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港蘋國際-

Dear readers

A stock-listing website set up by a mainland Chinese company is raising suspicions among some Hong Kong investors wary about discrepancies in its claimed services and even its address in the city.

The platform, HKEE Limited, has a Chinese name that translates as “Hong Kong stock exchange”, giving the impression that it is a stock-trading entity like the real Hong Kong Stock Exchange. One Hong Kong investor&nbsp; told Apple Daily that she found HKEE suspicious, after reading a document from a company listed on the platform.

On its website, HKEE describes itself as a “professional service platform for international share transactions designed for Hong Kong and mainland Chinese small and medium-sized companies.”

Yet HKEE says it does not actually provide a platform for public trading of shares. Rather, it says shareholders must sell their stocks “using legal means.”

HKEE invites local and mainland startup companies to list on its platform, saying it accepts listing applications on recommendations from its member organizations. The companies HKEE lists are given a trade name, a stock code and a certificate – all services that are provided by the HKSE.

HKEE also claims to be a private market independent of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Apple Daily has found a discrepancy in the company’s Hong Kong office address. HKEE’s website claims its office is located at Two IFC, Hong Kong’s prominent office complex. But the city’s government Companies Registry gives a different address: Wu Chung House, a 29-year-old commercial building in Wan Chai.

HKEE’s Hong Kong office refuses to deal with clients face-to-face. “We don’t receive ordinary clients in Hong Kong,” an HKEE employee said by phone to an Apple Daily reporter who made repeated requests to visit the office. “Please contact the [company’s Beijing operation].”

An HKEE staff member handling listing matters told an Apple Daily reporter that prospective listers can get their applications approved as quickly as seven days after submitting the required documents and paying a 69,000 yuan (US$10,680) listing fee.

After that, the listed companies can recommend other firms to list on the platform and receive 50% of the fee as a bonus for a successful case, the HKEE employee said.

As of this month, HKEE has published listing notices for more than 50 companies on its industry sector boards, including an “innovation and technology board” that resembles the sci-tech innovation board on Shanghai’s stock exchange. Most of the listed firms are from mainland China, with a small number registered in Hong Kong.

HKEE is owned by Liaoning-based businessperson Chen Shouhua through his China Private Equity Investment Fund Association. Chen owns at least one company listed with HKEE. Another HKEE executive, Chen Tiedong, previously owned half the shares of another HKEE-listed firm.

Both the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Securities and Futures Commission, the city’s regulator, declined to comment.

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港蘋財經-

Suspicions raised by mainland Chinese firm’s ‘stock exchange’ platform in Hong Kong

Washington’s donation of 2.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan helps to relieve the increasing political pressure on Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, analysts said on Monday.

The latest outbreak of the novel coronavirus on the self-ruled island, which began in mid-May, comes a year ahead of local elections and is widely seen as a test of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s capacity to govern.

Fan Shih-ping, a professor of East Asian studies at Taiwan’s National Taiwan Normal University, said the outbreak has sparked various politically motivated “maneuvers”, such as criticisms of Taiwan’s insufficient vaccine supply, with some voices calling for the island to seek vaccines and other assistance from mainland China.

But vaccine donations from both the United States and Japan have shown that when Taiwan faces a critical challenge, both of those allies will be there to lend a helping hand, Fan said.

Wang Kao-cheng, the dean of Tamking University’s College of International Affairs, said Washington’s timely donation of vaccines has helped to strengthen U.S.-Taiwan relations and prevented Beijing’s influence from entering Taiwan.

Washington’s decision to send 2.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine came after Taiwan reportedly attempted to procure BioNTech vaccines through Shanghai-based Fosun Pharma. The donation is seen as part of the race between mainland China and the U.S. to pursue diplomacy through donations.

The 2.5 million doses from the U.S. arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Sunday afternoon.

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US donation of COVID vaccine shields Tsai from political pressure: analysts

Taiwan denounced Hong Kong for “stunting its national dignity” over the city’s handling of work visas for staff at Taipei’s representative office in the Chinese-ruled territory, a row that has led to the departure of most Taiwanese staff there.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council head Chiu Tai-san said that they support Hong Kong’s democracy and freedom, but denied that Taiwan had intervened in Hong Kong’s affairs.

