There has been ongoing public debate regarding the legalization of online ride-hailing services. Do you support or oppose this measure?

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Support Oppose
Improve service quality and efficiency
While the traditional taxi service quality has been criticized, with frequent problems such as refusal of loading, detours, and poor service attitude, the ride-hailing platform uses data algorithms to optimize route planning, shorten waiting time, and provide functions such as electronic payment, itinerary tracking, and scoring mechanisms, so that most ride-hailing users are satisfied with their services. The legalization of online ride-hailing can introduce competition and promote the traditional taxi industry to improve its service level, thereby improving the overall service quality of transportation and forming healthy competition.		Impact the traditional taxi industry and exacerbate industry contradictions
The traditional taxi industry adopts a licensing quota system, where drivers have to pay high rental or license fees (up to millions of Hong Kong dollars) to operate on the road. Following the legalization of online ride-hailing services, a significant proportion of traditional taxi customers may migrate to these platforms, potentially leading to a marked decrease in the income of conventional taxi drivers and further reductions in license values. Such developments could prompt substantial protests and pose challenges to social stability.
Fill the gap in public transportation
Although Hong Kong has a well-developed public transport network, there are still problems of insufficient services in some areas (such as remote new towns) and during certain times (such as late at night). Online ride-hailing can fill the gap in traditional taxi and public transportation services through flexible vehicle allocation, providing more convenient point-to-point travel options, especially suitable for citizens returning at night, the elderly, and passengers with luggage.		Increase traffic congestion
Currently, almost 90% of Hong Kong residents use public transport like the MTR and buses. Legalizing online ride-hailing may lead some to switch modes, increasing road traffic and congestion. If not adequately managed, it could impact traffic conditions in Hong Kong.
Strengthen consumer protection and safety supervision
Prior to the legalization of ride-hailing, such services in Hong Kong operated without specific regulatory frameworks and were associated with regulatory and passenger safety considerations. Legalization can require ride-hailing platforms to implement driver background checks, vehicle safety inspections, itinerary insurance, and emergency support mechanisms. Through legislative supervision, rights and responsibilities can be clarified, passenger safety and consumer rights can be protected, and disputes can be reduced.		Managing drivers and vehicles presents significant challenges
The composition of ride-hailing drivers is varied, and ensuring driver qualifications and service quality following legalization presents a challenge. Besides, the government’s proposal to limit online car-hailing vehicles to 7 years old poses challenges for inspection and supervision, which could impact passenger safety and experience if not managed well.
Employment growth
Ride-hailing platforms provide additional work options for drivers, allowing them to use their personal vehicles for ride-hailing services during their available time and earn supplementary income. Legalization not only standardizes driver qualifications and safeguards labor rights and interests, such as insurance and income transparency, but also promotes the growth of related industries, including vehicle maintenance and e-commerce payment services.		The insurance system involves risks
Private car insurance generally excludes commercial passenger activity, potentially leaving passengers without compensation in the event of an accident. While some platforms assert that they provide insurance, it remains unclear whether their claims processes are compliant with Hong Kong law. Without the implementation of a mandatory commercial insurance framework prior to legalization, passengers may be exposed to significant risk.
Employment growth
Ride-hailing platforms provide additional work options for drivers, allowing them to use their personal vehicles for ride-hailing services during their available time and earn supplementary income. Legalization not only standardizes driver qualifications and safeguards labor rights and interests, such as insurance and income transparency, but also promotes the growth of related industries, including vehicle maintenance and e-commerce payment services.		Data security and privacy risks
Ride-hailing platforms collect significant user data, such as trip records and payment information. Ineffective data supervision may result in data leaks or regulatory challenges, and insufficient protection from local laws can impact consumer interests over time.

The government has recently proposed actively promoting the development of family office businesses in Hong Kong to attract global family offices and asset owners to bring their wealth to Hong Kong. Do you support the development of family offices?

