Rising concern over censorship at Hong Kong’s premier paper

The International Federation of Journalists, which claims to represent 600,000 journalists in 131 countries across the world, has expressed deep concern over the independence of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post in the wake of the emasculation of a story on the death of Tiananmen dissident Li Wangyang.

The organization called on WangXiangwei, the mainland-born editor in chief of the paper, who was appointed in February over the misgivings of the city’s journalistic community, to resign his membership in the Jilin branch of the Chinese Political Consultative Conference, saying his membership leads to “questions as to his independence and impartiality.”

The newspaper hits well above its weight in the region as the English-language reference point for political reporting on China. Although it has been criticized in the past since ownership passed to the family of Malaysian sugar tycoon Robert Kuok in 1993, it remains the most complete journalistic record of what goes on inside the country for western observers. It has been allowed to establish news bureaus in Beijing and Shanghai which Hong Kong’s Chinese language press is denied. Although it has a strong edge on mainland reporting and leaders on China content, many are concerned that aggressive reporting is a thing of the past.

Sources inside the paper say the mood is increasingly darkening as the negative publicity ripples out, with the journalistic and marketing teams facing derision from their contacts. Wang is said to have adopted a permanents cowl and is interacting selectively with the Chinese staff he has hired from China, and is curt and abrupt with everybody else.

“Management has been seized with paranoia about Hong Kong media leaks,” a source said. “There have been admonishments to all staff, particularly editorial, not to speak to reporters from other organizations or to answer media queries. Everything is to be referred to the marketing department.”

Asia Sentinel first reported on misgivings over Wang’s appointment as chief editor on Feb. 2 and carried three stories about an exchange of emails between Wang and Alex Price, a senior sub-editor at the paper over the June reduction of a story to a brief about Li’s suspicious death in a Hunan hospital on June 6. The partly blind Li died a week after giving an interview to a Hong Kong television statement on his treatment in prison. He was said to have hanged himself, a report that caused a furor in China that is still going on.

The reports by Asia Sentinel and other publications claim that Wang directed staff to cover the story as briefly as possible, rather than giving the story the extensive coverage undertaken by other media outlets. When Price, emailed Wang for an explanation, Wang is alleged to have replied, “I don’t have to explain to you anything. I made the decision and I stand by it. If you don’t like it, you know what to do.”

In other worrying news, the South China Morning Post has recently discontinued the contracts of a number of its most experienced foreign journalists, the IFJ reported. Paul Mooney, an accomplished journalist who was recently celebrated with a number of Human Rights Press Awards in Hong Kong, was informed by Wang that his contract will not be renewed when it expires in September. Asia Sentinel carried Mooney’s story of his dismissal.

“Although Wang said the reason for not renewing my contract was budget cuts, I doubt that is the case”, Mooney told the journalism federation. “Wang never assigned any China news stories to me, preferring to ask journalists from Hong Kong to cover them”.

Mooney also recalled an occasion where Wang asked a Chinese journalist to conduct an interview with the Dalai Lama instead of him, despite the Dalai Lama already having accepted his request for an interview.

In addition to Mooney, two other experienced journalists from the paper’s China desk have left due to disagreements with Wang over news coverage.

“Confidence in the press relies upon public trust that the news is being reported free from political consideration”, IFJ Asia-Pacific said.

“As a publicly listed company, and one of Hong Kong’s oldest English language newspapers, the IFJ urges Wang Xiangwei to explain recent editorial and staffing decisions”.

The journalism federation also called for Robert Kuok, the Malaysian majority shareholder of the South China Morning Post, to investigate the claims of political censorship at the paper and report his findings to the public and its share-holders.

The Hong Kong Journalists Association recently announced the results of a media survey, which revealed that 92.7 percent of respondents from Hong Kong’s media believe that press freedom in the territory is being curtailed, with 79.2 percent of respondents also believing that self-censorship in Hong Kong is more serious a problem in 2012 than it was in 2005.

Ever notice that most of the media is controlled by tycoons, politicians and governments? We aren’t.

Open letter to Exec Director Hui Kuok expresses concern that paper seeks to please Beijing

Twenty-four journalists who formerly worked for the South China Morning Post have written an open letter to the paper’s group executive director, Hui Kuok, expressing their concern that critical coverage of China is being abandoned in order to please the Communist authorities in Beijing.