Chiu said that the operations of the office in Hong Kong would continue despite the grave situation, in the interests of the people of Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Seven of the eight Taiwanese staff members at the office returned home on Sunday, leaving only one remaining whose visa expires in July. The logjam over their work visas centers on a requirement made by the Hong Kong government that they sign a “one-China” declaration acknowledging Beijing’s claim over Taiwan.

Chiu described the requirement, which was first reported in 2018, as unacceptable and a unilateral breach of trust by the Hong Kong government.

Chiu added that it shows “one country, two systems” exists in name only.

He said that staff had been told on June 7 that they must sign the declaration within a week, otherwise they would be required to leave Hong Kong by June 21.

The departure of Taiwanese staff means that the office in Hong Kong will continue operating with local staff only. Chiu said he was not suggesting that Taiwanese people should stop traveling to Hong Kong, but the situation in the city had changed a lot over the previous two years, and this was something that people should understand.

In May, Hong Kong temporarily suspended operations at its representative office in Taiwan after accusing Taiwan of grossly interfering in Hong Kong’s affairs on repeated occasions. At the time of that announcement, all Hong Kong staff members in Taiwan had already returned home.

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Taiwan denies interfering in Hong Kong after staff leave the city amid row over ‘one-China’ pledge

Hong Kong health authorities announced a further relaxation of social distancing rules on Monday after the city recorded zero locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 over the past 14 days.

With effect from Thursday, fully vaccinated inbound travelers will only need to be quarantined for seven days, down from 14 days, provided they show an acceptable level of COVID-19 antibodies.

Restaurants will be allowed to operate at full capacity from 14 days after their staff is fully vaccinated, and at two-thirds of normal capacity if employees have all received at least one inoculation. Otherwise, the four-person table limit remains in place. Restaurants may also hold banquets for up to 180 guests.

The maximum number of people allowed per table in bars and nightclubs is being relaxed to four, and party rooms, karaoke venues and mahjong parlors can have up to eight people per room.

The new round of social distancing measures is set to last until July 7. This marks the most extensive relaxation of rules since they were put in place last March to combat the pandemic.

“If businesses and participants are willing to [get vaccinated], the relaxation will be much higher,” said Chief Executive Carrie Lam in a press briefing. “I hope it’s a good enough incentive to appeal and encourage people to take the vaccine.”

The Hong Kong government has scrambled to boost the city’s sluggish vaccination rate. As of Monday, about 3.3 million COVID-19 jabs had been given. About 1.3 million, or 17% of Hong Kong’s population, have been fully vaccinated.

Click <a href="https://hk.appledaily.com/local/20210621/LITEM7ULTRAWFIPWWQVTQHGMVU/" target="_blank">here</a> for Chinese version

Hong Kong to relax rules on social distancing, quarantines, as COVID cases fade

Hong Kong “never stopped” studying legislative measures to fulfill the Basic Law requirement of safeguarding national security, said the city’s security minister, adding that new legislation would be needed for areas not covered by last year’s Beijing-imposed law.

Article 23 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law — the mini-constitution that was supposed to guarantee freedoms and liberties after its handover to Chinese rule — specifies seven types of national security offenses that must be legislated against. The national security law passed by the National People’s Congress last year and imposed on Hong Kong covers only four types.

Last year’s law does not fully cover the scope of the offenses specified in Article 23, and those areas would definitely be legislated for, Secretary for Security John Lee said in an interview with Sing Tao. It was also necessary, Lee said, to study whether the scope of the offenses already covered needed to be strengthened.

Lee added that the work involved is complicated, and it’s hard to see it being completed within this legislative year.

Lee said that the work involves taking reference from the implementation of the existing national security law and ongoing court cases. Since Article 23 legislation will be based on common law, Lee added, there was a need to study overseas examples as well.

The legal research also required the government to look at existing laws, such as the Societies Ordinance and the Crimes Ordinance, and study whether existing offenses needed to be amended, Lee said.

