Journalist
@FinancialReview
covering wealthy families and their businesses. Fmr China correspondent and foreign affairs reporter primrose.riordan
@afr
.com
Belatedly realising Signal now has usernames: Primrose.55
All msgs are considered completely off the record, confidential *and* you can msg without revealing your name. Here is my signal link as well
"Even HSBC won’t want anything to do with me."
Exclusive: Senior Carrie Lam advisor says HK officials are finding it harder to bank with global financial institutions after he has his account closed by a US bank jv w
@nicolle_liu
Zhong Nanshan is seen as a pandemic hero in China & had a prominent role in Beijing’s covid response.
But he’s also been accused of repeatedly pushing yet to be proven treatments w/out revealing his personal & business ties to them.
🚨Our new deep dive:
🚨After chasing down North Korean “businessmen” & encounters with HK’s pro-Beijingers, I’m finishing up as the FT’s South China correspondent⌛️
My time here has been during one of Hong Kong’s toughest periods and was a privilege as well as heartbreaking to cover it…
The chief executive of SBI Holdings, the financial conglomerate that owns Japan’s biggest online brokerage, said he plans to pull his company’s 100 person operation out of Hong Kong because “without freedom, there is no financial business”.
@Urbandirt
This week is my last at the Oz & in Canberra before heading off for a new gig. Been v lucky to work w a truckload of talented journos here. Thanks to all who’ve let me write their stories, loaned me their expertise, or given me a leg up...& sorry to those who I’ve disappointed!
After the removal of the Pillar of Shame at
#HKU
, the June4 slogan has been covered up by fences now.
Workers are covering up the words “冷血” (cold blood) now.
#HongKong
#June4
New: top bank chief economist says he was forced out for being a Hong Konger, while executives tell the FT they’re considering or implementing an unofficial hiring freeze on young locals over the protests.
#HongKongProtests
#HongKong
🇭🇰
Exclusive: Mandarin Oriental chief pushes for his top execs to temporarily relocate from Hong Kong and says the city has become a “very, very poor” base for business due to border controls
w/
@ThomasHHChan
It’s hard to describe the despair in the room each time they bring the Hong Kong 47 into the dock, as family try to spot their loved ones faces & hold back tears.
Facing life in jail, Claudia Mo, a fmr AFP journalist & prominent lawmaker, is among them
I'm going to be following in the oversized footsteps of
@suelinwong
&
@benjaminbland
to work as the FT's South China Correspondent. Any ideas on what you think we need to write more about or any tips🙏: primrose.riordan
@ft
.com, primrose.riordan
@protonmail
.com or dm for signal/WA
“North and South Korea are in talks to announce a permanent end to the officially declared military conflict between the two countries, daily newspaper Munhwa Ilbo reported Tuesday, citing an unnamed South Korean official”
Apple Daily, Jimmy Lai's paper which is being raided, has pubbed pics of police going though reporter's materials in the newsroom, as well of their editor-in-chief's arrest
& they are livestreaming from outside:
#HongKong
Former Liberal minister and lobbyist, Santo Santoro, has just updated his listing on the foreign influence register to include a heap of Chinese companies...
“This arrest will be very troubling to people of faith”
All eyes are now on the Vatican as to how they respond to the arrest of Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, a campaigner for democracy and fierce opponent of the diplomatic deal Rome struck with Beijing
1/ Chinese regulators desperately tried to convince international investors they have misread the party congress where Xi Jinping grabbed even more power at Hong Kong's reopening banker conference today where they appeared via video - not in person.
Penny Wong has asked whether US Amb Joe Hockey has used the official Ambassador’s residence address in Washington DC as the registered address for two businesses, Xia Family Pty Ltd and Rahbah Pty Ltd
“Harris has been chased out of Hong Kong…this rule by fear is having a tremendous effect on us”
Hong Kong lawyers wonder if they are safe after Paul Harris SC, a target of attacks by pro-Beijing media, abruptly leaves the city
w/
@ThomasHHChan
“Anyone who makes policy should experience it for themselves. How can they know what it is like?"
🚨New: Hong Kong officials on international trips to sell the city to the financial world escape quarantine that has battered the territory’s reputation
Senator Penny Wong is pursuing the issue of US Ambassador Joe Hockey and his connection to travel company Helloworld in
#estimates
. DFAT Sec Frances Adamson said she spoke to the Ambo after the last estimates to "made clear my expectations of heads of mission".
