Big Lychee, Various Sectors

The death toll at Tai Po reaches 94.

The Labour Dept last year said the netting used in renovation at Wang Fuk Court complied with fire-safety standards…

…as public anger grows over a resurfaced 2024 email in which the department described the fire risk from such nets as “relatively low”.

…In its reply on October 4 last year, the department explained that the primary purpose of installing the net is to limit the falling range of objects and stated that current regulations enforced by the department for construction sites contain no provisions covering flame-retardant standards for safety nets or any materials.

The department subsequently received a complaint arguing that this response was incorrect. After the investigation, it concluded that the initial reply “was unclear and had led to misunderstandings.”

DAB district council member and (I think) advisor to the owners’ committee Peggy Wong ‘dismissed fire safety concerns about the Wang Fuk work as malicious rumours misleading the public’. Is anyone looking into the tendering process for the project?

ABC of Australia on the community-run Google spreadsheet that updated the known status of apartments’ residents during the Tai Po fire.

HKFP guide to funds and charities aiding the Tai Po victims.

What happens to the site now? I guess they tear it down.

Oiwan Lam at Global Voices on the Hong Kong government’s attempts to boost voter turnout at the LegCo election in two weeks. She quotes a pan-dem now in the UK…

At the local level, high voter turnout can be seen as a vote of confidence in the John Lee administration, especially against the background of the Chief Executive election in 2027. […] The embarrassment is that Macau’s Legislative Election in September this year saw a high turnout of 53.35 percent, prompting Beijing officials to compare which ‘child’ performed better. In fact, Hong Kong officials reportedly visited Macau to study its voter mobilization tactics, fearing that low turnout in Hong Kong could be interpreted as public skepticism toward the political performance of Lee’s administration and the Central Government’s Hong Kong Liaison Office. 

The government is thinking of postponing the election after the Tai Po fire.

Bitter Winter on a Chinese movie designed to push the idea of unification with Taiwan…

…“The Battle of Penghu” (澎湖海戰), a state-backed historical epic slated for release in 2026, dramatizes the Qing dynasty’s 1683 defeat of Ming loyalists in Taiwan. The film’s promotional trailer features the slogan “Unifying Taiwan is unstoppable”—a blunt encapsulation of Beijing’s political messaging. However, the backlash that followed suggests that even in tightly controlled media environments, history resists being reduced to propaganda.

The film centers on Shi Lang, a Qing admiral who led the conquest of Taiwan, defeating the forces of Ming loyalist Zheng Keshuang … Critics on Chinese social media questioned why the narrative glorifies the Qing, a foreign dynasty, while vilifying the Ming loyalists, who are often seen as defenders of Han Chinese sovereignty. Some even sarcastically proposed that Beijing’s next cinematic venture might celebrate Wu Sangui, the infamous Ming general who betrayed his dynasty to the Manchus.

…in attempting to draw a straight line from Qing conquest to modern-day claims over Taiwan, the state risks alienating those who see the Ming loyalists as patriotic resisters. The backlash was swift—and swiftly censored. Negative comments were scrubbed from Chinese platforms, leaving only official narratives and supportive voices visible.

…By weaponizing history through cinema, Beijing risks undermining its own credibility. When propaganda masquerades as art, and when dissenting interpretations are silenced, the result is not unity but skepticism. As the reaction to “The Battle of Penghu” shows, even carefully curated narratives can unravel when confronted with the messy truths of the past.

The barbarian Goths and Vandals who took over parts of the Roman Empire were already familiar with Roman culture and embraced it after taking control. Roughly similar story with the Manchus, who further Sinicized after defeating the Ming in order to consolidate their power. But to Southern Chinese, in particular, they were foreign invaders and the Ming who fled to Southeast Taiwan true Chinese. (Fascinating history, starring mostly Fujianese Ming loyalist Chinese, Dutch, Manchus and Taiwanese aborigines, with a guest appearance by the Spanish.)

The Qing established control over the western lowlands of Taiwan to suppress rebels. But they didn’t claim the mountainous regions in the middle and east until around the 1870s just a couple of decades before signing the island over to Japan. The only other arguable period of Chinese ownership of Taiwan would be when the KMT took over the place – more brutally than the Japanese did – and established a rump ‘Republic of China’ on the island after 1949. That became defunct in practice after democratization in the 1980s.

