A Hong Kong court has fined a now-defunct bakery chain HK$251,800 (US$32,127) over unpaid wages and other entitlements exceeding HK$1.3 million. A liquidator for Taipan Bread & Cakes, Taipan Restaurant and their parent company, Vast Luck, pleaded guilty at Kowloon City Court on Monday to 96 charges under the Employment Ordinance, after the group failed…
A former Hong Kong lawmaker on trial for allegedly inciting subversion has denied abetting criminal activity by supporting mainland Chinese dissidents, accusing Beijing of levelling false charges against them. Prosecutors on Wednesday challenged Lee Cheuk-yan’s claim that he had no intention to incite others to overthrow the mainland’s communist rule when he called for an…
A Hong Kong judge has said his decision to order the winding-up of bakery chain Taipan’s parent company is due to there being “no reliable evidence” that the business can settle its outstanding rent of more than HK$2 million (US$256,500). In a written judgment released on Tuesday, Deputy Judge Gary Lam Chin-ching of the High…
China is highlighting its success in joint law enforcement with the sentencing of two men in a drug-related money laundering case following a tip-off from the United States. The People’s Daily stated on Saturday that officers in Shenyang, in northeast China’s Liaoning province, had received information in April last year from US authorities about a…
China’s top securities regulator has pledged to widen foreign investors’ access to the mainland’s capital market while further lowering the fundraising threshold for technology firms, after a key indicator slumped nearly 4 per cent from a 10-year high in mid-November. Wu Qing, chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), set out guidance for the…
China stands ready to align development strategies with Thailand for “greater progress” in bilateral ties, President Xi Jinping told the visiting Thai monarch King Maha Vajiralongkorn in Beijing on Friday. The Chinese leader described the two nations as “true good relatives, friends and partners” during his meeting with the king at the Great Hall of…
In a lengthy article on Saturday detailing some of the build-up to the Communist Party’s fourth plenum this week, state news agency Xinhua and party mouthpiece People’s Daily said Xi “personally headed” the team that drafted the outline for the next five-year plan. “[He] oversaw and guided the formulation of the proposal for the 15th…
As China’s leadership meets this week to chart a policy course for the 15th five-year plan – China’s development blueprint for the rest of the decade – events that unfolded more than 70 years ago are echoing again. The growing external challenges of today have similarities to those the country faced in the 1950s –…
Could China’s new K visa reshape the global competition for top talent? Beijing certainly aims to do just that. Officially rolled out this month, the visa is aimed at young foreign professionals in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. It targets graduates and professionals with at least a bachelor’s degree in STEM from…
The mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist Party has urged the nation to break through technological “choke points” and avoid becoming “subordinate to other nations” in a series spotlighting the country’s achievements in hi-tech industries. The series of editorials comes as Beijing prepares to outline its next five-year plan and amid a renewed escalation in trade…