US President Donald Trump is due to visit China on May 14-15, where he is expected to meet leader Xi Jinping, after delaying an earlier summit because of the Iran war.

Here is what Beijing could be hoping to achieve:

What does China want?

Beyond diplomatic niceties and behind closed doors, Beijing will be looking for small, concrete achievements, analysts said, but will stay “realistically pragmatic” given Trump’s unpredictable nature.

China wants a broad reset in ties but knows this would be unlikely, said Benjamin Ho from Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

Beijing and Washington had been locked in a blistering trade war in which US levies on many Chinese goods reached an eye-watering 145 percent.

The tit-for-tat escalation cooled off after Trump and Xi agreed in October to a one-year truce, with experts saying Beijing’s baseline goal for the upcoming meeting would be to extend that agreement.

“What China needs is for Trump to follow through on his promise to engage, with at least a few concrete outcomes discussed at the highest level,” said Yue Su from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Beijing will be satisfied with “targeted” results such as limited tariff reductions that would justify a measured rollback of its own tariffs or export restrictions, she said.

What about the Iran war?

The topic of Iran will be “hard to avoid” in the Trump-Xi meeting, experts said, but “this is not a domain China is eager to engage deeply on”.

“The US is already raising pressure pre-summit on China by targeting its economic ties with Tehran,” said Lizzi Lee at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

Trump warned last month he would hit China’s goods with a 50 percent tariff if it provided military assistance to Iran.

Beijing is a close partner of Tehran and has called US-Israeli strikes on Iran illegal, but it has also criticised Iranian attacks on Gulf countries and called for the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened.

However, China will not accept pressure from the United States to take action on Iran or Russia, over whom it “may have some influence but not decisive control”, the EIU’s Su said.

Beijing will also aim to avoid “additional complications” such as new US tariffs linked to China’s trade with Iran being introduced into an “already complex relationship”, Su said.

The Iran war will add “another layer of mutual pressure”, Lee said, but the real negotiating terrain remains in trade and investment.

What are China’s bargaining chips?

One of China’s key bargaining chips is its rare earths — metals crucial in the production of everything from smartphones to electric cars.

China’s dominance in the rare earths industry, from natural reserves and mining through processing and innovation, is the result of a decades-long drive.

It remains China’s strongest tool if meaningful concessions from the United States are needed, Su said.

Trump has shown that he “cares a lot about” rare earths, said Joe Mazur, a geopolitics analyst at Beijing-based consultancy Trivium China.

“I think that’s sort of something that the US doesn’t really have an answer to,” he said.

Mazur thinks that China is “going to line up… quick wins” before the visit, which may include buying more US agricultural products or Boeing jets.

China, he said, might hope “that will put Trump and his team in a positive frame of mind when they’re then discussing more complex, thornier issues”.

How has Beijing prepared?

China has hedged against instability brought about by Trump through diversifying trade towards Southeast Asia and the Global South, and strengthening regional ties, said the Asia Society’s Lee.

Beijing has also sharpened its legal and regulatory toolbox, she said, and “has a potentially more extensive playbook”, as seen in the recent blocking of tech giant Meta’s acquisition of AI firm Manus.

However, a lot of these measures, including diversification of energy imports, a push towards electrification and tech self-sufficiency, predate Trump’s second term, Mazur said.

“If this meeting goes exceptionally well, it’s not going to change the trajectory that China’s on,” he said.

“This push to America-proof the Chinese economy is going to continue, no matter what happens.”

Is China confident?

Beijing will enter talks “cautiously confident”, Lee said.

It believes it can absorb pressure better now and is more comfortable playing “a long game” than Trump, who is facing midterm election pressure, she said.

A visit to Beijing by Russian President Vladimir Putin is also on the cards, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov — who met Xi in April — saying it would happen in the first half of this year.

A back-to-back visit would send the message that “just because he (Xi) had a good meeting with Trump, it doesn’t mean that Chinese support for Russia is going anywhere”, Mazur told AFP.

“That relationship is rock solid.”

By Mary Yang with Tommy Wang in Hong Kong

Vacuum cleaners and vapes could get more expensive if the Iran war drags on for much longer, Chinese factory owners and traders warn, as the world’s manufacturing hub reels from “crazy” costs.

Weeks of US-Israeli strikes on Iran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz have choked Asia’s oil supply, stymieing the production of plastic — derived from oil — across the region.

Manufacturing giant China has been comparatively sheltered from fuel shortages thanks to oil reserves and renewable energy, but local factories are picking up a ballooning raw materials bill.

“Basically, we’ve been losing money on all our orders,” said Bryant Chen, a manager at vacuum cleaner factory RIMOO in southern Guangdong province’s Foshan.

The price of plastic has risen roughly 50 percent since before the Iran war, Chen told AFP as workers behind him fastened suction tubes to metal tanks.

“The costs of the products that we are making are being very greatly affected,” the 42-year-old said, listing plastic, copper for the vacuum’s motor and raw materials in its power cords.

“Typically at this time we’d be entering peak season, but compared to the same period previously, shipment and production data aren’t very optimistic.”

Two hours away, plastic traders in storage hub Zhangmutou said price fluctuations were the worst they’ve seen in decades.

“It has never been this crazy,” said Li Dong, 46, who entered the industry two decades ago.

The plastic, rice-sized pellets he buys for local phone cases and EV battery factories jumped wildly in March, triggering days of panic that jammed the small town’s roads as factories rushed to stock up.

