Next week’s Mainlandization-related trashing of Hong Kong’s freedom and reputation will be brought to you by the attempt to imprison three harmless old guys on desperate-sounding charges of ‘incitement to incite public nuisance’. The clearly-Beijing-ordered prosecutions will also involve six other figures from the Occupy-Umbrella movement.
The overseas press, interest in local affairs now piqued by the expulsion of Financial Times’ Victor Mallet, are already anticipating this four-years-in-the-making farce (Reuters, AFP, VOA), as is Human Rights Watch.
Whatever happens, the outcome will be bad. If the courts play along and put mild-mannered idealistic intellectuals in prison for organizing a protest, they create martyrs, and the international media will report another ‘nail in the coffin’ for Hong Kong. If the courts find against the prosecution or simply give the defendants a light sentence, the Chinese Communist Party will want to retaliate with whatever constitution-warping ‘rule-by-law’ travesty it takes to satisfy its obsessive need to punish and intimidate anyone who dares challenge it.
And either way, Chief Executive Carrie Lam will be left insisting that nothing is really happening, everything is in line with due process, your rights will not be affected, One Country Two Systems is still intact, blah blah – while wringing her hands, as if to squeeze out the last drops of credibility.
I declare the weekend open with a summary of declining creative freedom in Hong Kong; , and a look at How’s that Chinese Century turning out?
There’s also a rumour that the CCP will authorize a ‘Sinicized’ version of the Christian Bible. Can’t wait. Pandas waddle onto Noah’s ark. Moses leads his people out of Japanese oppression; he honours 5,000 years of civilization by delivering the 10 Commandments printed on paper in simplified characters, and getting out of Sinai with a compass, and celebrating with fireworks. David is beaten up by plain-clothes security officials and sent to a detention centre before he gets to Goliath. To help reverse the one-child policy, Mary will have several more virgin births. Jesus turns water into baijiu. And it will be much easier for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven.
There will be no crucifixion, m’goy. The apostles launch an investigation into Jesus’ disappearance after He went missing from a mainland city.
Red Sea or Red C? Still under consideration.
Jesus wept.
Totalitarianism is the only way of managing China.
If you had ever lived there you would know it.
It’s not too late to sign up as as a Foreign Expert!
I served the Chinese people. You can too.
Sounds like a cracking read – the Holy Bible with Chinese Characteristics. No doubt dedicated to Xi Jinping. Placed in every hotel room in China. Will no doubt be reported as an even bigger seller than the original. Can’t wait.
Making Carrie Lam look flat-footed and ineffectual might be part of the plan. Jason Ng over at HKPF thinks there’s a power struggle going on in the Liaison Office, where C.Y. Leung’s erstwhile backers are undermining Carrie as revenge. They know that the Independence Geeks aren’t a real threat, they’re destroying our fundamental freedomes for the sake of some Dilbert-level bullshit. Somehow that’s even more insulting than the Spreadsheet of Loyalty.