Australia will suffer its first recession in 29 years due to the impact of the coronavirus, according to revised economic forecasts by Westpac. via
@JamieSmythF
Hong Kong today:
- broadcaster Steve Vines says he's left for the UK in part due to safety fears
- same goes for Kacey Wong, a contemporary & political artist, but ✈️for Taipei
-Initium Media to move its headquarters out of Hong Kong to Singapore
NEW: A FT/RUSI investigation reveals the Chinese criminal connections behind how North Korea🇰🇵 gets hold of oil🛢️.
This colourful tale involves gangsters, spies, ghost ships, casino barons, and racing car drivers operating out of Hong Kong🇭🇰 and Macau🇲🇴:
“I’m really furious about this”
Exclusive: London School of Economics plan for new China programme funded by pro-Beijing businessman Eric X. Li sparks outrage from academics
New: Jimmy Lai's international legal team are appealing to four UN rapporteurs to raise his mounting court cases w the HK gov, saying he is facing "legal harassment"
Research from the UK & Denmark indicates Omicron's tricky cousin BA.2 could be between 30 and 34 per cent more infectious than BA.1.
While it might be “slightly more immune evasive,” experts say there's no sign yet its causing more severe illness:
At least three of the 47 Hong Kong democracy activists arrested in raids earlier this year will be defended by a pro-Beijing lawmaker’s law firm, as those arrested under the NSL grow increasingly gloomy about their prospects:
#HongKong
“Ultimately Lee has been rewarded for helping to crush the pro-democracy movement…His promotion is a signal that Beijing views this process as far from over”
John Lee is
@ft
person in the news this week:
#HongKong
Exclusive: Coalition failed to allocate any funding to a proposed new fleet of drones worth hundreds of millions in the budget. Min Peter Dutton announced the move with great fanfare last year and said they were “critical to maintaining secure borders”
Gov has made cuts to Asia & South Asia aid programs - esp Pakistan - and cuts to cash payments to international orgs to make up for $500m toward the new pacific infrastructure bank. Aid group
@WorldVisionAus
: “This is not a Pacific step-up; it is a Pacific shuffle”
Last week China jailed one of the biggest figures in global gambling💰, whose biz had revenues which eclipsed 🇺🇸US casinos, and an online betting biz *twice* the size of China’s national lottery.
But his name is hardly known in the west:
/1
Exclusive: Deep in the Sumatran forest lives the last 800 of the world rarest great ape.
But now a Jardine Matheson subsidiary is accused of expanding a mine into their habitat even while negotiating a halt to carry out a study of the mine’s impact.
HK pro-democracy fmr lawmaker Ted Hui says HSBC CEO Noel Quinn has now personally emailed him to say the bank had no choice but to close his accounts
My column here on how police action over activists could weigh on the bank
Excited to go home to take on a new challenge as a senior reporter covering private companies & family wealth:
(That or starting a new CSI: Sydney🔍🕵🏻♀️😆)
HK’s leader, Carrie Lam, is making a rare appearance on RTHK’s English program.
She asked “What rights and freedoms have we lost and what vibrancy have we lost?” Then backs up this claim by saying the stock market, property & “even arts and culture” are all “booming”.
Virgin Atlantic will suspend its London – Hong Kong services and close their Hong Kong office, despite HK dropping quarantine. VA cite issues with Russian airspace but the move comes after the HK gov's pandemic policies caused havoc for airlines:
Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam were sentenced today to prison over 2019’s HK protests.
@FinancialTimes
Below, supporters send them off on their way to prison:
Despite the lifting of the flight ban it’s still hard to get in and out of Hong Kong as the gov hasn’t yet lifted a rule which bans airlines if they have too many covid-positive travellers.
Cathay says it’s only putting on one flight a fortnight per route:
While the world has moved on from 🇭🇰Hong Kong, the national security crackdown rumbles on.
