Ronson Chan, ex-chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, speaks to reporters outside the High Court in Admiralty in Hong Kong before a ruling on his appeal against his conviction for obstructing a police officer, on May 29, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

Tourists relax on the waterfront in front of Victoria Harbour, with the iconic skyline buildings as a backdrop, in Hong Kong, China.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Birds fly over the burned buildings at the fire scene at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in the Tai Po district of Hong Kong’s New Territories, Thursday, Nov. 27 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

A screen displays the voting results rejecting the registration of same-sex partnerships bill, which would have allowed same-sex couples registered abroad to register locally, in the Legislative Council chamber in Hong Kong on September 10, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Authorities in Hong Kong spent Rs 76 lakh ($90,028) earlier this year on a competition to rename two giant pandas, gifted by China, but ended up retaining the original names despite spending the huge sum. According to a report in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the giant panda renaming competition started in October where the public was invited to come up with fresh names for “An An” and “Ke Ke” — the two bears, who arrived from Sichuan.

As per the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau, the taxpayer’s money was spent to build a website for the activity, recruit staff, post advertisements on internet and Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway (MTR) stations in addition to offering prizes to the winners.

The winner of the competition was awarded prizes worth Rs 5.16 lakh which included a tourbillon watch, valued around Rs 4 lakh and membership and vouchers for Ocean Park where the pandas are kept. Despite offering the prizes, the judges, who did not take any pay for their services, announced that the pandas would keep their original names.

Quizzed about the wastage of funds, Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui said the authorities were not to know that the public would prefer keeping the original names.

Notably, the giant pandas in Hong Kong are usually named either after seeking suggestions from the public, or by keeping the names given to them while breastfeeding, or by adopting the names that were given to them by the authorities.

Also Read | Giant Pandas Flown To US From China Aboard ‘Panda Express’

Giant pandas arrive

Male “An An” and female “Ke Ke” are both aged five, the equivalent of 15 in human years. The pair arrived in the country amid much fanfare in September when Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki and Tourism Minister Kevin Yeung Yun-hung welcomed them at the Hong Kong International Airport in a glittering ceremony.

As per Ocean Park chairman Paulo Pong, An An and Ke Ke could help bring in customers and generate revenue. “It is difficult to put a number on [costs] as it is more than just about the income or the park, or the profit or losses. We believe our social responsibility is strong,” Mr Pong said.

“Most importantly we want to bring people to the park, to buy tickets or annual passes to maintain a steady income flow,” he added.

The pandas were unveiled to the public last week with the park anticipating huge rush in the days leading up to Christmas.

Beijing has announced that it will impose visa restrictions on US officials who have “interfered” in Hong Kong affairs. This move comes after Washington said it would impose visa restrictions on Hong Kong officials last month.

According to Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, the US has “violently interfered in China’s internal affairs” by imposing visa restrictions on Chinese officials over Hong Kong issues.

Mao stated that China has decided to impose visa restrictions on US officials who have performed poorly on Hong Kong-related issues. The move is based on China’s foreign relations law and a law on countering foreign sanctions.

Mao emphasised that Hong Kong is a part of China and that Hong Kong affairs are China’s internal matters.

“I shall emphasise that Hong Kong is China’s Hong Kong, and Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal matters,” Mao said. “We urge the US side to genuinely respect China’s sovereignty, respect the rule of law in Hong Kong, and stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs in any way.”

The US had previously announced that it would impose visa restrictions on Hong Kong officials after 45 pro-democracy advocates were sentenced to prison in November. The sentences ranged from four years and two months to 10 years.

“The 45 defendants sentenced today were aggressively prosecuted, and many now face life-altering imprisonment simply for their peaceful participation in political activities which are protected under the Basic Law of Hong Kong,” US Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller said after the sentencing hearing.

The Hong Kong government condemned the US move, saying that foreign governments and organisations had “turned a blind eye to the facts” and made “exaggerated remarks” about the landmark case.
 

Hong Kong’s top court has made a landmark ruling in favour of same-sex married couples, upholding their rights to subsidised housing benefits and equal inheritance.