The letter, signed by journalists who are now based in different parts of the world including Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Beijing, Australia and the UK, expressed concerns about the developments at the Post, It is the latest salvo in the war over the English-language daily’s journalistic soul in the era of editor-in-chief Wang Xiangwei, the mainland-born journalist who traces his antecedents to the Chinese government’s state-owned China Daily and his membership in the Jilin Chinese People’s Consultative Congress.

Critics both inside and outside the paper say Wang has been steadily getting rid of western journalists and replacing them with colleagues from Beijing, particularly the China Daily. Hui Kuok is the youngest child of Malaysian sugar tycoon Robert Kuok, who bought a controlling interest in the newspaper in 1993. She is responsible for the media group’s operations and businesses. It has long been pointed out that the Post, while never particularly aggressive, has throughout the last several decades been one of the most complete recorders of news about China from its vantage point in Hong Kong. Both Willy Lam and Jasper Becker, bureau chiefs in Beijing, were fired long before Wang came on the scene in February.

“The South China Morning Post has never been a radical publication, but it has served the people of Hong Kong for 100 years by providing them with accurate and timely information,” the letter said. “It is now widely believed that the paper’s main priority is no longer to continue this fine tradition, but to please the authorities in Beijing.”

The current controversy at the paper broke open in early June when Alex Price, a senior sub-editor at the paper, questioned a decision by Wang to reduce a major breaking story on the suspicious death of Tiananmen dissident Li Wangyang in a Hunan hospital to a brief.

Price sent Wang an email saying “A lot of people are wondering why we nibbed the Li Wangyang story last night. It does seem rather odd. Any chance you can shed some light on the matter?” That generated a series of emails during which Wang said “I don’t have to explain to you anything. I made the decision and I stand by it. If you don’t like it, you know what to do.”

After some additional exchanges, Price sent the emails to some colleagues who leaked them to outsiders. Asia Sentinel broke the story on June 19 and subsequently Hong Kong’s Chinese press had a field day with it. Remarkably, Price has so far managed to keep his job.

Wang later sought to justify his decision to the staff by saying the story over Li’s death had received little or no coverage on CCTV, the Chinese government’s stated-owned television news service.

“The latest dispute over the curtailed coverage of the Li Wangyang story has angered a great many of the Post’s traditional readers and supporters,” the former Post journalists said in the letter. “It suggests that the charges of the paper’s critics are justified. We understand that news judgments have to be made in haste and occasional errors are to be expected. “Some of the explanations for the Li Wangwang decision suggest, though, that a change in policy has taken place. The idea that the story needed to be downplayed because it had received little or no coverage on CCTV is unworthy of the Post’s traditions as an independent and enterprising newspaper. CCTV no doubt has a role as a source of information. If used as an indicator of news values it is a source of ignorance.

“We are distressed to hear that a senior editor who asked about the decision was told that “if you don’t like it you know what to do”. We would like to believe that this was a careless piece of phraseology penned in a moment of excitement but it sounds suspiciously as if staff are no longer expected to understand or support the newspaper’s policy, merely to follow instructions.

“We are concerned by all this not only because we were once happy and proud to work for the Post, and do not like to see its reputation deteriorate, but also because the newspaper has historically been an important civic resource for the people of Hong Kong. It will be a serious public loss if the newspaper continues to go downhill.

“The constant changes in the editorship of the Post suggest that either the owners do not know what they want, or they want something that no credible senior journalists will provide. We urge you to protect and cherish the South China Morning Post’s traditions of independence, truthfulness and service to its readers.

“We urge you to ensure that stories are evaluated on the basis of their interest to Hong Kong readers. We urge you to ensure that Post journalists are able to work according to an explicit and understood editorial policy. We urge you to encourage the newspaper’s management to give civil answers to civil questions. We hope that our connections with the Post will continue to be a source of pride, in its continuing commitment to independence, accuracy and public service.”

Inside the paper, there seems to be little indication that Wang and his management team are paying any attention to the criticism. One source told Asia Sentinel the editor continues to tighten his grip, extending his influence to the editorial page and arguing that more pro-China and pro-Hong Kong government editorials appear.

