Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang writes a wrathful letter to the Wall Street Journal insisting that Hong Kong still has freedom – and then, in a nice touch, threatening the paper with legal action for ‘incitement’. This for publishing an editorial mentioning that election boycotts/blank ballots are a way for voters to express their political views.
The WSJ being an English-language paper with a fairly impenetrable paywall, few people in Hong Kong would have noticed the editorial – but thanks to Erick’s missive, now everyone knows about it (even if, like me, they still haven’t actually read it).
If you enjoy the Hong Kong government’s whines to the media, immerse yourself in the glorious treasure trove that is the ‘clarifications archive’.
And do you remember when a Chief Executive announced that he would boycott a LegCo election?
In case you are still undecided – Hong Kong and Macau Affairs boss Xia Baolong wants Hongkongers to vote.
David Webb analyzes HKFP poll results and finds (or confirms) a major correlation between age/education and political leanings in Hong Kong.
DW on the gradual suppression of press and speech freedom in Hong Kong.
A rolling tally of traffic accidents in Hong Kong per day (by ‘accidents’ we mostly mean ‘morons not driving properly’)…
…every day in HK there’s over a hundred road crashes reported and dozens of injuries.
Don’t often link to the UK’s Daily Mail, but here’s an interesting piece on a Conservative MP blasting leftist Labourites as useful idiots for backing the CCP…
[A] coalition of left-wing campaigners and Chinese activists blame ‘aggressive Government statements against China’ for driving a spike in anti-Asian racism, claiming it is leading to a ‘new cold war’.
If I were a hardened cynic, I might suspect that the UK leadership opened the door to Hong Kong immigrants on the assumption that the newcomers would likely vote Tory.
Wired joins in the Peng Shuai analysis…
When civic spaces are closed and groups deleted, individuals with few or no connections outside of social media have backlogs of resources and connections taken away. In the case of WeChat specifically—which users in China utilize for chats, payments, blog publishing, travel, and other digital record keeping—a suspension or ban cuts a user off from many everyday communication and life tools.
This is not about topics. This censorship is fundamentally about the dismantling of social resources.
And I join in the https://app.wombo.art/ trendy fad…
I suspect what they fear more than a boycott is lots of people posting slightly ambiguously spoiled ballot papers … the kind that require a few moments of checking or thought. A mark that overlaps two boxes, say, or a squiggle that might be a signature. Checking every ballot would clog up the count and take it well into Monday morning before announcing pathetically low figures for the ‘winners’.
So nobody should do that. That would be terrible.
“The WSJ being an English-language paper with a fairly impenetrable paywall, few people in Hong Kong would have noticed the editorial – but thanks to Erick’s missive, now everyone knows about it (even if, like me, they still haven’t actually read it).”
You can penetrate it using archive.is
Works great with SCMP too
But don’t, whatever you do, read the WSJ’s reader comments section. Lots of stuff along the lines of “Xi’s Hong Kong sounds like Biden’s America”. zzzzzzzzzzzzz
“But don’t, whatever you do, read the WSJ’s reader comments section. Lots of stuff along the lines of “Xi’s Hong Kong sounds like Biden’s America”. zzzzzzzzzzzzz”
Oh man. Gotta love delusional anti vaxx / mask Trumpkins that think wearing a mask is a serious assault on freedom and not a means to protective oneself and others during a pandemic as well as provide some degree of anonymity especially when combined with cap and sunglasses.
These two concepts are understood by HKers well and they bring so called “libertarians” in the US to shame as they did it on their own without being ordered to do so by the government.
@Mark Bradley
And lest we forget, that anonymity is the reason it’s still very much illegal to wear a mask in public Hong Kong in groups of 4 or up even now that it’s also illegal not to wear a mask in public in groups of 4 or up.
“And lest we forget, that anonymity is the reason it’s still very much illegal to wear a mask in public Hong Kong in groups of 4 or up even now that it’s also illegal not to wear a mask in public in groups of 4 or up.”
Indeed. Talk about Kafkaesque.
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
More mixed messaging from China – on planned US diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Winter Olympics :
The US is violating “political neutrality in sport” and the proposed boycott is “based on lies and rumours”. China will “resolute countermeasures”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59559703
But:
“no one would care about whether these people come or not, and it has no impact whatsoever on the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics to be successfully held,”
https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1623135-20211207.htm
(the RTHK piece has some of both types of reaction)
No matter how many times it happens, I cannot read the name Xia Baolong without my dyslexia making me think of delicious steamed dumplings
The readers of this blog would likely be quite surprised by the number of left-leaning/Labour/Democrat-voting expats in Hong Kong who opposed the protests and were happy when the government cracked down.
Yeah well, tankies are dipshits. Also plenty of right-leaning expats who only supported the HK protests because the bad guys were “Red China” but support police violence and interrogation by torture in the United States because what are those black people and scary Muslims complaining about anyway? You go far enough left or right, and you find people who back authoritarianism when it suits them.
@Bloody: Being liberal and “progressive” is all right and fine….until you’re inconvenienced.
@Bloody Well Right
I know a handful who were advocating democracy before, yet went Tankie. A crop of sycophantic turkeys…
@Bloody Well Right
Well this Reader is often saddened at expatty gatherings when amiable and decent friends reveal that they have not a clue what has happened these last few years to the people and fabric of the place they also inhabit. Airy talk of disruption [to their comfortable lives, I suppose] is felt to be the nub of the issue.
@Reader: It’s those sorts of expats the government is interested in attracting. Trivial dopes who think that politics is boring and who don’t care if the locals (who aren’t real people anyway, they’re staff) lose their civil liberties as long as little Isabella gets to her hot goat yoga class on time.
The question is whether foreign residents eligible to vote here are actually registered to do so. If not, then they are not really interested in local affairs and do not really care about local people. They just want to be able to continue to enjoy their privileged and comfortable lives without being disturbed by less privileged, disaffected locals.
@Penny
So… You are a strong proponent of voting in the upcoming election cycle?
@Bloody Well Right
You’re telling us that many expats are short-sighted, self-involved, trivial, entitled, whingeing dickheads with no clue about HK politics!?!?
Shock horror! Shome mishtake shurely?
Next you’ll be telling us the quality of life and freedoms in HK under the CCP may decline …
@Hamantha – I might ask you the same question and await your response before deeming to answer.
@Penny
I guess we’ll just have to read the tea leaves to find our respective answers.
@Hamantha – an answer, of sorts!
CL said “those casting their ballots would be showing their support for Beijing’s revamp of the SAR’s electoral system.”
https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1623316-20211208.htm
Since I certainly do not support “Beijing’s revamp of the SAR’s electoral system” it would seem that I should not “cast my ballot” – according to CL’s logic.