Your regular ‘absconder’ reminder

NatSec police bring the parents of wanted activist Frances Hui into police stations for questioning. It is the mother’s second time…

National security police reportedly first took in the mother for questioning a week after they issued an arrest warrant and placed a HK$1 million bounty on her daughter’s head on December 14, 2023.

Hui was the first high-profile Hong Kong activist to be granted political asylum in the US. Now a policy and advocacy coordinator at The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, she is accused of colluding with foreign forces. 

She responds…

My parents and I have had no contact since I left Hong Kong in 2020. I’ve been financially independent ever since. The police arranged a crowd of media to photograph their exit—to humiliate them. This is a deliberate attempt to intimidate & silence me.

These mini-detentions of relatives and friends give the ‘absconders’ additional opportunities to amplify and justify their opposition to Hong Kong’s government. What else do they accomplish?

A top government official latches on to ever more obscure – some might say desperate – micro-measures to rejuvenate the economy…

Authorities have said they will make it easier for people to cook freshly caught fish on boats, as part of a push to promote island hopping tourism.

Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law said in an interview with Wen Wei Po published on Thursday that the easing of fishing regulations is part of the administration’s medium-term plan in boosting tourism.

China File asks various think-tank/academic types to explain what Trump’s China policy really is. As one says…

Looking for a consistent “China strategy” under Trump 2.0 may well be what a Chinese idiom calls, climbing a tree to look for a fish: It assumes a level of coherence and institutional continuity that simply doesn’t apply.

And another…

The most benign possible interpretation of Trump’s all-fronts power play is that he simply wants to display dominance and extract statements of submission. Once the needed kowtows have been made, business can proceed more or less as before. This was roughly how Trump operated in his first term. And it might explain the extraordinary reversal of April 9, when Trump abruptly paused virtually all his “reciprocal” tariffs except those on China, on the grounds that China had disrespected him by retaliating, whereas other countries had not.

The better explanation of that move, however, is that Trump and his advisors realized that his April 2 tariff barrage would soon lead to economic catastrophe. China’s retaliation provided the pretext for a face-saving retreat on most fronts, while leaving the trade war on China in place. Administration apologists jumped to claim that targeting China was the master plan all along, but this is certainly false.

The world’s (not just the US’s) great trade problem can be summed up in a few (approximate, previously mentioned) stats: China, with 20% of the world’s economy and population, accounts for 36% of global manufacturing, but only 13% of global consumption. The suppression of consumption enables the expansion and subsidy of the manufacturing. It’s a valid way for countries emerging from poverty to develop (Germany and Japan both did it). But in China’s case, the policy has gone to extremes and significantly reduces the size of the overall global market. This is what the US (and other deficit countries like the UK) could and should be focussing on. The rest is just Trump’s bizarre obsession with medieval mercantilist voodoo.

From China Media Project, Chinese TV in crisis as viewers and advertisers flee channels full of propaganda, censorship and politicized product placements…

The gradual “salesification” (銷售化) of reporters has become a trend for television station workers in China, including at major state-run outfits like China Central Television (CCTV). To alleviate financial pressure, many television stations assign business tasks to their staff, meaning that directors, editors, and reporters must actively solicit advertisements. This, in fact, has become the primary standard for assessment when it comes to key performance indicators, or KPIs. 

“This is why many local television stations occupy large amounts of airtime repeatedly broadcasting advertisements for liquor, fake medicines, and health supplements,” Li Ming says. “These are among their few remaining ways to make money.”

The granddaughter of the author of the book Howl’s Moving Castle has a go at AI-generated fake Ghibli pictures.