95-803: The Small House Policy (SHP, Chinese : 小型屋宇政策 ) was introduced in 1972 in Hong Kong . The objective was to improve the then prevailing low standard of housing in the rural areas of the New Territories . The Policy allows an indigenous male villager who is 18 years old and is descended through the male line from a resident in 1898 of a recognized village in the New Territories, an entitlement to one concessionary grant during his lifetime to build one house. The policy has generated debates and calls for amendments to be made. The Small House Policy has been in effect ever since 1972 to provide
190-577: A "surprise" by the SCMP. Bokhary himself has said that he believes his tenure was not extended due to his "liberal judgments". The introduction of designated national security law judges created two new exclusions for justices on the Court: an overseas non-permanent judge now no longer sits in on a full hearing if it is a national security law case, and not all non-permanent judges—even those from Hong Kong—are approved to sit on national security law cases. This
285-539: A bench of five judges consisting of the Chief Justice, three permanent judges and a non-permanent judge from another common law jurisdiction. If the Chief Justice does not sit in an appeal, a permanent judge is designated to sit in the Chief Justice's place, and a non-permanent judge from Hong Kong will sit on the court as well. Similarly, if a permanent judge is unable to sit, a non-permanent Hong Kong judge will sit in place of that permanent judge. Technically, should
380-509: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from
475-472: A certain extent, guaranteed a sense of land security against environment pollution and over-exploration, and protected the original natural environment of New Territory during the urbanization and industrialization of Hong Kong. Under the Small House Policy and "Village Type Development" project, the villages in New Territories could keep their traditional lifestyle and features until now. Despite
570-608: A major problem of the Small House Policy. Secondly, the speculative development develops within the Small House Policy framework is found to have gotten more serious. The Audit Commission in 1987 realized the phenomenon that the indigenous villagers kept selling their small houses to the outsiders. The situation has even been more frequent since 2002. On top of the abusive use of this policy, there are some indigenous villagers who are intentionally recruited by private landowners to sell their rights of ownership. According to Lands Department of Hong Kong, indigenous villagers need to sign up
665-896: A maximum of 195 square meters, or 2,100 square feet), through either Private Treaty Grant, Building Licence or Exchange issued under this policy. These rights were further incorporated into the constitutional framework. It was stipulated in Article 40 of the Basic Law - "The lawful traditional rights and interests of the indigenous inhabitants of the 'New Territories' shall be protected by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region", creating difficulties to make significant amendments to this policy. By 2016, there are approximately 240,000 small house concessionary rights holders in Hong Kong. The Small House Policy
760-575: A national security case. No non-permanent judge from overseas jurisdictions had ever quit the Court mid-term before the enactment of the National Security Law. In September 2020, then-non-permanent judge James Spigelman resigned in response to China's controversial National Security Law being imposed on Hong Kong, but Spigelman did not elaborate further. In March 2022, both Lord Reed and Lord Hodge resigned as non-permanent judges, citing
855-558: A non-permanent judge from outside Hong Kong be unable to attend due to extraordinary circumstances (such as during the COVID-19 pandemic ), two non-permanent Hong Kong judges may sit on the court or, or the overseas judge may sit via video conferencing. As the role of a non-permanent judge is not a full time role, a serving High Court judge may be appointed as a non-permanent judge concurrently, such as Vice-President Robert Tang and Vice-President Frank Stock , as they were then known. This
950-505: A once-in-a-lifetime small house grant for an indigenous villager who is "a male person at least 18 years old and is descended through the male line from a resident of 1898 of a recognized village (Ding, 丁 ) which is approved by the Director of Lands". An indigenous villager therefore enjoys small house concessionary rights (ding rights, 丁權 ) in building a house of not more than three storeys nor more than 700 square feet per floor (therefore
1045-423: A portion of land is zoned "Village Type Development" and the land within this zone is mainly for the development of small houses by indigenous villagers. Nowadays, about 3366 hectares of land in Hong Kong are zoned "Village Type Development" on statutory plans. In 2015-16, about 26 ha of land were newly zoned "Village Type Development". In 2015, 120 cases were approved, amounting to a total area of about 2.53 ha within
