Trump signs Hong Kong Bills; Beijing vows retaliation: Now what?

28 Nov 2019 

SHANGHAI: US President Donald Trump signed into law congressional Bills that back protesters in Hong Kong and threaten China with possible sanctions on human rights, prompting China's Foreign Ministry on Thursday (Nov 28) to warn of "firm countermeasures".

Mass protests for more democracy and autonomy have rocked the former British colony and more than 5,800 people have been arrested since June, with the escalating violence raising fears that China will ratchet up its response to end the unrest.

The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which the Senate and House passed last week, puts the special treatment Hong Kong enjoys under US law under tighter scrutiny linked to the extent of the territory's autonomy from Beijing.

A second Bill, which Trump also signed, bans the export to the Hong Kong police of crowd-control munitions, such as tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and stun guns.

Wider Image: No money, no hope: South Korea's 'Dirt Spoons' turn against Moon

27 November, 2019

SEOUL - Hwang Hyeon-dong lives in a 6.6-square-metre (71-square-foot) cubicle near his university campus in Seoul, which comes with a shared bathroom and kitchen plus all the rice he can eat, that he rents for 350,000 won ($302) a month.

The sparsely furnished rooms, in premises called goshi-won, were previously mostly used by less well-off students to temporarily cut themselves off from the outside world while they studied for civil service job tests.

Now they are increasingly becoming permanent homes to young people like Hwang, who identifies himself among the "dirt spoons", those born to low-income families who have all but given up on social mobility.

How Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing went from friend of China to punching bag

27 Nov 2019

HONG KONG: In January of 1993, an ambitious Chinese Communist Party boss, a 39-year-old official with chubby cheeks and a mop of black hair, visited Hong Kong.

He was seeking out the city’s rich among the shimmering skyscrapers, hoping to secure investment in Fuzhou, the second-tier city he ran in mainland China. His name was Xi Jinping.

That August, Xi received a guest back home. Hong Kong’s most famous tycoon, Li Ka-shing, known locally as “superman” for his business acumen, had come to town. A photograph from the event shows Xi grinning as he walked beside Li, who held a bouquet of flowers in his hand. In the background, a long banner hung with the message to “warmly welcome” Li Ka-shing.

During those days, in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen incident, Beijing was desperate to fire up a languishing economy. National leaders and provincial potentates were courting Li for his cash and the star power his name brought to development projects on the mainland. That time has passed.

Hong Kong democrats romp to local election landslide after months of protests

25 November, 2019

HONG KONG - Hong Kong's democrats romped to a landslide and symbolic majority in district council elections after residents turned out in record numbers on Sunday to vote following six months of anti-government protests in the embattled city.

In a rare weekend lull in the unrest that has rocked the financial hub, democratic candidates across the city of 7.4 million people secured more than half of the 452 district council seats for the first time against a strongly resourced and mobilized pro-establishment opposition.

When the results began trickling in after midnight, including upset wins for democrats against heavyweight pro-Beijing opponents, some voting centers erupted in loud cheers and chants of "Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution Now" - a slogan used by many protesters on the streets over the past six months.

Some winning candidates said the result was akin to a vote of support for the demonstrators and could raise the heat on Hong Kong's pro-Beijing chief executive, Carrie Lam, amid the city's worst political crisis in decades.

"This is the power of democracy. This is a democratic tsunami," said Tommy Cheung, a former student protest leader who won a seat in the Yuen Long district close to China's border.

Why my attitude towards free speech has changed

By Aun Koh

22 November, 2019

The terms “free speech” and “Singapore” don’t exactly go hand in hand. That’s something that, as a Western-trained (former) journalist who worked at The Straits Times, the International Herald Tribune and Newsweek, among others, I have had a hard time reconciling for the past three decades.

Today, I remain a big believer in civil liberties, press freedom and free speech. But certain circumstances have made me adapt my thinking and slightly amend my belief system. One of these is becoming a parent.

Once you have children, you start to think about how you want your kids to be raised and the influences that will affect them as they mature. You try your best to educate them, teach them how to appreciate, understand, and digest information and opinions.

In many ways, building and running a country is akin to parenting millions of people.

After electoral loss in Hong Kong, Beijing points finger at US

27 November, 2019

BEIJING — The Chinese government, still coming to terms with a stunning electoral victory for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, is directing its ire at a popular foe: the United States.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the American ambassador to Beijing on Monday (Nov 25), a day after the local elections in Hong Kong that were seen as a rebuke to the authoritarian policies of President Xi Jinping.

Chinese officials warned the ambassador, Mr Terry Branstad, that the United States should “stop interfering in China’s internal affairs,” according to the ministry. They also criticised Congress for passing a bill recently to support the protesters.

Plastic bottles vs. aluminum cans: who'll win the global water fight?

17 October, 2019

LONDON - Global bottled water giants are ramping up trials of easily recyclable aluminum cans to replace plastic that pollutes the world's seas. Sound like a slam-dunk for the environment? Not entirely.

Aluminum cans might indeed mean less ocean waste, but they come with their own eco-price: the production of each can pumps about twice as much carbon into the atmosphere as each plastic bottle.

French group Danone has become the latest company to make a move, telling Reuters it had started to replace some plastic bottles with aluminum cans for local water brands in Britain, Poland and Denmark.

The shift, previously unannounced, comes as multinational rivals like Coca-Cola Co , PepsiCo and Nestle are also launching some canned versions of water brands.