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Agree

Disagree
Attracting foreign investment. The establishment of family offices will bring significant capital inflows, which will not only enhance the liquidity of Hong Kong’s financial markets but also promote the diversification of the local businesses and entrepreneurs. Limited benefits for the general public. While family offices may contribute to the growth of high-value industries, the direct impact on the wider population is minimal. They tend to prioritize the preservation of private wealth over public economic growth, leaving little trickle-down effect on ordinary citizens.
Creating high-quality job opportunities. As the number of family offices increases, there will be a demand for skilled professionals in areas, including asset management, legal, tax, and financial advisory services, which will create high-quality employment opportunities and nurtures talent in Hong Kong’s financial sector. Competition from other financial hubs. Hong Kong faces stiff competition from other global financial hubs such as Singapore, Switzerland, and New York, which offer well-established ecosystems for family offices. These locations often provide more favorable tax regimes, regulatory clarity, and a broader range of investment opportunities, making them more attractive for family offices considering their options.
Strengthening Hong Kong as a global financial hub. Developing family offices enhances Hong Kong’s position as a leading international financial center. The influx of high-net-worth individuals and their investments increases the demand for professional services, boosting the city’s financial ecosystem. Market volatility. Large inflows of capital from family offices can introduce significant volatility into the local financial markets. These offices often have the flexibility to move large sums of money quickly, which can lead to sudden market shifts and instability, potentially affecting the overall economic stability of Hong Kong.
Promoting wealth management business. The arrival of family offices will stimulate the growth of local wealth management businesses, attracting more international asset management companies to set up offices in Hong Kong, thereby increasing the overall scale and competitiveness of the wealth management industry. Regulatory uncertainty. Hong Kong’s regulatory environment for family offices is still evolving. The lack of a clear and stable regulatory framework can deter family offices from setting up operations, as they may face unexpected changes in regulations or compliance requirements. This uncertainty can create a risk-averse atmosphere that discourages long-term investment.
Driving related industries. In addition to direct financial services, the development of family offices will also boost demand in related industries such as high-end real estate, education, healthcare, and philanthropy, thereby promoting the prosperity of these sectors.

Limited local investment opportunities. While Hong Kong is a gateway to China and Asia, the local investment opportunities may be seen as limited or volatile. Family offices looking for diverse and stable investment options might find the local market less appealing compared to regions with more mature and diversified investment landscapes. This limitation can reduce the attractiveness of Hong Kong as a base for family office operations.

The government proposes to implement a capital gains tax to increase government revenue. Do you agree or disagree?

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Agree

Disagree
Increase fiscal revenue and wealth redistribution. Capital gains tax can provide the government with a stable and predictable source of tax revenue to support public services and infrastructure construction, while also reducing the gap between rich and poor, and promoting social equity and stability. Cause capital outflow. Hong Kong is an open international financial market, with very flexible and free capital flows. If capital gains tax is implemented, it will weaken Hong Kong’s attractiveness, and prompt investors to move their funds to other regions that do not have this type of tax, resulting in capital outflow, affecting Hong Kong’s financial stability and international competitiveness.
Improve investors’ tax norms and compliance awareness. Since capital gains tax can be in line with international standards, investors need to declare and pay taxes in accordance with the law, avoiding tax evasion and avoidance, enhancing tax transparency and fairness. This can also strengthen investors’ sense of social responsibility and ethical standards, maintaining the market order and reputation. Discourage innovation and entrepreneurship. Hong Kong, as a knowledge-based economy, needs to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship, to cultivate emerging industries and enhance the potential for economic growth. If capital gains tax is implemented, it will squeeze the profit margin of innovators and entrepreneurs, affect their enthusiasm and motivation, and damage Hong Kong’s innovation capability and entrepreneurial atmosphere.

Guide resource optimization and real economy development. Capital gains tax can reduce ineffective and rent-seeking investments,investors can allocate more funds from unproductive assets to productive assets and innovation sectors,such as industry, technology, innovation, etc., thereby improving resource utilization efficiency and economic growth potential.

 Increase housing problems. Hong Kong’s housing supply is seriously insufficient, resulting in high housing prices, and many citizens cannot afford their own homes. If capital gains tax is implemented, it will suppress the trading activity of the real estate market, reduce the incentive to sell houses, reduce the circulation of housing supply, cause housing prices to rise further, and worsen the housing problem.
Increase investors’ confidence and stability. Since capital gains tax can curb speculation and bubble formation, investors can be more rational and long-term in their market outlook, avoiding blind following and panic selling, thereby reducing market volatility and risk. Increase administrative costs and complexity. The levy of capital gains tax involves the calculation and verification of asset gains and losses, as well as the identification and distinction of asset sources and nature, which require a lot of manpower and resources, increasing the administrative costs and complexity for the government and taxpayers, and also increasing the possibility of tax disputes and evasion.

 

 

 

Recently, many wild boars have been straying from countryside areas onto urban areas and cause potential threats to the public. In view of this, do you agree related departments to euthanize them after capture?

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Agree

Disagree
Wild boars may carry with virus/bacteria. Citizens may be infected after attack by them. Mutant wild boars have been found in Fukushima, and they also have a certain amount of radioactivity. Wild boars play an important role in the ecosystem. In the forest, boars are constantly foraging for food and digging through the ground with their hard snouts, which may appear to be damaging the environment, but this behavior actually makes the forest soil softer and slows down the decomposition of dead leaves.
Wild boars wander into the urban areas, there will be a risk of destroying local facilities as they are  aggressive and destructive.  It was reported that wild boars are wreaking havoc on farmland in the countryside, hence higher possibility of destruction on local facilities. People should live in harmony with animals. Wild boars have become one of the three protected animals in China. From the legal perspective, wild boars be illegally hunted by individuals.

