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Web-only Exclusives November 30, 2000 From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead Bad news for the Philippines - and some others From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights? |
Week of July 2, 1999
Deflation deepened in May, with prices falling for the seventh straight month. The consumer price index registered a year-on-year decrease of 4.0%, after a fall of 3.8% in April. And enthusiasm for the government's decision to start selling its giant share portfolio cooled as fund managers began to question details of the proposal. The Exchange Fund Investment Ltd., set up by the government to manage the shares it bought last August to battle currency speculators, now holds stock worth about $27 billion. The plan is to sell part of the holdings through a unit-trust fund listed on the territory's stock exchange.DEC. 31, 1999 IN HONG KONG will be an extra holiday. The Hong Kong Association of Banks requested the day "so banks may have sufficient time to complete all their year-end operations, and validate and back up customer records before midnight in the new millennium eve."
Week of June 25, 1999
LEUNG CHUN-YING, 44, will be the new head of the Executive Council, replacing Chung Sze-yuen. Leung's appointment was unexpected - he ranks third in seniority on the council, which serves as Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's cabinet. Opposition politicians denounced the move, but Leung's prospects of succeeding Tung seem greatly enhanced.MACAU Authorities have started a roundup of triad suspects in neighboring Zhuhai to ensure stability before the Portuguese enclave returns to China in December.
Week of June 18, 1999
THE WALT DISNEY FINANCIAL AND TECHNICAL TEAMS working on a proposed theme park will arrive on June 14 for two or three weeks of talks ahead of SAR authorities' deadline of June 30. Some progress was made in the preceding week, when SAR negotiators traveled to Disney headquarters in Orlando, Florida.Week of June 11, 1999
Cathay Pacific Airways started leasing aircraft and crew as a battle over planned pay cuts forced the cancellation of many flights when pilots started calling in sick. The pilots say the management's threat to sack them unless they accept its reduced-wage offer made them too stressed to fly. Cathay's management wants senior flyers to accept a new lower-wage contract or accept voluntary retirement by June 11 or they will be dismissed.Week of June 4, 1999
In line with Beijing's suspension of military contact with the U.S. after the bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade, American warships, like the USS Blueridge are banned from stopping over in Hong Kong. Not a strategic problem for the Americans, the suspension is a powerful indicator of how bad relations between the two countries have become. It also marks China's first exercise of authority over the SAR's foreign affairsWeek of May 21, 1999
HSBC HOLDINGS BOUGHT REPUBLIC NATIONAL BANK of New York and its European operations for $10.3 billion. The deal doubles the size of HSBC's private banking business and significantly increases its presence in the U.S. Analysts say the company might have paid too much for the acquisition, though.Week of May 14, 1999
IN A BID TO POSITION ITSELF AS A TELECOMS, Internet and broadcasting hub for Asia, the government announced its "Open Sky Policy" to encourage new uses of satellite and other wireless transmission methods. The new plan also protects fixed-line operators from competition until 2002.Week of May 7, 1999
A MING DYNASTY PORCELAIN CUP from the Chenghua period (1465-1487) fetched a record-high $3.74 million at a Sotheby's auction. A London dealer, Eskenazi Ltd., bought the small piece, which is decorated with two groups of brightly enameled cockerels, hens and chicks.Week of April 30, 1999
BANKER EDMUND HO HAU-WAH formally entered his bid to become the first post-handover leader when the enclave returns to mainland sovereignty on Dec. 19. Ho is seen as the front-runner for the post. The selection process is identical to that used in 1996 to select Hong Kong's chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa.WHILE THE STOCK MARKET RALLIED WITH most other Asian bourses (see story(link to cs 1)), property developers turned out at a government land auction to snap up three sites for apartment complexes at higher-than-expected prices. Immediately after the sale, owners of apartments around the territory raised their asking prices by 5% to 10%.
Week of April 23, 1999
POLICE IDENTIFIED A SUSPECT a day after a bomb exploded in a Japanese-owned department store. They are tracing clues linked to a month-long labor dispute with a disgruntled former employee who might have made four previous bomb threats.HONG KONG'S SHOWCASE Convention and Exhibition Center froze rental rates on exhibition space for a year and is offering a 40% discount for bookings in February, July, August and December 2000.
