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"Since Xi Jinping took power in 2012, China has expanded the legal landscape for exit bans and increasingly used them, sometimes outside legal justification," the Safeguard Defenders report reads. Attention on the exit bans comes as China-U.S. tensions have risen over trade and security disputes. The Reuters analysis of records on exit bans, from China's Supreme Court database, shows an eight-fold increase in cases mentioning bans between 2016 and 2022. Most of the cases in the database referring to exit bans are civil, not criminal. Some activists say the wider use of exit bans reflects tighter security measures under President Xi.

"Most luxury retailers don't think Hong Kong will return to the dizzy levels of 2014 when the market here peaked," said Simon Smith, Savills' senior director of research and consultancy in Hong Kong. Morgan Stanley (MS.N) forecast Hong Kong visitor numbers this year will reach just 70% of 2018 arrivals. It estimates retail sales will grow 15%, holding at around 80% of retail trade from the pre-COVID year. That outstripped total Hong Kong retail sales from a peak hit in 2013 at HK$494.5 billion ($63.0 billion), according to the city's statistics department. ($1 = 6.8510 yuan)($1 = 7.8498 Hong Kong dollars)Reporting by Farah Master, Jessie Pang, Anne Marie Roantree, Angel Woo and Donny Kwok in Hong Kong, Sophie Yu in Beijing, and Mimosa Spencer in Paris; Writing by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Tom HogueOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/5] Elderly visitors enjoy the sunshine, at a nursing home of Lendlease's Ardor Gardens in Shanghai, China February 27, 2023. Lim says "stigma" around retirement homes in China is quickly disappearing. About 4% of people aged 65 and over in Britain live in retirement homes, according to information service Lottie. Ding Hui, China managing director at Australian real estate firm Lendlease (LLC.AX), expects demand for retirement homes to rise sharply in the next five to 10 years. Government-run nursing homes with basic facilities in Shanghai and Beijing are much cheaper, at about 2,000 yuan ($290) a month.

☆ China set for historic demographic turn, accelerated by COVID traumas
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Farah Master | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/3] Ang Ran and her 2-year-old son Tang Ziang look out from their home in Beijing, China November 8, 2022. A glimpse of the scars caused by the pandemic to China's already bleak demographic outlook may come to light when it reports its official 2022 population data on Jan. 17. "In less than 80 years China’s population size could be reduced by 45%. The United Nations predicts China’s population will start to decline this year when India overtakes it as the world's most populous country. U.N. experts see China's population shrinking by 109 million by 2050, more than triple the decline of their previous forecast in 2019.

☆ Hong Kong to allow import of hamsters after year-long COVID ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Pedestrians walk past a closed pet shop in Mong Kok district after a hamster cull was ordered to curb the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Hong Kong, China, January 19, 2022. The government aims to "resume commercial imports of hamsters around mid-January," it said in a statement to Reuters. In January 2022, Hong Kong ordered a hamster cull amid an outbreak of Delta variant cases in humans that was traced back to a pet shop worker in the Chinese special administrative region. Hong Kong's pet rodent clampdown had echoed the mainland's zero-tolerance approach to COVID-19. Little Boss, the operating company which owned the pet shop at the heart of Hong Kong's hamster cull last year, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

☆ Hong Kong residents rush to get vaccinated ahead of China border reopening
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] People queue at a community vaccination centre, ahead of an expected border reopening with China, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Hong Kong, China, January 4, 2023. REUTERS/Tyrone SiuHONG KONG, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Hong Kong residents have swamped clinics to get vaccinated against COVID-19 ahead of the expected reopening of the city's border with mainland China, which some people fear will bring a surge of infections to the financial hub. The number of people getting a fourth shot jumped more than 100% this week from a week earlier. Many mainlanders have been asking on social media about how to get an mRNA vaccine in Hong Kong. A Hong Kong resident surnamed Tsoi said she was relieved to have made a booking for BioNTech's second-generation booster.

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