Today the 47 pro-democracy activists arrested in dawn raids in early 2021, many of whom have been in pretrial detention for ~2yrs, finally go to trial
/1
NEW🚨: Hong Kong’s regulator has privately assured banks they can implement US sanctions without breaking Beijing's tough national security law as the local government rushes to stop international business leaving
Usually the media seats at court cases in HK are so packed you have to be up at the crack of dawn to get a good seat
Today, after a series of news outlet closures in the city, it was easy to get a spot and the benches weren’t full. An eerie feeling…
BREAKING: the Palestinian delegation to Australia says 15 Middle Eastern embassies are likely to hold an emergency meeting today to discuss PM Morrison’s comments on Jerusalem. Story soon
@australian
sooo many worse things happening rn in hk (i.e. in aged care homes) but interesting how the unscientific outdoor mask rules + constant loudspeaker announcements at parks actively encourages ppl to eat indoors…
“I’m quite worried Singapore will replace Hong Kong not just as a financial centre but also as an aviation centre”
International airline execs, frustrated by constantly changing crew rules, fear Hong Kong airport risks falling off the radar
❗️A HK lawyer who represented prominent activists has reportedly left HK after being chased around the city’s airport by pro-Beijing media, likely tipped off in advance.
V similar situation to Paul Harris, fmr chair of the bar, earlier this year:
#NEW
Pro-BJ media outlets Wen Wei Po & Dot Dot News released videos of human rights lawyer Michael Vidler leaving
#HK
, days after news broke that Vidler & Co would be closing down in June
“Are you afraid of being arrest by police officer?” a reporter was heard questioning Vidler
“Hong Kong is back, write that in your report"
Hong Kong sevens brings back atmosphere to a covid rule-weary city, but there is a herd of elephants in the room
FEHD and Hong Kong Police "raid" on Carbone restaurant tonight in LKF.
Reports all staff were fined $5k for not checking RATs (though not required at the restaurant), and customers were made to sit in silence for an hour.
Asia's World City on the path to normalcy.
French nuclear operator EDF has said it would shut the Taishan reactor in Southern China if it were in France "to accurately assess the situation in progress and stop its development"
The HK alliance was established in the wake of the 1989 democratic protests in China & they organised the June 4 vigils in HK.
Police recently demanded info on members & their activities, against a backdrop of civil society folding after the nat security law.
Their response:
Now
#HongKong
: "we will not hand in any information to the
#NationalSecurity
unit." "it's absurd and abuse of power."
@hka8964
's
@zouxingtong
said in press conferences. "The alliance strongly denied we are 'foreign agent'," "we will not transmit the fear through the alliance!"
National Australia Bank will shut down its office in Hong Kong 🇭🇰 after deciding that Shanghai, Singapore + Tokyo are the preferred APAC centres.
👉follows hot on the heels of Westpac, which shuttered its branch there in June
Not only is Hong Kong seeing record deaths despite following a zero covid policy, but business are up in arms about an exodus of local talent they say is stifling the economy and could lead it back into contraction👇
@ThomasHHChan
@imandylin2
New: Adelaide student, who estimates about 18 of her family members are detained in China, says her Australian grandpa was detained earlier this year in Guangzhou for a night while trying to visit his locked up children
Two reporters quit the South China Morning Post last year after a senior editor axed their three-month investigation into human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region, according to a editor who resigned shortly after
China's crackdown in Hong Kong has already targeted opposition politicians, teachers, students, academics and journalists.
We looked at whether Beijing now has its sights on the city's pro-China elite👇
@nicolle_liu
Also in this piece: the HK gov has repeatedly told global biz the NSL won't touch them, but when asked for rock solid guidance on how to avoid breaking the law, the gov told them not to take their answers as legal advice 🤷♀️
NEW🚨: Hong Kong’s regulator has privately assured banks they can implement US sanctions without breaking Beijing's tough national security law as the local government rushes to stop international business leaving
Civil Human Rights Front, an umbrella group behind some of the largest mass protests in Hong Kong’s history, announced on Sunday that it had disbanded amid a looming police crackdown:
via
@jeffielam
Breaking: Hong Kong chief Carrie Lam offered to step down over protests but Beijing refused to accept her resignation
🇭🇰🇨🇳
Scoop via Henny Sender
@suelinwong
@nicolle_liu
Labor's Penny Wong says she's asked for more info from FM Marise Payne on the Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun case, says the woman is in a distressing situation. Earlier Immigration Min Coleman declined to comment on the case
#auspol
The Jumbo Floating Restaurant, which left Hong Kong a few days ago, has sunk near Paracel Islands, according to a statement. No one was injured. The area is over 1,000 metres deep and it would be very difficult to salvage it, the statement said.
The same day as Amnesty announces its exiting Hong Kong, a 31 year old delivery driver is convicted under the security law and faces 7 yrs in prison for chanting slogans...
w
@ThomasHHChan