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#17327717736391140-461: A pressing need for housing. Although the total area of Hong Kong is 1105.7 square kilometres, the land planned for residential use in 2015 is only about 77 square kilometres, accounting for 7.0% of the total area. In the face of population pressure, Hong Kong Government has to increase the land supply in order to deal with the rising housing demand in the future. In a bid to meet the housing needs of Hong Kong citizens, Hong Kong Government has announced
1235-523: A replacement for small houses or shutting down applications, but to compensate eligible villagers by other alternatives. According to the Heung Yee Kuk, there are approximately 2,400 hectares of tso/tong land, land which is held in the name of villager clans and families, many of which are underutilized. In May 2021, SCMP noted how difficult it is for tso/tong land to be sold by villagers and bought by developers, as it requires unanimous consent of
1330-495: A report on 12 May 2023 suggesting sanctions be placed on 29 hand-picked Hong Kong national security judges (which includes the Chief Justice and 3 Permanent Judges), saying, "As participants in this system, judges appointed to handle national security cases contribute to these systemic violations." This suggestion was rejected by both the Hong Kong Bar Association and the judiciary, stressing that, "...there
1425-488: A security document, which is to prevent them from taking full advantages of their title to the lot. Yet, there are a significant number of people make declarations, which are in fact misrepresenting their true intentions. They apply for the removal of restriction on alienation while assigning the small houses to the developers so that they can gain benefits from selling their rights. There is also another form of abuse. Although villagers living overseas are not allowed to apply for
1520-454: A separate 932.9 hectares of idle land belonging to the government. It determined that of the 1,548.8 hectares of privately owned idle land, 149.1 hectares appeared to be scheduled for illegal development of small houses, where collusion between developers and villagers was likely. Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan ,
1615-581: A slanging match with the Chief Executive [John Lee], and certainly not with the Chief Justice [Andrew Cheung], for whom I have the greatest respect." Within hours of the CFA allowing media tycoon Jimmy Lai to hire Tim Owen KC , chief executive John Lee announced that the Government would seek an interpretation under Article 158 to overturn the CFA's decision (as well as overturning the decisions by
1710-529: A small house grant (private treaty grants and exchanges) would become banned. The third method, the free building license, would continue to be legal. The Heung Yee Kuk organization advocates for the Small House Policy, and threatened to ask Beijing for help if an appeal to the April 2019 ruling was not granted. In addition, it spent HKD $ 30M on the first round of judicial review. As of October 2020, approximately 43,000 small houses have been built in Hong Kong under
1805-497: A small house, it is in fact difficult to determine if the application was made with a local address. An SCMP author noted that small houses are for villagers' "own occupation," yet some owners live overseas. Additionally, Kenneth Lau said that overseas male descendants of indigenous villagers should have housing privileges even if they are not Hong Kong residents, claiming that "Despite them being overseas, we should not strip them of their rights." Apart from those controversies regarding
1900-407: A study conducted by Civic Exchange , more than 60 percent of the respondents supported the proposition that the policy should be changed. On the other hand, the respondents tend to reform the Small House Policy to restrict small house transactions by imposing a permanent moratorium on the resale of small houses to "outsiders", i.e. non-indigenous people or allocating public housing towards villagers as
1995-579: A villager clan/family, rather than a majority. In October 2020, SCMP reported on research done by the Liber Research Community , an NGO. According to a member of Liber, the villagers' development rights and buildings were secretly sold by villagers to developers for profit, illegal under current laws. Some transactions were done using secret contracts and offshore accounts in the British Virgin Islands, making tracing of
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#17327717736392090-812: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;
2185-472: Is a legacy of the British colonial government. In order to cater for the needs of an increasing demand for housing and to prevent another 1967 Riots, the outbreak of which was partly due to people's discontent towards the indifferent attitude of the colonial government toward public welfare, threatening the colonial rule, the colonial government was keen on improving the living conditions of Hong Kong dwellers in
2280-605: Is also a registrar attached to the Court of Final Appeal, to help with review of appeal applications and other administrative duties; the registrar is usually recruited from the district court level. The list of registrars is as follows: From its inception in July 1997 until September 2015, the court was located in the Former French Mission Building , in Central . In September 2015, the court relocated to