The signatories to the letter follow:

• ·         Kitty Au
• ·         Jonathan Braude
• ·         Jasper Becker
• ·         Barclay Crawford
• ·         Ellen Chan
• ·         Will Clem
• ·         Steve Cray
• ·         David Evans
• ·         Katherine Forestier
• ·         Danny Gittings
• ·         Tim Hamlett
• ·         Fong Tak-ho
• ·         Lydia Ho
• ·         Carol Lai
• ·         Chloe Lai
• ·         Willy Lam
• ·         Angel Lau
• ·         Shirley Lau
• ·         Eddie Lee
• ·         Lieu Siew Ying
• ·         Sheila McNamara
• ·         James Moore
• ·         Paul Mooney
• ·         Dustin Shum

Hong Kong is run by Beijing. We tell you about it. Subscribe to Asia Sentinel. Click here. I’ll do it

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email This

Hits: 341

Comments (1)

Subscribe to this comment’s feed

…
written by Prince, July 15, 2012

This open later is a most welcome development, and people outside the paper need to keep pushing this message to the Kuoks.
As your writer suggest, Xiangwei has continued to tighten his grip within the paper. Last week two senior journalists were let go. The retirement age on the SCMP is 60, after which some some journalists are kept on on a a series of one year rolling ‘contracts.” Staff can still be fired at a month’s notice but it is a device so that the paper no longer has to pay MPF and medical contributions. A senior and highly competent journalist was let go last week to clear the way so that other younger journalists could be promoted. This is seen as a pretext by Xiangwei to get rid of senior (gweilo) journalists he doesn’t like. Others are expected to follow as their contracts come up for renewal. Their positions can be filled with younger journalists more amenable to his bullying tactics, and less likely to stand up to him. As recent events have indicated the paper is already in a steady downward spiral and unless he is checked it will accelerate. It is surprising the controlling Kuok family has been so complacent while the value of the SCMP brand is being trashed by this monster. He is an incompetent journalist, a bad manager, and is hated by the staff – Chinese and westerners alike.

As a way of reviving Hong Kong’s battered economy after the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, the Individual Visit Scheme was an almost immediate cure. It filled empty hotels, and restaurant owners and retailers rejoiced at the reappearance of travellers on the city’s once-deserted streets.

Over the nine years since, the scope of the scheme – which allows mainland tourists to travel to Hong Kong by themselves rather than in a tour group – has been expanded from the initial four cities to 49, making 270 million people eligible to visit Hong Kong.

The impact has been remarkable, with the Tourism Board reporting that 3.1 million visitors flooded in in January, up 23.9 per cent on the same period last year. They accounted for about three quarters of that month’s total of 4.14 million visitors.

In 2002 Hong Kong received 16.6 million visitors, of whom 6.9 million, or 41.6 per cent, were from the mainland. By last year the number had soared to 41.9 million, 67 per cent of whom came from the mainland.

But not everyone is happy with the fallout from the influx.

Bookshops have been replaced by outlets selling jewellery, watches and electronic appliances to the big spenders. Local mothers have difficulty buying milk formula – a sought-after commodity for mainlanders – and consumers confronted with rising inflation blame the tourists for soaring prices.

When the mainland’s simplified characters finally made it on to outdoor advertisements and restaurant menus, alongside the traditional ones preferred in Hong Kong, the anger intensified.

Hongkongers began calling the influx a cultural invasion, likening it to a plague of locusts.

No consultation was carried out before the government opened the gates in 2003 – and not that many people would have objected, given the prevailing economic slump.

Nevertheless, it was unusual for any policy with such a significant impact not to undergo a sustainability assessment first. Such studies have been mandatory since 2001, when the government adopted guidelines that require any new policy’s consequences for the economy, social infrastructure and cultural diversity to be taken into account.

The government’s argument was that the scheme was a timely measure that brought immediate benefits and was one of the most successful and welcome liberalisation measures adopted under Beijing and Hong Kong’s Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement.

According to James Tien Pei-chun, now chairman of the Tourism Board, the time has come to review a policy he once enthusiastically supported.

In March 2004, writing in this newspaper in his capacity as the chairman of the pro-business Liberal Party, Tien said: “Our economy is well on the way to recovery, thanks to the benefits from the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement and the Individual Visit Scheme. At last, our property market is flourishing, the stock market is climbing and our consumption is rising, but it will be some time before these benefits reach the ordinary citizen.”

