The trial begins of a group accused of planning a terrorist bombing and shooting attack in 2019. Interesting because: while authorities have announced the discovery of bomb-making and similar activities, the cases rarely seem to come to court; and this prosecution is outside the NatSec sphere – so there will be a jury.
Not sure if this is all sub judice, but Nury Vittaci sees fit to write a lengthy Twitter post asserting that the alleged terrorists were paid by the CIA, trained in Taiwan (crossbows!) and plotting ‘regime change’. Lots of tedious tanky stuff – but if the PRC had a shred of evidence that the US was attempting to engineer a violent overthrow of the Hong Kong/Chinese authorities, it would have broken off diplomatic relations with Washington.
Another Twitter thread by ex-District Council member Michael Mo – now in the UK – on the academic credentials of pro-Beijing industrialist ‘Dr’ Aaron Shum (bio here), who reportedly helped introduce the Dubai prince’s family office plans to Hong Kong officials. Some extracts…
On Wiki, Shum has been listed as a PhD at Southern Pacific University … in St. Kitts & Nevis and Belize.
…SPU has been named an unaccredited institution of higher education, aka Diploma Mills!
…SPU’s President Geoffrey Taylor is allegedly linked up with arms sales, drug deals and tax fraud [citation].
There’s quite a lot more (insurance companies, Greater Bay Area, Malaysia, etc).
(See also Elizabeth Quat.)
Want more stuff from Twitter? A post reporting on a talk at HKU – Accounting for the Rise of Nativism (Localism) in Hong Kong and Its Impact on Pro-democracy Sentiment 1997-2022: A Quantitative Analysis.
Some mid-week reading…
Cardinal Zen/Chan, Margaret Ng, Denise Ho et al are to challenge their conviction for not registering the 612 Fund (hearing in January next year).
An outlet called Providence fears for the independence of the Catholic church in Hong Kong…
The Hong Kong Diocese is collaborating with PRC authorities to achieve the Sinicization of religion, incorporating socialist values into the church’s teachings and diminishing the role of the Pope. Additionally, the PRC is moving to take over the administration of church institutions and now expects sermons to promote adherence to socialist values and acceptance of Beijing’s laws. Social actions, such as support for human rights and social justice causes, will no longer be permitted. Furthermore, the curriculum of religious schools is now integrated with national identity-based curricula.
The BBC on Hong Kong soccer and anthems…
“We were certainly put under pressure by the Hong Kong SAR [Special Administrative Region] Government to do everything we could to stop [booing of the PRC anthem],” [former HKFA boss Mark Sutcliffe] says.
“We ran publicity campaigns. We introduced more stringent security at matches, including searches and confiscation of banners. We couldn’t stop it altogether and the upshot was that we were fined by Fifa several times.”
In 2020 Hong Kong’s legislature also took measures, passing a bill that criminalised disrespect to the anthem – with a maximum prison sentence of three years.
Even so, in the first home game open to the public since the introduction of the new law in September 2022, the national anthem was again booed by sections of the crowd before kick-off against Myanmar.
Three months later, the 83 sporting associations in Hong Kong were told that they had to add “China” to their names or risk losing funding. About three-quarters had not previously done so.
Football fans flocked to buy the last batch of shirts that still had the former Hong Kong logo, before the word “China” was added to the dragon crest.
From AP a few weeks ago – a sensible look at the politics involved in researching Covid origins (mercifully light on the ‘lab leak’ obsession)…
Crucial initial efforts were hampered by bureaucrats in Wuhan trying to avoid blame who misled the central government; the central government, which muzzled Chinese scientists and subjected visiting WHO officials to stage-managed tours; and the U.N. health agency itself, which may have compromised early opportunities to gather critical information in hopes that by placating China, scientists could gain more access, according to internal materials obtained by AP.
The BBC on China’s sinking cities…
Nearly half of China’s major cities are sinking because of water extraction and the increasing weight of their rapid expansion, researchers say.
“In China there are lots of people living in areas that have been fairly recently sedimented, geologically speaking. So when you take out groundwater or you drain the soils, they tend to subside.”