The Crimes Ordinance already includes an offense of treason, but it has not been updated since Hong Kong’s colonial era. The Societies Ordinance also includes provisions allowing the government to outlaw organized groups on national security grounds, which were deployed in 2018 to ban the operation of the pro-independence Hong Kong National Party.

The prospect of Article 23 legislation in 2003 prompted an estimated 500,000 Hong Kongers to take to the streets in protest that year. The legislation was later withdrawn, and a national security law passed last year bypassed Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and was instead enacted by the National People’s Congress in Beijing.

Click <a href="https://hk.appledaily.com/local/20210621/76THX4SXOVDDNKA2MWPU4CUVXA/" target="_blank">here</a> for Chinese version

Hong Kong security chief calls for more laws for new offenses Beijing hasn’t yet banned

Days before the expected closure of Apple Daily, the most widely read pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong, readers say they feel helpless watching as the government snuffs out another dissenting voice in the once-free city and still hold out hope they can save the daily.

News about the looming end of Apple Daily’s operations came after a Monday meeting of the paper’s management, with a memo purportedly from an executive saying that if Hong Kong authorities refused to unfreeze its assets, the company wouldn’t have any money to carry on.

The news made headlines globally, as it represents the biggest sledgehammer blow to Hong Kong’s fast-vanishing civil liberties since the handover of the territory from Britain to China in July 1997. No media organization in the city has ever folded due to political pressure.

Just days before the former British colony marks the 24th anniversary of its handover to Beijing, and as the ruling Communist Party celebrates its centenary, the imminent demise of Apple Daily leaves many in the city in dismay.

“One fewer media organization to monitor the government,” said a reader surnamed Cheung, who has subscribed to the paper for more than 10 years.

“Anyone who dares to raise their grievances and opposing opinions against the government will be suppressed. I feel very angry,” Cheung said.

Still, he added that if there was any way he could support the newspaper — possibly through crowdfunding — he would be “into it.”

“I will do whatever I can to support Apple Daily”, said another reader, surnamed Chung, adding that Apple Daily was the only regular publication she read these days. “There is no other newspaper worth reading,” she said.

“I will try my best,” she said, “though it seems there is nothing” that can be done.

The arrest of five Apple Daily executives last week caught the newsroom unprepared, with the empty desk of Law Wai-kwong, the paper’s editor-in-chief, a stark reminder to staff of the 500-cop raid at its headquarters.

Law was a polite and self-motivated editor, reporters said, with some describing him as a “god-sent timely rain” whenever the newsroom faced trouble.

Like many journalists, Law’s mission was carried out far from the limelight. Only now that he has been denied freedom because of his work are his dedication and strength of character being made public.

Click <a href="https://hk.appledaily.com/breaking/20210621/PMWKQCKJO5BQVHSDDLC7NAKI5A/" target="_blank">here </a>for Chinese version

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Apple Daily’s loyal readers vow to try to save Hong Kong’s No.1 pro-democracy paper

Animal rights activists who helped save thousands of dogs from slaughter during previous dog-eating festivals in southern China might find it hard to do it again this year after authorities suspended train service to the venue.

The annual Yulin dog meat festival, which starts on the Summer Solstice, on Monday, and lasts 10 days, sees party goers eat dogs and lychees in the Guangxi province city.

Unlike in previous years, animal rights activists from other parts of the country may find it difficult to flood in to rescue dogs, since train service to Yulin was recently halted, local residents said. Officials reportedly gave no reason for halting the trains.

Activists saved about 1,000 dogs in each of the 2016 and 2017 events by blocking trucks transporting the animals to markets, according to media reports.

Some mainland internet users, however, cheered the possible absence of animal activists, saying they “support the development of local dog meat culture.”

In the lead-up to the festival, some traders from as far as Sichuan province were planning to deliver dogs to Yulin, volunteers from a Chinese animal concern group said on their WeChat social media account.

In the Sichuan city of Mianyang, a villager was found to have caged 56 dogs at his home. Some of the animals were frail and some appeared to be stolen pets, since they wore collars, the volunteers said.

