Hong Kong cuts liquor tax in an effort to reignite its nightlife industry

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Hong Kong cuts liquor tax in an effort to reignite its nightlife industry

2024-10-16 20:31 Last Updated At：20:40

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s leader announced a cut in liquor taxes on Wednesday, in a bid to revive the Asian financial hub's reputation as a travel destination with a vibrant nightlife and dining scene.

After fulfilling Beijing’s long-standing imperative to enact a homegrown national security law, which has furthered concerns about the curtailing of civil liberties in the city, Chief Executive John Lee now faces challenges with economic competitiveness against regional rivals like Singapore, Japan and mainland Chinese metropolises.

Changes in residents’ lifestyles and a wave of middle-class emigration during the COVID-19 pandemic have dampened local spending. Many residents now prefer to spend their weekends in mainland China, attracted by its lower prices and a wider variety of entertainment options. Meanwhile, visitors from the mainland are spending less in the city than before.

Vacant shops are commonly seen in the city's most popular shopping districts, and revenue at the city’s bars was down about 28% in the first half of 2024 from the same period in 2019, preliminary official data showed.

In his annual policy address, Lee said the duty rate for spirits with an import price of more than 200 Hong Kong dollars (about $26) would be slashed from 100% to 10% for the portion above that price starting Wednesday. He said he hoped it would foster the logistics, storage, tourism and high-end dining industries.

The government previously told lawmakers that after wine duties were abolished in 2008, imports jumped 80% in a year and the city welcomed hundreds of new wine-related businesses.

Lee highlighted the city’s various global rankings near the end of his speech at the legislature, but said past performance does not guarantee future success.

“We must remain confident in ourselves and uphold our morale, standing firm against any efforts to downplay our success story,” he said.

Lee, a former security chief handpicked by Beijing to lead Hong Kong, pushed through the new security law in March. Critics fear the law will further erode the civil liberties promised to the former British colony when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

That law follows similar national legislation Beijing imposed in 2020 to quell huge anti-government protests. Since that law took effect, many of the city's leading activists have been prosecuted, forced into self-exile or silenced. The Hong Kong government said the security laws are necessary for the city’s stability.

But in the wake of such dramatic political changes, many middle-class families and young professionals have emigrated to Britain, Canada, Taiwan and the United States.

To attract more wealthy migrants, Lee revised a plan that awards residency to applicants who invest a minimum of 30 million Hong Kong dollars ($3.9 million) in some types of assets. Starting Wednesday, purchases of homes valued at 50 million Hong Kong dollars ($6.4 million) or more can count toward up to a third of the requirement, he said.

Simon Lee, an adjunct faculty member in finance at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, said slashing taxes on liquor will help stimulate trades of spirits. But he added that the impact on tourism and bar businesses isn’t expected to be significant because the numbers of those consuming strong alcohol may be limited.

Lee, the city's leader, also pledged to turn the city into an international hub for post-secondary education by offering scholarships to overseas students, and promised moves to develop the “silver economy” and “low-altitude economy" — Beijing's buzzwords for markets like elderly care, private aviation and drones. He also announced plans to build an international gold trading market and create a “new commodity trading ecosystem.”

Lee also proposed to regulate the city’s subdivided flats, which are notorious for their tiny size and poor living conditions but provide a relatively affordable housing option in one of the world’s most expensive housing markets.

Some 110,000 households live in such homes, and one of Beijing's top officials for Hong Kong affairs has called for Lee's government to abolish them.

Lee said owners of subsidized flats must ensure each home has windows, an individual toilet and a minimum floor area of 8 square meters (86 square feet) after a grace period.

Lo Kin-hei, chairman of the Democratic Party, one of the city’s few remaining pro-democracy parties, expressed concerns about the impact of the new rules, saying it could force people living in larger but windowless homes to move to smaller flats with windows.

“Can the standards directly translate into improvements in the lives of residents who reside there?" he said.

Hours before Lee's speech, a small group of activists from the League of Social Democrats, another pro-democracy party, held a tiny demonstration outside the government headquarters. They called for universal suffrage for chief executive elections and a retirement pension scheme.

“Return to democracy, improve people’s livelihood,” they chanted.

At least 2 dead and 60 hurt after a car drives into a German Christmas market in a suspected attack

2024-12-21 10:58 Last Updated At：11:01

MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — A car plowed into a busy outdoor Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on Friday, killing at least two people and injuring at least 60 others in what authorities called a deliberate attack.

The driver was arrested at the scene shortly after the car barreled into the market at around 7 p.m., when it was teeming with holiday shoppers looking forward to the weekend.

Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest on a walkway in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone. Other officers soon arrived to take the man into custody.

The two people confirmed dead were an adult and a toddler, but officials said additional deaths couldn't be ruled out because 15 people had been seriously injured.

The violence shocked the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that's part of a centuries-old German tradition. It also prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg's loss.

The suspect is a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who moved to Germany in 2006, Tamara Zieschang, the interior minister for the state of Saxony-Anhalt, said at a news conference. He has been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg, she said.

“As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city," Saxony-Anhalt's governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters. "Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many."

The violence occurred in Magdeburg, a city of about 240,000 people west of Berlin that serves as Saxony-Anhalt’s capital. Friday's attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

Christmas markets are a huge part of German culture as an annual holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages and successfully exported to much of the Western world. In Berlin alone, more than 100 markets opened late last month and brought the smells of mulled wine, roasted almonds and bratwurst to the capital. Other markets abound across the country.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said late last month that there were no concrete indications of a danger to Christmas markets this year, but that it was wise to be vigilant.

Hours after Friday's tragedy, the wail of sirens clashed with the market’s festive ornaments, stars and leafy garlands.

Magdeburg resident Dorin Steffen told dpa that she was at a concert in a nearby church when she heard the sirens. The cacophony was so loud “you had to assume that something terrible had happened.”

She called the attack “a dark day” for the city.

“We are shaking,” Steffen said. “Full of sympathy for the relatives, also in the hope that nothing has happened to our relatives, friends and acquaintances.”

The attack reverberated far beyond Magdeburg, with Haseloff calling it a catastrophe for the city, state and country. He said flags would be lowered to half-staff in Saxony-Anhalt and that the federal government planned to do the same.

“It is really one of the worst things one can imagine, particularly in connection with what a Christmas market should bring," the governor said.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the attack interrupted the anticipation of a peaceful Christmas.

Chancellor OIaf Scholz posted on X: “My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives. We stand beside them and beside the people of Magdeburg.”

NATO’s secretary-general, the European Commission’s president and U.S. Vice President-elect JD Vance also expressed their condolences on X.

“Our prayers go to the people affected by this terrible attack on a Christmas market in Germany. What a ghastly attack so close to Christmas,” Vance wrote.

Magdeburg Mayor Simone Borris, who was on the verge of tears, said officials plan to arrange a memorial at the city’s cathedral on Saturday.

After a soccer match Friday evening between Bayern Munich and Leipzig, Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen asked fans at the club’s stadium to observe a minute of silence.

Moulson reported from Berlin.