East is Read summarizes two recent pieces by opposing Chinese commentators on the country’s future relations with the US – one by a level-headed academic, the other by a nationalistic blogger.
Sixth Tone asks a Chinese academic whether Marco Polo really visited so many parts of the Mongol Empire.
The Guardian on the Taiwan government’s plans to remove more statues of Chiang Kai-shek.
Pope Francis & Cardinal Parolin have let down badly the Catholic faithful in Hong Kong & China. One prays the next pope will be made of sterner stuff.
@ Lo Wu
“@Enzo: ditto those Kjeldsen’s Butter Cookies, those ghastly Ferrero chocolates and those teeth-rotting vile Quality Street toffees. They move in an alternate universe of recycling that targets those people you hate in particular. Actually not a bad thing.”
Anything called “Quality Street” is already a huge red flag. My friend’s cats also must be one of the chocolatiers that help create Ferrero chocolates because what they leave in the litter box looks identical.
“The Hong Kong Diocese is collaborating with PRC authorities to achieve the Sinicization of religion, incorporating socialist values into the church’s teachings and diminishing the role of the Pope. Additionally, the PRC is moving to take over the administration of church institutions and now expects sermons to promote adherence to socialist values and acceptance of Beijing’s laws. Social actions, such as support for human rights and social justice causes, will no longer be permitted. Furthermore, the curriculum of religious schools is now integrated with national identity-based curricula.”
Meanwhile the ghost of Henry VIII is taking notes should he decide to have a second coming.
“….if the PRC had a shred of evidence that the US was attempting to engineer a violent overthrow of the Hong Kong/Chinese authorities, it would have broken off diplomatic relations with Washington.”
Nah. Don’t buy it. There wasn’t a cat in hell’s chance that the overthrow effort, which I am convinced was attempted based on (i) my own observations and (ii) through my conversations with insiders, would come off. Therefore, the authorities stuck with the ongoing money-making/-milking programme (with the rest of the World), and the implementation of a softly-softly, long-game strangle on the protesters. This was, though, definitely aided by the Covid-19 restrictions, which forced the non-residents out (including the agitators), and allowed the border to be pretty much sealed. Given the hand that those in charge were dealt, I think they played a blinder, although a moderate-sized dollop of luck was also involved.
@Mark Bradley – I wouldn’t worry about Quality Street. At their present rate of shrinkage (just Google “shrinking Quality Street”), they will vanish altogether within a few years.
Given that according to our CE everybody could be a spy, are we really sure Sarcophagus#4 is not one of them? I mean, why would he always have to put so much emphasis on how he likes everything in the Hong Kong of the New Era? Sounds a bit fishy to me.
Mark Bradley is a tax exile with a strong connection to a friend’s cat.
@Mark Bradley
Talking about nutty chocolates, this should get your bowels moving:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJVWQd-GPec&ab_channel=Fridayeveryday
Anus # 4 sez: “based on (i) my own observations and (ii) through my conversations with insiders.”
What he is really saying: “(i)based on my observations from the pub and (ii) my conversations with the other two resident drunks.”
That is some seriously impressive tech from those kids: in just four months they managed to DIY a bomb yielding a 400m blast radius, beating the largest of the USAF’s Mk80 series GBUs, the Mk84 2,000lb (894 kg) BLU-117, with its 428 kg of high explosives by a cool 30m.
And they managed it with a device weighing a super featherweight 8kg all-in: Less than 1% of the Mk84!
With that sort of ground-breaking technical innovation from the local youth, perhaps the government should scrap the bio/fintech/whatever-it-is-this-week hub plans and explore the idea of making HKSAR a munitions hub! Because damn!
Who ISN’T a “tax exile” in Hong Kong if they’re not a homegrown Hongkey that grew up speaking Cantonese first??
Re: Lotta Bang; So much local talent unappreciated, locked up or departed.
The interesting thing about this case is that so far not one of these munitions experts has been persuaded or coerced into pleaded guilty.
But it would be a brave jury that would in any way rock the 100% conviction rate.
Woops I missed the bit where the ‘master minds’ have pleaded guilty and dealt with separately.