Tag Archives: China

     The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) today (November 9) firmly rejected and strongly disapproved of the misleading and slanderous remarks jointly made by 10 foreign Catholic leaders against the law enforcement actions and legal proceedings in respect of the cases involving Lai Chee-ying and their request for immediate and unconditional release of him. 
      
     The HKSAR Government spokesman said, “The HKSAR Government firmly rejects and strongly disapproves of the fact-twisting remarks made by the foreign Catholic leaders to inappropriately interfere in the HKSAR’s internal affairs and the HKSAR courts’ independent exercise of judicial power. Any person, regardless of his or her identity, who attempts to interfere with the judicial proceedings in the HKSAR in order to procure a defendant’s evasion of the criminal justice process, is blatantly undermining the rule of law of the HKSAR. Making a statement with the intent to interfere with or obstruct the course of justice, or engaging in a conduct with the same intent, is very likely to constitute the offence of criminal contempt of court or the offence of perverting the course of justice.”
      
     The spokesman reiterated, “Hong Kong is a society underpinned by the rule of law and has always adhered to the principle that laws must be obeyed and lawbreakers held accountable. Article 25 of the Basic Law provides that all Hong Kong residents shall be equal before the law. All law enforcement actions taken by the law enforcement agencies of the HKSAR are based on evidence, strictly according to the law and for the acts of the people concerned, and have nothing to do with their professions, political beliefs or backgrounds. It would be totally contrary to the rule of law for someone to suggest that certain groups of people could enjoy privileges and break the law without getting arrested or bearing legal responsibilities due to their capacity. Everyone, including journalists, should abide by the law.
      
     “Under Article 85 of the Basic Law, the courts of the HKSAR shall exercise judicial power independently, free from any interference. The Judiciary of the HKSAR exercises judicial power independently in accordance with the law, and everyone charged with a criminal offence has the right to a fair hearing. The courts decide cases strictly in accordance with the evidence and all applicable laws. Cases will never be handled any differently owing to the professions, political beliefs or backgrounds of the persons involved. The prosecution has the burden to prove beyond reasonable doubt the commission of an offence before a defendant may be convicted by the court. In all the cases involving Lai Chee-ying, he had fully exercised his right to defend himself and the right to appeal, and the verdicts and sentences, if any, were given by the courts exercising judicial power independently, based on applicable laws, facts and evidence after open trials and hearings. Also, the detailed reasons for sentence are contained in the publicly available judgment.”
      
     The spokesman stressed, “The HKSAR shall continue, in accordance with the law, to effectively prevent, suppress and punish acts and activities that endanger national security and also to safeguard the rights and freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong people. The HKSAR Government strongly urges the foreign Catholic leaders to discern facts from fallacies, and immediately stop interfering in the HKSAR’s internal affairs and the HKSAR courts’ independent exercise of judicial power.” read more

     To tie in with the theme of this year’s French Science Festival “Sport and Science: from Health to Performance”, the Science Promotion Unit of the Hong Kong Science Museum (HKScM) is collaborating with the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau to roll out a series of activities from tomorrow (November 10) to November 27. They include the “Science at the Service of Medals” exhibition, a film screening, a conference and a panel discussion at the HKScM, so that members of the public can better understand the relationship between science and health as well as athletes’ performances.
      
     Addressing the opening ceremony of the exhibition today (November 9), the Deputy Director of Leisure and Cultural Services (Culture), Miss Eve Tam, said that the French Science Festival provides an inspiring opportunity for schools and the public to appreciate the significance of sports in people’s daily lives and the interconnection between science and sports. Other officiating guests included the Consul General of France in Hong Kong and Macau, Mrs Christile Drulhe, and the Museum Director of the HKScM, Mr Lawrence Lee.
      
     The “Science at the Service of Medals” exhibition designed by the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie, showcases the collaborative efforts of scientists across diverse disciplines who develop equipment to enhance speed, utilise virtual reality training to reduce fatigue, and individualise training regimens through physiology studies to empower athletes. The virtual reality experience of “A Taste for Risk” will also be presented at the exhibition venue. Through a transmedia project that combines a documentary and virtual reality with three French athletes, participants will be able to immerse themselves in four extreme sports, including bodyboarding, wingsuit flying, free-diving, and snowboarding. They can gain an unparalleled experience and feel the thrill of pushing limits.
      
     Besides the exhibition, the HKScM will also launch a series of feature programmes. They include a film screening of the animated comedy “Les Triplettes de Belleville”, which received two Oscar nominations, on November 11 at 4pm. The Champions Conference will be held on November 18 at 6pm, when the coach of the Hong Kong, China Fencing Team, Mr Grégory Koenig, and Hong Kong, China Paralympic fencer athlete, Ms Alison Yu, will share their journeys leading towards winning Olympic and Paralympic medals. The Hong Kong break dancer who competed in the Asian Games, B-Boy C Plus, will also give a performance. There will be a nutrition panel discussion on November 26 at 3pm, where Sport Nutrition & Monitoring Manager, Hong Kong Sports Institute Dr Margaret Kuo, together with a senior dietian and a sports science officer, will discuss with participants the relationship between nutrition and health, as well as sport performances. Online registration for the three programmes mentioned above has started. There will be limited quotas and are available on a first-come, first-served basis. For registration, please visit www.spu.hk/en/cards/french-science-festival-2023/, or call 2732 3232 for enquiries.
      
     The exhibition and programmes are jointly presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau, and jointly organised by the Science Promotion Unit of the HKScM and the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau.