‘Mutual state of decline’

Exporters in Zhangmutou showed AFP a vast range of products their pellets would become, including drones and badminton birdies.

One trader sifted through pink, green and purple beads that she said would be moulded into e-cigarette casings sold in the Middle East.

The Iran war has hit plastic production even harder than bottlenecks caused by the Covid pandemic, when ships could not come and go from China, Li said.

Some sellers cashed in on the plastic panic, he added, fighting to take advantage of surging costs.

Li said the price of plastic had dropped around 10 to 20 percent from its height, but he cautioned against further oil hold-ups.

“The factories we supply to will suffer the most because their direct costs will rise,” he said.

For exporters, the Middle East crisis has added to the hangover still lingering from Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs last year.

The US Supreme Court struck down those levies as illegal, but tolls on Chinese goods entering the US still sit at around 20 percent.

On the outskirts of Guangzhou, one garment factory owner lamented the chaos triggered by the US president’s trade war.

Overseas clients are afraid to place orders, while Chinese manufacturers cannot pin down changing costs.

“As a result, everyone is in a mutual state of decline,” garment boss Zhou, 55, said.

While 80 percent of his clients have returned, the fabrics scattered on his factory floor made into sweatpants headed for Europe and North America have risen 10 to 20 percent in cost due to the Middle East war.

As overseas orders dropped, seamsters went months without a job.

‘Tensions rise, orders disappear’

Migrant worker Jingjing returned to her hometown in Hubei province for two months, where she made half the 400 yuan (US$60) she now earns in Guangzhou’s garment factories.

“When tensions rise… orders suddenly disappear,” the 42-year-old said.

But this year she said she always has something to do.

In a damp back alley, Jingjing joined job-seekers milling about leisurely, haggling for higher wages while garment bosses perched on scooters brandished hiring signs, desperate for day labourers.

Chen, the vacuum factory manager, said he was “still worried” about surging shipping costs should the Iran war drag on.

“If shipping costs rise, it will cause the final costs for our customers to increase sharply,” he said.

They “will have no way to sell normally, because the costs are just too high”.

Chen said RIMOO plans to expand to other markets beyond the Middle East where around 60 percent of its customers are based.

“We are still optimistic,” he said. “The market demand still exists.”

But analysts warn the war’s impact on costs will be felt for months.

“The problem is all of these costs will filter through the supply chains for the rest of the year,” said supply chain consultant Cameron Johnson.

“The longer it goes on, that kind of cascades into much bigger problems, particularly if there’s not enough oil in general to run stuff.”

By Tim Pit Hok-yau

Last month, the Office of the Ombudsman released its long-awaited investigation into the Hong Kong government’s work in combating animal cruelty.

The report was prompted by a series of horrifying abuse cases which, in the Ombudsman’s own words, “amount to a deliberate trampling on the dignity of life and run wholly contrary to the very conscience of a civilised society.”

The investigation focuses primarily on the failures of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD), which is responsible for animal management and welfare.

Among the key findings are the AFCD’s inefficient investigations and insufficient prosecutions. Out of 1,633 reports of suspected animal cruelty from 2020 to June 2025, only six prosecutions were brought – a striking, though not new, statistic.

The AFCD responded to the Ombudsman, saying that the majority of reports it received pertained to noise or nuisance complaints rather than cruelty. However, media reports on animal cruelty, including a recent shocking case of a 14-year-old student sharing online photos and videos of cat abuse, may suggest otherwise. 

Other problems highlighted by the Ombudsman’s report include weak enforcement powers; inconsistent case handling; poor internal monitoring and staff training; delayed reform of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance (Cap. 169), first promised in 2019; and alarmingly low penalties for illegal animal traps, which currently carry a maximum fine of HK$50,000 with no provision for imprisonment.

These are important findings, and the Ombudsman deserves credit for highlighting institutional deficiencies that animal advocates have raised for years. 

But while the report has identified some of the government’s major failures, it also reveals a deeper problem: Hong Kong’s approach to animal welfare remains fundamentally reactive rather than preventive, with most suggestions focusing on punishment, not prevention.

Worse still, the report overlooks many of the structural and everyday forms of animal plight that are normalised across the city. This article, then, intends to address these blind spots.

Duty of care

The most glaring limitation of the investigative report concerns its ambivalence over nudging the government to implement a “duty of care.”

While the Ombudsman acknowledges that the government has struggled to reach consensus on this proposal, it stops short of urging its adoption. This hesitation matters.

A duty of care would fundamentally shift existing animal law from punishing cruelty after suffering occurs to preventing suffering in the first place. Without such a framework, Hong Kong continues to operate on an outdated logic: authorities intervene only after visible injury, starvation, or death.

If a cat falls from an unprotected high-rise window, or a dog is chronically confined in a tiny flat with little exercise or social contact, the current legal framework can hardly intervene until obvious harm has already occurred.

With a duty of care, caregivers would be legally required to provide appropriate food, shelter, veterinary care, and living conditions that meet animals’ physical and behavioural needs safely. In other common law jurisdictions, including the UK and Australia, duty of care provisions have already become a cornerstone of animal protection.  

Undoubtedly, one of the report’s recommendations is to “further strengthen outreach and education in schools, helping students and young people build an awareness of animal protection from childhood.”

This is a fantastic recommendation for preventing animal cruelty, but it remains frustratingly vague. What kind of education are we talking about?

