Politics

By Crystal Tse   "He is super charismatic," said a woman from California. A Korean woman said, "If my future husband is like him, I will be happy." "I would like a president like this," said another woman. These comments came from a video published this week by the People's Daily, a Chinese newspaper often described as the Communist Party's mouthpiece, during President Xi Jinping's visit to the United States. The video claims to show what foreigners (or at least, foriegners living in China) think about the Chinese president. The videos were filmed at university campuses around Beijing and featured international students, most of them Americans. It was first posted on YouTube and Twitter, both of which are blocked in China. A subtitled version was posted on the People's Daily mobile site hours later. An American student, wearing lapel pins of both the US and Chinese flag, said he owns a copy of Mr Xi's book The Governance of China and "would love to read it". Chinese viewers who don't speak English will not know he hasn't actually read the book, because, as the New York Times pointed out, the Chinese subtitle says he "loves reading it". In the video, the president is referred to as "Xi Dada". Dada is a respectful and friendly nickname for men who are older than fathers. "I really like his foreign policy. He really try to communicate with all the countries," said 20-year-old Thibault Odiot in the video. Mr. Odiot, a French-school sponsored student who is pursuing a master's degree in China Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies, said during a Skype interview that the speculation that students were paid to speak in the video is untrue, but he admits to having self-censored. "When you are a foreigner living in the country, you don't want to …

  By Viola Zhou   As 12,000 troops and rows of tanks march past the Tiananmen Square, Vivian Leung, a university student in Hong Kong, is still in her sound dream. On September 3, the one-time public holiday set up by Beijing commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, Ms Leung prefers to take some rest rather than watching her country showcasing her national power. "I have no interest in it," says the 21-year-old business student at the City University of Hong Kong. "The war against Japan was not even led by the Communist Party. I don't understand why they are celebrating." This one-off holiday is officially named the The 70th Anniversary Day of the Victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Despite being a huge deal in China, it fails to capture the heart of university students in the Special Administrative Region, where the younger generation has led protests against national patriotic education and generally feels distant from the China and its war history. A few minutes into watching the parade live on television, 20-year-old Manman Chau finds it boring. "It is just a show," says Ms Chau, who studies Chinese medicine at the University of Hong Kong. "I don't care how strong the Chinese military is. It has nothing to do with me." Ms Chau says she does not mind one more holiday. But Ms Leung does not quite appreciate it saying that China's victory means little to ordinary people in Hong Kong. In the former British colony, public holidays with national significance are often when people turn to the street to express their dissatisfaction towards the government. For instance, the July 1 Handover Day, is a holiday meant to celebrate Hong Kong's returning to the Communist rule, yet has become a day of …

Locals schools will be given $120,000 grants to establish partnership with mainland schools. EDUCATORS have expressed concerns over a government proposal to encourage more local schools to team up with sister schools on the mainland, saying its objective is questionable and would put pressure on teachers and schools. Chief Executive Mr Leung Chun-ying announced in his 2015 policy address that the government would provide an annual grant of $120,000 to each local public sector school and Direct Subsidy Scheme schools that has a sister mainland school. According to the Education Bureau, the grant will be used to fund exchanges in areas such as school management, lesson demonstration, lesson evaluation and idea conferencing with a view to enhancing experience sharing and teaching effectiveness. The sister school scheme was launched in 2004. Since then, 420 local primary and secondary schools have established partnerships with schools in the mainland. But this year is the first time the government has backed the scheme with a subsidy that aims to boost the partnership number to 600. But Mr Leung Kee-cheong, principal of the Fresh Fisher Traders' School, said the scheme would put unprecedented pressure on teachers and schools. According to his experience, teachers in charge of an exchange tour are required to take on a lot of responsibilities on top of their teaching duties, such as doing research on destinations, leading large groups of students abroad and writing post-visit reports. Meanwhile, a shortage of teachers would negatively impact on students' learning process, as schools are not allowed to recruit supply teachers unless teachers fall ill. "Imagine if one class teacher has to be away to lead a school tour for five days, it will increase the burden of other teachers in our school," said Mr Leung. He believed the scheme could help relieve pressure faced …

Consumers still being misled despite the amended Trade Description Ordinance   Miss Ng, 49, once found that the checkout price for a pack of discounted biscuits she purchased in a supermarket was three times higher than the displayed price. She immediately informed the cashier and was given a refund. Hers is not the only case. The Consumer Council bought 252 discounted items from 15 supermarkets in June and July this year and found price discrepancies for 18 products. The Council has warned retailers against displaying so-called "strike- through price" – higher prices crossed out on price tags to mislead consumers - as they would be at the risk of violating the amended Trade Descriptions Ordinance, which prohibits the dissemination of any false, misleading or incomplete information on goods or services. The maximum penalty on conviction is a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for five years. But Mr Ronny Tong Kah-wah, a lawmaker representing the New Territories East constituency, said the Ordinance cannot protect consumers' interests at all, as there is no real deterrence and the prosecution rate has been low. The Customs and Excise Department, Office of the Communications Authority and Council Council received 2,955 complaints from July to December last year, but only six complaints investigated led to prosecutions. This put the rate of prosecution at 0.2 per cent over a 6-month period. Mr Tong said as the departments concerned do not really treat the breaches as a criminal offence, they have to take a long time to process customers' complaints. He said a problem of the current Ordinance is that it does not have provisions to monitor the civil compliance-based enforcement mechanism. Customers often find that the checkout price of a product is higher than the displayed price. While consumers are facing the risks of being misled, the retail …

Prescription and over-the-counter medications are powerful in treatment and prevention of illness, yet the unwanted drugs may cause potential hazards to the ecosystem

Bus passengers and civil society organisations have urged the government to strengthen the monitoring of Roadshow, a multimedia on board service owned and operated by Kowloon Motor Bus Company (KMB).

