HK Govt Blames Protests for High Poverty Rate

Law Chi-kwong says the poverty rate is lower than reported

 

Yesterday the government said Hong Kong's poverty rate reached a record high last year, and the protesters were to blame.

In its annual poverty report, the government said 21.4 percent of residents were considered poor last year, up one percentage point from the year before. It said 1.49 million of Hong Kong's total population of 7.52 million were under the poverty line -- which is calculated at 50 percent of the median monthly household income before government allowances and subsidies.

The median monthly household income in 2019 was HK$28,900, which is difficult for a family to live on, and half that at HK$14,450, even worse.

Govt report says 1.49m are below the poverty line

Nevertheless, the government had the gall to blame the situation of the poor on the anti-government protests last year and the trade war between China and the United States, saying the "double whammy" caused the SAR's first economic recession in a decade.

"The unrest caused severe disruptions and battered sectors related to consumption and tourism that involved substantial lower-skilled jobs. Grassroots families were particularly hard-hit," it said, adding that the labour market worsened in the second half of 2019.

How can the government blame poverty on the protesters, when it was the government that came up with the extradition bill in the first place and refused to listen to 2 million people protesting against it that caused the months-long protests that rocked the city? 

And in any event, why does the government even allow employers to pay its workers such low wages to start with? It is the government itself that does not value these grassroots families to start with.

Perhaps after receiving a lot of heat for this weak explanation of why there are so many people in Hong Kong, the Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong hit back, and began interpreting the numbers differently.

On a radio show today he claimed it was wrong to extrapolate there were 21.4 percent of people living below the poverty line in Hong Kong, based on the report his administration published.

Critics say report only tells half the story

"It doesn't tell us how many people are actually living below the poverty line. It tells us how many people would be living in poverty if the government does nothing at all," Law said.

He explained that after factoring in various social security allowances and government relief subsidies, the poverty rate was only 9.2 percent, or 640,000 people. That meant the so-called post-intervention poverty rate marginally improved by 0.1 percentage points from 9.3 percent in 2018, he said.

Law added the efficiency of the government's social welfare programs helped 850,000 residents out of poverty through Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, and Old Age Living Allowance.

However, in many cases the government makes it very difficult to be eligible for CSSA, and the allowance for seniors is a very small sum each month, less than HK$1,500.

Ng Wai-tung, community organizer for the Society for Community Organization, said the welfare chief's analysis also did not reflect the whole picture.

"It's only half correct," Ng said. "On the one hand, it reflects the scale of low-income groups before any government assistance, but on the other hand, it underestimates the harsh reality that so many people are not even earning enough to make ends meet."

White elephant projects like Kai Tak waste money

Perhaps one thing Law and Ng can agree on is that the poverty rate could climb higher next year due to the coronavirus pandemic that greatly impacted areas such as tourism, hospitality, retail and construction.

Law said the government has already rolled out multiple poverty-alleviation schemes this year.

While the effort is appreciated, the government's investment in the poor is pittance compared to how much it throws into white elephant projects like the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, and Disneyland.

If the government put more effort into really helping the poor, it would benefit Hong Kong's economy even more. Social mobility is what makes an economy stronger and gives hope to people.

But it seems the Lam administration is keen on blaming others for high poverty rates, when it is those in the position in power who have caused this problem of inequality in the first place.

 

Review: Coronation by Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei's documentary is about the pandemic in Wuhan

 

Let's face it -- 2020 has been completely shot -- thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and we still haven't tamed the virus thanks to people in parts of the world refusing to wear masks, or governments that didn't take it seriously in the beginning.

Over 1.29 million people have died since the pandemic began December 1, 2019, when the first case emerged in Wuhan, China.

Since then it spread to over 200 countries and now there are over 52.3 million cases.

Ai and his team edited 500 hours of footage

Artist and activist Ai Weiwei documented what happened in Wuhan with the help of intrepid volunteers who managed to get unprecedented access into hospitals to record first hand what was happening on the ground months after the pandemic gripped the Chinese city.