So there is something awkward about the movie’s basic premise. Presumably, it’s the best they could do to claim some sort of historical ‘Chinese’ ownership of Taiwan. The only remaining argument is that Taiwanese are Han who speak Chinese – but that’s like saying the Irish, New Zealanders, Australians, etc are white and speak English, so their territory must be British.

Getting messages from overseas hoping I’m not affected by the tragedy in Tai Po. The fire at Wang Fuk Court is a big story worldwide not just because of the statistics (latest: 44 dead and a horrifying 279 unaccounted for), but because of the visuals. The beauty of Hong Kong’s juxtaposition of high-rises, mountains and sea suddenly turns surreal and nightmarish.

Nearby residents have been asked to stop delivering supplies to the area as volunteers can’t cope. McDonalds is donating thousands of meals.

Presumably we will hear how much bamboo scaffolding, plastic netting, and the close proximity of the apartment blocks contributed to the tragedy. Will we hear whether officials tasked with enforcement might have been negligent? Whether some of the NatSec budget could have been better spent on policing worksite safety? (This would be a good time to wrap up the endless subversive pancakes frenzies.) Or will the narrative speedily move on to rah-rah about heroic emergency services and support from the north?

Hong Kong’s Press Photographers Association cancels its 35th anniversary exhibition after Baptist University decides the exhibition gallery needs to be closed for ‘emergency maintenance’…

…the HKPPA said it had no choice but to axe the event, which opened on Tuesday and was originally set to run until December 8.

The exhibition took nine months to prepare and featured a selection of historical photographs and photo stories covering important moments in Hong Kong since the late 1980s to the present, the press group said.

Baptist U actually has a department of journalism, so is an ideal location for such an exhibition. But perhaps there are other considerations. Maybe ‘late 1980s’ is a clue, though there are quite a few subsequent important moments in Hong Kong a nervous university might worry about.

The HK Pride Committee scraps an outdoor festival at Kwun Tong Promenade…

In October, the committee said on social media that it “has been asked to postpone the outdoor ‘Rainbow Festival’ originally scheduled for November 29” after being notified that the venue had to undergo “urgent construction work” required by the Buildings Department

On Sunday, the organisers published a longer post saying that the outdoor event would be cancelled altogether.

According to the post, although Aquabeat, which operates the promenade event space, said the venue was unavailable due to government construction work, the Buildings Department later clarified that no such work was scheduled for that day.

Funny how places suddenly need work done on them at times like this.

An anonymous ‘patriotic group’ demands that the sale of merchandise for an LGBTQ dramatic production be stopped…

“…online posts still show your company assisting in producing and selling merchandise for We Are Gay. May we ask whether your company intends to continue opposing government actions and spreading anti-government sentiment?” it continued.

“We request that you immediately cease the production and sale of merchandise related to We Are Gay and stop promoting ‘soft resistance,’” it continued.

To be clear – the play itself had previously been cancelled just before it was due to appear at the West Kowloon Cultural District last month. And the HK Academy for Performing Arts scrapped a planned appearance by the playwright – a graduate of the school. Presumably the merch must be forbidden as well, just to be safe.

As well as official meetings with Japanese diplomats and a youth exchange trip to Japan…

Hong Kong superstar Ekin Cheng Yee-kin has been forced to scrap his long-awaited solo concert scheduled for next Friday, December 5, at a major Tokyo venue, with organizers citing an event outside of their control as the reason.

The sudden announcement, posted on the event’s social media on Tuesday, comes against a backdrop of escalating diplomatic friction between China and Japan.

And the government is considering banning two ‘subversive’ organizations. Few have heard of them, except perhaps in previous government announcements denouncing them. RTHK adds…

The Security Bureau issued written notices to “Hong Kong Parliament” and the “Hong Kong Democratic Independence Union” on Monday to allow them to make representations as the security chief looks to exercise his powers under Hong Kong’s homegrown national security law to ban their operations in the SAR.

Tang said the two groups undermined the country’s constitution and the body of power of the SAR, having carefully considered all relevant information.

“In the event of the two organisations being formally declared prohibited, it would be unlawful for anyone to act as a member of these organisations, attempt to incite others to join them, participate in their activities, or provide assistance,” he said

Also banned: calling for a boycott of the LegCo election, of course.

I remember a Sino-Japanese spat several decades ago, when then-Chief Secretary Anson Chan shrugged the whole thing off as nothing to do with Hong Kong, and referred to the focus of the dispute as the ‘Senkaku Islands’ – the Japanese name. Things have changed.