If Hong Kong genuinely wants to cultivate respect for animals, it must first confront contradictions in the current education system.

Attending a local secondary school, I still remember many science classes where animal dissection was presented as a normal part of learning, from dissecting ox eyes to hearing classmates describe experiments on mice.

These activities are still recommended by the Education Bureau’s Biology Curriculum and Assessment Guide, although the government also expects secondary school students to “learn about how humans can live in harmony with animals and show respect for all living things” in the very same subject.

Humane education

Not only do such laboratory practices risk reinforcing a worldview in which animals exist primarily as instruments for human use, but the pedagogical value of animal dissection has been convincingly challenged by a large corpus of research.

Yet, the issue is perhaps just one of the many voids in our education system that should help enhance animal well-being and stop the everyday exploitation of animals. Learning about veganism, the intersection between animal exploitation and other social problems, conservation, and other elements of animal education are equally important.

Humane education should equip citizens with the ability to locate the many practices of cruelty against animals in Hong Kong, many of which the Ombudsman’s report says nothing about. 

For instance, there have been repeated controversies surrounding captive animals at Ocean Park; animal deaths at the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens; and the racing industry operated by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, where horses routinely suffer injuries and fatalities caused by running at maximal speed, lax whipping rules, and a hot climate.

Of course, the development projects and human activities that disrupt animals’ habitats should not be ignored. Just think of how Chinese white dolphins have lost their habitat because of reclamation or been injured because of high-speed ferries’ propeller blades, to name just one example.

Whether one supports these institutions and projects or not, it is difficult to argue that they fall outside the conversation on animal welfare.

The government’s poor animal management policies in urban areas are another major omission in the Ombudsman’s investigation. The report rightly condemns illegal animal traps but ignores government-led practices that also cause suffering, including the wild boar culling operations.

It also neglects ineffective regulation of religious animal release practices, which often disrupt ecosystems and harm the very animals being “saved” because more often than not, they are not released into suitable habitats. 

If Hong Kong truly wants to become a “civilised” city that respects life, then animal welfare cannot be confined to criminal prosecutions of isolated abuse cases. It must also confront the legal, educational, economic, and cultural systems that normalise animal suffering in everyday life and prevent it from happening in the first place.

Another step that must be taken to safeguard animals’ well-being is to ask a harder question: What kinds of relationships do we, as a city, continue to build with the animals who live among us?

As philosopher Martha Nussbaum reminds us, animal justice should not be measured simply by the absence of cruelty, but by whether animals can actualise the capabilities essential to their flourishing.

For dogs, that includes play, movement, and social bonding. For dolphins, it means the ability to hunt, communicate, and live within their natural habitat. Survival alone is not welfare; a decent life is.

The Ombudsman’s report is an important step. But it should not be mistaken for an ultimate solution. Rather, it should remind us that there is always more that we – as policymakers, educators, and citizens – must do.

Tim Pit Hok-yau is research lead for the Hong Kong Animal Law and Protection Organisation.

An engineer by day, Thomas spends most of his time inspecting building projects on construction sites. At night, he unwinds by performing in bars and restaurants across Hong Kong.

The 35-year-old has always had a passion for singing – in particular, he loves performing songs by Hins Cheung, his favourite Cantopop artist.

“When I have a gig, one-third or even half of my songs are Hins’ songs,” Thomas told HKFP. “I love how he expresses himself through singing. He’s very creative, and he’s humorous too.”

Last year, he even signed up for Hins Academy music seminars, personally taught by Cheung. They were not cheap, Thomas said, costing around HK$800 or $900 per seminar.

Cheung, 45, whose music career in Hong Kong has spanned more than two decades, was born and raised in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. He moved to Hong Kong in 2002 to pursue music.

His hits, from old-time favourites like “Tremor” to newer songs like “Imaginary Fairground,” are karaoke staples. He has also won multiple high-profile awards, and his concert tickets sell out notoriously quickly.

Last month, Cheung made headlines after he apologised for his past criticism of the government. His comments were published in a full-page interview with state-backed newspaper Wen Wei Po, in which he said he had been “impulsive” and “ignorant” in his younger years.

The out-of-the-blue repentance contrasted with the pro-democracy stance that Cheung had been associated with. While he – like most public figures in the city’s post-security law environment – has not commented on politics in recent years, his fans remember his support for social movements dating back to the anti-national education protests in 2012.

Cheung also said in the interview that he would serve as a mentor for a Security Bureau programme targeting young people arrested for their involvement in the 2019 protests and unrest. He would lead them on trips to mainland China so they could learn more about the country, he said.

Thomas – who requested to use a pseudonym due to the sensitivity of the topic – said the recent news did not change his perception of Cheung, as he did not think the statements were made of his own free will.

“This is a 180-degree difference” from what Cheung used to be, Thomas said in Cantonese. “I think there must be reasons behind the scenes.”

His reaction echoed many comments left on Cheung’s social media posts, some of which said the Wen Wei Po interview felt “bizarre” and suggested that something “had happened.”

Political pressure

A political scientist at a university in Hong Kong, who declined to be named, said he believed there was some merit in fans’ theories. Cheung’s dramatic turn showed the increasing political pressure that artists had to cave in to in order to succeed in their field, he said.

He speculated that the government wanted a popular public figure to step forward and “admit their mistakes” to encourage others to rethink their political views. Cheung was a “suitable candidate,” the academic said.

He opined that while Cheung was believed to have a pro-democracy stance, he was not as anti-establishment as other singers who have engaged in political activism.