While pro-government lawmakers call to reform Liberal Studies, subject teachers and academia criticise them for not tackling the problems at heart

TWO ageing thespians dressed head to toe in black gesture to the audience in one swift move. Their leveled voices project across the theatre, echoing faintly. Black box production "Occupy San Po Kong" is playing in the humble but creative community of San Po Kong in New Kowloon. Performing are members of We Draman, a drama group funded by the Hong Kong Arts and Development Council. The play centers on two new hotel buildings in the neighbourhood and paints an apprehensive and hopeless picture of artists fearing their creative sanctuary would soon become a commercialised district. The play highlights dissatisfaction with real-life 2010 policy measures to redevelop and convert old industrial buildings, resulting in rent increases and forced removal of artists and art groups. The government plans to pull the plug and withdraw the policy in 2016, according to an announcement by the Secretary for Development Mr Paul Chan Mo-po in November last year. The revitalisation plan came about because an increasing number of artists were illegally running studios out of industrial buildings. The HKADC called for the amendment of the revitalization policy, hoping to include art creation under the category "industrial usage" to enable local artists to keep their studios legally. Four years have passed and 90 revitalization cases have successfully been approved by the Land Department, yet the amendment is still in limbo. In hindsight, the local art community thinks little of the revitalization plan and believes the policy didn't help the arts and culture sector much. "I could say it's a total mess," said Mr Honkaz Fung Hing-keung, a freelance artist and creative director. Mr Fung recalls renting a 1,000 square foot apartment that has doubled in rent over the past eight years. "The policy had good intentions, but it didn't help, and instead left us in …

As tens of thousands of people join the Occupy Central movement, others have complained that the campaign has hurt the livelihood of ordinary people by blocking roads and traffic.  1. Mr Allan Zeman Entrepreneur Former chairman of Ocean Park "At some point you need to open the roads. You're choking off the economy."   2. Ms Chan Ching-sum Caring Hong Kong Power spokesperson (Source: Mingpao) "They kept asking why the police did not enforce the law to protect the occupation protesters. I want to tell them. Those occupation people would not have been still occupying the road if the police had enforced the law in the first place to evict them."     3. Mr Robert Chow-yung Alliance for Peace and Democracy spokesperson "If the people say no, please don't disrupt our lives...... By all means fight with the government, by all means fight with China, but please don't make us hostages."   4. Mr Fu Chun-chung  Defend Hong Kong Campaign convener "The central government made a clear framework for the further three-year discussions [on reform]. The central government should ‘shut the door down' and we should not waste time on civil nomination."   5. Mr Patrick Ko Tat-pun The Voice of Loving Hong Kong convener "They kept asking why the police did not enforce the law to protect the occupation protesters. I want to tell them. Those occupation people would not have been still occupying the road if the police had enforced the law in the first place to evict them."    6. Ms Leticia Lee See-yin Justice Alliance convener "The order of Hong Kong has been disrupted, traffic paralysed, stores forced to close, people cannot commute to work and students cannot attend classes." 

The impact of Occupying Central on Hong Kong's financial hub has been minimal even though protesters have filled its streets. WHEN Occupy Central co-convener Mr Benny Tai Yiu-ting, a Univer- sity of Hong Kong law professor, con- cluded the first stage of Occupy Central movement as a victory, he said "civil diso- bedience has bloomed everywhere." He did not know then he meant it literally — protesters' footprints can be traced in the busiest districts of the city including Causeway Bay, Wan Chai, Ad- miralty, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok. Even in Sheung Shui in north New Ter- ritories, small groups of people took to the street to call on Chief Executive Mr Leung Chun-ying to step down. The Occupy Central with Love and Peace website explains that Central was chosen as the location for demonstra- tion because it is the "most fragile point of Hong Kong" as the pivot of financial activities. Yet, Central seems to be the least affected area. There were no crowds swarming in the streets and no heavily jammed main traffic lanes. "I find it strange that they picked Central as the occupying location to bring about political changes," said Mr Alex Shiu Siu-tao, a commentator who published an article questioning the location of the occupy movement. Mr Shiu said financial clerks did not need much more than a laptop and access to the Internet for them to work. This means the financial system could still function even if nobody is physically working in Central. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority conducted a drill in June to test the stress capacity of 55 banks in Central if their offices became inaccessible. It found that back-up operating plans worked ef- ficiently for most banks, indicating that Occupy Central would not stop the core operations of the …