2375-480: Is an unsustainable burden and also unfair and discriminatory. Other SCMP opinion writers, such as Cliff Buddle and Mike Rowse, also criticized the Small House Policy, stating that "The scheme is open to abuse with many recipients no longer living in their New Territories village" and that "Everyone in the administration has known for decades that the policy is impractical and unprincipled." In March 2021, Apple Daily reported that Woo Kwok-hing 's sister, Woo Chiu Ha,
2470-515: Is extended only to the most eminent and senior serving High Court justices. There is no mandatory retirement age for a non-permanent judge. Since the enactment of the National Security Law in 2020, no foreign non-permanent judges has sat during a National Security case, being replaced instead by designated Hong Kong non-permanent judges . Since 2009, under the auspices of the then-Chief Justice Andrew Li , judicial assistants have been appointed to provide support and assistance to its judges. There
2565-439: Is having serious land scarcity. Not to count that Hong Kong has one of the highest population density, such a policy is unsustainable for a small territory of 1104 sq.km. The policy is seriously against the principle of social equality, for Hong Kong does not have a distinguishable boundary between the urban and rural. Both the indigenous and the non-indigenous people have been enjoying equal rights and sharing same facilities. When
2660-522: Is no basis at all to call into question the integrity and independence of Hong Kong judges, whose selection, appointment and discharge of their constitutional role and duties are, and must remain, free from any political considerations and interference." In June 2021, Justice of Appeal Maria Yuen was recommended for appointment as a permanent judge by the Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission . However
2755-476: Is still increasing. It was estimated that the number of indigenous villagers with entitlements was going to reach 240000. In other words, if all of these 240000 entitled villagers were going to apply for small houses, there would be a significant uptake of over 2,200 hectares of Hong Kong’s valuable land resources. However, there is a dwindling supply of land in village areas to develop small houses. The imbalance of supply of land and demand for small houses will remain
2850-493: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to
2945-480: The Basic Law , the constitutional document of Hong Kong, the special administrative region remains a common law jurisdiction. Judges from other common law jurisdictions can be recruited and serve in the judiciary as non-permanent judges according to Article 92 of the Basic Law; to date, Judges appointed have served in the judiciaries of England and Wales , Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Scotland . Aside from
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3040-665: The Hong Kong Basic Law , the Court of Final Appeal "exercises judicial power in the Region independently and free from any interference." The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Ordinance and the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Rules set out the detailed functions and procedures of the court. The court meets in the Court of Final Appeal Building located in Central, Hong Kong . From the 1840s to 30 June 1997, Hong Kong
3135-754: The Kensiu language . Court of Final Appeal (Hong Kong) The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal ( HKCFA ) is the final appellate court of Hong Kong. It was established on 1 July 1997, upon the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region , replacing the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as the highest judicial institution under Hong Kong law. As defined in Articles 19 and 85 of
3230-640: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝ 'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for
3325-450: The "Small House King") of the firm Wong and Poon Solicitors, and Edward Wong's second son, Nelson Wai-shun Wong. In March 2022, ICAC charged Edward Wong for defrauding the government over 14 years for the sale of 115 small houses, and Ching for illegally purchasing "ding rights". In April 2021, an opinion piece on Apple Daily said that after the NPCSC had ensured only "patriots" serve in
3420-495: The 1970s. One of their plans was to develop new towns ( 新市鎮 ) in the New Territories, which were later known as Tsuen Wan New Town , Sha Tin New Town , Tuen Mun New Town and so forth. As this would require a large-scale confiscation of land and demolition of housing, David Akers-Jones , the ex-Secretary for the New Territories, implemented the Small House Policy in exchange for the New Territories indigenous groups' support for
3515-430: The 303 pending applications for New Territories Exempted Houses and Small Houses. It is the government policy that the land within "Village Type Development" will not be rezoned for large-scale development such as residential or recreational uses because of their scattered locations and infrastructural restrictions. Aside from that, Hong Kong Government also intends to concentrate village type development within this zone for