In fact, while the Cantopop star has expressed support for the city’s social movements, he has also made posts on Weibo celebrating China’s National Day.

“He has the brand of being anti-government in some sense, but he’s not that extreme,” the scholar said. “He’s the ideal type for the government to work with.”

The apology and collaboration with the government are also beneficial for Cheung from a business perspective, the academic added. 

In the past, artists worried that anti-establishment political statements could limit their opportunities across the border. Mainland China has been known to bar singers perceived as pro-democracy, making it difficult for them to hold concerts there.

But now that fear could be felt right at home, too, the academic said. In recent years, singers who are outspoken about their pro-democracy stance have faced difficulties securing concert venues in the city. 

Outside of Cheung’s fan circle, however, criticism is not hard to come by. Lester Shum, a pro-democracy activist who was released from jail in January after serving a four-and-a-half-year sentence for a landmark national security case, said on Threads that Cheung was doing it “for the money.”

He appeared to downplay concerns that Cheung was under any pressure.

“Don’t say he’d get arrested if he didn’t do this lmao,” Shum wrote in Chinese. “I think the chances of that happening are close to zero.” 

Another Threads user accused Cheung of “playing the victim” and trying to fish for sympathy.

‘For his music’

Comments like that do not faze long-time fan Brian, who said he has been listening to Cheung since his late primary school days.

The 29-year-old said he had been to Cheung’s concerts eight or nine times, a feat made possible by the fact that he could buy internal tickets through a friend’s relative who worked at Emperor Entertainment Group, Hong Kong’s talent management behemoth that manages the artist.

Tickets are too difficult to purchase during public sales, said Brian, who declined to disclose his full name.

“I have liked him for so many years for his music, not because of things he has said about politics in the past,” Brian told HKFP. “So I won’t stop liking him because of what he’s said about politics now.”

He told HKFP he himself is not a political person and that he does not support “either side.”

“But in Hong Kong, if you say you support the government, you will have more opportunities,” he said. “If [Cheung] still wants to develop in Hong Kong, to hold shows and appear in films, his stance must be supportive of the government.”

According to local media, Cheung appeared at a Security Bureau event at the Hong Kong Museum of History at the end of April, where he and other speakers gave talks to about 300 people. The event was aimed at young people who were arrested during the protests and unrest in 2019.

The singer shared the ups and downs of his career, including being scammed by a record company in mainland China when he was 17. In his talk, he did not mention national security.

Afterwards, participants were brought to the national security exhibition in the museum. Then, there was a lucky draw, with tickets to a star-studded concert featuring Emperor Entertainment Group’s singers among the prizes, an attendee told local media.

Thomas said he did not think that Cheung wanted to collaborate with the government on its event, but perhaps he had to as a favour to his music company, which is reportedly experiencing financial difficulties. Last year, Emperor Group actress Michelle Wai also gave a talk at a similar Security Bureau event targeting former 2019 protesters.

He also said it was “abnormal” that Cheung unfollowed many accounts on Instagram around the time the Wen Wei Po interview came out, including some of his closest artist friends like Terence Lam and Tyson Yoshi.

Thomas said he believed Cheung would not do that on his own.

He added that while Cheung had not spoken about politics in recent years, his music video for “Imaginary Fairground” – filmed in London in 2023 and depicting Hongkongers’ struggle to adapt to a new life in the UK – was interpreted by fans as a message of encouragement for those who had emigrated because of the city’s political developments.

Thomas’ friends who are also Cheung fans share his continued support for the artist, the hobbyist singer said, but some members of his own audience seem less forgiving.

Thomas had come across restaurant customers at his gigs who, upon hearing him perform Cheung’s songs, said they no longer listened to the Cantopop star.

“I think those are not his real fans,” Thomas said. “All they’ve seen are the news reports.”

Thai police are investigating a vast arsenal of military-grade weapons — including assault rifles, explosives, grenades and anti-personnel mines — found at the home of a Chinese man, authorities said Saturday.

Two M16 assault rifles, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, Russian landmines, projectiles, gasoline and nearly five kilos (11 pounds) of explosives were found at the home of Sun Mingchen, 31, near the beach resort of Pattaya.

There were no clear links to a planned attack, Chonburi province’s public relations department said in a statement, but local police chief Pongphan Wongmanithet told reporters at the scene they were “investigating security implications”.

Sun was charged with illegal possession of unauthorised weapons and could face up to 10 years in prison.

Thai media reported that the suspect’s phone contained AI chatbot searches on military plastic explosive properties and videos of him handling the weapons, fuelling concerns of possible “terrorist” intent.

Police are looking into the motive of the suspect, who will be taken for psychological evaluation, Pongphan said.

The raid on Sun’s home was prompted after police found a pistol in a car with two Chinese nationals on board during a traffic stop on Friday.

According to authorities, he held a long-term visa in Thailand and had lived in the property for about two years.

In April, the 70th month since Beijing imposed the national security law, the Hong Kong government applied to the court to seize assets belonging to Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

On National Education Day, a top Chinese official delivered a warning about those who “politicised” the deadly Tai Po fire and tried to “stir up chaos” in the city.

Gov’t seeks to seize Jimmy Lai’s assets

The Hong Kong government filed an application with the High Court on April 2 to seize “offence-related” properties owned by jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai on national security grounds.