        

     â€‹Correctional officers at Lo Wu Correctional Institution stopped a female remand person in custody from attacking a staff member today (November 9).      At 2.21pm today, a 33-year-old female … read more

     The Department of Health (DH) today (November 9) announced that the Government will launch the three-year Elderly Health Care Voucher Pilot Reward Scheme (Pilot Reward Scheme) next Monday (November 13) to optimise the use of resources so as to promote primary healthcare and support the healthcare needs of elderly persons. Through providing rewards, the Government encourages eligible Hong Kong elderly persons aged 65 or above to use health care vouchers on designated primary healthcare services provided by the private healthcare service sector. It is estimated that almost 1.7 million eligible elderly persons will be able to benefit from the Pilot Reward Scheme.

     The Government launched the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme (EHVS) in 2009. The policy objective is to strengthen disease prevention and health management through providing financial incentives enabling elderly persons to choose private primary healthcare services that best suit their needs. The Pilot Reward Scheme proposed in “The Chief Executive’s 2022 Policy Address” is to further incentivise elderly persons by guiding them to make better use of healthcare vouchers for continuous preventive healthcare and chronic disease management services, so as to achieve the original policy objective of the EHVS, and tie in with the main development direction focusing on disease prevention as put forward in the Primary Healthcare Blueprint.

     The Pilot Reward Scheme will be implemented from November 13 this year until December 31, 2026. For each year during this period, elderly persons only need to accumulate the use of vouchers of $1,000 or more on designated primary healthcare purposes such as disease prevention and health management services within the year (from January to December), and they will be automatically allotted a $500 reward into their voucher account by the eHealth (System) Subsidies (System), which can be used on the same designated primary healthcare purposes, without the need for registration. In other words, for elderly persons who met the above criterion and are allotted the reward, the amount of vouchers they receive in that year is increased from $2,000 to $2,500.

     The designated primary healthcare services under the Pilot Reward Scheme include:
(i) Services on disease prevention and follow-up/monitoring of long-term conditions provided by medical practitioners, Chinese medicine practitioners and dentists enrolled in the EHVS, such as health assessment, body check, screening, vaccination, treatment of chronic diseases, dental examination, scaling, extraction and filling, etc;
(ii) Hypertension and diabetes mellitus screening, as well as treatment phase services provided under the Chronic Disease Co-care Pilot Scheme;
(iii) Personalised services and Community Rehabilitation Programme provided by District Health Centres/District Health Centre Expresses; and
(iv) Outpatient services on preventive and follow-up/monitoring of long-term conditions provided by 11 designated Outpatient Medical Centers of the University of Hong Kong – Shenzhen Hospital (HKU-SZ Hospital) and the Health Centre operated by the HKU-SZ Hospital.

     Under the Pilot Reward Scheme, special arrangement is made for the period for accumulating voucher spending for the first-year reward (i.e. 2024 Reward). The period of accumulation will start on November 13 this year and end on December 31 next year (i.e. 2024). The corresponding accumulation period for the two years in 2025 and 2026 will begin on January 1 and end on December 31 of the year. Each elderly person can be allotted the reward once each year at most, and the reward for each year can be used until December 31 of the following year. Unused rewards cannot be accumulated and will lapse after the expiry date. Accumulation of voucher spending will start afresh at the beginning of each year.

     The annual voucher amount provided to an elderly person is kept separate from the amount of reward allotted, hence the accumulation limit of vouchers (currently set at $8,000) will not be affected. When an elderly person uses voucher to pay for designated primary healthcare service fee, the System will automatically deduct the relevant fee from the reward (if available) first, and then deduct the remaining fee from the balance in his/her voucher account if necessary. The amount of the reward used to pay for designated primary healthcare service fees will not count towards the accumulated voucher spending for obtaining the reward; i.e. a reward cannot be used to earn another reward.

     In addition, according to the “user accumulates” principle, if an elderly person uses his/her spouse’s voucher to pay for designated primary healthcare services, the amount spent will only be recorded as his/her own accumulated voucher spending and cannot be counted together with the accumulated voucher spending of his/her spouse’s. Shared use of reward between spouses is not allowed. Whenever an elderly person uses reward and/or voucher to pay for designated primary healthcare service fees, he/she will receive an SMS message notification about the balance of his/her reward and/or voucher. Elderly persons should consult the healthcare service provider when receiving healthcare services for queries about the related record.

     A spokesman for the DH reminded, “The reward for each year comes with an expiry date, after which it will lapse. The relevant arrangement aims to encourage elderly persons to seek health management services regularly. Elderly persons should take note and make a thorough plan on how to make the best use of the reward for designated primary healthcare services before it expires.”

     To ensure the proper use of public money, the DH will strictly deal with all suspected cases of non-compliance in accordance with the established monitoring mechanism, and take appropriate measures or actions including referring cases to the law enforcement agencies and/or the relevant professional regulatory boards or councils for follow-up as appropriate.

     The spokesman added, “The DH and healthcare service providers will never, in relation to the use of vouchers or reward, ask elderly persons to provide bank account information (including passwords etc) via phone calls or SMS messages, or to click on a web link. Elderly persons should stay vigilant against scams.”

     To ensure healthcare service providers’ understanding of the operation of the Pilot Reward Scheme, the DH has held briefing sessions for relevant healthcare service providers from end-October, and explained the detailed arrangements and responded to their enquiries.

     The Government will closely monitor the implementation of the Pilot Reward Scheme and evaluate its effectiveness in promoting the receipt of health assessment, disease screening and chronic disease management services by elderly persons. We will also continue to review the health benefits brought by the EHVS in planning for the future development of primary healthcare.

     â€‹If members of the public would like to obtain more information on the EHVS, they may browse the EHVS website (www.hcv.gov.hk) or call the EHVS hotline (2838 2311). read more

     Police today (November 9) appealed to the public for information on a man who went missing in Tsim Sha Tsui.      Chhim Leang Hort, aged 72, went missing after he was last seen on Nathan Road yesterday afternoon (November 8). His family m… read more