3610-589: The BD for priority enforcement. As such, I have decided to initiate a direct investigation to examine the enforcement measures undertaken by the BD and the Lands Department and their effectiveness in combating UBWs in NTEHs, and will make recommendations for improvement where necessary." In October 2021, David Pannick , who was hired by the kuk to defend the policy, said in court that the plaintiff, Kwok Cheuk-kin,
3705-458: The Basic Law and 1 interpreted the national security law. In 2012, Permanent Judge Kemal Bokhary —known as a leading liberal and dissenting voice on the Court—did not have his tenure extended past the mandated retirement age of 65. His replacement, however, was then-already 65-year-old Robert Tang , who was even older than Bokhary but was seen as more conservative; this appointment was described as
3800-503: The British Colonial Government (and Chinese Central Government after the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong ). The impact could be divided into three categories. For the colonial government, the Small House Policy helped to ease off the tension between the government and the indigenous inhabitants, and facilitated the land development of the New Territories . Before the engagement of the colonial government,
3895-766: The CFA are listed below. The controversial power of final interpretation of "national" law including the Basic Law is vested in the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China (NPCSC) by virtue of Article 158 of the Basic Law and by the Constitution of the PRC; however, "national" laws which are not explicitly listed in Annex III of the Basic Law are not operative in Hong Kong. Since 2020, Article 158 interpretations may also be applied to
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3990-404: The CFA, stating, "...there's going to come a stage where [British judges] are asked to apply and enforce unacceptable laws, and some of us might think that that stage has already come." On 6 June 2024, Lord Sumption and Lord Collins resigned as non-permanent judges, with Lord Collins stating that it was "because of the political situation", whereas Sumption more explicitly stated that Hong Kong
4085-732: The Chief Judge and the Court of Appeal). This was roundly condemned by legal pundits, including Elsie Leung and Lord Pannick KC . Even before the interpretation, the Immigration Department withheld Owen's work visa, contrary to what the CFA had ruled. This decision was criticized by leading barrister Lord Pannick KC , who frequently represents the Hong Kong Government in court, and also questioned by Jonathan Kaplan KC, another British King's Counsel who frequently appears in Hong Kong courts. Ultimately, Owen
4180-531: The Chief Justice, there is no nationality requirement for any of the permanent or non-permanent judges. Whether a prospective appellant is permitted to appeal or not is determined by a panel of three Hong Kong judges, usually the Chief Justice and two other permanent judges. Should the Chief Justice or a permanent judge not be available, the other permanent judge or a non-permanent judge from Hong Kong may be called in. Non-permanent judges from other jurisdictions do not sit on such panels. All appeal cases are heard by
4275-550: The Court of Final Appeal." In June 2021, the Ombudsman , Winnie Chiu, said that unauthorised building works (UBWs) in New Territories Exempted Houses (NTEHs), which includes small houses, were supposed to begin eradication starting in 2012. However, after 9 years, "UBWs in NTEHs remain pervasive, including new works, in-progress ones, and blatant existing unauthorised structures already identified by
4370-462: The Hong Kong national security law. Article 158 delegates such power to the courts of Hong Kong for interpretation while handling court cases. Although this arrangement has attracted criticism of "undermining judicial independence", an interpretation by the NPCSC does not affect any court judgments already rendered. This practice is highly controversial as it contradicts the power of final adjudication;
4465-536: The National Security Law leading to the judges being unable to "continue to sit in Hong Kong without appearing to endorse an administration which has departed from values of political freedom, and freedom of expression, to which the Justices of the Supreme Court are deeply committed." In November 2022, Lady Hale—who had refused to renew her tenure on the Court in 2020—suggested that British judges should leave
4560-707: The New territories. After handover, according to Article 40 of the Basic Law , "the lawful traditional rights and interests of the indigenous inhabitants of the 'New Territories' shall be protected by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region", the Small House Policy is reasserted by the Chinese Central Government , which helps the Chinese Central Government to win the support of the New Territories indigenous inhabitants to consolidate their rule in Hong Kong, and to show their respect to
4655-555: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China
4750-606: The United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. In 2018, Beverly McLachlin—the former Chief Justice of Canada—became the first Canadian (and, along with Baroness Hale, one of the first two women) to be appointed to the CFA. While the CFA is the final appellate court in Hong Kong, and is granted power of final adjudication, the fact that the Central Government of China has the power to interpret—in essence overturn—the CFA's rulings has caused great controversy over