In a statement issued the same day, the government mentioned Lai’s earlier convictions under the Beijing-imposed national security law. It said the High Court had found that he was the “mastermind and driving force behind the case, consciously using Apple Daily and his personal influence” to undermine local and Beijing authorities.

In a writ dated April 2, the secretary for justice listed HK$127 million in assets to be “forfeited” to the authorities.

The assets include credit balances in bank accounts belonging to or linked to the Apple Daily founder.

Fifteen bank accounts under Lai’s name – 10 with HSBC, two with Hang Seng Bank and three with Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank – have over HK$32 million.

The government is also seeking to seize bank accounts belonging to 17 companies linked to Lai. It is also demanding that Lai give up shares in 17 companies, some of which overlap with the 17 firms whose assets the government is seeking to seize.

Among the companies whose assets and shares the government wants to seize are Dico Consultants Ltd, which has over HK$404,302 in its HSBC account, and Lai’s Hotel Properties Ltd, which has over HK$3.1 million in its four HSBC accounts.

Lai has been summoned to the High Court on July 8 to hear the government’s application. The case will be presided over by Esther Toh, one of the three judges who heard his national security trial.

The move to seize Lai’s assets came after the government designated three companies linked to Lai’s now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid “prohibited organisations” in late March and removed them from the corporate registry. Police cordoned off the Apple Daily building in Tseung Kwan O a day later.

The three firms were tried and convicted alongside the Apple Daily founder in his high-profile national security case. Lai was sentenced to 20 years behind bars in early February, while the companies were each fined over HK$3 million.

Political commentator appears in court

A Hong Kong political commentator charged with disclosing details of a national security investigation appeared at the District Court on April 28.

Wong Kwok-ngon, known by his pen name Wong On-yin, has been detained since his arrest in December for allegedly divulging in a YouTube video details of enquiries made by police during a national security investigation.

Judge Stanley Chan said the pre-trial review would take place behind closed doors on August 11, and the trial would begin on October 9.

Wong’s offence falls under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, a homegrown security law known as Article 23. It was added to the ordinance in May as part of subsidiary legislation, and Wong is the first to be charged under the new law.

He is also charged with sedition over videos posted on YouTube between January 3 and December 6 last year. He plans to plead not guilty to both charges.

The defendant, who continues to represent himself, told the court he had dropped his legal aid application.

Asked by the judge whether he had legal knowledge for self-defence, Wong said he had “three law degrees” and was confident of handling the case.

Nat. security clauses for restaurant licences

Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan said in early April that all Hong Kong restaurant licences would include national security clauses from September.

Tse made the remarks on April 7, nearly a year after the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) introduced the provisions for restaurant licence renewals in May.

“With restaurants renewing their licences gradually, we expect that by September this year, all restaurant licences will contain the clauses,” Tse told reporters, according to RTHK.

Retiree jailed over seditious Facebook posts

A Hong Kong man was jailed for a year under the city’s homegrown national security law after pleading guilty to making seditious remarks on Facebook, including comments supporting Hong Kong’s and Taiwan’s independence.

Raymond Chong pleaded guilty before national security judge Victor So at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on April 14 to one count of knowingly publishing publications with a seditious intention – an offence under the city’s local security law, also known as Article 23.

The magistrate handed Chong, a retiree in his early 60s, an 18-month sentence but discounted it by six months after considering his guilty plea.

Chong was accused of making 53 seditious social media posts between March 2024 and November 2025, local media reported.

The posts had wording such as “dissolving the Chinese Communist Party is the most important thing” and “Hong Kong independence is within sight.”

The defendant posted on a public Facebook page called “Holy Raymond,” which features the Chinese phrase “Heaven will destroy the Chinese Communist Party, God bless Hong Kong” as its profile picture.

During mitigation ahead of sentencing, his lawyer argued that Chong was a Falun Gong believer who had come to hate the Chinese Communist Party because of false information that the CCP engaged in live organ harvesting.

Beijing official warned of ‘politicising’ Tai Po fire

China’s top official in charge of Hong Kong affairs warned of some people who “politicised” the deadly Tai Po fire and tried to use the disaster to “stir up chaos” in Hong Kong.

Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, delivered his remarks on April 15 via a recorded video shown at a National Security Education Day ceremony.

In his speech, Xia mentioned the massive fire that broke out at Wang Fuk Court, a government-subsidised housing estate in Tai Po, on November 26, killing 168 people.

“After the Tai Po fire, some malicious people politicised the tragedy, attempting to use the disaster as a means to disrupt Hong Kong,” Xia said in Mandarin, without giving further details.

“Once again, it reminds us that along Hong Kong’s path toward prosperity under good governance, there will be various risks and challenges.”

Speaking at the same event, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee also warned that some people were “using the disaster to stir up chaos” and “to incite hatred” in Hong Kong.

“Only through the government’s swift action and decisive law enforcement has the situation been able to return to normal,” Lee said in Mandarin.

French journalist denied entry to city

A French journalist was denied entry to Hong Kong in November, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in late April, accusing the city’s authorities of “weaponising visas” against foreign media workers.

Antoine Vedeilhe, who was shooting a documentary for French public broadcaster France Télévisions, was questioned upon arrival at Hong Kong International Airport on November 2 last year, RSF said in a statement on April 24.

He was detained for three hours before being deported without being given a reason, it added.

The press freedom NGO said Vedeilhe was the 13th foreign media worker who had been denied entry or a visa by the city’s authorities following Beijing’s imposition of the national security law in 2020.

