Trump, sitting comfortably in the White House, set a trap just waiting for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to take the bait. On the global stage, Trump tried to publicly shame a Black president. The two had barely sat down when Trump fired off, pulling up random screenshots from the internet claiming Blacks were massacring white farmers—Boers, British settlers, and other white landowners. The way he described it made you thought that South Africa’s situation was worse than Gaza’s, with more white deaths than Palestinians. According to him, South Africa is basically hell on earth, Gaza and South Africa share the same tragic fate.
But within a day, Reuters, the world-famous news agency, pushed back hard. Trump had actually taken photos the news agency shot during unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo and falsely claimed they were from South Africa. That got Reuters accused of fake news. Trump and Elon Musk—yes, the South African-born Tesla guy—teamed up to smear South African Blacks. But Ramaphosa stayed cool and dignified. After listening, without changing a muscle, he just said, “No, we Blacks and Whites don’t hate each other, no unrest here. But we won’t go all the way to please you with a super Boeing, Mr Trump.”
Thinking back, I remember reading Mandela’s biography years ago. Mandela spent 27 years locked up under white colonial rule. When he came to power, South Africa embraced Whites, starting a republic based on racial integration and shared governance. Mandela’s story shows how much Black South Africans suffered, worse than Gaza’s Palestinians, and their tough road to coexistence. It really shows their amazing self-control. Without Mandela’s greatness—turning his own suffering under white oppression into love that united Blacks and Whites—democratic South Africa would never have happened.
The book also reveals how, back then, the Chinese Communist Party secretly sent massive arms to support the Black uprising in South Africa. Western intelligence fed info to white colonial officials, who, after weighing their options, realized defeat was inevitable and, scared stiff, turned to negotiate peace with Mandela. Mandela’s hardest job wasn’t just negotiating with Whites, it was convincing his own people not to seek revenge or massacre Whites. He preached love over hate, urging Blacks to share power with Whites without grabbing their wealth or land. Mandela’s legacy still shapes South Africa today—a peaceful country, not Gaza, not Ukraine, torn apart by war.
Mandela, South Africa’s founding father, and today’s president Ramaphosa prove that Blacks are no less smart or capable than anyone else. Mandela’s love lights up the world and the universe, all humanity and life. In his later years, hearing Hong Kong’s Wong Ka Kui, lead singer and composer of Beyond, sing a tribute to him, Mandela wept—because he stopped the massacres and protected all Whites in South Africa. Yet Elon Musk, born there, shows no gratitude. Instead, he works with Trump to set a trap against his own birthplace. Can a businessman really be without a homeland? Maybe South Africa isn’t his homeland but just a white colonial outpost.
Also, the Chinese Communist Party’s decades-old, no-strings-attached military support for the Black uprising—far worse than Gaza’s current plight—shows China backs justice without asking for anything in return. That’s a sharp contrast to the US, which exploits resources from countries like Ukraine and charges protection fees.
Trump talks a lot about making America great again, putting America first. But it’s clear now: he wants to make himself great, prioritizing white Americans. He’s calculated the votes—60% come from white voters—and tailors policies to favor them, hoping to secure a third term.
Trump has repeatedly kicked out journalists who criticize him to control the narrative. Now he’s shaking the nation’s foundation by targeting education—expelling foreign students from Harvard and saying this is just the first step, with other universities to follow. Former Hong Kong Economic Times editor-in-chief Mak Wah Cheung once said the French government gave him a scholarship to study in France, but it was really a way to groom global elites, embedding French culture and winning their intellectual loyalty.
Many African students who received French scholarships and studied in France later rose to high government positions. Thanks to their French education, their thinking aligns with France’s, influencing defense, infrastructure, electronics, even food and drink culture including red wine, white wine and brandy. As a result, African students prioritize French products.
America’s expulsion of international students undermines its cultural capital, blocking “Captain America” from expanding influence abroad and weakening its soft power. Countries once influenced by America will face a generational break, no longer following American cultural values. America’s ability to sway and subvert other nations will slowly fade—signaling its decline.