Eight years later, Tien believes the scheme needs to be reassessed.

“The new government will have to look into the problem,” he said. “There are an increasing number of conflicts as mainland Chinese integrate with Hong Kong society. It is necessary for the government to look into the positive and negative aspects of welcoming mainland tourists into the city.”

The economic benefits are obvious. Tourism is the fastest growing of Hong Kong’s four pillar industries, the others being financial services, professional services and trading and logistics. The tourism sector employed 218,100 people in 2010, making it a major employer, particularly for those with lower qualifications.

But the rising numbers are not without their drawbacks. Since 2009, when Shenzhen allowed its permanent residents to apply for multiple-entry visas, day-trippers increasingly target daily necessities rather than luxury goods.Tien said this was pushing up prices of basic commodities and fuelling conflict between locals and tourists.

Further growth of the tourism sector was also not guaranteed as infrastructure problems came into play. The supply of hotel rooms, for one, has been a bottleneck for the development of tourism, he said.

Accommodation used to be low on the mainlanders’ list of priorities, with 70 per cent of their budgets going to shopping and just 10 per cent to hotels, Tien said. Now it was becoming harder for them to find affordable lodgings, with even a room in the New Territories costing more than HK$1,000 a night.

When tourist numbers were soaring, hotel supply was growing more slowly: the number rose from 94, providing 37,277 rooms, to 184, with 61,828 rooms. The occupancy rate jumped from about 58 per cent to 89 per cent. Almost all hotels were packed last Christmas, and room rates, even in Chungking Mansion, went through the roof.

The Commerce Department expects that by 2016 there will be 254 hotels in the city, providing more than 74,000 rooms, but Tien warns that rising prices may nevertheless see tourists going elsewhere.

“If a trip to Hong Kong costs more than HK$10,000, why wouldn’t they go to Rome or Paris instead?” he said. “They could get luxury brands for less than in Hong Kong after getting refunds for value-added tax.”

Land supply has always been scarce. Tien said this meant it was necessary for the government to rethink its priorities. “Should the government allocate land for public housing and offices or malls and hotels for tourists?” he said.

Even one of the biggest beneficiaries of tourism – the retail industry – has begun to feel the pain.

Caroline Mak, chairwoman of the Retail Management Association, said the lack of new retail space plus rising demand for land had caused rents to more than double since the Individual Visit Scheme was introduced. Noonly were shops in busy tourist districts affected, the upward pressure was being felt in neighbouring communities.

The labour shortage had worsened, with an association survey showing that 8.9 per cent of vacancies remained unfilled for prolonged periods. Government statistics in March showed the retail industry employed 256,844.

Mak said rising rents made products more expensive, while labour shortages threatened the quality of service. Both trends would reduce Hong Kong’s attractiveness as a shopping paradise.

With many shops turning to jewellery, watches, electronics and international brands, the local touch is disappearing quickly, leaving visitors with “a homogeneous shopping experience”.

“Local shoppers have come to me complaining about the long distances they have to cover to buy daily necessities … even convenience stores cannot withstand the high rents,” Mak said.

It also made the retail industry – more than half of whose sales are made to tourists – more vulnerable to economic changes.

In the first five months of this year, the volume of sales of jewellery, watches and valuable gifts – previous must-haves for mainland tourists – dropped 2.9 per cent from a year ago in the face of global economic uncertainties and a cooling off of the mainland property market. Over the same period, total retail sales volume increased 9.1 per cent.

Mak said a committee should be set up to review retailing’s impact on other sectors, including advertising, transport and catering. Then it should work out long-term directions regarding the number of hotels required, labour supply and retail space.

“Now it’s time to stop and think about how we can achieve sustainable growth. We should say no quick cures,” she said.

Although tourism is a thriving sector in many parts of the world, figures suggest its impact and the friction it generates are far greater in Hong Kong than elsewhere.

Despite its small size, the number of visitors to Hong Kong is comparable to that to entire nations: last year it welcomed 40 million visitors, almost two thirds of the 62.7 million received by the United States.

The UN World Tourism Organisation has forecast that by 2020 China will be the fourth-biggest source of tourists after Germany, Japan and the United States. Hong Kong will rank fifth in terms of tourist arrivals, with the top four destinations being China, France, the United States and Spain.