“In the journalist’s view, his detention was a reprisal for his work on a documentary examining Beijing’s grip on Hong Kong,” RSF said.

Another cameraman for the documentary was able to enter the city, RSF said, but he was followed by “unidentified individuals that he suspects were Hong Kong’s national security police.”

“In the following days, there was a hacking attempt on Vedeilhe’s private email account and his sources in the documentary were harassed by the national security police,” the NGO said.

In an emailed reply to HKFP’s enquiries, the Hong Kong government said it “strongly condemns the smearing remarks and distorted narratives by” RSF.

Prosecution and arrests figures

As of April 1, a total of 394 people have been arrested for “cases involving suspected acts or activities that endanger national security” since Beijing’s national security law came into effect, according to the Security Bureau. That figure includes those arrested under Article 23 and for other offences.

Of the 208 people and five companies that have so far been charged, 180 people and four companies have been convicted or are awaiting sentencing.

In total, 100 people and four companies have been charged under Beijing’s national security law, with 79 persons and three companies convicted. Thirteen people have been charged under Article 23, 10 of whom have been convicted.

China’s Wu Yize is said to have shared a single bed with his father in a windowless flat as he sacrificed his home life to follow his snooker dreams.

Now, just a few years later, Wu is world champion after defeating Shaun Murphy 18-17 in the final at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre on Monday.

Wu, who is 22 but looks younger, follows in the footsteps of Zhao Xintong, who last year became the first Chinese player to win snooker’s most cherished prize.

“(Zhao’s success) definitely made me believe in myself more because he made history,” Wu has said.

Those in the know have long tipped Wu for the top.

In February, seven-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan said the Chinese ace would be world number one within three years.

O’Sullivan called him a “phenomenal player”.

In China Wu has earned the nicknames “Little Wu” and “Priest Wu”, the latter mainly because of a previous hairstyle which people said made him look like a priest.

Others still use it because it also reflects his composure and calm demeanour around the table.

Far from home

Wu was born on October 14, 2003, in the city of Lanzhou, in Gansu province, in China’s rugged northwest.

Wu, whose idol is O’Sullivan, was taken by his father to a snooker hall for the first time when he was seven.

His talent was obvious and four years later his father, who ran an antique business, took him to train in Yushan on the other side of the country.

The International Billiards Academy is a talent factory for Chinese stars of the future and there is also the 4,000-seater Yushan Sports Center and a World Billiards Museum.

Then aged 16 came the move to Sheffield, the northern English city regarded as the home of snooker.

It was not easy, far away from home and having to master a language, culture and food that was totally new to him.

His father was with him, but money was tight.

“His dad gave up his job, I don’t think either of them could speak any English when they came over,” Rob Walker, broadcaster and master of ceremonies for World Snooker, told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN.

“They famously shared a single bed in a one-bedroom flat with no window for three years because they were determined that he would pursue this dream.”

Even now Wu’s mother remains in China and visits only occasionally.

Wu’s talent, diligence and commitment soon began to pay off, but he missed home and Chinese food, especially Lanzhou’s famous beef noodles.

In 2021 he turned professional and reached the last 32 of the UK Championship.

In 2022 he was named Rookie of the Year and in 2024 he reached his first ranking event final.

Last year came his big breakthrough when he beat the likes of Zhao, Judd Trump and John Higgins in the final to win his first ranking title, at the International Championship.

Feeling the pressure

Even as he joins Zhao as world champions from China, Wu has not forgotten his roots.

He has set up a snooker hall under his own name in his hometown of Lanzhou and occasionally gives advice to budding young players.

Speaking previously to reporters in Sheffield, Wu said he would buy a house if he won the world title.

“In the beginning there was not a lot of prize money,” Wu said, according to the BBC.

“So there was definitely a lot of pressure and also there was a lot for myself to improve in terms of my game, so I was definitely feeling the pressure at the time.”

It’s doubly exciting to see that Chief Executive John Lee is launching a public consultation for Hong Kong’s inaugural five-year plan.

The first reason for excitement is that we’ve just experienced a pretty well-run public consultation; the recently updated Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan generated a lot of submissions from NGOs, companies, and members of the public.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) seems to have done a good job of taking those submissions into account. In short, we’ve seen a proof of concept that public consultations seem to be effective.

The second reason for excitement is that China takes sustainability quite seriously in both word and deed. In aligning with China, the Hong Kong government has a golden opportunity to step up its sustainability game.

The outline of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan is 83 pages long. However, just as a very rough indicator of how seriously the topic is taken, Article 1, Chapter 1, Section 1 includes several comments about the energy transition and pollution.

Sustainability is considered important enough a topic to warrant some space in the prime real estate of those first few paragraphs, rubbing shoulders with big hitters like GDP and life expectancy. 

It might not be very scientific to measure a topic’s importance by which paragraph it lies in, but it is incredibly refreshing to see sustainability topics getting headline treatment instead of being tucked away on page 18.

In a similar vein, the top number in the Key Indicators of Economic and Social Development is GDP. However, in that very same table, there are binding objectives for carbon intensity goals, PM2.5 levels, and forest cover.

I get the sense that these are not just handwaved in order to hit a game of buzzword bingo – something that corporations are frequently guilty of. Rigorous thought has been put into integrating sustainability into the Five-Year Plan.

At the April 21 press conference, when Lee talked about the public consultation for the five-year plan, sustainability, carbon and pollution were not mentioned at all. Of course, GDP growth and the perennial issues of housing and education are all vital issues that need to be addressed.

