Round-up of the round-ups

This is turning out to be NatSec Year. From the last couple of days…

Following opening statements, the pan-dem primary-election trial moves on to witnesses’ testimony next week. The prosecution is presenting vast quantities of evidence – much of it statements in various forms openly made in public during 2020. A random sample…

Accused pan-dems pleading guilty and turning prosecution witnesses will probably just be confirming that the discussion of election plans and rationales behind them did indeed take place – as we all know they did, because they were reported, with little fuss or fanfare (let alone arrests), at the time. Little fuss or fanfare because, whatever else the broader public might have thought, few perceived anything illegal about the primary-election plan.

In the Stand News sedition trial, prosecutors cite and dispute the veracity of articles on police violence in 2019. It seemed true then, but it’s not true now? And seditious?

Two members of Returning Valiant are sentenced to five years for ‘conspiracy to incite subversion’ through street booths, media interviews and…

…two Instagram accounts and one Facebook page, which [Judge] Kwok said could spread their beliefs to “an unlimited amount of people.”.

More here…

Chan’s individual case was also found to be “serious” because … he provided English interpretation for the group’s press conference. Kwok said “it’s rather clear that he was trying to promote their ideas to international members”.

Despite all this, compulsory school field trips to the Mainland, with a heavy dose of NatSec, will not be as extensive as pro-Beijing people would like…

A day tour to the Dongjiang Column Memorial Hall will focus on the anti-Japanese resistance and the importance of national security, including a visit to the Museum of Cantonese Opera Art.

Students will learn that maintaining “cultural security” is a key foundation for maintaining “national and ethnic unity.”

…Most parents are reluctant to send their children as they said “the trip is too short and meaningless.”

Maybe long and meaningless trips would be better – it’s not easy to get high-schoolers enthused by ‘cultural security’.

A little reading for the weekend: Adam Tooze on China’s real-estate bubble…

…Rogoff and Yang estimate that 43 percent of all homes in China had been built since 2010, 68 percent since 2000 and 88 percent since 1990. If you put this in relation to total population it implies that in a single generation, China has built enough homes to house a billion people. 

…So, simply to stabilize the Chinese real estate market, not to unleash a new boom but to clean up the most serious overhang from the last few years of excess, will require a commitment of in the order of 5 percent of GDP even if the resources are perfectly targeted. That is a measure of the challenge ahead.