Police took the villager, surnamed Zhang, away for an investigation after finding suspected slaughtering tools including knives, gloves, pliers and a working desk in his home.

Neighbors of Zhang’s said he had been selling dogs to be eaten for about 20 years.

Click <a href="https://hk.appledaily.com/china/20210621/B4KH36UWTBHCNHJ2F6EVTDJXIE/" target="_blank">here</a> for Chinese version

China’s notorious dog-eating festival starts as rescue efforts hampered

The Chinese government has tightened security at train stations and airports as the Communist Party prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding next week.

All passengers on trains headed for Beijing will need to undergo additional security checks, authorities said. The measure has already been implemented in locations such as Shanghai’s Hongqiao Railway Station and will continue until July 1– the date of the centenary.

Every passenger and all luggage must be manually screened, authorities said, with a special focus on preventing dangerous items from being brought onto trains.

Beijing Capital International Airport announced on Sunday that the transport hub would conduct “strict safety checks,” and reminded travelers to arrive two to three hours early to allow sufficient time for passport control. Those traveling in groups should gather early for security checks.

Travelers were advised to reduce their carry-on luggage and to make sure that their checked baggage does not contain lithium batteries, portable chargers or flammable substances, the airport authorities said.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party will host a performance titled “Great Journey” at Beijing’s National Stadium ahead of July 1. The show is expected to be attended by party and state leaders, those receiving honors from the party as well as representatives of the public, according to state media.

The performance is being jointly organized by the Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the National Radio and Television Administration, the state media company China Media Group, the Political Work Department of the Central Military Commission and the Beijing city government.

Click <a href="https://hk.appledaily.com/china/20210620/Q5RD5OUGXBE7RBS3P7ULPLBPAQ/" target="_blank">here</a> for Chinese version

China steps up security checks at transport hubs ahead of Communist Party centenary

China’s state television has posted a video introducing Xinjiang’s culture and food in what scholars are calling “panda diplomacy” — an attempt to whitewash the mass detention of Uyghurs in the region.

CCTV News on Sunday posted a video on Weibo featuring Uyghur celebrities Nigermaidi Zechman and Dilraba Dilmurat, as well as Tong Liya, an actress of Xibe ethnicity who was born in Xinjiang. The video was three and a half minutes long and introduced Xinjiang’s geography, culture and specialty foods.

“Our Xinjiang is a great place, wonderful ranches north and south of Tianshan,” Nigermaidi said in the video, quoting a song. Tong said it was “wondrous” to experience the customs of the region’s ethnic minorities.

The video was reposted nearly 20,000 times on Weibo on Sunday and drew nearly 10,000 comments, many by fans of the celebrities.

On May 31, Chinese President Xi Jinping told a Politburo group study session that officials needed to “better construct China’s stories and tell China’s discourse and narratives” and promote a more “reliable, admirable and respectable” image.

Mainland-based political scholar Wu Qiang told Apple Daily that China’s propaganda efforts are starting to shift from “wolf warrior” to “panda diplomacy.”

“The Xinjiang video is unquestionably a signal of ‘panda diplomacy,’ by using the most popular Uyghur celebrities and those born in Xinjiang,” Wu said, adding that Chinese authorities are trying to create an image of “ethnic solidarity and peace.”

Wu said the videos might achieve a propaganda victory at home, but the international community has become skeptical of China’s claims. Propaganda efforts cannot achieve genuine openness, dialogue and understanding, he added.

Veteran political commentator Johnny Lau said that the video focused on culture, travel and food as an alternative to politics. That strategy can be easily undermined when foreign countries bring up negative news related to Xinjiang, he said.

Hong Kong Baptist University journalism lecturer Bruce Lui said the recent shift showed that the “wolf warrior” approach had clearly failed. Beijing might want to use “softer” propaganda methods to subtly alter the international consensus, but it continues to rule Xinjiang with an iron fist.

More than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities have been held in camps in Xinjiang, with some reporting mistreatment, according to rights groups, activists and researchers. Beijing initially denied the existence of the camps, but later said they are vocational training facilities designed to combat religious extremism.

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昔日蘋果