A record number of Hong Kong residents live in poverty, with one-fifth of the population falling below the poverty line despite economic growth, according to new government data.
The number of people living below the poverty line rose to 1.35 million last year, or about 20 percent of the city’s population. It is the highest number of poor since the government began publishing statistics in 2009.
Despite opulent wealth, Hong Kong is a deeply unequal society. It is the world’s most unaffordable housing market and poorer residents live in squalid conditions, with some living in “coffin homes” — rows of wooden boxes crammed into tiny apartments.
The number of poor rose despite the government raising the poverty line last year. For single-person households it is set at HK$4,000 (US$512,08). It is HK$9,000 for a two-person home and HK$15,000 for a family of three.
In the city’s poorest district of Sham Shui Po, which is home to large numbers of recent immigrants and ethnic minorities, the poverty rate rose to nearly a quarter of the population.
Hong Kong officials said the increase in poverty was due to an aging population, and the rate for residents over 65 was about 32 percent.
Social groups criticized the government for its lack of action on poverty alleviation and demanded an increase in welfare payments.
“Economic growth cannot help the lower classes share in the economic achievements,” said a spokesman for the Society for Community Organisation, an NGO that works with the poor. “Reflecting on the grim poverty in Hong Kong, the government’s poverty alleviation measures lack strength, precision and intensity.”
The group called on the government to pass laws combating age discrimination and to increase welfare schemes for the elderly.
The city’s minimum wage is HK$34.50 (US$4.42) per hour and is reviewed every two years.
The large number of poor in Hong Kong rose despite the government posting a HK$110.851 billion surplus in the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
Hong Kong’s GDP per capita is ranked among the highest of any country or territory and exceeds that of the UK, Germany and Japan, World Bank data showed.
Wealth is most apparent in the city’s chronically unaffordable property market.
A recent analysis found that prices for parking spaces were rising faster than for apartments in some parts of Hong Kong. In a sample of three housing estates, parking bay prices rose by an average of 167 percent in the past six years, while apartment prices increased by 52 percent.
“It is quite common to see parking spaces transacted at more than HK$2 million in recent years, and HK$1 million is becoming the entry point for parking spaces in Hong Kong,” Mizuho Securities Asia analyst Alan Jin said.
“Essentially, what has happened in the parking sub-sector is pretty similar to what has happened and is still happening in the housing market. The shortage of supply is the key reason for the astronomical prices,” Jin said.
However, speculation was another reason for the rise in prices, Jin said.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS