Don’t ever read too much into an election outcome. Doing so could make you misjudge which way voters are leaning in the next election. Never forget that an election outcome reflects only the mood of voters...

Is Hong Kong really dying? That was the topic of a seminar last week organized by veteran politician Emily Lau Wai-hing at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club. A controversial topic at a sensitive venue, especially after the...

“It’s morning again in America.“ The late US president Ronald Reagan used this 1984 TV campaign commercial to great effect during his re-election campaign. It so resonated with voters that even to this day it’s rated one...

No one disagrees that Hong Kong’s most urgent issue is the abysmal state of its housing. Even the opposition admits this although it insists the housing crisis doesn’t give the government an excuse to ignore political reforms...

Hong Kong stepped into uncharted terrain this week by banning a separatist party which advocates independence from China. By taking such unprecedented action, the government has put us in a legal and political minefield. It would...

We in Hong Kong like to talk a lot about democracy. But what exactly is democracy? The opposition insists it will only accept so-called genuine democracy. It loosely describes this as one person one vote without...

No one knows which came first, the chicken or the egg, but which should come first – political reforms or Article 23 national security legislation? Beijing loyalists have joined forces to demand the speedy enactment of...

Less than two months after Donald Trump completed his first year in office as America’s most unconventional president in recent history, China’s National People’s Congress amended the country’s constitution to extend indefinitely Xi Jinping’s term as...

If you think Hong Kong’s insane property market will magically find sanity one day, don’t hold your breath. You will only suffocate. Forget that dream about owning a flat anytime soon. It will remain a dream...

A picture is worth a thousand words, as the old saying goes. I saw a recent picture in the media that told much more than a thousand words about Hong Kong as it marks 21 years...

If hundreds of young people armed with makeshift shields set fires, hurl bricks at police and kick them to the ground, would you describe such violence as a riot? Before you decide, you need to know the...

Can Hong Kong ever be like mainland China? That question came up at a recent private dinner I attended. One businessman gave this blunt answer: Hong Kong is part of China but it will never be...

In today’s internet age, democracy can sometimes be its own worst enemy. Just look at the huge role social media is playing on how democratic societies exercise democracy. Social media can be a boon in budding...

Hong Kong people love to boast about their core values. But what exactly are these values they say they so cherish? Some are easy to pinpoint. They say they are proud of Hong Kong’s rule of...

Will Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor dare go where no other chief executive has gone before to tackle Hong Kong’s housing crunch once and for all? Will her administration have the guts to shut Hong Kong’s housing...

Not all trade wars are created equal. But as the saying goes, all’s fair in love and war. A trade war between the United States and the European Union would be more equal than a trade...

Is a grand reconciliation in the making? Or are we just seeing an illusion created by both sides for public consumption? My hunch is the recent rapport between the opposition and Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng...

People often read too much into an election result. Election outcomes are merely snapshots of the public mood at a given time. It is quite possible that if the same election was held again a month...

Hong Kong is a super-rich city by any standards. It has fiscal reserves of about HK$1 trillion. But even that astronomical amount is not the whole story. The government has squirreled away huge amounts of money...

Two days ago I interviewed feng shui master Michael Chiang Hong-man on TV. He predicted a generally good year for Hong Kong in the Year of the Dog, which begins tomorrow. Sadly, the Year of the...