This decision marks a significant victory for the LGBTQ+ community in Hong Kong, who have traditionally faced discrimination and fewer rights compared to heterosexual couples.

According to the Associated Press, Court of Final Appeal’s unanimous decision dismissed the government’s appeals, ending years-long legal battles over the differential treatment of same-sex couples married overseas.

Government lawyer Monica Carss-Frisk claimed that Hong Kong’s housing policy aimed to promote “procreation” among heterosexual couples. 

However, Chief Justice Andrew Cheung disagreed, stating that excluding same-sex couples from public rental flats and subsidised flats under the Home Ownership Scheme was unjustifiable.

“[For] needy same-sex married couples who cannot afford private rental accommodation, the [government’s] exclusionary policy could well mean depriving them of any realistic opportunity of sharing family life under the same roof at all,” Cheung said.

The ruling also declared that disputed provisions in inheritance laws are “discriminatory and unconstitutional.” Hong Kong’s government respects the court’s decision and will study the judgments to determine next steps.

Currently, Hong Kong does not recognise same-sex marriage, but the city does recognise same-sex marriage for certain purposes, such as taxation and civil service benefits. 

This ruling is a significant step towards equality, but activists remain hopeful that Hong Kong will eventually legalise same-sex marriage, following in the footsteps of Taiwan and Thailand.

Nick Infinger, who was the first to launch a judicial review against the Housing Authority in 2018, told reporters that the rulings “acknowledged same-sex couples can love each other and deserve to live together.”

“This is not only fighting for me and for my partner, but this is fighting for all the same-sex couples in Hong Kong,” he added.

This landmark ruling is a significant milestone in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights in Hong Kong, and activists hope it will inspire further progress towards equality.
 

Hong Kong’s police force is taking on a campaign to install thousands of surveillance cameras across the city to ramp up their crime-fighting capabilities. The Chinese city, consistently ranked among the world’s safest, plans to introduce facial recognition and artificial intelligence tools to enhance law enforcement. Critics, however, warn that this could come at the cost of privacy and freedom.

Hong Kong has close to 55,000 public CCTV cameras, with plans to add 2,000 more this year, announced security Chief Chris Tang in July. The police force is considering equipping these cameras with facial recognition technology and AI tools to help identify suspects. “The police will definitely comply with relevant laws,” said the force in a statement to CNN, though details on when these technologies might be deployed remain vague.

Experts are raising alarms about the repressive potential of surveillance technology, especially in Hong Kong. They draw parallels to mainland China’s extensive surveillance systems, highlighting the heightened concern in Hong Kong, where political dissent has been severely limited since the national security law was introduced after the 2019 anti-government protests.

Hong Kong already has more than 54,500 public CCTV cameras, equating to about seven cameras per 1,000 people. That number puts it on par with major cities like New York, though far behind China’s urban centres, where an average of 440 cameras per 1,000 people is commonplace. 

Mr Tang highlighted that countries like the UK have also started using facial recognition cameras. However, experts warn that even in these democracies, the implementation of such technology has raised significant concerns about privacy. 

Normann Witzleb, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said, “It’s important to design guidelines for those systems that take proper recognition of the potential benefits that they have, but that also acknowledge they’re not foolproof, and that they have the potential to interfere with (people’s) rights in serious ways,” he said. 

Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute, warned that the new cameras could be used for political repression under the guise of fighting crime. “This is likely to be a further step in making Hong Kong law enforcement closer to how it is done on the Chinese mainland,” he said.

Samantha Hoffman, a nonresident fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research, noted, “The difference is how the technology is being used.” While Western democracies face their challenges with surveillance technology, she argues that the situation in Hong Kong is fundamentally different due to the legal framework supporting the government’s authority. She remarked, “When you feel like you’re being monitored, that affects your behaviour and your feelings of freedom,” as per CNN. 

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Critics say officials in the Chinese finance hub have used the sedition offence, which has roots in British colonial rule, to target government critics and stifle dissent.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Hong Kong police said on Saturday (August 31, 2024) that two people were arrested for sedition under a new national security law, accusing them of spreading hatred against Chinese and local authorities.