“The ratio of tourists to locals in Hong Kong is very high,” said Terence Chong Tai-leung, associate professor of economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The ratio is almost six to one for Hong Kong, which has a population of seven million.

Mainland tourists, with their massive spending power, inevitably raised the demand for goods and added to inflation, which was aggravated by the depreciation of the Hong Kong dollar against the yuan. Chong said this was not a pattern repeated elsewhere: those going to New York, for example, seldom devoted all their time to shopping.

Chong said government intervention in the supply of hotel rooms had to be handled with caution.

The availability of rooms would limit tourist numbers, meaning it was not necessary for the government to limit the numbers of visitors.

The importance of mainland visitors to Hong Kong is likely to continue growing, according to Tony Tse, assistant professor in Polytechnic University’s school of hotel and tourism management.

He said it would be wise to put more emphasis on other source markets so the city did not become over-reliant on one particular market. Apart from shopping and dining, there was also room for enhancing and showcasing its culture.

“Hong Kong is unique in being Chinese in its roots and having a strong British influence,” he said, and more could be done to showcase the city’s colonial past.

Although no sustainability study has been conducted, according to the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau the government has maintained close communication with mainland authorities on the Individual Visit Scheme’s implementation.

“Looking ahead, in considering whether to encourage more visitors, we should take into account whether we have enough facilities, such as the capacity of border control points and tourist attractions, supply of hotel rooms and transport,” a bureau spokesman said.

amy.nip@scmp.com

Despite reduced spending by mainland visitors, exorbitant retail store rents in popular shopping districts are holding firm because of big brand-name penetration and limited space supply, analysts say.

Natallie Cai

Thursday, July 05, 2012

Despite reduced spending by mainland visitors, exorbitant retail store rents in popular shopping districts are holding firm because of big brand-name penetration and limited space supply, analysts say.

“Retailers are cautious on store expansion, due to lower consumption sentiment locally and slower growth in the number of tourists,” said DTZ Debenham Tie Leung head of retail in Hong Kong Kevin Lam Ying-wai.

“More retailers are moving to less busy streets, but international brands are competing from high-street stores.”

In May, the number of mainland visitors rose 19.4 percent year-on-year, easing from an annual gain of 23.9 percent in April, according to Hong Kong Tourism Board data.

Amid a gloomy economic outlook, retail sales in the territory rose 8.8 percent by value in May year-on-year, to HK$36 billion, compared with a 11.4 percent increase the previous month.

Mainland visitors accounted for about 33 percent of the HK$406 billion total retail spending in Hong Kong last year.

The four most popular shopping districts remain Central, Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok. Scores of top brands from the United States and Europe continue to look for retail space in Central and even plan to expand to Wan Chai, said Terence Chan Yiu-fung, Jones Lang LaSalle’s local director for the retail sector.

Last month, Seattle-based fashion brand Tommy Bahama signed a lease and will open its flagship store in Wan Chai, paying HK$1.1 million rent per month for the 5,800-square-foot unit, or HK$190 per square foot, in the autumn.

Meanwhile, US-headquartered Abercrombie & Fitch is planning an August 11 grand opening for its first Hong Kong store in the Pedder Building in Central. The casual wear retailer signed a lease last year to pay a staggering HK$7 million a month, or HK$551psf, rent to take over the 12,700-sq-ft premises previously occupied by Shanghai Tang.

Among other prominent brands, Gap is splashing out HK$385 psf for a shop on Theatre Lane in Central, while Burberry is leasing space in Pacific Place in Admiralty for HK$4 million a month, or HK$200 psf. Forever 21 has taken premises in Jardine’s Bazaar, Causeway Bay, at HK$215 psf monthly. H&M inked a nine-year contract for a shop on Queen’s Road Central at HK$114 psf.

Russell Street – across from Times Square in Causeway Bay – continues to command the highest retail rents in Hong Kong, averaging HK$1,260 psf monthly, lagging only Fifth Avenue in New York, where rents averaged HK$1,463 psf last year.

The 40-story mixed-use Hysan Place, at 500 Hennessy Road, scheduled for completion next month, will provide 17 floors of retail space, but most of its total 710,000 sq ft has already been spoken for. Eslite book store is reportedly leasing 40,000 sq ft on three floors, while US fashion brand Hollister California plans to open a 20,000-sq-ft outlet next year in the new mall.

