The government strips pro-democracy veteran Martin Lee of his ‘Justice of the Peace’ title. Insofar as JPs have serious duties (such as visiting prisons), surely they should all relinquish the office at a certain age, well before Lee’s 86 years. But among Hong Kong’s traditional establishment, having the letters ‘JP’ after your name is a big symbolic deal, with many tycoons over the decades begging officials to grant the bauble to their kids. (You may or may not think there’s more than a few riffraff on the list.) To today’s patriots-only crowd, an office dating back to 14th Century England (Edward III, 1361) should surely be abolished as a colonial hangover anyway. Lee himself is probably enjoying the ironies.
The police extend seasonal cheer to people visiting a book fair in Sheung Wan, checking IDs and bags…
Books were also on display at former bookstore Mount Zero, which bid farewell to hundreds of book lovers in late March. The shop had announced its decision to close last December, citing a string of inspections by authorities following alleged anonymous complaints.
On Friday afternoon, a HKFP reporter at the scene saw uniformed police stop a car leaving the former Mount Zero bookstore. In the vehicle was the bookstore’s former owner and pro-democracy figure and barrister [and author] Margaret Ng. The police let the vehicle go after around five minutes.
I hope no visitors to Hong Kong were caught up in this apparently pointless exercise – it’s the sort of thing that puts tourists off.
I wonder if Martin was stripped of his JP authorization in order to prevent him from visiting Jimmy Lai and others that are rotting away in prison?
That the CE’s Office refused to comment whereas the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau was happy to explain the removal tells you all you need to know as to who is really running Hong Kong. But we already knew that.
It seems that everybody is on that list, except Leon Lai and Nury Hitachi. Yep, Bunny Chan is there.
There’s still hope for me of marrying in Hongkers with Seman/Nosferatu officiating???