Tycoons’ lobby groups close

The decline of a semi-open political system and civil society in NatSec-era Hong Kong extends beyond pan-dem parties, activist groups and unions – it’s also affecting tycoons’ ‘think-tanks’. A Standard editorial notes the imminent closure of property scion Lau Wai-ming’s youth-oriented MWYO, the wrapping up of Donald Tsang’s buddies’ Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre in 2022, and the fall in donations toTung Chee-hwa’s Our Hong Kong Foundation. Also, the shutting of the Hong Kong Development Centre…

Since pro-democracy candidates were blocked from contesting the city’s elections, the need for the center has … disappeared

Although these groups were hardly part of the opposition, they would implicitly criticize official policy by proposing different ideas in a spirit of pluralism, healthy debate and unashamed grovelling for handouts. Now, businessmen who know what’s good for them just keep their heads down.

Some weekend reading…

From Zolima City Mag, a look at the 1950s-60s rivalry between right- and left-wing movie production studios in Hong Kong…

A lot of what was put on screen was subtle, as studios from both sides of the political spectrum were trying to entice the audience to go to the cinema first of all for entertainment, but also to feed them an aspirational or educational story. If the right-wing studios were presenting stories in which a growing urban middle class was going to coffee shops and dance clubs, taking up white-collar jobs and embracing Westernised modernity, the patriotic film studios would often have a less individualistic message, with greater emphasis on the collective, on working-class heroes, evil landlords and wealth inequalities, or dramas that unfolded and were resolved thanks to the combined action of citizens in solidarity with each other. Many were also highly entertaining comedies, in which the object of ridicule was the moneyed class.

China Media Project examines the rise of the phrase ‘美西方’ – ‘US-Western’ – instead of plain ‘Western’ in Beijing’s discourse, to underline the idea that countries that displease Beijing are American puppets …

“When we said ‘the West’ in the past,” the People’s Daily wrote in their 2022 piece on the phrase, “it referred to all developed capitalist countries in the Western Hemisphere, which constituted an ideological camp…

“Countries in the same camp still have their own demands. Even if they saw America as their leader, they didn’t follow all of its demands. In the changes unseen in a century, however, the declining US Empire must seize every advantage it can… Even [America’s] Western allies have been mercilessly suppressed. They dare not speak out, but must hold back their silent fury.”

The phrase also now appears in many Hong Kong government press releases, though the author adds…

As @kjoules pointed out to me, the usual translation of「美西方」in HK gov’t press releases is “the United States and some western countries.”

This is a deliberate mistranslation that obscures the term’s intended meaning in Chinese, making it more palatable to int’l audiences.

For journalists and other naifs who are – again – pondering the supposed likelihood of the Yuan replacing the Dollar, a classic Michael Pettis paper from 2022 spelling it all out in easy-to-understand terms.

A video from a Taiwanese state-owned outlet, Who are the Taiwanese? Taiwan Undaunted Ep1, by an American journalist and veteran Taiwan watcher. A very simple introduction for those – sharp as naifs – who have never visited or learnt much about Taiwan. While the narrative stresses the unique identity of the place, it actually refrains from being especially assertive about countering Beijing’s lines. For example, he refers to the Manchu Qing rulers as ‘Chinese’.