The arrests on Friday came only a day after the pro-democracy news outlet Stand News and two former editors were found guilty of sedition, the first conviction of its kind since the city came under Chinese rule in 1997.

Critics say officials in the Chinese finance hub have used the sedition offence, which has roots in British colonial rule, to target government critics and stifle dissent.

A man aged 41 and a 28-year-old woman were arrested on Friday for committing “an act or acts that had a seditious intention” and remained in custody, police said in a statement.

Hong Kong media reports said the arrests were made in connection to a note widely circulated on social media this week after a university professor was killed on railway tracks.

The author expressed suicidal thoughts due to despair over Hong Kong’s future. AFP was unable to verify the identity of the person who wrote it.

Police said the woman was suspected of “publishing fraudulent ‘last words’ of the deceased in relation to a recent suicide case”.

They said the man was accused of placing “memorial light boxes” in various places, with contents “provoking hatred” of the governments in Beijing and Hong Kong, police said.

The new national security law, passed in March and commonly known as Article 23, increased the maximum jail term for sedition from two years to seven.

It is Hong Kong’s second national security law and follows the one imposed by Beijing in 2020 after huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests a year earlier.

Those protests prompted a crackdown on free speech that has seen critics of China jailed or forced into exile

The United States and Britain are among vocal critics of the new law, which they say has curbed rights.

By August 1, 301 people had been arrested for national security crimes under various laws.

hol/pbt

Hong Kong:

Hong Kong pro-democracy news outlet Stand News and its two former chief editors were found guilty of sedition on Thursday, the first conviction of its kind since the city came under Chinese rule in 1997.

The verdict is part of a crackdown on free speech in the former British colony that has seen critics of China jailed or forced into exile, following huge pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Editors Chung Pui-kuen, 54, and Patrick Lam, 36, are the first journalists to be convicted of sedition since Britain handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997, and the ruling drew resounding international condemnation.

Chung and Lam were in charge of Stand News, a Chinese-language website that gained a massive following during the protests in 2019, before it was raided and shut down in December 2021.

On Thursday, district court judge Kwok Wai-kin said the pair were guilty of “conspiracy to publish and reproduce seditious publications”. The parent company of Stand News, Best Pencil Limited, was also found guilty.

“The line (Stand News) took was to support and promote Hong Kong local autonomy,” according to a written judgement by Kwok.

“It even became a tool to smear and vilify the Central Authorities (Beijing) and the (Hong Kong) SAR Government.”

Kwok also pointed to 11 articles published by Stand News that “caused potential detrimental consequences to national security” and had the intention of “seriously undermining” authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong.

Lam was absent from court on Thursday due to illness.

The judge granted the duo bail before their sentencing on September 26.

Colonial-era law

Chung and Lam were charged under a colonial-era law, which punishes sedition with a maximum jail term of two years.

A recent security law enacted in March raised the jail term for sedition to seven years.

In response to the verdict, the European Union called on Hong Kong to “stop prosecuting journalists”.

“The ruling risks inhibiting the pluralistic exchange of ideas and the free flow of information, both cornerstones of the economic success of Hong Kong,” a EU spokesperson said.

Speaking outside court, police chief superintendent Steve Li said the verdict “clearly illustrated the necessity and lawfulness” of the enforcement actions in 2021 against Stand News.

Asked if the verdict would further affect press freedom, Li said it would “actually help”.

“It would let everyone know what kind of problems could risk breaching the law,” he said.

Not seditious

But Beh Lih Yi from the Committee to Protect Journalists said the ruling showed that Hong Kong was “descending further into authoritarianism”.

“Journalism is not seditious,” she said.

Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International’s China Director, called the verdict “one more nail in the coffin for press freedom in Hong Kong”.

Hong Kong has seen its standing in global press freedom rankings plummet in recent years.

Chung had testified that the outlet was a platform for free speech and defended his decisions to publish articles critical of the government.

But prosecutors accused them of bringing “hatred or contempt” to the Chinese and Hong Kong governments.

More than 100 people, including supporters and media professionals, queued up for spots in the public gallery on Thursday morning.

The verdict was also attended by representatives from various consulates — including the United States, Britain, France, European Union, and Australia.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)