Called Coronation, the almost two-hour documentary is a series of vignettes and interviews with Wuhan citizens who had to come to grips with the reality of the virus and the decisions local and central governments made.

I saw the documentary last night with my friend YTSL, and also in the audience was former chief secretary Anson Chan Fong On-sang, Eric Wishart of the Foreign Correspondents' Club, and lawyer and author Antony Dapiran. We were in good company.

The opening image of Coronation is stark, viewers overlooking the high-speed rail lines in Wuhan that were paralyzed by the virus, completely empty, and the dreariness of the city. Three videographers record themselves driving back to the city and encounter a lot of police checks and frozen gas pumps.

A nurse helps an elderly patient with Covid-19

There are scenes in hospital patient rooms, watching an elderly patient in critical condition because one of the machines he is hooked up to is malfunctioning, others have faces as white as a sheet and are gasping for breath while breathing in oxygen. 

One gets access to the construction site of Huoshenshan Hospital, the emergency field hospital that was built within days to house 1,000 patients. Once it's completed, one of the doctors goes inside to report to work and he walks and walks along corridors until finally he reaches his locker.

Then there is the tedious task of putting on layers of personal protective equipment. He grabs a rubber glove with air in it to make sure there are no holes before putting it on. Very smart. Another person writes with a felt tip marker on his hazmat suit that he is a doctor and what his name is.

No wonder doctors couldn't go to the bathroom with all that stuff on.

A construction worker talks to his niece

Taking the PPE off too was another routine carefully monitored by someone in another room, instructing him what to do to avoid getting the virus on his own clothes and skin. Talk about an intense and stressful procedure.

One wishes the doctor would talk to the camera, but perhaps he was too hungry, as we watch him eat. Maybe we are already lucky to have such close access that we shouldn't demand much more.

However there are other stories, like the construction worker who helped build the hospital but is stranded in Wuhan and can't get out. He is stuck living in his car and charges his phone in a car park. He calls his young niece who reminds him to disinfect himself before they see each other.

It's light moments like these that keep Coronation not too sombre.

Perhaps one of the funniest vignettes is when a videographer stays with his mother, who is a die-hard revolutionary. She insists as long as you do what you are told, you will be looked after and shows off she has won many awards. 

Her son eggs her on to show them to him and she gathers a stack of red fabric books and dumps them unceremoniously on the table. There are certificates too that are rolled up like scrolls, though one is ripped and he jokes it's because it has Lin Biao's name on it.

A videographer (right) with his mother

Then there are people angry at the government regulations for not allowing them to be with their loved ones before they passed. This was not just happening in Wuhan, but around the world. Here, people openly complain in front of the camera, telling the world that they could not say good bye, or hold their hand as they lay dying.

One middle-aged son believed the government when it said there was no proof of human-to-human spreading of the virus and brought his elderly father back to Wuhan. He was soon infected and died; his son regretful, but wishes to do his duty to give his father a proper burial.

However, his father's danwei, or work unit refuses to allow him to retrieve his father's ashes alone; he must be accompanied by minders and he is adamant that this not happen. The danwei people realize they have not handled this carefully, but at the same time the son knows they are only doing their job, but he respectfully insists that he must not be accompanied by strangers who did not know his father at all.

The government tries to "disinfect" Wuhan

It's like a cat-and-mouse game that must have been infuriating for the son to deal with, let alone his regrets and mourning. He says that the government is so big there is no way one person can beat the system.

In a way Coronation is a warning for Hong Kong. We may laugh at the ridiculousness of the bureaucracy mainlanders have to deal with, but the reality is that Hongkongers will have to face this in real life very soon. In fact things are changing so fast that it is happening now, with Beijing destroying the veneer of "one country, two systems".

The mainlanders deal with authoritarian rule everyday, and some in the film know very clearly what is going on, others blindly following along. For some the pandemic has revealed the authorities' inability to humanize the situation, that everything is for the good of the state, even though it insists it is ruled by the people.