Strengthen education and publicity program with the aim of increasing public awareness on wild boars nuisance and intentional feeding.

 More resources will be allocated for enforcement works in order to tackle with wild boars nuisance, thus, increase the expenditure on departments.
We must protect human from being attacked by wild boars. According to local reports, there are dozens of cases about wild boar every month. They frequently enter residential areas, hospitals and even schools where people live, which has brought great impact on our life and property safety. Wild boars can be a good source of income at the zoos. Keeping wild pigs in zoos can not only protect them, but also attract tourists and bring profits to zoos.

 

 

 

During the epidemic period, many corporations adopted “Work From Home” work arrangement, do you encourage more corporations to adopt this work arrangement?

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Encourage

Don’t encourage
Reduce infection risk because of minimized commuter travel and interpersonal communication. Work from home can be isolating, leads to limited social interaction and support.
Produce less greenhouse gas emissions by reducing commuter travel. And be environmental friendly by using less air-conditioning, heating and lighting etc. An employee’s home environment can also affect productivity and concentration because some distractions may arise such as interruptions by children, pets and neighbors.

Work from home can reduce costs for employers and employees. Employers can reduce the use of resources in their offices, and employees save travel costs.

 Employee productivity declines. Some people find themselves busier working from home such as endless online meetings and reports.
Employees save commuting time and energy, so that they can devote more effort to work. At the same time, employees can communicate regardless of time and place which is conducive to solve problems encountered at work. When the boundary between life and work is blurred, may cause considerable impacts on both employers and employees.

 

 

 

China’s economic growth attracts world’s attention

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China’s GDP exceeded the 100-trillion-yuan，threshold in 2020.

China’s goods imports and exports increased by 1.9% on year to 32.16 trillion yuan in 2020, a record high.

FDI into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, expanded 6.2% year on year to a record high of nearly 1 trillion yuan in 2020.

Experts say China’s growth will help drive the global economy.China’s GDP growth in 2020 will be a good signal for the world economy.

China’s growth has attracted world’s attention:

The New York Times said, “Keeping the virus at bay has been critical to China’s economic success over the past year. While the pandemic ravages other nations, Beijing’s aggressive top-down approach kept the virus from spreading rapidly across the country.”

Taz said, the reason why China becomes the only major economy which avoided shrinking is that China acted decisively to fight against the pandemic and took a lot of economic stimulus measures. Meanwhile, the world has a strong demand of China’s goods.

Korea JoongAng Daily pointed out that China’s economic performance of 2020 can be described as: China provided best answer in the face of the worst environment.

China’s continuous economic growth also brings opportunities to the world.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said China’s pivot towards domestic consumption-driven growth with the process of opening up will inject more growth momentum into global economic recovery.

Margit Molnar, head of the China Desk of OECD said, “China was the first country to fully recover.””That has a very big importance for the world because it means the second biggest economy in the world has recovered. This means a huge source of demand for all the other countries.”

Ronnie Lins, director of the China-Brazil Center for Research and Business, pointed out that thanks to the proper measures to prevent and control the epidemic, China’s resumption of work and production and the resumption of business and markets have accelerated, and China’s economy is recovering steadily, which will help The world economy is free from the impact of the new crown epidemic.

China will make more contribution to global economic recovery in 2021

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday projected that China’s economy will grow by 8.1 percent in 2021, 0.1 percentage point below the October forecast, according to the latest update to its World Economic Outlook.

Swiss economist and former trade negotiator Philippe G. Nell said that China has become the growth engine of several industries and economic sectors in the world. Global trade development will benefit from China’s increasingly bigger middle-income group and the transformation to consumption-oriented economy.

The Sino-US trade frictions have led to a loss of cumulatively 245,000 jobs to the American employment market

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The Sino-US trade frictions have led to a loss of cumulatively 245,000 jobs to the American employment market so far, according to a study of Oxford Economics. However, if both parties would cancel their imposition of additional tariffs gradually and promote the development of bilateral trade, 145,000 new jobs would be created for the American market as of 2025.

The study was initiated by the Oxford Economics entrusted by the USCBC, as reported by Reuters. The US-China Business Council is a non-governmental and non-profit organization, whose members are American companies that have businesses in China, including many famous international tycoons such as Coca-Cola, and other small American enterprises.

The study, which will be released several days before Biden, the U.S. president, takes office, analyzes the current trade policies of the country. Biden said that he had no plan to change Trump’s tariff policies immediately.

The study estimates that the U.S. export to China provides 1.2 million jobs to the American market, including 197,000 Americans employed by trans-national Chinese companies. In 2019, American companies invested a total of USD 105 billion in China.

Data indicate that if Sino-US trade frictions keep going, the U.S. would lose 732,000 jobs by 2022, and 320,000 more by 2025.