Invest HK and government economic officials cancel planned events and meetings with Japanese consular personnel. The Education Bureau pulls Hong Kong students from a Japan-East Asia youth exchange visit to Japan. The Security Bureau issues a travel advisory suggesting Japan is dangerous to visit. And RTHK scraps a Japanese manga TV adaptation series.

All, of course, to ‘align’ Hong Kong with Beijing’s major gnashing-of-teeth over the Japanese prime minister’s remarks suggesting that Japan could be involved militarily should China attack Taiwan. More of the CE’s comments here.

Is this compatible with the city’s much-claimed role as an open international business hub? How does this square with Hong Kong’s usual welcoming of Japanese companies, investment and tourists here? 

(Trailer for Cells at Work! here. There was a fully animated TV version made about 10-15 years ago, which was both funny and educational.)

Civil Service Secretary Ingrid Yeung urges everyone to vote. Slight twist: the video also features a guy echoing her message in Indonesian, complete with hand grenade. Different!

A Domino Theory op-ed criticizes the pace of justice for Jimmy Lai, Chow Hang-tung and others…

Since the crackdown on the democracy movement in Hong Kong in 2020, a disturbing phenomenon has emerged. Political prisoners, accused of crimes that are no crime at all but simply normal participation in what was supposed to be a free society, are not even able to access the twisted version of legal process that is still afforded them.

Instead, they wait in jail without bail for years for trials that do not come, and then for verdicts that are not announced. Jimmy Lai (黎智英), publisher of the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, and Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤), the lawyer and activist, are but two of the individuals hanging in limbo in these circumstances.

…“For ordinary common law criminal trials in Hong Kong, there is always a presumption of bail that if a defendant unless he’s seen as committing a serious crime or the court deemed the defendant has this possibility to abscond from trial,” Eric Lai [of Georgetown law school] said. But for national security trials, “this principle is totally subverted to presumption against bail.” 

…There are examples in other cases, Eric Lai said, of the prosecution repeatedly asking for adjournments to prepare more submissions and documents before the trial started. This has been allowed by the court despite the objections of the defendants.

If someone was held without bail and without trial in a common law jurisdiction, they would typically have grounds to have their case thrown out because of abuse of process, Eric Lai said.  The fact that they have not been shows “the mass arrests as well as the massive use of pretrial detention against these people is more a political act rather than a legal act.” Eric Lai also pointed out that after long pretrial detentions, many political prisoners end up pleading guilty or even turning prosecution witness…

A technically proficient, imagery-heavy mural by Hong Kong artists in California. 

A bookshop runs into trouble after holding what appears to be an informal Spanish class on its premises…

The owner of a Hong Kong independent bookstore has been accused of managing an unregistered school after holding a Spanish class at the shop earlier this year.

…[Owner Pong Yat-ming] stands accused of breaching the Education Ordinance by managing a school that was not registered or provisionally registered, according to the charge sheet.

The charge sheet also stated that he allowed somebody who was not a permitted teacher to teach at Book Punch. The individual’s name was given as Antonio Baro Montane.

Active Experiential Learning Company, the parent company of the bookshop, was charged with two offences – permitting an unregistered teacher to teach and owning an unregistered school

Sounds weird. All sorts of groups host lessons and training in all sorts of subjects, from swimming to Bible study. A store near my home offers classes in sausage-making. But here’s a clue…

…Book Punch and other local independent bookshops have been closely scrutinised by Hong Kong authorities in recent years. In July, a book fair featuring independent bookshops and publishers came under fire by Beijing-backed media outlet Wen Wei Po, which accused the organisers and participants of spreading “soft resistance” through a book fair.

Books with messages that “oppose China and disturb Hong Kong” were sold, the outlet reported.

In September, Book Punch said it was forced to cancel multiple events in the past two months due to “anonymous and false” complaints. The bookshop said some guests, such as university teaching staff and representatives of organisations, faced “top-down pressure” to withdraw from its events.

Shades of the tax audits of independent media. Why not just ban all bookshops that are not controlled by the authorities and be done with it?

The MTR says it will start services early on December 7 to encourage people to vote in that Sunday’s LegCo election.

Will this boost the turnout meaningfully? Perhaps not. Maybe they could re-engineer the turnstiles so, instead of waving your Octopus card, you have to put a ballot into it. Or put polling stations on the trains. 

The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission releases its annual report. Someone isn’t going to like this…

As the Hong Kong government marked the fifth anniversary of the National Security Law, its ongoing crackdown has eliminated a once vibrant civil society and created an atmosphere of repression comparable to mainland China. 

