Beijing-owned newspaper Wen Wei Po is working on living up to its motto ‘You read it here first’. Following warnings by Chief Executive Carrie Lam to the Law Society about being ‘politicized’, the paper attacked member Jonathan Ross – who subsequently received some sort of threats against his family, and now pulls out of the Society’s council elections.
The paper is also following (or writing the screenplay for?) the Andy Li NatSec trial. Although Li is a defendant, the prosecution’s case seems to be focused on Jimmy Lai – crafting a version of events in which the crowdfunding of ads calling for sanctions becomes an international conspiracy masterminded by the publisher. Li, who was held in Shenzhen for months and has mysteriously acquired a pro-Beijing lawyer, is agreeing with this narrative in court. Description of the overblown plot here. A response from an overseas activist named by Wen Wei Po here.
Will Wen Wei Po be targeting psychologists and counsellors next? (I would have thought they’re further down the list, but who knows?)
Occasionally, Beijing runs up against reality in Hong Kong. The anti-sanctions law was due to be rushed through – then suddenly turns into something taking far longer to implement. The U-turn is not officially a U-turn. Chinese retaliation against US sanctions cannot be symmetrical: the US can kill Chinese banks by cutting them off from its financial system, while foreign institutions have no access to, or need for, equivalent RMB processes in the Mainland. And it’s nothing to do with Hong Kong’s interests: China’s CCP-guided economy needs access to the dollar system.
Something I have in common with the Hong Kong government: not realizing that Nicole Kidman is so famous that a citizen’s complaint about her car parking illegally on Queens Road Central is front-page news around the world.
I expect a turnaround on the banning Bitcoin mining and bitcoin trading soon, too, as it was a possible workaround should Beijing want to really implement its fevered fantasy of having the yuan replace the dollar as the worldwide reserve currency. No, I’m not kidding.
So let’s say hypothetically that coordinating a crowd founding campaign that buys ads on foreign media asking for sanctions is “colluding with foreign forces” and thus violates NSL. Didn’t this all happen BEFORE NSL was enacted? Is this yet another example of the NSL being applied in a retroactive manner?
“I expect a turnaround on the banning Bitcoin mining and bitcoin trading soon, too, as it was a possible workaround should Beijing want to really implement its fevered fantasy of having the yuan replace the dollar as the worldwide reserve currency. No, I’m not kidding.”
People in China still trade Bitcoin and gamble with it even though it’s banned. The crypto mining ban however was effective due to its high energy consumption nature.
I don’t think CCP will unban bitcoin in any way because it circumvents capital controls and can’t be controlled by CCP. What I believe will happen instead is the digital yuan will be pushed heavily, though it won’t make it possible for yuan to ever replace the dollar as a worldwide reserve currency.
Another question needs to be asked is if coordinating a crowd funding campaign that buys ads on foreign media asking for sanctions violates the NSL. Does contributing to such a crowd funding campaign also violate the NSL?
Never mind bitcoin (a disaster waiting to happen). Whatever happened to the HK 10-dollar coins?
@Mark Bradley: Yes, look at Aaron Mc.’s timeline. The “conspiracy” primarily occurs the ad-buys and overseas lobbying, all of which takes place long before July 1, 2020, and is legal at the time. This isn’t the only case where it’s obvious the state security law is and probably was always intended to be retroactive. Same goes for the hinting about persecution of the CHRF—all the allegedly subversive activities occurred long before the law was announced.
“@Mark Bradley: Yes, look at Aaron Mc.’s timeline. The “conspiracy” primarily occurs the ad-buys and overseas lobbying, all of which takes place long before July 1, 2020, and is legal at the time. This isn’t the only case where it’s obvious the state security law is and probably was always intended to be retroactive. Same goes for the hinting about persecution of the CHRF—all the allegedly subversive activities occurred long before the law was announced.”
Which is absolutely infuriating. And the scummiest thing of all will be that 3 judges will be cherry picked who will sign off on all of this and find the defendants “GUILTY” of retroactive “crimes”. It’s just absolutely unbelievable yet is actually happening.
The pressure with regard to the The Law Society elections indicates that it is not only the judges who are expected to be compliant. We are now heading for a full on prosecution led system where any defence is at best lip service.
For some light relief, according to a report that appears to have been removed, at the Sunday RTHK ‘Policy Consultation” at which 90 of the 100 odd participants were invited by Casper from the ‘community grass roots groups’ and DAB while a mere 16 were ‘random choice’, apparently one ‘fan’ voiced his desire to make a baby with Carrie! Puts the whole charade into perspective.
My TV set up box with uncanny prescience does not recognize the RTHK channels so cannot corroborate this.
Mark Bradley said: “And the scummiest thing of all will be that 3 judges will be cherry picked who will sign off on all of this and find the defendants “GUILTY” of retroactive “crimes”. It’s just absolutely unbelievable yet is actually happening.”
Yet it’s totally expected and emblematic of 新香港 : Asia’s New Model Tyranny.
We’re already at the Throwing Dissidents in the Loony Bin stage of authoritarianism. Andy Li was held incommunicado in a high security mental institution until he accepted the lawyer the government pushed on him.