Damages that trade frictions bring to American economics are more than the loss of jobs.

It was predicted that a dramatic decoupling of trade between the world’s two largest economies would lead to GDP decrease of USD 1.6 trillion to the U.S. within five years.

The study report showed that China would play an important role in promoting global economics. In the upcoming 10 years, China would pull global economic growth by 1/3. Therefore, the importance of Chinese market access will increase day by day for the U.S.

China’s new 2030 climate targets to peak carbon emissions, explained

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Chinese President Xi Jinping has announced further commitments to cut carbon emissions in a speech at the Climate Ambition Summit last Saturday.

The commitments include a decline of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by over 65 percent from the 2005 level, an increase of the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy as well the forest stock volume and the goal to bring the installed capacity of wind and solar power to over 1.2 billion kilowatts.

AMBITIOUS LONG-TERM TARGETS

In September, China for the first time announced a concrete long-term target of peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality in 2060 at the UN General Assembly, which is regarded as a major fillip for the global fight against warming climate.

Emissions peak would signal a significant turning point. Once the peak occurs, annual carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced year by year in the future.

Carbon neutrality refers to a balance between emitting carbon and absorbing carbon to achieve net zero carbon dioxide emissions. The Paris Agreement requires a global joint effort to go carbon neutral sometime in the second half of the 21st century, so as to prevent over 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming.

Besides changes in economic structure, transition to more renewable energy consumption for electricity generation and other uses can also help mitigate environmental degradation. Non-fossil sources include nuclear, hydroelectric, and other renewable energy including geothermal, solar, tidal, wind, wood and so on. The share of non-fossil energy consumption in China for 2019 rose to 15.3 percent while coal still took up the biggest share with 58 percent.

Forest stock not only provides information on existing wood resources but also a basis for estimating the amount of carbon contained, since green plants can offer nature-based solutions in the climate plan of removing carbon dioxide from our atmosphere.

As the strong commitments put China closely in line with the efforts made by the EU, UK and other developed countries and regions, it should never be ignored that, China is still in the process of developing its economy with heavy reliance on coal as a dominant energy source. Taking such bold moves toward a net-zero carbon life in the near future is still a gargantuan task for China.

Hong Kong – is it worth staying?

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Shall I go or should I stay? It’s a conversation that is taking place in more or less every household in Hong Kong whose members have the option of emigrating.

A recent public opinion survey contains the breathtaking finding that 20 per cent of respondents intend to emigrate, of whom 45 per cent are planning to do so within the next two years. In other words around 1.5 million Hongkongers are actively thinking of leaving.

There is no mystery about why this is so. Hongkongers have been seriously rattled by the introduction of the new National Security Law. There are fears that the white terror sweeping through the education system will lead to indoctrination of children and concerns that once Hong Kong ceases to be an international centre, the economy will sink.

Overshadowing all this is the fear of the midnight knock on the door as the rule of law is transformed into rule by law. Many people who are not directly involved in politics nervously try to assure themselves that they have nothing to fear if they stay quiet and keep their thoughts to themselves. However even the smallest familiarity with history should be sufficient to understand that silence affords only minimal protection in a police state.

So people are agonising over the enormous decision of whether to up sticks and go. It is a massive decision by any standards. All the more so when it involves leaving a place that is deeply loved and gave its citizens great opportunities, material comfort and a way of life that they are loath to leave behind.

 

 

Hong Kong protests: Is violence in the pursuit of justice ever justified?

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There has been a long-running debate in societies around the world whenever issues or protests arise that question our way of life and our value judgements: is violence justified when seeking justice?

That debate has been rekindled by the deaths or injuries suffered by black men at the hands of US police in recent months, and the subsequent violent response. Systemic racial injustice following generations of failure to deal with or even acknowledge the problem has become a political issue. It seems like the elephant in the room was not only in plain view, but was being well fed and watered.

In a more generalised context, the unrest has raised the question of whether violence can ever be a legitimate tool in the quest for justice, particularly when that quest is denied or goes unanswered?

Those who wanted to condemn violence and rioting during protests quoted him as saying “I will always continue to say, that riots are socially destructive and self-defeating,” while those who wished to justify rioting quoted him as saying “a riot is the language of the unheard.”

Every protest movement must decide which “weapons” it will use and how to use them effectively. If it chooses violence, then it must understand that it will be met with violence and the full force of the law so that any moral advantage it might have achieved will be lost – despite, perhaps, the rightness of its cause.

In Hong Kong, this factor played out negatively for the protest movement. Even though many people still believed in the rightness of the cause, the weakness of violence allowed the government to exploit the moral and legal failure to its advantage. If the protest movement is to succeed, it must re-evaluate its “weapons” more critically and, choose those that more directly target the injustices it wishes to redress, and use them in a way that will regain large-scale public support.