A minor amusement – or at least a curiosity – as Hong Kong’s NatSec regime prepares to prosecute HK Alliance and other activists for their past calls for an end to China’s one-party state. Several current judges, including one at the proceedings for Chow Hang-tung last Friday and three NatSec judges, signed a petition in May 1989 supporting the students in Tiananmen Square. A reminder that some of today’s leading pro-Beijing figures did as well.
A few other things…
Some more details on the prison authorities’ horror upon finding that jailed activists might engage with and win support from fellow inmates. Could the Correctional Services management avoid ‘rebellion’ over chocolate and hairpins if they updated their obsessive and petty restrictions on what items prisoners may receive?
Denise Ho’s concert goes ahead online from an undisclosed (and apparently sweaty) location.
Professor Michael Davis’ testimony before the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Among many gems…
It seems only in Hong Kong does trying to defeat the government in accordance with constitutional requirements amount to subversion.
And more on Beijing’s use of social media – the YouTube foreign legion.
“It seems only in Hong Kong does trying to defeat the government in accordance with constitutional requirements amount to subversion.”
This is what angers me the most, because at the heart of this attempt is the knowledge that the CCP knowingly is abusing its position of power, and also abusing the lack of knowledge that a percentage of China’s population experiences in relation to what actually constitutes governance and political oppression.
it’s like they know they can rub it in everyone’s faces and they even have the audacity to demand that people comply with it. When you talk to liberal westerners about this they say, yes but China has done so much for its people. But you are willing to ignore that it’s literally behaving the very definition of a fascist government and actually harming people in ways that you yourself would call illiberal?
Human beings are the stupidest things in the universe, and it sucks that the even more stupid can govern them because we allow it, and because they take their positions by force.
More on HK prisons and the current state of the law in HK:
Bickett’s experiences have shaken him, and his fundamental belief in the law itself: “I’ve committed my entire career to the law. I believe in the law…But that was utterly crushed by what happened to me and what I’ve seen happen to other people in this city.”
https://twitter.com/ShibaniMahtani/status/1437229232132792324
@donkey,
Spot on again.
Locally one of the frustrations is either the ignorance or the arrogance of, for example, local media trying to polish a turd by presenting the current events as they HKG still has some functioning, independent, (competent) government. It doesn’t.
This is a fascist state.
I also guffawed/nearly choked when TVB ran a trailer for nights ‘Money Matters (Cos nothing fucking else seems to anymore)’ with a voice-over…
‘Ninty thousand Hong Kongers have emigrated since [Q last year?] – what has caused this sudden exodus?’
The CSD boss says that political prisoners (not his term for them) have been “dispersed across the city’s detention centres to prevent them being in contact with one another” – thereby giving them contact with more inmates to whom they can spread their message. Another own goal by the government.
On state subversion in the women’s prison, I’d like to ask the question that is on everyone’s mind in but no one yet has the temerity to ask: “How will this affect property prices?”
@donkey
A very good Washington Post editorial here (probably behind a paywall, but I think there are a few free reads every month): https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/09/china-covid-19-investigations-secrecy-human-rights-stonewalling/
@Load Toad: There is a particular kind of grifter in the think tank/non-profit/posh conference circuit that has jumped on the turd polishing bandwagon. I recently received an invitation to a webinar that said something like “According to a recent poll, 60% of young people in Hong Kong want to emigrate. How can we attract them to stay?” Then it went on about “smart cities”, “economic opportunities”, “climate resilience” etc.
HOW ABOUT NOT THROWING THEM IN JAIL?
If I could have reached through the screen and slapped whoever wrote that in the face, I would have.
‘Ninty thousand Hong Kongers have emigrated since [Q last year?] – what has caused this sudden exodus?’
Perhaps this bit of irony was done purposely by a staffer with a small streak of the rebel in his/her heart just to get a jab in?
Starry Lee reinvents the wheel:
“I think the government should put more emphasis on the housing and land issue because that is one of the structural issues that we have not successfully dealt with. Therefore, we have suggested to put land planning and housing into one bureau … we believe that with that setting, it helps the government to speed up the development of land and also building of housing.”
IT WAS CERTAINLY NOT THE PANDEMS THAT HELD THAT UP. REVAMPING THE BUREAUS WAS ALWAYS A GOAL OF FOLK LIKE CHU HOI DICK
Lee said a new bureau focusing on cultural development would be in line with plans for Hong Kong set out under Beijing’s 14th five-year plan.
HMMM AS I REMEMBER IT, OUR CULTURE AND HERITAGE HAS BEEN PRESERVED DUE TO THE INTERVENTION OF THE LITTLE PEOPLE AND MANY LONG BATTLES WITH THE ADMINISTRATION AND NO SUPPORT FROM DAB
“We have that potential to further develop our cultural, sports and tourist industries. And of course it is not only about industry. We want Hong Kong to act as a centre to deliver good China stories,” she added.
THE LAST SENTENCE DELIVERED WITH A QUICK NERVOUS LAUGH, LIKE PHEW, GOT THAT ONE IN
@Mary Melville – another term for the dictionary of Mainland English: “culture”. To the CCP, this doesn’t mean a living active society, but a few colourful remnants that can serve as tourist attractions. Tibetan folk dances and a couple of show monasteries yes, Tibetan Buddhism as a way of life and the Tibetan language in schools no. No doubt the Heung Yee Kuk will help them cook up something appropriate for Hong Kong Cantonese culture in exchange for continuing their customary privileges.