The latest from Causeway Bay

The South China Morning Post announces its relocation to glamorous, high-tech, space-age new offices. The pictures suggest a James Bond villain’s secret headquarters built deep inside an island off an exotic coast in the Far East. But the description sounds ‘hip trendy Silicon Valley tech’, with lots of open-plan, groovy, laid-back social and recreational areas.

I hear that reporters will not have personal work-stations where they can keep all their files, notepads and contacts’ numbers, but will be expected to ‘hot desk’ in a paperless online way, as befits a cyber-media outfit.

If it helps, they can throw out the contact details of Dui Hua, a US-based NGO that aims to help victims of injustice in China. The campaign group is refusing to talk to the SCMP until it receives an apology for the paper’s ‘ill-tempered, sexist rant and personal attack’ on Angela Gui, who is fighting for the release of her father Gui Minhai, kidnapped and recently re-kidnapped by Beijing’s secret police.

It’s interesting that even a charity hardened by years of exposure to China’s vilest human-rights abuses and related propaganda is taken aback by one of the SCMP’s little group of extreme, outré columnists. Three in particular specialize in non-stop cantankerousness and loathing towards Hong Kong’s pro-democrats and other critics of the Communist dictatorship. They are not so much pro-Beijing as anti-anti-Beijing. Worse than being just hate-filled, the repetitive and obsessive attention the fading hacks display towards photogenic younger activists (Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow and indeed Angela Gui) is borderline creepy and disturbing. (One possible excuse: they are under threat of being dropped into a shark-filled tank.)

Zooming out to look at the big picture – a reminder that these shabby columns are a forgotten corner of a giant Mainland corporate empire picked as a commercial winner and policy collaborator by the Chinese party state. SCMP proprietor Jack Ma’s Alibaba has just had its quarterly analysts’ phone-in, leading to an updated regular commentary. The name ‘Enron’ crops up here rather a lot.

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15 Responses to The latest from Causeway Bay

  1. hellcat says:

    No of those 3 journos owes a flat in HK: and it shows.

  2. Tamey Tame says:

    The key difference between Yonden and the other two is that he is as deeply unpleasant in person as he is in writing.

    Wondering how a failed TV newsreader became ‘chief news editor’ of a once-respectable paper? Look at who his boss is …

  3. Another magnificent mise à jour, a tour d’horizont, full of insights, purple passages…

    Will this do?

    A charity. Haha. And the CIA is a cooperative.

    But honestly, how long would, say, a Chinese mission to Guantanomo Bay last?

    Oh yes, it’s still there. Obama was an O’Bummer. Assassination meetings every Tuesday and seven wars to hai credit. Trump is an angel in comparison.

    Free Julian Assange!

    Pip, pip!

  4. LRE says:

    Ahh a triad of turds indeed: Michael Shoeshini, Absentee Lowlife and Yonder Lynchmob.
    I think Bill Hicks says it best.

  5. Headache says:

    Last time I looked at the annual report for the Alibaba People’s Daily it would have made a big loss were it not for (a) its side-business selling billboard space and (b) the increased estimated value of its real estate.

  6. A Tsim says:

    “Docta Ordures”, you miserable little piece of crap. Go f*@& yourself. Dui Hua are not “CIA”. They have actually helped many people, including a close personal friend who nearly died in detention in China. He was there for political reasons.

    So get stuffed.

  7. Chinese Netizen says:

    The three stooges pictured write for an audience of one: Pierce “Democrazy” Lam

  8. Red Dragon says:

    Question: What do Yonden Lhatoo, Alex Lo, Michael Chugani, and George Adams have in common?

    (Quite tricky when you consider that Lhatoo is a Tibetan quisling, Lo is a drag queen from Wong Tai Sin, Chugani is some sort of Indian, and Adams is a ginger Geordie).

    Answer: They all have beards except Alex Lo.

  9. Knownot says:

    All I know about Dui Hua is what I have read here and in the link that Big Lychee provided.

    If Lhatoo’s only objectionable comment about Angela Gui was that she is “a woman whose only claim to fame” is that she is her father’s daughter, it is crass, but I think it still counts as acceptable free comment.

    Dui Hua also quote an allegedly racist comment, that “all of South Korea’s prettiest and shiniest humanoid cultural exports look and sound exactly the same. I can’t tell them apart.” Again, that is acceptable mockery. Some people who contribute here might say something similar.

    With all due respect, perhaps Dui Hua are being over-sensitive.

  10. Laguna Lurker says:

    Friends, please don’t bother replying to anything from George Adams. He is such a moral coward that whenever anyone attacks him, he shies away from responding to commentary and refuses to engage.

    George is solitary, narcissistic and friendless — with the exception of a handful of cheap floozies. Over many years, he has changed his politics from right-wing conservatism to communism. He has had his head so far up his arse for so long that he eats his own shit for breakfast, and has owed me a considerable sum of money for years. Avoid him and don’t waste your time on him.

  11. I rarely agree with Yonden Lhatoo, but to be fair, it should be noted that by his account, his rather mild attack on Angela Gui was prompted by her accusing the SCMP of publishing fake news for printing a story about her which she claimed was false, but which the Post was able to prove was true. Petty, but hardly as vile as claimed by Dui Hua.

  12. Jeff says:

    I agree. George Adams is a real piece of garbage of loves the smell of his own farts

  13. Red Dragon says:

    Wise counsel, Laguna Lurker. Wise counsel, indeed.

  14. Chinese Netizen says:

    I like that he’s continually allowed space to dig his hole deeper and further make a total ass of himself.

    Better to let him blather but not talk about or respond to the attention whore.

    With that, I’m fini from now on…

  15. DeepThroatIPO says:

    Thanks for the mention BL…..gotta love Alibaba….Joe, Maggie & Daniel are a real hoot!
    Financial Comedy Gold!

    Best….

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