4845-587: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,
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#17327717736394940-410: The actual exercise of the policy, the nature of the policy is also greatly disputed. The Small House Policy is discriminatory against two groups of people. First of all, the policy was designed to offer male indigenous villagers exclusively a right to apply for small houses. This totally discriminates against the female indigenous villagers, as they are not allowed to apply for a small house grant. Indeed,
5035-402: The benefits mentioned here above, the small house policy does create a lot of controversies, which can also be divided into three categories. First of all, the Small House Policy is fundamentally unsustainable. There was already over 14157 outstanding small house grant applications received until 2002, yet the number of potential applicants, who are eligible indigenous male villagers at least 18,
5130-419: The case because they do not own land rights in the New Territories. In response, a member of the Liber Research Community said that "The ding right affects every Hong Kong citizen as it competes with other land uses for land resources. The government has had to reserve lots of space in new towns for villagers to build their homes, while the land could have been better used for higher-density developments. How can
5225-570: The court say we have no stake in the issue?" Additionally, the Liber Research Community said that due to the reversal of the April 2019 decision, 900 hectares of government land that could have been used for high rise developments would again be re-allocated to villagers and small houses. Following the decision by the Court of Appeal, the SCMP Editorial Board wrote their opinion, stating that the Small House Policy
5320-669: The court's decisions can be overturned by the Chinese government via a controversial process known as an "interpretation" via Article 158 of the Basic Law. The Court of Final Appeal has no original jurisdiction ; an appeal has to originate from the High Court (either from the Court of Appeal or the Court of First Instance ). The Court of Final Appeal is made up of the Chief Justices , at least three Permanent Judges , and at most 30 non-permanent Judges who can come from Hong Kong or any overseas Common Law jurisdictions. Under
5415-449: The deals and information on their developers more difficult to obtain. According to Liber, villagers secretly agree to transfer the house to the developer once construction of the house is complete. In 2017, it released a database of more than 9,800 small houses that it believed were involved in such illegal trading. While updating the database in 2020, it found that 804 more small houses also believed to be involved in illegal trades, bringing
5510-477: The first time an interpretation occurred in 1999, all five judges (including the Chief Justice, all three permanent justices and one non-permanent justice) involved in the case of Ng Ka Ling v Director of Immigration reportedly considered quitting the top court in protest. The judges ultimately did not quit, as "the justices feared they would be replaced by less independent or competent jurists." Since 1997, there have been 6 interpretations, of which 5 interpreted
5605-559: The former (until 2011) Legislative Council Building , which was originally the colonial Supreme Court (1912–1985). The Cheung Court began on 11 January 2021, when Andrew Cheung began his tenure as the 3rd Chief Justice. Currently, 14 justices serve on the Cheung Court, including the Chief Justice, 3 Permanent Judges, and 10 non-permanent judges (6 of whom are from other common law jurisdictions). Traditionally, all overseas non-permanent judges came from three common law jurisdictions:
5700-417: The government and eliminated opposition, Carrie Lam would be "simply incompetent" if she did not try to end the policy again, as she called for in 2012. Separately in April 2021, three judges from the Court of Appeal endorsed and agreed that the issue should be moved to the Court of Final Appeal, stating that the debate on the policy "is plainly of great general or public importance which ought to be submitted to
5795-483: The government in 2012 stated that multi-storey developments would create planning and building-control difficulties. Hence, this approach is not an ideal solution to deal with the small house development. In this day and age, there are rising concerns about land and housing supply in Hong Kong. Most of the urban residents in Hong Kong are dissatisfied with the Small House Policy and there is a call for abolishing this anachronistic and unfair policy in Hong Kong. According to
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#17327717736395890-406: The houses were planned together rather than by individual villagers. Additionally, some lots of land were found to have been sold by villagers to companies. In May 2021, Liber released another report titled Research Report on Development Potential of Vacant Small House Land , which determined that of a total of 3,380 hectares of village-type land, 1,548.8 hectares were idle and privately owned, with
