Some links from the holiday weekend

Handover Day video from Chris Patten. Not mincing his words.

A 6,600-word written message from CE John Lee here.  Merciful HKFP summary.

A holiday concert by Denise Ho disrupted by the police. A dentist gets taken away for questioning.

HKFP op-ed asks why Security Secretary Chris Tang has such a thing about the HK Journalists Association. (There isn’t really a clear answer. Maybe he was bitten by one when he was a child. Maybe he thinks the media should all be controlled by the Security Bureau.)…

Tang has resoundingly condemned the association and all its works on several occasions, questioning who it represents, who it gets its money from and whether it should be invited to press conferences on relevant matters. He has accused it of “infiltrating schools” and defending people who swore at policewomen…

…a day ahead of elections for new HKJA leadership, and Tang rose to the occasion with: “Looking at [the list of candidates], it looks more like a foreign journalist association to me. Most of them are journalists from foreign media, some are freelancers, some are not even journalists and their organisations have engaged in political activities.”

…two members of the executive put in their resignations between the end of nominations and the counting of the votes.

Statement of mitigation by Gordon Ng (scroll down for English version), one of the HK47…

I believe that the holding of fair and regular elections provides the best counter balance against a power potentially becoming tyrannical.

It is for these reasons that I support the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, as I believe their cause of striving for democracy a noble one, and also a sensible one for the continued development of this city.

Bloomberg on the resignation of non-permanent CFA judges…

The unprecedented number of departures over such a short period of time — including three announced this month — adds to worries among foreign companies over the future of the rule of law in Hong Kong. With the court likely to decide on a number of key security law cases over the next year, scrutiny is set to increase on the seven remaining foreign judges — and Hong Kong’s status as a global financial hub that provides better protection for companies than across the border in the mainland.

For investors, the worry is that the government’s preoccupation with national security could increasingly spill over into commercial interests. Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube blocked videos of a Hong Kong protest song in the city last month after a local court approved an injunction order to ban the song, generating concerns that the city is creeping toward mainland-style censorship.

Members of the business community are increasingly cautious about speaking out on anything deemed political, even while privately expressing concerns about the departure of overseas judges and judicial independence. Although business disputes typically don’t touch on national security, the fear is that it will become harder to separate money and politics.

… [Thomas Kellogg, executive director of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law said] “Over time, I’m just not sure whether the Hong Kong government and Beijing will be willing to keep its hands off of other cases — including business and commercial cases — that affect Beijing’s interests.”

The SCMP on reactions to CE John Lee’s declarations of economic recovery…

A government source said tourism would be a priority for Lee among ongoing efforts to revive the economy.

“What boosting tourism can accomplish is more visible, and it can translate to GDP growth more easily and create more job opportunities,” the insider told the Post.

……But [a] former researcher at the government’s now-defunct Central Policy Unit questioned banking on tourism for a boost.

She said while more than 65 million visitors arrived in 2018, inbound tourism contributed only 3.6 per cent of added value to that year’s GDP.

It also created an array of problems, including threatening the survival of small shops frequented by locals when retail chains popular with mainland visitors began moving into some neighbourhoods as rents surged.

Hong Kong is importing workers because of a shortage of manpower. What is the point of creating more jobs – especially low-paid ones associated with mass-tourism? Maybe it’s because officials see visits as a way to counteract the negative publicity caused by Covid and NatSec excesses…

The source said that promoting tourism would also help improve the world’s perception of Hong Kong as visitors experienced the city for themselves.

“They will realise that Hong Kong is safer, more vibrant and liberal than some Western media have portrayed it to be. You won’t be arrested on the street for criticising the government,” the official said.

Meanwhile, people are arrested for Facebook posts or wearing a ‘seditious’ T-shirt. 

Later in the article, no fewer than four people – a European business leader, an academic, a former government minister and a current all-patriots lawmaker – call in various ways for less NatSec rhetoric.