Coronation was remotely directed by Ai; the access the videographers got was impressive, though at times the camera is blurry and there are no second takes. It is a gritty film, though not as well produced as his previous work, Human Flow, about the refugees from Syria, Lebanon and Iraq who make their way to Europe.

Nevertheless, Coronation is an excellent record of what it was like in Wuhan, something the Chinese government cannot completely whitewash.

Coronation

Directed by Ai Weiwei

1hr 53 minutes

Awarding "Meaningless" Titles for Money

There are questions why Oxford University is making up titles for donations

Wealthy people donating to institutions is not new, but the latter doing it shamelessly is at another level altogether.

The Guardian reports an academic at Oxford University gave a "meaningless" university qualification to a Chinese businessman who has ties to Beijing in a high profile ceremony last year in Shanghai and raises questions about how easily institutions can be influenced by Chinese money.

Hudson and Chan at the ceremony in Shanghai last May

Alan Hudson who has since retired, was director of programmes in Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Oxford. Previous to that he was director of Social and Political Science at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education.

Last May, Hudson awarded the title "Belt and Road Academician from Oxford University" to Chan King-wai, who is a businessman based in Hong Kong and is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Consultative Conference, among a string of other titles.

"I looked up the meaning of 'academician' and it is absolutely meaningless, it means anybody involved with the university, of any description. So I said there you go, we can put that on the certificate. In recognition of his contributions to the programme.

Hudson said the title was an incentive for a donation

"The incentive for this was a potential donation to the university or the department, and for a number of programmes," Hudson said. He added that he did not plan the lavish ceremony that was attended by an official from the British consulate. Hudson was surprised it was such a big event.

However, if you're getting money from a rich person, surely you have to pull out the stops?

"I was contacted by the Hong Kong development office [of Oxford University] who wanted to approach Chan King-wai... from the point of view of a substantial donation to the university," Hudson added.

Neither Oxford University nor the Oxford Chinese Studies department responded to The Guardian's requests for comments or if Chan did indeed donate money.

Chan was born in Shantou City in Guangdong province and in 1979 migrated to Hong Kong. He set up King Wai Group in 1982 and it focuses on property and construction in Shanghai, Tianjin, and Bangkok.

Chan made money in construction and property

Like many mainland Chinese, Chan loves having a long list of titles and associations on his name card. They include: chairman of the Hong Kong China Chamber of Commerce; vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce; vice president of the Chinese People's Association for Peace and Disarmament; and chairman of Bauhinia Valley Innovation and Development Center.

Oh and Chan is also a member of the election committee that chooses the Hong Kong chief executive.

MP Neil O'Brien, who is also a founding member of the China Research Group, which brings together Conservative politicians who are critical of Beijing, said British universities needed to be more careful about fundraising in China.

"Universities need to fundraise but the fear is that if academics are prepared to hand out fake academic qualifications to chase money what worse are they prepared to do? There have been a number of concerning cases of UK universities being easily politically influenced for a bit of cash," O'Brien said.

O'Brien questions the political influence of donations

"I'd welcome a deep look by the Department of Education at where corporate and individual donations are from, and what political impact this is having," he added.

The award for China was also condemned by Benedict Rogers, co-founder and chair of the campaign group Hong Kong Watch.

"This sorry episode is yet another example of the growing influence the Chinese Communist party has in our leading academic institutions, which remains largely uncontested and free from scrutiny," he said.

Now that it has been revealed the title "Belt and Road Academician from Oxford University" is "meaningless", how does Chan feel about it? Would he be too embarrassed to have this "title" on his name card, knowing now it was just conjured up to get money from him? 

Or maybe he thinks no one will notice?

MTR Cutting Corners, Losing Credibility

Construction at one of the stations along the Central-Sha Tin link

An ambitious transportation project for the MTR is the Sha Tin to Central link. It promised to get commuters between the two destinations within 30 minutes. When the project was announced, housing prices in Sha Tin immediately went up.

However, it has now been revealed the MTR hasn't been watching its contractor, Leighton Contractors (Asia) carefully because the builder hasn't been following the plans property and then shoddily fixing them, making everyone wary of even wanting to use this transport link when it's finished.