5985-535: The human right ordinances applied in Hong Kong, i.e. the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance . More importantly, the policy is not only violating the rights of women but also the non-indigenous Hong Kong residents. It is argued that the principle of equal rights should be or can be applied in Hong Kong; it should protect all the citizens of Hong Kong. Therefore, it is unfair that indigenous villagers enjoy an exclusive right to build houses, especially when Hong Kong
6080-523: The illegal sale of their small houses. In December 2018, Martin Lee represented Kwok Cheuk-kin and Hendrick Lui Chi-hang in an attempt to repeal the policy. Lee argued that the policy discriminates based on gender and descent, and that the policy was implemented by the British in 1898, and could not have been part of "indigenous" rights that villagers claim to have. In April 2019, the Court of First Instance ruled that two out of three methods for obtaining
6175-409: The indigenous inhabitants held the right to private ownership of the land in the New Territories, with the permanent land contracted conferred by Qing ( 清朝 ) and Ming ( 明朝 ) government. Through the exchange of "Ding" for ownership, the colonial government lowered the law-enforcement cost in the process of land ownership transformation, and provided opportunities for the current economic development of
6270-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from
6365-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as
6460-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In
6555-460: The market without any restriction. After the grant of ownership transfer, the Small House Policy created huge and direct economic interest for the indigenous inhabitants. These benefits help to create a sense of pride and belonging to the indigenous villages which are useful in forging a bond among the indigenous villagers and to preserve their tradition. For Hong Kong society as a whole, the Small House Policy also brings some benefits. The policy, to
6650-983: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often
6745-476: The middle classes have been contributing a huge percentage of the government revenue but a big portion of it goes to housing subsidy, which the middle classes are not qualified for, growing discontent from the middle classes is inevitable. According to Hong Kong Population Projections for 2015 to 2064, the current average annual growth rate of population is 0.8% and Hong Kong population will climb to 7.76 million in mid-2024. Planning Department also pointed out that
6840-409: The nature of The Small House Policy has been criticized since 1995. The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had released a report, mentioning that they were having great concerns about the sexual discrimination that the Small House Policy may potentially involve. The Equal Opportunities Commission had also noticed the case, describing that the policy was actually violating
6935-503: The new Long Term Housing Strategy in 2014. For the overall strategy, the government adopts the short, medium and long term measures to increase land supply. With respect to medium and long term measures, they focus on "review and rationalisation of brownfield sites and deserted agricultural land in the New Territories as well as mapping out further development strategy for Lantau and the New Territories North". Nonetheless,
7030-515: The new town development. Meanwhile, the government also added some constraints in this policy by launching Restriction on Alienation which required indigenous villagers to pay a premium if they wish to transfer their rights of ownership to non-indigenous villagers within a five-year period. In 2012, Carrie Lam called for an end to the Small House Policy. In 2015, a developer and 11 villagers in Sha Tin were sentenced to jail for up to three years over
7125-677: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as
7220-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as
7315-479: The policy. In January 2021, the Court of Appeal ruled against the April 2019 ruling, and said that all three methods for obtaining a small house grant were legal, making private treaty grants and exchanges legal once again. The plaintiffs, Hendrick Lui Chi-hang and Kwok Cheuk-kin, said that they would take the case to the Court of Final Appeal . Justice Jeremy Poon also claimed that Hendrick Lui Chi-hang and Kwok Cheuk-kin did not have sufficient standing to bring up
7410-523: The population of the Hong Kong Island and Kowloon in 2024 will reach 1.19 million and 2.33 million respectively while the population of the New Territories will increase by 456 600 between 2014 and 2024 and will reach 4.24 million respectively by 2024. This implies that the New Territories, containing the majority of the Hong Kong population, will experience a greater magnitude of population growth.. The significant population growth will lead to
7505-833: The predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to
7600-457: The sake of "a more orderly development pattern, efficient use of land and provision of infrastructures and services". In 2006, the former Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands , Michael Suen Ming-yeung had tried to enlarge the magnitude of development in certain village areas by proposing the multi-storey small house developments so as to provide more residential flats given the limited supply of land for small house development. Nevertheless,
