Author Archives: biglychee

How do you reconcile a system where the law is designed to restrain government power over citizens with one where it does the opposite? People in Hong Kong and elsewhere who are worried about Mainland extradition suspect that you can’t. … Continue reading →

I’ve dug up my exhaustive account (skipping the SARS trauma) of Hong Kong’s 2003 – essentially the huge July 1 march against Article 23 and its aftermath. Much of it reads like a description of yesterday’s epic protest: MTR station … Continue reading →

The view yesterday morning leaning out of my place in Japan… Getting back to the Hong Kong neighbourhood last night, I find… …a store with the unlovely name ‘Feather & Bone’ has deposited a pre-opening giant pile of garbage on … Continue reading →

Hong Kong’s hapless excuse for a government is floundering half-entertainingly as it tries to bludgeon through the CCP’s Sovereign Right to Snatch Enemies System. The parallels with the Article 23 mess in 2003 are too good to resist. Widespread and … Continue reading →

The Good News is that this site is moving from one (lousy) host to another (hopefully much better) one. There will be a few days of probably/possibly not much happening. The Bad News is that the dreaded Oh-God-no ‘comments’ will … Continue reading →

The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Hong Kong office summons foreign correspondents for a ‘lecture’ on putting positive energy into their coverage of the city’s Mainland extradition amendment. The ineptness of the invitation confirms that the Ministry has little clue how overseas … Continue reading →

Hong Kong has entered the ‘confluence of unfortunate occurrences’ zone. Long drawn-out prosecutions of Benny Tai and other peaceful protest organizers on desperate ‘public nuisance incitement’ charges came to a conclusion, with the court blandly accepting questionable government points. The … Continue reading →

In this week’s episode of How to Turn Asia’s World City into a Banana Republic, Carrie Lam finds ways to discard the government’s old free-and-pluralist look, and build up a new global image as illiberal, intolerant and vindictive. Hong Kong … Continue reading →

Here’s a good rundown of what the US’s apparent banishment of Huawei could mean. Some techie background. Knowing what we do of Donald Trump’s personality, it’s still sort of hard to believe that he isn’t going to fold at some … Continue reading →

You are wrong. You misunderstand. You are stupid. You are ignorant. You have been misled. Clearly, we have not communicated in sufficiently simple terms that your childlike pea-sized minds can grasp. The Hong Kong government has run out of talking … Continue reading →