Xiao Qiang
** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **
Hong Kong’s poverty line has taken a new twist. There is no longer an assessment of those living below the poverty line, but rather a targeted poverty alleviation strategy.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Chris Sun Yuk-Han explained that the poverty line was a very statistical concept that was purely based on income but failed to capture the full scope of need within the community.
In the past, the poverty line was based on 50 per cent of median household income. Currently, that is HK$30,000 for a four-person household or about $10,300 for a single-person household.
Hong Kong’s poverty rate affects more than 1.4 million residents, with significant variations across districts and age groups. Elderly citizens face the highest poverty risk at nearly 45 per cent, while districts like Sham Shui Po and Kwun Tong show concentrated disadvantages.
Government intervention, such as Old Age Living Allowance, reduces the poverty rate from 23.6 per cent to 14.9 per cent after policy measures, highlighting both the scale of need and the impact of social programs on vulnerable populations.
Regionally, Singapore reports a poverty rate around 10 per cent using comparable methodology, Japan’s relative poverty rate reaches 15.7 per cent, and South Korea shows 16.7 per cent. Taiwan registers about 11 per cent.
After dropping the use of the poverty line, the government adopted a new 21-indicator framework on a 227-page Targeted Poverty Alleviation Strategy Report, which identifies the most vulnerable groups and for the first time assess the “social transfer value covering income, employment, assets, reliance on cash welfare, housing, education or training access, and physical health or social connectivity, to identify the city’s neediest groups.
The combined size of three groups identified by the report totalled 1.13 million people across 667,000 households, with the data measured over different years and some individuals belonging to more than one group.
The recognition of health carers in the report is particularly significant, as they often provide essential support without formal compensation. Their inclusion in the expanded assessment framework indicates a growing awareness of their crucial role in society and the potential need for targeted assistance to alleviate their burdens.
Chief Secretary for Administration, Eric Chan Kwok-ki, as chairman of the Commission on Poverty (CoP) has been quoted as saying that by adopting several innovative elements in the report, the CoP seeks to present how the Government's allocation of resources improves the living standards of beneficiary households, so that the public could better perceive the direct relevance between the policies and their own interests. For example, he said, this is the first time that the internationally recognized concept of "social transfer values" was adopted to quantify the social resources transferred to households that benefit from regular housing, health, education, and welfare measures. Such an analysis would reflect in a more comprehensive manner the Government's efforts and effectiveness in alleviating poverty.
A “Pilot Programme on Community Living Room” provides additional living spaces and support services for “sub divided unit” (SDU) households.
The CoP identified three target groups SDU households, single-parent households and elders-only households.
The strategy also encompasses a number of programmes for targeted groups. A “Strive and Rise Programme” focuses on supporting secondary students from underprivileged families particularly those residing in sub divided units (SDUs) to lift them out of intergenerational poverty. The “Teen for a Brighter Future” programme, for example, provides for a school-based after school care service scheme enabling primary students, especially from single parent households to stay at school after school hours to receive supervised care and academic support in familiar and safe environment. This alleviates parenting pressures and facilitates parents to seek employment. For example, a child whose education from kindergarten to university would be subsidized to $2.5 million. It is the first time the government has adopted the international concept of “social transfer values” and measures how much income a family gained by not having to pay full price for public services.
Another reason why the CoP dropped the poverty line indicator was that Hong Kong was now entering a “very ageing society” in which most elderly people no longer earned an income.
Recognizing elders-only households often lack support and attention, CoP says it supports Government’s engagement of Care Teams to visit elderly singletons, doubletons, and three-person-and-above elderly households and refer cases in need to social welfare service units.
However, the success of this new strategy depends on three main elements: accurate implementation—making sure resources reach the intended groups; ongoing monitoring—developing an alternative, comprehensive assessment mechanism to track overall poverty trends; and sustained commitment—maintaining long-term collaboration among government, businesses, and citizens. If implemented effectively, this strategy could create a more holistic and compassionate poverty alleviation system for Hong Kong, shifting from "distributing money to the poor" to "empowering people to escape poverty", thereby maximising the social benefits of limited resources.
