Hong Kong has about 18,000 taxi licences and they have not changed in years. Meanwhile every second car you flag down these days is running an app, and half the rest are drivers who probably should not be driving you at all. The government keeps saying enforcement is coming. A real crackdown on unlicensed drivers and grey-zone ride-hail. Ask any licensed cabbie in Kwun Tong and they will tell you the same thing they told you last year: they believe it when they see it.

Here is the part nobody at the press conference says out loud. Those 18,000 licences are not just permission slips, they are assets, some trading hands for seven figures, and the people who own a stack of them are not exactly the ones circling for fares at 2am. A crackdown that only nabs the small-time grey driver and never touches who is hoarding the medallions is not cleaning up the trade, it is just protecting what the big holders already paid for. Watch who actually gets a summons this month, not just who gets a press release.