SCMP Hong Kong·Friday, January 16, 2026

SCMP Hong Kong - Friday, January 16, 2026

10 stories~15 min

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Stories Covered

Hong Kong’s Chris Tang defends police’s ‘difficult decision’ to shoot knife-wielding man

Hong Kong’s security chief has defended police’s “difficult decision” to shoot a man who brandished a knife and took a woman hostage in a shopping centre, praising their bravery and decisiveness in saving lives. After police fatally shot the 34-year-old man on Thursday, Security Secretary Chris Tang Ping-keung revealed the suspect was mentally unstable at the time, possibly influenced by drugs, with suspected substances found in his possession. “It is obvious that [the suspect] was acting insane

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China’s quantum warfare weapons; ‘rising star’ quits US: SCMP’s 7 highlights

We have selected seven stories from this week’s news across Hong Kong, mainland China, the wider Asia region and beyond that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing. 1. Chinese military says it is developing over 10 quantum warfare weapons The People’s Liberation Army said more than 10 experimental quantum cyber warfare tools were “under development”, many of which were being “tested in front-line...

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Hong Kong temperatures to fall to 12 degrees next week as winter monsoon arrives

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Get faster notifications on the latest updates by downloading our app. Temperatures in Hong Kong are expected to sharply dip to as low as 12 degrees Celsius (53.6 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday next week as a cold front moves through the city midweek. The Hong Kong Observatory said the fine and relatively warm weather on Friday, brought by a dry northeast monsoon,.

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What’s cooking? Hong Kong restaurants thinking outside the box in bid to survive

Scroll through Tam Jai International’s mobile apps and you will encounter a wave of perks, menu offerings and other choices laid out to tempt you to the Hong Kong restaurant group’s staple offering, noodles. The apps are among several strategies, along with filling all dining segments from breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner with new menu items, that the chain has introduced in the past few months to win back diners who continue to cross the border in droves for leisure and dining. Ronald Wong...

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Banks and brokerages’ growing demand for space buoys Hong Kong’s retail property sector

Hong Kong’s banking and finance sector is tipped to lead retail property leasing activity, with massive uptake by firms like Forthright Securities, Futu Holdings and HSBC providing support to landlords struggling through a multi-year real estate slump. Forthright Securities leased three storeys totalling 14,000 sq ft at Golden Centre in Sheung Wan for its first flagship branch in the city, according to CBRE, which facilitated the transaction. “This transaction not only demonstrates Forthright...

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More room for the Flower Market to bloom

[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Well before dawn, vans begin to pull up along Flower Market Road. Buckets of lilies and roses are lifted onto the street, hands moving quickly before the heat sets in. Later in the day buyers drift between shops, some with lists, others guided by scent and colour. These daily rituals have shaped the Flower Market’s identity as Hong Kong’s most vibrant floral destination. Day after day and year after year, that constancy.

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‘Hong Kong lawyers should not aim just to compete but specialise in Greater Bay Area’

Hong Kong lawyers should not think of competing head-on with mainland counterparts in the Greater Bay Area, but instead position themselves as common law specialists and collaborators in cross-border legal teams, Hong Kong Bar Association chairman Jose-Antonio Maurellet has said. His comments came during a fireside chat on the sidelines of the China Conference: Greater Bay Area event hosted by the South China Morning Post in Shenzhen on Thursday. Recent policy measures allow Hong Kong lawyers to

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Pledges fall short of fixing Hong Kong building sector after deadly fire: experts

New measures to strengthen Hong Kong’s building maintenance regime after the deadly Tai Po fire only scratch the surface of long-standing issues that require deeper systemic reforms and tougher laws, according to experts and industry figures. The damning verdict came after the government’s pledges and proposals on Wednesday to close policy gaps and tackle entrenched problems laid bare by the blaze at Wang Fuk Court. At the first Legislative Council meeting of the year, officials unveiled a raft.

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3 new Hong Kong lawmakers fail to declare company shareholdings

At least three newcomers to Hong Kong’s legislature, including two from the city’s largest political party, have failed to declare company shareholdings, the Post has found, with the trio blaming the omissions on heavy workloads or misunderstandings. The three lawmakers are Jody Kwok Fu-yung and Hung Kam-in of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), and Thomas So Shiu-tsung, a lawyer. “I am still a newcomer and have to handle many matters, such as [a new]...

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Hong Kong employee insurance costs to jump 15% amid surge in day procedures: study

More Hong Kong employees are seeking to have minor day procedures covered under the inpatient services of their group medical insurance, a joint study has found, while projecting a near 15 per cent increase in employers’ premiums this year. The findings, published in the Hong Kong Employee Medical Insurance Index, were released on Thursday by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in collaboration with corporate employee benefits and MPF consultancy GUM. The index, which tracks data from Hong...

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