Hong Kong Economic Times

Controversies

Founder's suspected involvement in Yuen Long station riot

On 20 July 2019, at the pro-Beijing "Safeguard HK" event, HKET founder Arthur Chuen publicly called pro-Beijing supporters to purchase canes and PVC pipes to punish those who opposed the 2019 Hong Kong extradition bill. The very next day, a mob with suspected ties to triads used canes and metal pipes launched an indiscriminate attack which injured 45 people at Yuen Long station. The public suspected that Chuen's comments might have incited the pro-Beijing camp to launch this riot. On 22 July 2019, over 100 HKET reporters published a joint statement expressing shock and deep regret towards Chuen's comments and requested him to withdraw his statement. HKET announced that Chuen's comments were his personal opinion and did not represent the newspaper's position. In the evening of the same day, Chuen apologized and withdrew his comment. The next day, Chuen announced to the HKET board of directors that he resigned as executive director and deputy president of the newspaper effective immediately, but that he would continue to serve as a financial columnist.

Plagiarism allegations

HKET subsidiaries Sky Post and TOPick reporters were alleged to have plagiarized stories reported by other online media without permission. This included copying text word-for-word into HKET website and reproducing YouTube video contents in the form of text and screenshots in detail without attributing original sources.