berlin, and even as far as Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the world is expressing its dismay and revulsion at the seemingly lawless and brutal nature of American police. The senseless murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by Minneapolis…
ORIGINALLY POSTED IN LMU MAGAZINE — U.S. relations with China, from the COVID-19 crisis to democracy protests in Hong Kong, may shape the November 2020 presidential election. Tom Plate, LMU professor and Asia expert, talks about foreign policy disputes and pragmatism in dealing with a superpower. Click here to listen…
COLUMNIST TOM PLATE WRITES – The decline of the coherence and acumen of American foreign policy would appear to present Beijing with the potential for a century of anything and everything but humiliation. To be sure, historically, the U.S. has demonstrated Olympian bounce-back ability from near-death experiences (from bad economies…
From News Service Reports — No sooner had after China signaled it would impose new national-security laws on Hong Kong than markets throughout the world trembled. By early afternoon Friday in Hong Kong (22 May), the Hang Seng Index had lost 5.6%, with property, financial and infrastructure stocks retreating between…
