An Amnesty International report accuses Beijing of intimidating Chinese citizens, such as students and activists – overseas.
And police in the UK arrest three people suspected of working for ‘Hong Kong intelligence’. Two are ex-military security consultants, while the third is a manager at the HK Economic and Trade Office in London – who is an ex-cop and college classmate of CE John Lee. They are on bail.
Prosecutors allege that the two security guys engaged in ‘hostile surveillance and forcible entry of a residential address’, targeting members of the ‘Hong Kong diaspora’ (including Nathan Law and Christopher Mung), and were paid by the London HKETO. (More further down thread, eg here.)
The PRC embassy in London issues a statement of righteous indignation…
A spokesman said Beijing “firmly opposes and strongly condemns” the fabrication of the so-called espionage case and its “unjustified accusation” against the Hong Kong government.
“Britain has also arbitrarily harassed, arrested and detained Chinese nationals under the disguise of justice and national security, which is a serious provocation to the Chinese side and a serious violation of the basic norms of international relations,” he said.”We urge the UK to immediately rectify its mistakes, as any political maneuvers to slander China are doomed to failure. We advise Britain to stop going further down the wrong road to undermine Sino-British relations.”
The HK government offers a milder press release.
Comment from Michael Mo…
People at HKETO might feel embarrassed by the event. It’s like having an own goal while they were trying to “normalise” relations with Westminster Village. Hence, the HK authorities did not respond to the prosecution in a warrior-wolf tone. In contrast, the usual aggressive response by the PRC Embassy shows that they didn’t even read the prosecution bundle before responding.
This will be interesting. It will be an example of a Western democracy’s NatSec laws in action (eg, you can get bail). It concerns dissidents in exile with widely publicized bounties on their heads. The prosecution’s initial evidence looks like the result of a thorough investigation. And it allegedly has the HKETO’s fingerprints all over it (activists overseas have demanded that host nations shut the offices.)
Transit Jam visits the ‘Old Unlucky Building’ – site of a fire that claimed five lives a month ago – and finds conditions are the same as ever…
Aside from fire damage and problems of dirt, garbage and rodents, a tour of the building today revealed hundreds of unaddressed fire safety and fire escape issues.
More than half of the building’s fire doors were propped open or broken beyond function. Corridors and staircases still smell strongly of soot, with significant fire damage and soot on the lower six floors, where fire hoses are burned and melted. Emergency lights do not work, electrical cabling hangs down over fire escapes, a scenario one expert called the “widow maker” for its danger to fire crews. Garbage and construction waste block the fire escape stairwells.
Tourists seemed unconcerned for now. One Russian family of four ending their stay at Hang Fung Hostel told Transit Jam they did not know there had been a fire in the building and said the guest house was “fine”.
Some viewing for Buddha’s birthday – a good little video on the history of Macau’s gambling business.
So amateurish to have them paid directly by HKETO, they still have a lot to learn from PRC ops…
I always get a good chuckle from CCP Chinese that say – with straight faces – “…a serious violation of the basic norms of international relations.”
There’s a drinking game somewhere in there along with all the other usual suspect CCP exclamations of indignation.
(and today’s “official” in London definitely won WordWang by employing all the greatest hits in his diatribe! Pretty much came across like a current HK “official” trying to sound all grown up by mimicking Beijing “officials” 🤣)
‘ A spokesman said Beijing “firmly opposes and strongly condemns” the fabrication of the so-called espionage case and its “unjustified accusation” against the Hong Kong government.
“Britain has also arbitrarily harassed, arrested and detained Chinese nationals under the disguise of justice and national security, which is a serious provocation to the Chinese side and a serious violation of the basic norms of international relations,” he said.”We urge the UK to immediately rectify its mistakes, as any political maneuvers to slander China are doomed to failure. We advise Britain to stop going further down the wrong road to undermine Sino-British relations.”
Totaly predictable, the usual dross. They must have these responses prepared in advance ready to issue.
People on social media were more inventive predicting the response yesterday.
“The UK government opposes any interference in its internal affairs by outside countries.”
There you go.
Sorry, that should be RESOLUTELY opposes, of course. The Chinese know they’ve been caught with their pants down and all the Pavlovian responses are just for domestic consumption IMHO.
The links to Sam Bickett’s X feed is either (somehow) blocked, broken, or he deleted his comments. The link to Michael Mo’s works fine. Spooky!
Tickled pink to see a gwailo caught up in this. I reckon that nine out of ten of them will do just about anything to make money. Actually, half the fun of events like this is the officials’ indignant reactions. It is a high-level art form. Marvellous.
And then there’s this:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/programs/4corners
Should also be available on YouTube if you can’t watch it on that ABC site.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STq7LNwa3Gs
In recent weeks my comments on this site have repeatedly failed to post, perhaps for my own protection! Whatever the reason and whomever the culprit, I’m leaving. Bonne chance, mes amis!
Have they arrested you yet? You get a better uk.gov pension if they do.