…Hong Kong security forces have expanded a campaign of transnational repression against leaders of the democracy movement who fled abroad, placing bounties on an additional 15 activists—including two Canadian citizens—canceling passports, and blocking access to their pensions. Authorities have also escalated harassment of activists’ family members still in Hong Kong.

…Hong Kong has emerged as an export controls and sanctions evasion hub, facilitating international transactions with and flows of restricted goods and advanced technology to Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

…Hong Kong firms are now subject to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) directives and that the Party will interfere in commercial transactions to advance its geostrategic objectives. 

…Despite years of cracking down on activism, stifling democracy, and narrowing the space for civil society, Hong Kong’s government continues to see threats to Beijing’s control of the city’s civil discourse and legal system. 

…Hong Kong authorities have continued to prosecute cases for previously protected political speech, including allegations of seditious online comments and graffiti and “insulting” the national anthem.

…Beijing’s “have your cake and eat it” approach to Hong Kong’s economic autonomy is indicative of its broader strategy to the special administrative region: it seeks to cash in on the remnants of Hong Kong’s status as an independent, rule of law, and pro-market jurisdiction while eliminating vestiges of independence, moving to rule by law, and ensuring its ability to intervene in and steer the commercial sphere as it does in the Mainland.

And sure enough, the Hong Kong government…

…strongly disapproves of and firmly rejects the groundless attacks, slanders and smears against various aspects of the situation of the HKSAR including safeguarding national security, protecting human rights and business environment in the so-called “2025 report” issued by the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC).

Beijing’s Foreign Ministry office in Hong Kong weighs in.

The Global Times argues that Okinawa shouldn’t belong to Japan, and that perhaps China has a better claim to it…

The Ryukyu Islands lie between China’s Taiwan island and Kyushu island of Japan, facing Fujian Province of China across the sea. As early as 1372, the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) formally established a tributary relationship with the Ryukyu Kingdom: Ryukyu acknowledged Chinese imperial authority and followed the Chinese calendar, while China treated Ryukyu with exceptional generosity under its “give much, ask little” policy. 

The ‘give much, ask little’ policy? A full list of measures Beijing has taken against Japan recently here.

A 68-year-old man is arrested for sharing allegedly ‘seditious’ posts on social media and…

…inciting people not to vote in the upcoming “patriots only” Legislative Council (LegCo) elections

The SCMP reports…

Police said on Tuesday they first detected a suspicious account in September last year that repeatedly published messages deemed to have seditious intent, including inciting hatred and contempt against the government, judiciary and law enforcement agencies.

Superintendent Chan On-ming of the National Security Department said the account encouraged others not to vote or to submit blank ballots recently.

And a 70-year-old woman is arrested for tearing down election posters…

Officers arrived at the scene and found seven posters destroyed, including one Legislative Council election promotional poster and six candidate posters.

Following initial investigation, the surnamed Chan local woman was arrested for criminal damage. She remains in custody while the case is being handled by the Deep Water Bay District Crime Squad.

…Authorities reiterated they will take zero tolerance toward any attempts to interfere with or damage Legislative Council elections, vowing to take resolute law enforcement action to ensure the current election proceeds safely and orderly.

This comes a couple of days after the arrests of two men and a woman in their 50s and 60s for allegedly sharing online posts inciting not-voting in the election. And of two men on suspicion of damaging election posters on a footbridge.

Were the shared posts the same one? How many police man-hours are used up monitoring retirees’ Facebook accounts?

The ICAC – founded in the 1970s to tackle corruption in the government – arrests three people in their 50s and 60s for sharing online posts allegedly urging a boycott of the LegCo election. 

There is no law against boycotting the election. Could it be that warnings against ‘inciting others not to vote’ – and arrests like this – do more to publicize the idea of boycotting than any number of posts by activists in exile?

During Jimmy Lai’s trial for sedition, prosecutors cited 161 Apple Daily articles as evidence. In his attempt to sue Ta Kung Pao for libel, the judge rejects his request to submit 101 items from that paper…

In a judgment handed down on Friday, Chief District Judge Justin Ko rejected Lai’s application to enter the articles as evidence.

Lai included quotes from the articles, but Ta Kung Pao’s lawyers said that his legal team did not explain how the articles could substantiate the libel claims, the judge said.

“In my view, the proposed amendments are confusing, embarrassing and defective,” Ko said.

