From Foreign Policy, Luke de Pulford on finding himself named as a co-conspirator in the Jimmy Lai trial. …
…[To Beijing, t]he national security law alone fails to address the underlying problem of Hong Kong’s burning desire for autonomy. So it was deemed necessary to resurrect a well-worn trope: that any dissent must be the result of a Western-orchestrated plot … this must mean that the 2019 protests were a Western conspiracy, and that the million-plus Hong Kongers who filled the streets were passive lemmings, manipulated by sleepers for foreign interests.
…Lai, we are told, was “colluding with foreign forces.” Septuagenarian Lai, we are expected to believe, was somehow behind the predominantly youth-run protests, ably assisted by interfering foreigners.
That’s why the charges of co-conspiracy laid against me, Magnitsky Act campaigner Bill Browder, and former Japanese Diet Member Shiori Kanno are useful tools. If Lai has supposedly colluded with foreign forces, then there need to be some foreign forces with which he has colluded.
…If I had the opportunity to testify in these kangaroo proceedings, I would tell the court that I know [Andy] Li pretty well. He was very active in his work, and many people knew him. But he simply didn’t know Lai. Li was entirely self-motivated. Nobody else was behind his work. Not me, and certainly not Lai. Of the hundreds of pages of text messages between Li and myself that are in the possession of the court, they won’t find a single mention of Jimmy Lai. Some mastermind.
This is the tragic reality of Lai’s case, which in microcosm tells the story of the degradation of a once-revered legal system and the demise of Hong Kong itself. Lai will be convicted, but not through guilt. His conviction will rely on coerced testimony from a reported torture victim who will potentially fabricate stories about certain actions that wouldn’t be criminal in any free country anyway—such as organizing roundtables on human rights or emailing a foreign politician—and all to satisfy a bizarre state obsession with a mastermind narrative.
I remember a time when Hong Kong people pitied Taiwan for being a police state. It’s impossible to miss today’s contrast.
Tsai [Ing-wen] exploited the turmoil in Hong Kong and whipped up support for her pro-independence stance by denigrating “One Country, Two Systems”. Many in Hong Kong thought it was Hong Kong’s chief Carrie Lam who handed her a surprising victory.
Good analysis from Frozen Garlic…
The KMT’s election results might be the most interesting. They have now failed to break 40% in three consecutive presidential elections. That’s not good. They will rationalize this defeat by talking about how Ko split the anti-DPP vote. However, they should be asking themselves why they were unable to defend that vote. A successful political party goes out and wins votes; it doesn’t just wait for the other party to mess up.
China gets miffed over ‘incorrect signals’ – international messages of congratulations – to the new leadership.
More from the Guardian…
Speaking after the result on Saturday, Chen Binhua, the spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) repeated its claim that “Taiwan is China’s Taiwan”, and reiterated its commitment to the “inevitable trend” of annexation.
“This election cannot change the basic pattern and direction of development of cross-strait relations … that the motherland will eventually be reunified.”
On Sunday Taiwan’s foreign ministry condemned the comments as “fallacious”, “absurd”, and “not worthy of rebuttal”.
It said claiming Taiwan was an “internal Chinese matter” was “totally inconsistent with the international perception and the cross-strait situation, and goes against the expectation of the global democratic community, and the will of the people of Taiwan in insisting on the value of democracy”.
And a quick word from Global Times…
Taiwan has never been a country, neither in the past nor in the future. “Taiwan independence” has never been and will never be possible. Anyone in Taiwan who attempts to promote “Taiwan independence” is attempting to divide the territory of China and will face severe punishment from history and the law, said [Foreign Minister] Wang, stressing that Taiwan secessionism will be a dead end, and China’s reunification is inevitable.
In case you overlooked them, catch up on the legislative election results.
Some reading if you have 10 minutes: a ruggedly non-CCP history of Taiwan from the Council on Geostrategy.
The DPP must be really jacked off that they couldn’t win a majority of the parliamentary seats. The associated data are rather telling. It should be remembered that many democratic countries/systems have a preliminary presidential vote, whereby if the winner fails to secure >50%, then the top two performing candidates participate in a run-off election. If such a scheme was adopted by Thailand/Taiwan, whatever, likely Lai would lose the second ballot. The 40.05% he received on Saturday would almost certainly not rise to 50.00000001%.
Jacked off, eh? To quote a great scholar, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
@Reactor #4
Fuck off you Pro CCP prostitute. Many democratic systems only require a simple majority you cunt. And in a run off election I think DPP would win. Anyway DPP won the most votes. Sure they didn’t win the legislature, but this is their third term and I am sure they will have no problem forming a coalition government with either KMT or TPP.
The truth is that all of these Taiwanese parties trust each other more than they trust CCP. KMT is pro unification with a massive asterisk: they would only unify with China if CCP is terminated. Otherwise they are pro status quo and will say anything to appease the massive dimwitted knuckle dragging political beast so that Taiwan can continue to enjoy de facto independence and they can continue their political survival.
@R4
If you are so keen on constructing democratic thought experiments, why haven’t you presented one for Hong Kong, where – if allowed a free vote – we all know that everyone currently occupying positions of power and patronage would be out on their ear, and the democratic opposition they subjugate would sweep into office?
@ Mark Bradley
Visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-round_system
“The two-round system is the most common way used to elect heads of state (presidents) of countries worldwide, a total of 84 countries elect their heads of state directly with a two-round system as opposed to only 21 countries that used single-round plurality (first-past-the-post).”
The article then lists the countries/jurisdictions that use the system.
Interestingly, surprisingly few prominent western democracies use first-past-the-post method, for example USA, Canada, UK (and looked at how 4cked up they are). Moreover, none of the ‘sensible’ countries in Europe use the system.
As the saying goes, you can, if willing, learn something new everyday.
@Eggs an ham
I am not sure of you are aware, but 49% of the population has below average intelligence, and about 30% of that rather large subset is of dim to imbecilic grade. Democracy embraces everybody (supposedly), but it begs the question why would you champion a selection system for your leader and/or government that wanted the the thickos to participate? It might make you feel warm and fuzzy, but it is nuts.
What coverage was there on Mainland television of people exactly like them – Han Chinese – discussing, rallying, arguing and then enthusiastically voting on ways to run their own country? None. The very concept of any of this gives an authoritarian regime the heebie-jeebies. The people are nothing; the state, the ideology is supreme.
How the panjandrums in Hong Kong got sucked into all this, and applaud Nat Sec dictates, is an awful wonder to behold.
“ but 49% of the population has below average intelligence”
@Reactor #4 that would be be you yet you are too high on your own bullshit to realise it. I am aware of the two round system you arrogant cunt. I have nothing against it, and do see its value. Taiwan doesn’t practice it, it’s up to Taiwan to decide its electoral method. DPP would have won the second round.