Week of April 16, 1999
Nearly 1.5 million people left Hong Kong for the five-day weekend marking the combined Easter and Ching Ming festival holidays. Inland Revenue Commissioner Wong Hong-sang is worried that his plea to residents to spend their special 10% tax rebate at home to boost the territory's sagging economy went unheeded.Week of April 9, 1999
SINGAPORE, HONG KONG AND JAPAN are the cleanest places to do business in Asia, while Indonesia, India and China are the most corrupt, according to the most recent survey by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy.CHINA-HONG KONG BORDER Hong Kong border guards might have more work coming their way. On March 30, Justice Wally Yeung Chun-kuen rejected pleas from 17 mainland Chinese that they be allowed to stay in the territory while their legal claims to live in Hong Kong are sorted out. The test case directly affects more than 1,200 others. But its larger implication is for more than a million mainlanders who claim the same right of abode - which the government fears could inundate the territory with needy immigrants. By the evening of the day of Yeung's decision, police had rounded up 160 people to repatriate to China.
Week of April 2, 1999
CITING FREEDOM OF SPEECH and jurisdictional issues, the Court of Appeal ruled that a law prohibiting the defacement of the Chinese and SAR flags is unconstitutional. The government said it will contest the decision, taking it to the Court of Final Appeal.Week of March 26, 1999
Stock market ears perked up when the government said it is considering a number of ways to offload a $15.2-billion share portfolio that it acquired during last August's buying spree to ward off currency speculators. Exchange Fund Investment Ltd., the government-owned company controlling the stocks, has picked three financial firms, who will be named at a later date, to advise on the share-disposal program. EFIL says no timetable for sales has been set yet.All 73 of Hong Kong's cinemas shut down for a day to protest the rampant piracy of videos, which they say costs them millions of dollars in ticket sales annually.
Week of March 12, 1999
On the frontlines of the cellular-phone price wars, a woman managed to capture a promotional "free lunch" bag of cup noodles and a yogurt drink offered by Hong Kong Telecom to keep subscribers. New regulations that went into effect March 1 allow mobile users to switch companies without losing their phone numbers.Week of March 5, 1999
January was the third straight month of economic deflation for the SAR. The consumer price index dipped 1.1% year-on-year. There was a 1.6% fall in December and 0.7% decline in November, when the territory recorded an overall drop in prices for the first time in 23 years. The inflation rate for all of 1998 was 2.3%.Week of February 12, 1999
MONTHLY WAGES FOR NEW DOMESTIC workers, mostly Filipinas, will be cut by 5% to $473. The women protested, but so did employers, some of whom sought a 20% cut.Week of February 5, 1999
ACRIMONY OVER THE TROUBLED OPENING of the new Chek Lap Kok airport is building. The independent Woo Commission report faulted senior officials, but did not call for resignations. A Legislative Council investigation was much more critical, singling out Chief Secretary Anson Chan and Airport Authority head Henry Townsend. An Ombudsman's report has not been made public.Week of January 22, 1999
JOSEPH NYE, DEAN OF PUBLIC POLICY at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, warned former British colonies like Singapore and Hong Kong to revamp their policies. "One of the questions that Singapore, Hong Kong and other countries that have a tradition of British civil service are going to have to think through is the idea of having a totally segregated class of people who are public servants," he said in a speech made at the invitation of Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew.AT THE CENTRAL BANKERS MEETING in Hong Kong hosted by the Swiss-based Bank for International Settlements, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan briefed his colleagues on the situation in the U.S. His message: Prepare for a moderate slowdown in the American economy. Greenspan traveled on to Beijing to see his counterpart Dai Xianglong and PM Zhu Rongji.
Week of January 15, 1999
HONGKONG TELECOM CUT INTERNATIONAL RATES by 30% following the loss of its IDD monopoly, sparking a tariff-slashing price war. Singapore's SingTel announced plans to join the SAR's newly opened market.A CASINO OWNER AND SUSPECTED 14K triad member was shot dead in a tropical fish shop. The killing was one of four shootings in three days as triad gangs stepped up the battle for control of gambling rackets.
Hong Kong spends at least $1.3 million every month to provide social security to migrants from mainland China who don't qualify for the benefit. At the same time, the government has proposed social security cuts, which, local academics say, may leave some families with insufficient money for a balanced diet.
Week of January 8, 1999
The economy shrank by 7.1% in the third quarter of 1998, only slightly worse than predicted. The largest previous drop was 4.7% in July-September 1974. Predictions are for a slower pace of decline when fourth-quarter figures are announced.News from Hong Kong in 1998
News from Hong Kong in 1997
News from Hong Kong in 1996
News from Hong Kong in 1995
