The sanctions saga continues, with targeted Hong Kong officials alternately shrugging off the measures as meaningless, and angrily denouncing them as a crime against humanity. Beijing issues a hysterical outburst describing the moves as… guess what.
Here’s the poster for the forthcoming movie. Carrie Lam’s son Joshua – a UK citizen – seems to have abandoned his studies in the US and arrived in Hong Kong. His namesake Wong meanwhile pushes a fascinating campaign to encourage our elites to prove their love of the motherland and loyalty to Xi Jinping.
I haven’t heard any expressions of sympathy for innocent bystanders like Josh Lam. I guess the pro-Beijing types don’t want to admit the sanctions cause pain, while pan-dems are too polite to mention it.
Your mother and her colleagues implicitly approved hundreds of police assaults against Hong Kong people your age, who ended up needing hospital treatment. They are complicit in trying to wreck thousands of young people’s lives through arbitrary arrests and trumped up ‘riot’ and other charges punishable by prison. Some young activists are in exile, and thousands of families are planning to leave. If this were Burma or Congo, other countries would look the other way. But this was Asia’s greatest, freest and most international city – and these overpaid-by-the-taxpayer ‘elites’ willingly helped turn it into a police state. Actions have consequences. And you’re not alone – even the banks have to choose between non-compliance in one or the other jurisdiction.
The CCP is hanging its local puppets out to dry here. They’ve now arrested Jimmy Lai and others for suspected collusion with evil foreigners. He has friends in high places in the US, and such a move invites further sanctions and other measures that will make life unpleasant for Hong Kong government officials. Maybe that also goes for the specially picked loyalist judge who gives Lai (potentially) a life sentence. The Mainland apparatchiks no doubt have their own banking, education, false ID and other arrangements – and less cosmopolitan lifestyles – and can more convincingly laugh the sanctions off.
Sorry Josh, not sorry.
Mr Hemlock
You are condemning the child for the actions of his mother; not good and not appropriate.
What’s the betting Jimmy Lai will be a “special case” dealt with in a mainland court?
An opinion piece in the NY Times, written by Samuel Chu:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/10/opinion/china-hong-kong-arrest.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Well to be fair, US politicians ARE shameless…
But on the flip side, here’s what happens when you’re stupid enough to go into a JV (in 2015, no less!) with a peehole, shithouse local Chinese government…
https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/china-coronavirus-nationalize-america-owned-car-company?fbclid=IwAR1Ll2OR5o9L4z5PsvVWN0E4JWnLxZaQZTqJlrx8SEF6YZL27w2JXv4-uoA
@dimunendo
Technically and otherwise, Josh is an adult, not a child.
Hemlock’s criticism stands.
But in this case, maybe “Josh” could have said: “Mom…why do you have to be such a cunt? Just resign and go back to England…”
But no…mom’s relishing her “power”…
@dimuendo
In ordinary circumstances it should indeed be the case that sins of the parent never be visited upon… however, the way Carrie Lamzhou has condemned so many youth to incarceration and persecution, there are naturally some exceptions
@dimuendo: I can’t see Hemlock “condemning” Joshua Lam. He just doesn’t feel sorry for him. And -so far- we don’t know, if Josh Lam will/can continue his PHD @Harvard. His “hardship” seems acceptable compared to thousands of his peers in Hongkong suffering under a regime which is represented by his mother.
The only reasonable approach is to force the boy Josh to take a loyalty oath to his mum or to refute her. If he refutes the miserable traitoress, then no sanctions.
The time frame for Joshua going “missing” seems to allow for a two week quarantine on arrival back in Hong Kong.
But I would like someone to confirm that he did spend two weeks along with everyone else, and didn’t get any special treatment for the time, or more importantly, the location where he was.
As for “condemning the child for the actions of his mother”, well he’s not a child, and he can state his own opinions anytime, no one is stopping him.
Well, no one should be stopping him from speaking his mind.
@dimuendo,
I disagree. Her actions have now affected her nearest and dearest and may (although I doubt it) give her pause to think what she is doing ? I hope the U.K. Government will do something similar as they will really wipe that arrogant look off her face. She may then repeat the last words of Alec Guinness in the final act of the Bridge over the River Kwai ?
Targeted sanctions are a smart, limited response to objectionable state behaviour and are a peaceful alternative to more kinetic forms of state action.
For sanctions to be effective, they must include all members of a targeted individual’s immediate family.