Judge Ko accepted Senior Counsel Rimsky Yuen’s argument that his client, Ta Kung Pao, would be “completely blindsided at trial” if Lai’s application were granted.

“Unless proper particulars… are provided, [Ta Kung Pao] will be forced to shadow-box on the issue of malice,” Ko said in his judgment.

Lai, 77, had previously only relied on one Ta Kung Pao article published in June 2020, which suggested that Lai was planning to “abscond” from the city via illegal means and breach bail terms imposed by the court.

The article was headlined “Leaders who create chaos in Hong Kong plotting escape, escape route exposed, charge one million dollars”.

…Last year, Lai was denied a jury trial in the libel suit, with Justice Queeny Au-Yeung saying that such an arrangement was inappropriate as it would involve “prolonged examination of documents.”

China Media Project looks at the tradition of ‘literary persecution’ in China…

Contemporary observers of China might readily see echoes of imperial literary inquisition in the actions of the Chinese Communist Party leadership today. In recent years, writer and blogger Yang Hengjun (杨恒均) was sentenced to a suspended death sentence in 2024 for espionage after years of detention, while citizen journalist Zhang Zhan (张展) received four years for her COVID-19 reporting from Wuhan. Legal scholar Xu Zhiyong (许志永) and activist Ding Jiaxi (丁家喜) were sentenced to 14 and 12 years respectively in 2023 for “subversion of state power” after organizing informal gatherings to discuss governance. Publisher Geng Xiaonan (耿潇男) received five years in prison in 2024 for “illegal business operations” related to publishing books critical of the government.

Via HKFP, AP looks at how politics has ‘turned into pageantry’ in Hong Kong….

More than 100 primary school children under the age of 12 sat transfixed in the City Hall theatre on Tuesday as a woman wearing a teddy bear headdress reminded them to never disclose state secrets, part of a new campaign by the city’s Security Bureau.

The piece also looks at the debate-free ‘Patriots Collaborate for Good Governance’ election forums. Perhaps if the authorities want to make politics less participatory, while pretending the population still have some involvement, the result must be more theatrical and make-believe.

China Daily reports on more attempts to boost turnout on December 7…

Polling for the upcoming Hong Kong Legislative Council election will commence at 7:30 am and end at 11:30 pm on Dec 7, two hours longer than the last time in 2021.

In addition to 615 general polling stations, to encourage voting, the government has, for the first time, introduced designated polling stations for elderly, disabled, medical staff, ethnic minorities and civil servants and disciplined services personnel on duty.

…a total of 10 designated polling stations for civil servants will also be erected citywide to provide convenience for nearby civil servants and on-duty disciplined services personnel.

…seven polling stations will be established for medical personnel outside seven hospitals.

Two more polling stations for ethnic minorities will be set up in Wan Chai and Tsim Sha Tsui to allow those who plan to visit the Khalsa Diwan Sikh Temple and the Kowloon Mosque for religious rituals on Sunday to vote.

Three polling stations will also be established near the boundary at Sheung Shui, the Hong Kong Port of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the airport.

In addition, polling stations will be set up outside 11 elderly nursing homes and four district support centers for persons with disabilities.

Earlier, the government announced … a one-off HK$20,000 ($2,574) allowance for District Support Centres for Persons with Disabilities and Elderly Centres to arrange transportation for the elderly, the disabled and their caretakers to the polling stations.

But another reminder: don’t urge anyone to boycott the polls…

The Independent Commission Against Corruption on Friday arrested three people for allegedly reposting online messages that incited others not to vote or to cast invalid ballots during the upcoming Legislative Council election.

The suspects — two men and one woman aged between 55 and 66 — were detained on suspicion of breaching election laws.

…In a statement, the ICAC “strongly condemns” attempts to interfere with or undermine the election by circulating messages discouraging voter participation.

…the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong voiced support for the enforcement action.

A spokesman accused individuals “inside and outside Hong Kong” of spreading smears, rumors, and calls to boycott the election or cast blank ballots, and of deliberately damaging campaign materials.

The spokesman said such activities are aimed at weakening the legitimacy of the current electoral system and obstructing Hong Kong’s governance and democratic development, accusing these actors of revealing a “malicious nature” and an intention to undermine “One Country, Two Systems.”

The Office stressed that “those who endanger national security will face countermeasures,” adding it will not tolerate any acts that threaten national security and will firmly back action taken by Hong Kong authorities against interference in the LegCo election.