ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 16 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
June 19, 2017
Hong Kong “shoebox,” “coffin” homes a challenge for new leader
Continued from page 4
waiting list, the average wait is
4.7 years.
Wong Tat-ming, 63, has
occupied an even smaller “coffin
home” for four years. He pays
HK$2,400 ($310) per month for a
3’x6’ compartment crammed with
his
meager
possessions,
including a sleeping bag, small
color television, and electric fan.
His bunk sits beside grimy
toilets and a single sink shared by
two dozen residents, including a
few single women.
On a per-square-foot basis, “it’s
not cheap here either,” Wong
jokes. “Would you say it’s more
expensive than living in a
mansion?”
Leg pain from sclerosis forced
Wong to stop driving a taxi 10
years ago. He gets by on about
$5,300 ($680) per month from
welfare.
Wong is skeptical Lam can
help.
“So she says she’s going to take
care of these problems, but that
will take at least seven to eight
years,” he said.
Chan Geng-kau, who works
here and there as a janitor, and
his wife worry about being forced
out of their hut in one of the city’s
“slums in the sky” atop a terrace
of a Kowloon tenement bristling
with television antennas and
CRAMPED QUARTERS. Li Suet-
wen and her son, six, and daughter, eight,
live in a 120-square-foot room crammed
with a bunk bed, small couch, fridge,
washing machine, and small table in an
aging walkup in Hong Kong that she pays
HK$4,500 ($580) per month in rent and
utilities. The amount is nearly half the
HK$10,000 ($1,290) she earns at a bak-
ery decorating cakes. They are among an
estimated 200,000 people in the former
British colony living in “subdivided units.”
(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
crisscrossed by overhead wires.
The government plans to
demolish the illegal concrete and
corrugated metal huts.
“If they come to clear us out, my
income isn’t high, I don’t earn
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TAKING THE LEAD. Singapore’s foreign minister, Vivian Balak-
rishnan, left, shakes hands with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi after
a joint press conference following a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs in Beijing. Energy ministers from around the world gathered in
Beijing to report increased spending to help counter climate change.
(AP Photo/Andy Wong)
U.S. bucks trend amid increases
for clean energy research
BEIJING (AP) — As energy ministers from around the
world gathered in Beijing to report increased spending to
help counter climate change, U.S. energy secretary Rick
Perry has delivered a starkly countervailing message.
India, France, Norway, Canada, Australia, and Japan
have said they were on track to double their clean energy
research spending.
Perry said that in the U.S., the private sector will have
to do more as President Donald Trump promotes fossil
fuels and proposes to roll back spending on clean energy.
Perry emphasized that government-backed early stage
scientific work remained a priority in the U.S., but
bringing any breakthroughs to market will be up to
private companies.
The new policies are a sharp departure from past
practice and illustrate a new reality emerging across the
global energy landscape, where U.S. innovations have
long dominated.
Three giant pandas return to China
from Japan under agreement
BEIJING (AP) — Three giant pandas born and raised in
Japan have returned to China under a standard agree-
ment to improve the breeding success of the rare animals.
The six-year-old twins and their four-year-old sister
had been living at Wakayama Adventure World in
southern Japan.
The three arrived in the city of Chengdu, the capital of
Sichuan province that is home to most wild pandas, as
well as sanctuaries and breeding centers.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the three
travelled to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda
Breeding where they’ll remain in quarantine for a month
while acclimatizing to their new home before being
displayed to the public.
“They are expected to adapt to changes in food,
environment, language, and even the taste of bamboo,”
Yang Zhi, a disease-prevention expert with the center,
was quoted as saying by Xinhua. They are also performing
health checks on the pandas.
Wakayama Adventure World and the Chengdu base
have been cooperating on panda breeding research since
1994. The program has led to the births of 15 pandas, eight
of whom have now returned to China, according to
Xinhua.
Around 420 pandas live in captivity, the majority
within China, while an estimated 1,864 live in the wild.
China for decades gifted friendly nations with its
unofficial national mascot in what was known as “panda
diplomacy.” The country more recently has loaned pandas
to zoos on commercial terms.
Most loans last for 10 to 15 years, with fees of as much as
$1 million per year.
very much and the apartments
out there are very expensive so I
can’t afford it,” said Chan, 58.
With his unstable income, he’s
barely able to pay his HK$2,000
($260) per month rent. “If I pay
those rents, I can’t afford to eat.”
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