However, if we’re talking in terms of five-year plans, it’s probably worth noting that in five years from now, the world needs to have carbon emissions at half of what they are today. And that in 25 years from now – just five more five-year plans away! – we need to be at net zero. Sustainability is vital too.

Of course, Hong Kong’s tiny landmass is not home to vast factories, refineries or farms. Most of the carbon that we emit is from producing electricity to power the towers that are our homes and offices.

So while emulating the priority that sustainability is afforded in China’s five-year plan is important, copy-pasting it wholesale would miss important nuance: that Hong Kong’s carbon shadow is much larger than our territorial footprint.

We import almost everything – food, energy, goods, and even water. The spectre of our carbon emissions haunts not only what we consume, but also the vast amounts of financing that flow across the world from our international financial centre.

Sustainability in Hong Kong is not just about plonking a few solar panels down; it’s a much deeper question about consumption and green finance.

That’s not to diminish the role of sustainability in our own territory; there’s plenty of room for more ambition, not just in carbon but with other forms of pollution.

For example, the Municipal Solid Waste charging scheme’s failure to progress beyond the pilot study means that there’s little push to reduce waste at source.

While it’s true that landfill rates are going down, incineration is going up – in other words, the generation of trash is not slowing down, but is instead just being diverted to the landfill in the sky. That’s not a long-term solution.

I hasten to add that putting sustainability higher on the agenda is not just important for the Hong Kong government. Company boards and executive teams ought to be discussing sustainability during their strategy meetings.

Hopefully, seeing sustainability high on the agenda in the government’s five-year plan will light a fire under corporations to up their sustainability game too.

All told, the idea of a public consultation for Hong Kong’s five-year plan is a wonderful opportunity. Public consultations have a prior form in moving the needle – the Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan has demonstrated that.

And by aligning Hong Kong’s five-year plan with China’s, we can achieve one of the most important things of all – putting sustainability on the agenda.

Two Hong Kong women convicted of money laundering have been jailed for over three years for transporting over HK$280 million cash from mainland China to Hong Kong between 2018 and 2019.

Luo Xiaoping was sentenced to four years and ten months at the District Court, while Xiang Yurong was jailed for three years, local media reported.

The two were convicted after a trial, in which they pleaded not guilty to a total of four counts of money laundering.

Luo was accused of bringing cash through border checkpoints, with over 100 instances during which she carried more than HK$1 million per trip, the court heard. She was accused of smuggling around HK$270 million cash.

Xiang brought money into Hong Kong an average of 10 times per month during the period of the offence, carrying around 200,000 to 300,000 RMB each time. She transported cash to Hong Kong as many as three times in a single day.

In total, the two of them handled over HK$280 million of illicit cash, the court heard.

District Court Deputy Judge Lily Wong said she accepted the fact that Xiang and Luo were just “mules,” but their offence inevitably brought a negative impact on Hong Kong and mainland China’s financial systems.

The two were arrested in September 2019, but were only charged in April 2023.

The defense argued that there was a delay in prosecution. They said that customs officers could have stopped Luo much earlier, yet they only took action after she had successfully transported cash into Hong Kong numerous times.

However, Judge Wong disagreed with this argument, describing Luo as “acting with a gambler’s mindset” and committing the crimes out of pure greed, Ming Pao reported.

According to the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance, “dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of indictable offence,” or “money laundering,” is punishable by a maximum penalty up to 14 years’ imprisonment and a fine of HK$5 million.

Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department said in a statement on Thursday that this is the first money laundering conviction involving travellers transporting large amount of cash-related items across the border since the Cross-boundary Movement of Physical Currency and Bearer Negotiable Instruments Ordinance came into effect in July 2018.

Under the ordinance, anyone carrying over HK$120,000 in cash into Hong Kong must declare the sum to customs officers.

A former head of the government’s housing checking unit has said he was “unaware” that his surveyors notified contractors ahead of inspections at Wang Fuk Court, the site of Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades.

Rudolf Lau, who headed the Housing Bureau’s Independent Checking Unit (ICU) when the tragedy struck, testified on Friday, the 24th day of hearings into the cause of the massive blaze.

Just two days earlier, Andy Ku, a senior ICU maintenance surveyor, told the independent committee investigating the fire that the unit had alerted the renovation consultant ahead of site checks before the Tai Po housing estate went up in flames in November.

Victor Dawes, lead counsel for the committee, had previously said that the inspection unit’s alerts may have tipped off the construction firm and given it opportunities to conceal wrongdoing.

Lau, who retired in February, was asked by Jason Yu, counsel for the committee, on Friday whether he was aware of the advance notices, local media reported. Lau replied that he was “unaware” of the practice.

‘By the book’

Yu also grilled Lau on the ICU’s regulatory role, asking the reason for the unit’s oversights. Lau said the unit’s monitoring regime for minor works relied on contractors and consultants to self-regulate, as well as on complaints from residents.

Yu challenged him, saying that unscrupulous individuals responsible for the maintenance works would not report themselves.

“Did the ICU leave the responsibility for inspection to residents?” Yu asked, noting that an average resident would not have been able to spot irregularities such as illegally altered windows and fire escape openings.

Lau admitted there were blind spots in the unit’s regulatory regime but said it had reviewed its system since the Wang Fuk Court fire by conducting unannounced inspections.

