On September 15, 2024, police shot and killed Mrs Li's husband, who was armed and mentally ill, during a confrontation. Two years to the day, she is still waiting to hear if there will be a death inquest at all. Not the result of one. Just whether one happens.

That's the bit nobody explains to you about how this works here. A death inquest isn't automatic, someone has to decide to hold one, and there's no clock forcing that decision. So a grieving widow ends up doing the government's job for it, ringing up every few months to ask "so, any word?" Meanwhile the city's leader is out this week promising heads will roll over faulty lifts at a hospital, an incident in which nobody has been hurt. Mrs Li's husband died two years ago and she still has not been given a hearing date. The disparity raises a fair question about how the government decides which matters warrant urgency and which do not.