Mrs. Lam’s situation is an excellent example. Despite her limited exposure to the US, the sanctions have had an immediate impact upon her and her family.
Also, her example will certainly give other officials something to think about.
If the UK were to impose its own sanctions on Hong Kong officials, for historical reasons they would be even more powerful than US sanctions.
If the Five Eyes worked in unison, the effect would be devastating.
@dimuendo
Let’s not lose sight of the facts: it is Josh’s mum’s actions that have condemned the “child”. Hemlock has nothing to do with it, other than expressing a little Schadenfreude.
Given his mum’s hand in ruining the future of millions of people, and targeting students especially for repression beatings and arrest, a bit of a giggle about a tiny modicum of karma and payback visited on her own student kid seems entirely forgivable. It is also notable that Jimmy Lai’s two sons got arrested along with him by her government today.
It’s not as if Josh has denounced her actions: as a grown adult, he voluntarily and deliberately came running home to mummy and the CCP’s protection at the first sign of trouble, about a fortnight after the US sanctions legislation got passed.
As far as I’m concerned he’s totally blown his “innocent victim of circumstance” card by his scuttling back to (and thus not-so-implicitly supporting) the regime, so in his case I’d say the whole “mummy never told me what she did in the concentration camps” defence is moribund: he knows what she’s doing and what she is, and his move thus far has been to profit from her rather than condemn her.
In the words of Dr Thompson: “No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride…”
All this talk about Joshua Lam gets me thinking about his (near) contemporary, Joshua Wong. I guess Joshua was a popular choice to name a boy in Hong Kong back at that time?
Speaking of the offspring of Chief Executives: remember CY’s errant daughter? I wonder if Carrie can cite “family reasons” if/when she finally is allowed to resign…
Don’t feel sorry for young Mr. Lam. Even if he has really suspended his studies/Ph.D. research in the US and can’t return there, I am sure there is another university somewhere that will admit and support him to pick-up where he left off. Peking, Fudan or Tsinghua perhaps? Doesn’t matter, they all practice various forms of copycat research. Since his mother is such Chinese patriot, she might prefer her son to study/work in the Motherland that she so proudly serves.
Carrie claims to be Catholic. Catholics believe in inherited or ‘original’ sin, washed away by Baptism.
So in her belief system it’s perfectly valid for Josh to inherit her sins and face the metaphysical consequences, if not the tangible ones. Maybe he thinks so too.
Over 100 cops raided Lai’s offices today. Must have been a slow crime day in Hong Kong.
@Stanley Lieber: I was thinking the same thing. British sanctions would hurt more.
Could the UK bar Lam from returning there after her term as CE ends?
Get out.
@ Guest
The UK can bar her as a potential terrorist/human rights offender even before her term ends.
If 5 Eyes and the EU could get their act together, she and the rest of the mob could be confined to China for ever.
When I taught at CityU, Robert Mugabe’s daughter Bona was admitted to and completed an undergraduate degree. She was dropped off and collected at the campus each day by bodyguards in a black SUV. There was some grumbling among faculty concerning her presence, but senior administration maintained a stony silence and collected her tuition fees.
Following graduation in HK and subsequent master’s degree study in Singapore, Ms. Mugabe married a thuggish fellow (Daddy’s girl), had a kid, and with her family split for Malaysia after Robert was forced to resign. In 2019, she was named executor of Pop’s estate, so she gets to loot what’s left of what he looted and stiff her brothers. Some people have all the luck.
Karma is a bitch…
I’ve just witnessed Agnes Chow being driven away in (totally unnecessary) handcuffs. This place is really going to the dogs.
Though I do not have nearly as much “skin in the game” as most of you, it still makes my blood boil knowing those smug, sycophantic ass lickers think they’re “in the right” contributing to the demise of the homes of so many decent, regular, unconnected people just trying to get by.
I hope scum like Vagina, Junious Whore, CY, “Starry”, and so many more of the miserable lot that stood up AGAINST decency in HK in order to profess their love (of convenience) to the CCP and Emperor Winnie are actively sanctioned as well.
Like petite doe-eyed Agnes could floor any of our superfit troops ….. or maybe she could! When she spotted the minders hanging around outside she should have taken off on a mystery tour, jumping on and off various transport, weaving in and out of malls. That would have either worn them out or triggered an impromptu arrest that would have looked even more Samson and Goliath.
On the bright side, we will not have to put up with any more bleating from the ‘it will only affect a very few’ brigade.