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Letters

Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words.
I am writing this from Zhuhai, just across the border from Hong Kong. Outside my window, the sky is cloudless and the July sun relentless. Twenty-nine years earlier, the weather could not have been more different.
I remember the rain that poured over Hong Kong on the night of June 30, 1997, as British rule ended and Chinese sovereignty began. Whether the rain foretold anything, I could not say. The weather became part of how I remembered the occasion.
I was not in Hong Kong at the time. By then, my family had moved to Australia. Missing the handover was not a decision; it was simply where life had taken us. Yet I never felt I had missed the story.
I had grown up in Hong Kong during the long approach to 1997. Through my father Roger Lobo, who served in both the Legislative and Executive Councils under the colonial government, I witnessed the years of discussion, uncertainty and preparation. While I watched the ceremony on television from Australia, my father sat among other Hong Kong officials inside the hall. We witnessed the same moment from different parts of the world.
To the world, the handover was a single evening of flags, speeches and ceremony. For many Hong Kong families, it had been unfolding for years beforehand, shaping conversations, careers and decisions about where to build a future.
Back then, many spoke with confidence about what lay ahead. Some feared Hong Kong would lose everything that made it distinct. Others believed the promise of “one country, two systems” would preserve its institutions until 2047. Business leaders argued its openness was too valuable to dismantle. Beijing, London and Hong Kong each imagined a different future.
Twenty-nine years later, history had followed its own course. Hong Kong was not the city many expected in 1997. Its political and legal landscape had changed. Its economic future is increasingly intertwined with that of the mainland. Some expectations proved justified, others misplaced, and many developments arrived sooner than imagined.
Those expectations were the backdrop to the storm I recalled. On July 1, I did not cross into Hong Kong for the handover anniversary. Not because it lacked significance, but because, in a sense, I had already lived it.
The storm has long since passed. What remained were the memories people carried through it.
Marco Lobo, Mid-Levels
Malaysia shows its resolve to protect children
On June 30, Malaysia’s parliament passed an amendment to its Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 (Act 792) to provide for the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the law.
Under the law change, perpetrators of child sexual crimes can be brought to justice in Malaysia, as long as the child victim is a citizen, permanent resident or non-habitual resident of the country, even if the offences are committed abroad and even if the perpetrators are not Malaysian. Similarly, Malaysians who commit these offences overseas can be brought to justice in Malaysia.
Lawyers and child rights advocates rightly note that the provision “will only be as strong as Malaysia’s ability to secure evidence, obtain cooperation from foreign governments and support child victims through complex cross-border cases”. Nevertheless, the amendment is a positive step.
It demonstrates the Malaysian government’s strong commitment to protecting children. As a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Malaysia has a responsibility to ensure that its domestic legal framework is consistent with the international obligations it has adopted, subject to the reservations Malaysia has maintained regarding the convention.
The bill represents the government’s measures to strengthen national laws by protecting children from sexual exploitation and abuse, including cases involving cross-border elements. So, perpetrators of child sexual crimes should beware: the long arm of Malaysian law is reaching out to you.
Mohamad Hafiz Hassan, lecturer, Faculty of Law, Multimedia University, Malaysia
Is Central Asia truly out of Russia’s orbit?
I refer to the article, “Central Asia’s republics are no longer the chess pieces of empires” (July 2).
Your author Lijia Zhang in her book, “Socialism Is Great!”: A Worker’s Memoir of the New China, mentions a Chinese proverb, “Scare the monkey by killing a chicken”. I remember it each time a former Soviet republic decides to stop being pro-Kremlin, with wines from Moldova and mineral water from Georgia disappearing from our shops in the past. Now it’s flowers from Armenia.
There is a difference between chess and a geographical area since a pawn by reaching the opposite end of the board transforms into a different piece while a country can’t move. But there is no difference between chess pieces and humans – I in Moscow see migrant workers from Central Asia every day. That must be the case with domestic workers from Southeast Asia in your neck of the woods.
In 1992, I myself was a young man from Kyzyl in Siberia renting a cheap flat in a remote Moscow district. When I made a trip down memory lane in that district, I thought I was in Central Asia as I saw many nationals from there renting cheap flats.
Mergen Mongush, Moscow


Hong Kong won’t see a bright future by constantly looking to its past

‘I didn’t want to miss it’: Hongkongers see off PLA warships after 5-day port call

29 years since the handover, Hong Kong is charting its own course

PLA warships’ Hong Kong port call highlights nation’s support

Hong Kong handover anniversary

People hold a Chinese national flag at Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour on July 1, to mark the 29th anniversary of the handover. Photo: EPA

Prospects for Hong Kong are looking up, 29 years after the handover

A worker installs Chinese national and Hong Kong special administrative region flags in Tsim Sha Tsui, ahead of the 29th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland on June 25. Photo: Jelly Tse

Hong Kong can develop further with deeper integration, liaison office chief says

The gala was organised by the Hong Kong Celebrations Association at the Hong Kong Coliseum. Photo: Sun Yeung

Liaison office director Zhou Ji speaks at the gala. The top Beijing official stressed the importance of long-term planning. Photo: Sun Yeung

Chief Executive John Lee speaks at the cultural gala celebrating the 29th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China. Photo: Sun Yeung

‘More space, better service’: Hongkongers flock to mainland for July 1 holiday

People visit MixC shopping centre in Nanshan, Shenzhen. Photo: May Tse

Travellers at the departure hall of West Kowloon terminus on July 1. Photo: Elson Li

Zzer, a 2,000 sq ft second-hand luxury shop, is located at Kaledo in Nanshan, Shenzhen. Photo: May Tse

Mainland Chinese tourists pack landmarks as Hong Kong marks 29th anniversary

The Golden Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai is a photo hotspot for locals and visitors alike. Photo: Karma Lo

Fishing boats parade through the harbour to mark the celebrations. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Opinion

Readers discuss the 29th anniversary of the city’s return to Chinese sovereignty, Malaysia’s revision of child sexual abuse law, and Centra Asia’s complex ties with Russia


Readers discuss the 29th anniversary of the city’s return to Chinese sovereignty, Malaysia’s revision of child sexual abuse law, and Centra Asia’s complex ties with Russia.


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