Hong Kong’s competition watchdog has announced that it is considering criminalising bid-rigging, proposing a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment.
Barrister Jat Sew-tong, chairperson of the Competition Commission, announced on Friday plans to amend the Competition Ordinance to criminalise bid-rigging, local media reported.
The commission hopes to table the amendment by the end of this year, Jat said, adding that the proposed maximum penalty would be seven years in jail.
Under the Competition Ordinance, bid-rigging is currently a civil violation, not a criminal offence, and it is penalised with a fine.
Jat said that he had been discussing the proposal with the city’s leader John Lee and the Hong Kong Bar Association, NowTV reported.
He said Lee had conveyed “orders” or “expectations” but did not specify what.
The commission’s move comes after a deadly fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court, a residential estate in Tai Po, in November. The estate was undergoing a large-scale renovation at the time of the fire.
The blaze, which claimed 168 lives, has brought to light the widespread issue of bid-rigging and corruption in major maintenance works at residential buildings.
Residents told HKFP in February that they had suspected graft and bid-rigging in the renovation project, and had attempted to report it to authorities without any success.
Jat also said on Friday that investigations by the Competition Commission revealed triads were involved in rigging bids for many large-scale maintenance projects.
However, due to the Competition Ordinance’s limitations, the commission cannot prosecute the cases and has to transfer them to law enforcement departments.
The Competition Commission is a statutory body established under the Competition Ordinance in 2012.
Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn said in February that the city’s corruption watchdog had received multiple complaints involving bid-rigging in building maintenance works over the past five years.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) received 24 complaints in 2025, more than double the number in 2021, Linn said.
Neil. Moralee posted a photo:
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No two movie franchises have had a bigger impact on film than Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. It's impossible to measure what the original Star Wars trilogy has meant to pop culture. There have been a plethora of movies and TV series since, and a half-century after the first movie debuted, the franchise remains as popular as ever. The same can be said for The Lord of the Rings. Peter Jackson's original trilogy is Oscar-winning perfection, and it too has had several spinoffs.
Tony Leung (Hong Kong, 63) enters the lobby of a Madrid hotel and brings with him an absolute sense of calm. The pace slows; you even get the impression the temperature has dropped slightly. Leung’s image in the film collective was sealed by his role in In the Mood for Love, Wong Kar-wai’s masterpiece that earned Leung the best actor award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. A man anchored in melancholy, unable to confront his unfaithful wife or to declare his love to his neighbor. That introspection turned Leung into one of the coolest men on the planet.
© FRANCIS TSANG (EL PAÍS)
The New York Knicks left it all on the court.
As the team won their first NBA championship since 1973 in a nail-biting 94-90 face-off against the San Antonio Spurs June 13, a few of Hollywood’s...
When Mangue Banzima arrived in New York at 17 from an African country — he prefers not to say which — the only thing that made him feel at home was the Knicks. He remembers wearing sneakers as a child like those of his idol Patrick Ewing. And when he arrived in the United States, he found a city where his basketball team was everywhere. Banzima’s arrival in New York coincided with something no Knicks fan will ever forget: they had just reached the NBA Finals, where they lost to the San Antonio Spurs. That was in 1999. It has not happened since in 27 years — until now, when the New Yorkers have finally qualified to compete for the famed ring, for which they will face the Spurs again. After so many disappointments, the success of a team used to failure has infected the whole city with euphoria.
© David Richard (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)
Two Hong Kong officials have condemned “groundless accusations” against a recent update to the city’s homegrown national security law, which empowers the chief executive to certify any criminal case as a national security offence.
Secretary for Security Chris Tang told the Legislative Council (LegCo) on Thursday afternoon that he noticed some people had misunderstood or “deliberately misinterpreted” the subsidiary legislation.
They tried to intimidate the public by claiming that the subsidiary law would widen the scope of national security offences, turning minor offences into national security crimes, he said.
The security chief called the accusations “false, misleading, deceptive, and scaremongering” and said some people were attempting to incite hatred towards the government.
“Some people delivered alarmist remarks, saying that the government can randomly certify any acts of the public as national security offences. Those people may have ulterior motives or are cruel-hearted, hoping to incite others’ hatred of the HKSAR,” Tang said in Cantonese.
Also speaking at LegCo, Secretary for Justice Paul Lam said he noticed “some media outlets with ulterior motives, foreign forces, and fugitives” had made “groundless accusations” against the national security law.
The two ministers delivered their remarks during LegCo’s first meeting to review the Safeguarding National Security (Procedural Matters) Regulation, a subsidiary legislation of the homegrown national security law, commonly known as Article 23.
Authorities enacted the subsidiary law through the “negative vetting” mechanism, which allows the law to be gazetted and to take effect before legislative scrutiny.
The law came into effect on Tuesday, one day after the government tabled the bill in LegCo.
Lam, the justice chief, said that the subsidiary legislation was necessary to further explain articles in the Beijing-imposed national security law and Article 23, which stipulate that the chief executive should have the power to determine whether a criminal case involves national security.
In its proposal, the government cited the “legislative intent” of the Beijing-imposed national security law, saying that offences endangering national security include not only the four types of offences under the national security law, but also “other offences endangering national security under the law of the HKSAR.”
Lam said the recent legislative update was intended to further define “other offences endangering national security under the law of the HKSAR,” and it did not introduce any new power or new offences.
Earlier on Tuesday, Chief Executive John Lee said the new subsidiary legislation “is purely to make the law even clearer.”
KULAI, June 9 — A marketing officer claimed to have lost RM343,190 after allegedly falling victim to a non-existent investment scheme that promised unusually high returns.
Kulai police chief ACP Tan Seng Lee said the 46-year-old woman was lured into participating in the investment programme that claimed to offer profits of between 20 and 30 per cent within 24 hours.
According to him, the woman claimed she was informed that the returns generated from the investment would be credited into her account through an application known as “Shugoa AI Investment”.
Believing the scheme to be legitimate, the victim proceeded to make 13 payment transactions amounting to RM343,190 into 10 different local bank accounts between Sept 14, 2025 and April 18 this year.
“Subsequently, the victim checked the application and found that it showed accumulated profits amounting to RM1.5 million.
“However, when she attempted to withdraw the funds, she discovered that her account had been blocked,” he said in a statement today.
Realising she may have been deceived, the woman lodged a police report yesterday.
Tan said the case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating. — Bernama
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hong Kong restaurants with an area larger than 20 square metres can start applying for licences to allow dogs in their premises from May 18, the government has announced.
The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said in a statement on Thursday that it would accept applications from May 18 to June 8.
The department is set to approve the first batch of applications in mid-June, with dogs to be allowed in restaurants in July.
The statement said that “the FEHD will specify a date in July from which dogs will be allowed to enter permitted food premises.”
While the Food Business (Amendment) Regulation 2026 came into effect on Friday, the FEHD reminded the public that “restaurants must first submit an application and obtain approval before allowing dogs to enter.”
Hotpot and barbecue restaurants are not eligible to apply for the permits, the government said, citing safety concerns.
The FEHD will hold briefing sessions for restaurant operators from Monday to Wednesday next week, as well as on May 28.
The department said it would publish a list of dog-friendly restaurants once the first batch of permits is approved.
The government said in February that it would issue 500-1,000 dog-friendly permits to local eateries in mid-June.
Hong Kong leader John Lee announced the plan to relax an outdated policy banning dogs in restaurants in his 2025 Policy Address in September.
The announcement to update the decades-old Food Business Regulation came after a pet-friendly restaurant in Tai Po had to suspend operations for seven days in January last year for allowing dogs inside.
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