Lawmaker and ex-Security Secretary Regina Ip writes a letter to the South China Morning Post complaining about the Hong Kong business community’s objections to proposed extradition measures.
(She claims that businessmen have no reason to worry because they could be ‘nabbed’ whenever they cross the border anyway. This overlooks the real fear that the corrupt and faction-ridden Communist system can lash out at anyone without warning, and the assurance that Hong Kong is as a haven from it.)
Mainly, the radiant-when-angry Iron Butterfly goes hurrumph at the tycoons for hypocrisy and ingratitude. Having profited from their cushy Mainland deals, these ‘supposedly trusted and loyal supporters’ of Beijing and the local administration are now ‘openly trashing China’s legal and judicial systems’ – systems, she adds, that they have never lifted a finger to improve.
Ouch.
The little missive nicely reflects tensions among the various useful idiots co-opted by the Communist Party’s United Front and its culture of obsessive-compulsive shoe-shining.
Regina (who still apparently lusts for a return to high office in Hong Kong) is a member of the Bureaucrat subcategory of the pro-Beijing camp. They are what you would expect from (British-trained) civil servants-turned-CCP-loyalists: dutiful, relatively thoughtful, and of course haughtily contemptuous of the other subcategories. These include the True Believers who worship the CCP from the heart, the gullible opportunist dimwits like tragic homophobe Holden Chow – and of course the avaricious, selfish, shallow and amoral business community.
As part of her own shoe-shining, Regina has founded a Belt and Road fan club for kids and (just recently) proposed to bar public broadcaster RTHK from news reporting. We can assume that she has had to grit her teeth at times while going along with the pro-Beijing line when she finds it illogical or repugnant. (Note how her letter asserts the integrity of China’s legal system, but also implies that it could be improved.)
The letter is essentially a snap of resentment at the spoilt entitled own-grandmother-selling rich buffoons who feel they can get away with putting their narrow and grubby interests first, while the devout, imbecilic and (her own) intellectual pro-Beijing elements discipline themselves and make sacrifices.
And she is right. But nobody said life was going to be fair. Indeed, the CCP she has been lured into supporting survives by making sure it isn’t.
You’re spot on as always! I posted the following rebuttal on SCMP to Regina Ip’s letter but these bastards keep deleting it and it’s making me rage!!!!! The comment would stay up for 5 minutes, and then get thrown into the “memory hole” without even the usual “terms of service violation” notice.
Man the SCMP is such a hollowed out joke now. Racist and xenophobic wumao comments stay up no matter what, but a rebuttal rooted in rationality gets thrown in the trash can because it rips apart broom head’s letter. This idiot actually thinks she’s a “public intellectual” to0!
Below is my comment (if you think my rebuttal is crap feel free to let me know!):
We all already know Regina Ip is shameless opportunist who wanted to force Article 23 down our throats but it was blocked by the liberals and pan democrats in 2003.
Reality check: currently the government doesn’t have enough votes in legco to pass this legislation because the bpa, liberals, and pan democrats are all against it. Deal with it. The pro establishment business community merely tolerates communists so they can make a profit, but they know what’s up with the mainland legal system.
Did you forget that Ai Weiwei was politically persecuted and the Chinese Communist Party dressed up their political case as a tax evasion case? What is stopping the CCP from doing that again and using it as a pretext to extradite political dissidents from Hong Kong?
“Some of them have openly trashed China’s legal and judicial systems, despite the many economic benefits they have reaped from China’s market. They are not known to have done anything to help improve mainland China’s systems.”
How on earth can you expect HK Chinese business people to “help improve mainland China’s systems” when the Chinese Communist Party has a mouth frothing freakout whenever a non Party member even hints at something like that?
The Communists brutally tortured Liu Xiaobo, imprisoned him for a decade, and then denied him medical care so he could quickly die from cancer because he wanted to “help improve mainland China’s systems”.
“Many of the “economic” offences covered by the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, like offences relating to obtaining property or pecuniary advantage by deception or securities and futures trading, or counterfeiting and forgery, are serious ones.”
In that case the solution is simple: prosecute them in Hong Kong instead! Let them have habeas corpus, due process, and a fair trial!
Do you think we are blind to broad vague “catch all” laws like “unlawful access to a computer” which can mean anything from hacking a government website (indeed a serious crime) to looking at porn or even posting a comment?
Your own letter undermines your argument. If so many business people travel to the mainland then why do we need an extradition treaty for economic crimes in the first place? It sounds like these business people will make their own way into China, immediately surrender to authorities, and confess so let’s just keep the status quo shall we?
It is a measure of how bad things are when the parasitic tycoon class has become our best hope in this whole nasty extradition business. I’ll take being ripped off and exploited over a Mainland prison cell any day.
@TAMMY TAM ETC ETC
It’s a mystery why the SCMP shitcanned your letter.
“It’s a mystery why the SCMP shitcanned your letter.”
I got my account banned too. But what’s even stranger is after registering two new SCMP usernames and splitting my rebuttal between them, SCMP let the comments stay. Maybe I happened to post it after the control freak psycho moderator ended their shift since I reposted it a few hours later.
@TAMMY: Why bother? ESPECIALLY in the SCCPMP??
Tammy
To be fair, it is not jsut the SCMP who moderates fair and reasonanble comments. The Guardian does likewise. I once got a 100 recommends, virtually every comment thereunder was supportive and then somebody “woke up” and I and all the following thread simply disappeared. No reason given, although asked; they were moderated too.
They particularly do not like critiscism of a column or columnisit although are happy to let all peans of praise stay there.
@TAMMY
“Racist and xenophobic wumao comments stay up no matter what”
To be fair to the SCMP, that’s because they can’t really get rid of their commissioned articles and columns.