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South China Morning Post

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Don’t dream it’s over: mainland students rethink Hong Kong over costs, culture

Weeks before mainland Chinese student Carol Chen graduated from Baptist University in Hong Kong in July, the 22-year-old did the math and weighed the cost of living in the city against returning home. Renting a room in the city would consume around half of the HK$20,000 (US$2,552) starting salary she expected as a junior data analyst. “If I go back to Shanghai, I will only need to worry about daily expenses,” said Chen, a maths and statistics graduate. Language barriers compounded the problem....

RTHK News (Hong Kong)

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Govt will not implement HK$2 scheme journey cap

Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun said on Friday that the government will not implement a cap on the number of trips under the HK$2 transport subsidy scheme, citing the travel needs of people with disabilities. Starting from April 3, people aged 60 and above, as well as those with disabilities, pay a flat HK$2 fare for trips costing HK$10 or less. For more expensive journeys, they pay 20 percent of the fare. The government had planned to cap subsidised trips at 240 per person each month. On the Labour and Welfare Bureau Facebook page, Sun said some people with disabilities had voiced concern about the proposed cap because they need to transfer more often than other residents in order to reach the same destination. He said the latest figures show that on average, only about 450 people make more than 240 trips per month – a tiny number among the 2.7 million users of the transport subsidy. However about a fifth of those 450 people are people with disabilities. He said this proves that some disabled people do need more trips. "If we go ahead with the trip cap, it will inevitably affect some people with disabilities – including their need to see a doctor, attend rehabilitation services, go to work, and other daily necessities," he wrote. He added the cap could cause worry among some commuters – especially the elderly – about going over the limit, and would create unnecessary stress. Sun also said a cap would not be cost-effective, as limiting the subsidised trips would save only a few hundred thousand dollars, but updating the subsidy system to accommodate a limit would cost an estimated HK$30 million. He concluded that the government decided not to go ahead with the cap – hoping everyone can travel happily and integrate into society. Edited by Thomas McAlinden

South China Morning Post

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US senator warns of Indo-Pacific risks as Hegseth stresses ‘quiet’ tactics

America’s latest defence strategy worryingly downgrades the importance of the Indo-Pacific, a US senator warned on Saturday, even as the Pentagon chief delivered a speech reassuring allies of commitment at a defence forum in Singapore. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a staunch critic of the US-Israeli war on Iran, told a media round table at the Shangri-La Dialogue that she was concerned the Trump administration was being distracted by conflict in other theatres that would dent commitment to the...

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Don’t dream it’s over: mainland students rethink Hong Kong over costs, culture

Govt will not implement HK$2 scheme journey cap

US senator warns of Indo-Pacific risks as Hegseth stresses ‘quiet’ tactics