The former ICU head was also questioned about an inspection requirement that the unit was not made aware of until after the fire. Asked whether the ICU operated only “by the book,” blindly following Buildings Department (BD) protocols, Lau answered in the affirmative.

“The [BD] manual did not require on-site safety inspections, so we did not do them,” he said.

Wrapping up Friday’s hearing, committee chair David Lok said the government’s cross-departmental investigation report will be published on the committee’s website by May 15. The next round of hearings will continue after mid-June, he added.

The Hong Kong government has denied any link to the high-profile UK court case after its trade officer was convicted of spying on overseas activists.

“From the outset, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government has been clearly stating that the allegations in this case are absolutely not related to the HKSAR Government and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London (London ETO), nor are we party to the case,” a government statement sent to the media on Friday morning read.

“We firmly oppose any unfounded allegations against the HKSAR Government and the London ETO.”

The statement was issued shortly after Bill Yuen, an office manager at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, and former UK Border Force official Peter Wai were found guilty under Britain’s national security laws of assisting a foreign intelligence service.

Yuen and Wai – both British-Chinese dual nationals – were accused of spying on Hong Kong pro-democracy activists living in Britain.

Among those the pair were said to have surveilled was Nathan Law, who is wanted by national security police in Hong Kong with a bounty of HK$1,000,000.

Yuen and Wai were charged in May 2024 alongside a third person, UK immigration officer Matthew Trickett. A week after Trickett was charged, he was found dead in a suspected suicide.

In full: Explainer: Why UK authorities arrested 3 men linked to Hong Kong’s trade office

According to a statement by UK counter-terrorism police, published after the guilty verdict on Thursday, Yuen had been receiving tasks from Hong Kong authorities and delegating them to Wai and Trickett.

Up to 14 years jail

Yuen and Wai were found guilty by a 10-2 jury verdict on Thursday. Wai was also found guilty of misconduct in public office in relation to abusing Home Office systems while working as a border control officer.

Yuen and Wai will be sentenced on a date yet to be determined. They face up to 14 years in jail.

According to the Friday statement, Hong Kong has 15 overseas ETOs in different cities, including the UK capital.

The London office maintains “close liaison with interlocutors in government, business, think tanks and various sectors to enhance the bilateral ties between Hong Kong and the UK in areas including trade, investment, and arts and culture,” it said.

After the guilty verdict, the UK said that it would summon the Chinese ambassador.

“We will continue to hold China to ​account and challenge them directly for actions which put the safety of people ​in our country at risk,” UK Security Minister Dan Jarvis said on Thursday. “That is why the Foreign Office will ⁠summon the Chinese Ambassador to make it clear activity like this was, and will ​always be, unacceptable on UK soil.”

In a statement issued the same day, the Chinese embassy in London condemned the verdict, saying that the UK had manipulated the judicial process as part of its “political move.”

“Its sole purpose is to embolden those anti-China elements who are hiding in the UK and bent on destabilising Hong Kong, and to smear the Chinese government and the Hong Kong SAR government,” it said.

Taiwan rolled out the red carpet for Paraguay President Santiago Pena on Friday to shore up relations with its only South American ally, as Beijing urged Asuncion to sever ties with Taipei.

Taipei has only 12 diplomatic allies after Beijing, which claims Taiwan is part of its territory, systematically poached the others in a bid to isolate the self-governed island.

Pena is leading a delegation of government officials and business representatives on a four-day visit, and has described the island as a “fundamental partner” for the South American country.

President Lai Ching-te officially welcomed Pena on Friday with military honours, including cannon salutes and red carpet, ahead of a sit-down meeting.

Addressing the military parade under grey skies, Lai thanked Pena and his government “for long speaking up for Taiwan on the international stage”.

“Taiwan and Paraguay are partners firmly committed to the values of democracy, freedom and human rights,” Lai said.

Pena said: “Paraguay deeply values this relationship and reaffirms its commitment to continue supporting Taiwan in a strategic alliance based on shared values.”

China’s foreign ministry called on Paraguay to “make the right choice” by cutting ties with Taiwan.

Since arriving Thursday, Pena has met with Taiwan’s vice president and other senior government ministers.

He also received an honorary doctorate from the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, which he hailed as a reflection of the “solid alliance” between Taiwan and Paraguay.

‘Intense pressure’

During his meeting with Lai, Pena condemned Chinese military and economic pressure on Taiwan, and insisted Taipei has a “sovereign right to engage freely with other countries”.

Paraguay and Taiwan were to sign agreements on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, cooperation in cybersecurity, as well as an AI and computing infrastructure investment project.

Taiwan’s other allies in the Americas are Guatemala, Belize and Haiti. It also has formal diplomatic ties with several Caribbean islands.

Pena’s visit comes days after Lai returned from an official trip to Eswatini, Taiwan’s only ally in Africa.

Taiwan has accused China of trying to stop Lai’s visit to Eswatini by applying “intense pressure” to the Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar to revoke overflight permits for his original trip, which had been scheduled for April 22-26 and was cancelled at the last minute.

Lai ended up using the Eswatini king’s plane to make the journey.

Lai’s last official overseas trip was in November 2024, when he visited Taiwan’s Pacific allies and transited through the US territory of Guam.

Pena had announced in July 2025 that Lai would visit Paraguay the following month. But the administration of US President Donald Trump reportedly denied Lai permission to transit through New York as part of the official trip to Latin America.

Taiwan’s foreign ministry denied that Lai was blocked.