The upscale Hysan Place opening is expected to affect smaller shops in the Hennessy Road vicinity, pushing them out to neighboring streets such as Yun Ping Road, Kai Chiu Road, and Lee Garden Road, Jones Lang LaSalle’s Chan said.

Monthly rent for a 10,000-sq-ft shop recently secured by cosmetic product chain Bonjour rose to HK$5 million, up fivefold from the HK$1 million previously paid by apparel chain G2000.

Hysan Place will be the only new retail supply put on the market in the four traditional shopping areas this year.

Looking ahead, a total gross floor area of 1.5 million sq ft of prime shopping malls will be supplied in the next four years. However, only 28 percent, or 673,000 sq ft, will be launched in core areas such as Central and Causeway Bay, said Jones Lang LaSalle head of retail Tom Gaffney.

“Rents on Pak Sha Road in Causeway Bay doubled from the last two-year contract, and rents on Wellington Street in Central jumped more than 70 percent,” said Midland Commercial executive director Daniel Wong Hon- shing.

Chan said Wan Chai is likely to become the next busy shopping district as some jewelry stores have opened on Lockhart Road. He noted one jeweler is paying monthly rent of HK$1 million for 1,000 sq ft of space – about 10 times more than a neighborhood restaurant of similar size.

More investors have turned to the retail market due to government controls on the residential market and expectations of declines in office rents.

Cantopop star Leo Ku Kui-kei reportedly bought a shop at 22 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, for HK$54 million, while Nicholas TseTing-fung is said to have purchased a jewelry store nearby for HK$91.3 million.

Food lovers suffered the bitter taste of disappointment yesterday when two more much-loved culinary mainstays in the city closed their doors.

Devoted customers of Leighton Bakery’s store on Matheson Street, Causeway Bay, munched on its delectable egg tarts and sausage buns for the last time yesterday as owner Lam Shek-yam closed his store to cash in on the city’s property boom.

Taking a break from the lunchtime rush, which saw crowds snaking around the block for a final snack, Lam said it was with a heavy heart that he shut down the bakery, which has been his place of work for the last 28 years.

Resting in a seat next to the drinks counter, Lam, who started baking at the age of 12, said: “A lot of customers came this week to say goodbye.”

The store has long been a favourite with shoppers and office workers grabbing a bite for lunch or a quick breakfast. Lam says he has sold the shop for HK$140 million – a huge profit on the HK$13 million he paid to buy the site in 1996.

Customers will now have to go a little further afield to the bakery’s sister outlet on Leighton Road.

A few blocks away, restaurateur Tai Chung pulled down the shutters on Lan Fong, a cha chaan teng, or Hong Kong-style cafe.

He has fallen victim to the cut-throat property market in Causeway Bay, one of the most expensive places in the world to rent retail space. He paid just HK$19,000 per month for the premises when he opened his business in 1987, but is now paying HK$80,000.

He was given his marching orders after negotiations on a new lease broke down in March.

Tai, who still runs the original Lan Fong on Jaffe Road, Wan Chai, would not disclose the rent he was asked to pay but said that even if he had offered double the previous figure, he would not have kept the lease.

“We just couldn’t work it out,” he said last night.

He hopes to open another Lan Fong in Causeway Bay and is scouting for a new venue.

It’s a familiar story in Causeway Bay, where last month a sock retailer was forced to become a street hawker after the rent on her 250 sq ft shop was doubled from HK$70,000 to HK$150,000 and the site of a small noodle shop went on the market for HK$180 million in April – a year after it was sold for HK$100 million.

Indonesian restaurant 1968 closed its main Causeway Bay location when rents rose last year, while the UA Cinema chain was ousted from Times Square, apparently to accommodate a luxury retailer.

Japanese restaurant Wallmann Market, near the new Best Western hotel on Canal Road West, closed in August after the landlord raised the monthly rent to HK$180,000 from HK$85,000. The 3,000 sq ft Nam Ah Restaurant, also on Leighton Road, closed in November after its landlord increased its rent to HK$360,000 from HK$255,000.

The area around Times Square, a popular spot for rich mainland tourists, has seen a huge influx of luxury brands in recent years, while analysts believe the opening of the massive Hysan (SEHK: 0014) Place shopping and office complex will push rents up further.

lana.lam@scmp.com