7695-521: The set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of
7790-552: The total to 10,581 small houses, representing 25% of all small houses in Hong Kong. The Lands Department in the past 3 years had only referred 183 cases to law enforcement for investigation, representing less than 2% of all suspected illegal trades. As part of their research, Liber was able to find suspicious houses that were built in groups of at least three, with similar alignment and architecture. These houses appeared more like private estates rather than village houses, and most are enclosed within walls and security guards, implying that
7885-636: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with
7980-985: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write
8075-438: The traditional norms and culture of Hong Kong. For the indigenous inhabitants of the New Territories, their benefits are substantial. Firstly, the inhabitants enjoy a hereditary privilege of land usage and housing grant, which is a great advantage regarding Hong Kong's population density and land shortages. Secondly, according to Lands Department of Hong Kong, after a five-year period, the villager can freely sell his property in
8170-518: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being
8265-587: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c. 200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c. the 5th century . Although
8360-522: The years. This has led the CFA to be mockingly referred to as the "Court of Semi-Final Appeal" by people such as former Hong Kong Bar Association chairman Martin Lee KC SC , veteran activist-investor David Webb , human rights lawyer Mark Daly, as well as the general public. The term "Court of Semi-Final Appeal" was first officially referenced to by then-Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung as far back as 1999. A more detailed list of controversies around
8455-514: Was "slowly becoming a totalitarian state". In response to these resignations, Secretary for Justice Paul Lam SC downplayed the importance of non-permanent judges, said that, "... the credit for the fact that Hong Kong has a high level of rule of law largely goes to our local judges; it is not the case that losing a few non-permanent judges will deal a heavy blow to our rule of law." Lord Sumption then further reiterated that his remarks were not said lightly, and also stated, “I have no desire to engage in
8550-484: Was a British Dependent Territory , and the power of final adjudication on the laws of Hong Kong was vested in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. The handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China was on 1 July 1997. Based on the one country, two systems principle, Hong Kong retains a high degree of autonomy and maintains its own legal system. The Court of Final Appeal
8645-399: Was established on 1 July 1997 in Central , Hong Kong. Since then, it has served as the court of last resort ; the court has the power of final adjudication with respect to the law of Hong Kong as well as the power of final interpretation over local laws including the power to strike down local ordinances on the grounds of inconsistency with the Basic Law. However, this power is not absolute;
8740-480: Was first evidenced in HKSAR v Lai Chee Ying , where two local non-permanent judges (Stock NPJ and Chan NPJ) sat instead of the usual combination of one local NPJ, and one overseas NPJ. As of 2024, two non-permanent justices (Bokhary NPJ and Tang NPJ) have still not sat in on any national security law cases; it is unclear whether this is because they have not been designated, or simply have not been scheduled to sit in on
8835-436: Was replaced by Marc Corlett KC, a New Zealand King's Counsel but who had gained admission to the Hong Kong bar in 2020. Corlett was widely seen as a "like-for-like" replacement for Owen, and showed that overseas specialist lawyers would need to be admitted full-time to the Hong Kong bar before being allowed to participate in national security trials. The United States Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) released
8930-612: Was simply a "busybody." In December 2021, a reporter was attacked in Sheung Sze Wan Village while investigating a house built under the policy. In August 2024, a 29 year old villager filed a lawsuit against the government's plans to reclaim some villager land for the Northern Metropolis . As a local policy formulated against the specific historical context of Hong Kong, the Small House Policy has brought some positive effects on both Hong Kong society and
9025-611: Was suspected of building illegal structures measuring 2500 square feet at her village house, built with government subsidies under the small house policy. Also in March 2021, ICAC announced an investigation named "Silver Grass," where 24 people were arrested for the fraudulent selling of ding rights in order to develop and sell property at a profit in Yuen Long . Those who were arrested included Yuen Long district councillor Ching Chan Ming, as well as lawyer Edward Kwong-wing Wong (nicknamed
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