The view yesterday morning leaning out of my place in Japan…
Getting back to the Hong Kong neighbourhood last night, I find…
…a store with the unlovely name ‘Feather & Bone’ has deposited a pre-opening giant pile of garbage on the sidewalk. The weird thing is there’s another ‘Feather & Bone’ kitty corner from it 20ft away. Even 7-Elevens are farther apart than that. (I think they chose the off-putting name because ‘Food for Expat Morons Who Don’t Mind Paying Treble the Usual Local Price’ doesn’t fit on the shop front.)
While I was away, the noteworthy 30th anniversary took place. A huge selection of material on it here, with my humble contribution here. Also, Foreign Affairs on the CCP’s lessons from Tiananmen 1989. And in case you missed it, a (at times stomach-churning) UK diplomatic report on the PLA action (and internal strife) in May-June 1989. (The CCP brought in regiments of country bumpkins, who hated fancy city folk, to do the dirty work.)
Fast-forward to today… If you fancy an orgy of stultifying byzantine hierarchical top-down regulation, Minxin Pei on how Xi has instilled Leninist discipline into the CCP. And a telling list of things that convince China’s leaders the West is out to destroy them. We could add this modest proposal from David Webb.
Also missing from that list: Hong Kong’s resistance to the Mainland extradition. A helpful reminder of the international legal framework Hong Kong is supposed to follow. And I declare the long weekend open with the thought: Will ‘69’ be another ‘71’?
Now that’s a shrine that can go a long way.
As we all thought Hong Kong people have given up to the Communist overlord up north, the huge turnout on June 4 was extremely heartening. I may just hang on in the city a little longer.