Who will trust the safety of this line?

It's not a cheap infrastructure project at HK$97 billion, and yet it seems like corners were cut. Leaked photographs showed workers cutting steel bars so that it looked like they were screwed correctly into platform couplers.

It was reported last month there were five instances between August and December 2015 where more than 25 steel bars were cut short. They were unable to screw them in properly because of shoddy construction work and also some areas were filled with concrete making it impossible to screw in the steel bars properly.

A sub-contractor, Fang Sheung refused to cut the steel bars so Leighton apparently hired workers to do this job.

Lawmaker and rail expert Michael Tien Puk-sun called on the government to dismantle the five concrete panels on the platform and check the steel bars, even though the MTR claimed the problem had already been fixed.

"I suspect the platform is still riddled with faulty steel bars. The best way is to remove a portion of the concrete at the platform for sample inspection. If some steel bars are still found to be faulty, I demand the government remove the remaining 27 panels and conduct checks on the remaining steel bars," he said.

He added that under law the MTR must conduct checks on 20 percent of the couplers, or 5,200 in this project.

"If the MTR really did inspect all 5,200 couplers, its staff needed to sign papers to certify it. It needs to deliver proof that it fulfilled its job in its report," he said.

To Kwa Wan station seems to be unsafe with its wall

The report was not handed in on time last Friday and instead this past Tuesday, and the government even defended the MTR, saying it was because Monday was a public holiday.

Excuse me? This is the lamest excuse on something so serious that it affects millions of passengers' safety everyday. Surely one would want to make sure there was nothing wrong with the steel bars.

And then it was found there was a problem with a wall at the To Kwa Wan station. A wall on the platform station was found to have its reinforcement bars removed and "shaved thin". Apparently this was done because when it was being constructed, workers deviated from the original design.

While the MTR admitted the wall had deviated from the design, the company claimed there were no "safety risks".

For now construction has stopped at the convention centre station in Wan Chai which is being excavated. Tien believes there was more shoddy work there, which is why work has been suspended.

It's shocking that the MTR is not closely watching its contractor doing work -- it's just like any renovation job -- you need to monitor workers carefully to see if they're doing the job to your specifications.

In this case the contractors are not, and they even tried to cover it up. This is not a door that was installed the wrong way or the wrong paint was used on the walls. This is about serious errors that could affect the safety of millions of passengers everyday.

Surely that's enough to warrant stopping the project and seeing what's going on?

But also the MTR is not looking out for our best interests -- the MTR is government owned so we taxpayers have a stake -- and instead it doesn't seem to care about safety at all.

We understand the desire to rush the project along, but this is about safety.

Now no one wants to take this train at all. They have lost faith in the project and the MTR. However we don't have any other viable means of transport to compete with the MTR so we're stuck with it, but that doesn't give it an excuse to have contractors that are doing shoddy work.

The pride of Hong Kong is fast becoming the shame of the city. No one is doing any reputation management of the MTR, or if they are, they are doing a crap job at it. It makes you wonder if the other MTR lines are safe...

Picture of the Day: Bamboo Scaffolding

Skilled labourers making bamboo scaffolding, much like spiders making webs

The other day as I was walking to the bus stop, I saw some men putting up bamboo scaffolding on a building that looks slated for major renovations.

How they put the bamboo up so quickly and safe enough for people to work on is amazing and you have to wonder how they do it.

This practice, which apparently dates back 1,500 years, isn't even done in China, where construction companies there prefer to use steel when building the frame around new buildings.

However, the bamboo scaffolding guys here are like spiders, creating these "webs" of scaffolding several times their size and weight, and making them very quickly and at a relatively lower cost.

There are about 1,700 registered bamboo scaffolders in the city, but like many traditional industries, fewer people are entering the field because of the low pay, adverse weather conditions, particularly in the summer, and regulations have meant younger recruits need to pass tests to get a license.

We can only hope the tradition of bamboo scaffolding continues in Hong Kong -- that's what makes the city of skyscrapers even more astonishing.