Big Lychee, Various Sectors

RTHK news gets a scoop – Security Secretary Chris Tang is thrilled about attending today’s military parade in Beijing… 

Tang is part of a 360-strong delegation from Hong Kong, led by Chief Executive John Lee, which is in the capital to mark the anniversary of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.

Arriving at a hotel in Beijing, the minister told reporters that he was looking forward to the occasion.

“I’m excited. It’s my first time in the capital attending a military parade. I’m really honoured to take part in such an occasion,” he said.

“I believe the parade will be visually stunning.”

…War veteran Lam Zhen, who fought as a member of the Hong Kong-Kowloon Independent Battalion of the East River Column, is also part of the delegation.

“We can’t forget this part of history, about our struggles. We need to be able to tell the actual circumstances of this history with full clarity,” she told RTHK.

“In doing so, we can let our descendants pass down the legacy of the struggles for future generations.”

Other delegation members who arrived in Beijing include the police commissioner, Joe Chow, and Olympic gold medallist and former fencer Vivian Kong.

I hope they all realize that they will need to turn up at 6.30am for a five-hour wait for security checks. 

Not on the invitation list, perhaps, is Housing Secretary Winnie Ho – but she gets a trip to Sai Kung…

…In a social media post on Tuesday (Sep 2), Ho shared her visit to Sai Kung’s Ng Fai Tin in Pan Long Wan Village—a former site of the Urban Detachment base under the Hong Kong and Kowloon Independent Brigade.

The group began their journey at the Pan Long Wan Village Office, where they examined an information board created by the Home Affairs Department. This board details the activities of a squadron established in 1943, which played a crucial role in the urban district’s resistance efforts.

…Their exploration continued at the historic site, where they unexpectedly met a local villager whose 92-year-old uncle, also named Lau, was one of the little messengers.

Recalling his memories at just nine years old, Lau shared stories of how he [or his uncle?] transported messages between Sai Kung, Central, and Causeway Bay.

His anecdotes included advice on folding and preserving intelligence notes, traveling barefoot, the moment Fang asked him to become a messenger, and the difficulties of cutting off touch with his family at the time.

An SCMP headline today: ‘Hong Kong auxiliary policeman arrested for alleged indecent act while driving taxi’. Yes, but was his mind distracted by a case he was working on?

Hong Kong has just been through a ‘water-gate’ scandal, which I have ignored out of laziness/boredom. Full details here. A few questions… Why don’t civil servants want to drink the ordinary tap water that their employer, the government, says is perfectly fine for consumption? Why would these civil servants reject bottled water that they believe is from a Mainland supplier, when they are constantly urged to be patriotic? And what sort of repercussions, if any, will there be for senior officials responsible for the tendering process, which resulted in a contract going to a fake supplier? (Apparently a Hong Kong business pretending to be a Mainland one – don’t ask.)

Which leads us to a police inspector who was given a community service order for ‘causing grievous bodily harm by dangerous driving’ after running a red light in Mong Kok, hitting a taxi and causing serious injury to a pedestrian…

Concerning Iu’s argument that he got distracted because he was thinking about a drug case he was working on, the judge said no driver should lose concentration thinking about work or personal matters while driving.

The Witness reported on Monday that the police said Iu had been suspended. The police force added that it values the conduct of its personnel and that any officer involved in illegal behaviour would not be tolerated.

The SCMP has some more details…

The inspector, who received his probationary driving licence four months before the accident, told the trial that he had mistaken a green pedestrian light for the traffic light while being distracted by a narcotics case he was investigating at the time.

…The defence submitted mitigation letters written by senior police officers and said Iu deserved a second chance for his good background.

Selwyn Yu Sing-cheung SC said “over 90 per cent” of Iu’s senior colleagues had pleaded leniency on his behalf, noting that he was enthusiastic about his job and was genuinely sorry for the breach despite his not guilty plea.

Yu argued that a jail term would be disproportionate and devastating to his client, who had learned a bitter lesson after spending 32 days in custody pending the sentence.

[Deputy District Judge Raymond] Wong echoed those submissions and said Iu had a good background and excellent track record in the force. Pre-sentencing reports also showed the defendant was very remorseful, the deputy judge added.

Dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm is punishable by up to seven years’ imprisonment, a HK$50,000 (US$6,310) fine and a driving ban of at least two years.

More questions… Can the rest of the public avoid a prison sentence for dangerous driving if they are distracted by a narcotics case? What if they are distracted by something else important to them (a sales target at work, illness of a family member, etc)? Can everyone expect leniency if 90% of their senior colleagues tell the court he or she is enthusiastic about their job? Can other people before the courts (for shoplifting, participation in primary elections, zombie oil-possession, etc) avoid prison if they argue that ‘a jail term would be disproportionate and devastating’? Or that they are ‘very remorseful’? Is there a danger that the public might think judges treat cops leniently? 

See also the unconditional release a few days ago  of a customs officer who ‘tampered with’ a motorbike, resulting in the death of the driver.

Overseas coverage of Jimmy Lai will peak when the verdict comes through in the coming weeks or months (unless it’s ‘not guilty’). Meanwhile, it’s about the conclusion of the trial. To spare others the trouble, the SCMP summarizes some basic facts…

After more than 1,700 days in custody and a trial that spanned more than 1½ years, former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying is now waiting for a verdict to be delivered in his marathon national security trial.

And adds…

In the trial, Lai branded himself a political prisoner and insisted his grim predictions regarding the city’s economic slump and deprivation of residents’ fundamental freedoms had come to pass as Beijing was tightening its grip on the city.

Those comments did not move the three judges hearing his case, with one justice reiterating that Lai was in court “purely for legal reasons”. The judges also stressed they would not be intimidated by “foreign elements” attempting to interfere with their judgment through sanctions.

A Guardian report on the conclusion of the trial…

In court, Lai’s defence team said prosecutors had failed to provide sufficient evidence for the claims of conspiring with Li, Chan, or other alleged co-conspirators to request foreign sanctions after the NSL’s introduction.

Marc Corlett KC said that the prosecution’s submission that Lai stayed in contact with former US defence officials “goes in no way to demonstrate” their case because those individuals had not been named as “co-conspirators”.

The senior counsel Robert Pang had earlier defended Apple Daily, saying “it is not wrong to support freedom of expression. It is not wrong to support human rights.”

A Globe and Mail op-ed…

…Hong Kong was a symbol of what people could achieve if they were simply allowed a little freedom. It had a robust press; a professional civil service; an independent judiciary to protect property and individual rights; an open laissez-faire economy – in short, all the ingredients for dramatic success.

Now all of that is at risk. A stifling miasma blown in from the mainland has enveloped the teeming, vital, electric place I knew. The trial of Jimmy Lai, which wrapped up this week, is only the latest sign of this heartbreaking change.

…The charges against [Jimmy Lai] are ludicrous. He stands accused under Hong Kong’s national security law of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces.” At his 156-day trial, prosecutors claimed that he was at the forefront of an international drive to impose sanctions against Hong Kong and China for suppressing protest and free speech.

Mr. Lai’s lawyers note that his grand conspiracy amounted to little beyond speaking up for what he thought was right. In any case, his alleged conspiring happened before the security law took effect in 2020. The prosecutors pressed their case regardless.

The aim of all this was to make it seem as if, instead of a legitimate expression of anger, the Hong Kong protests were a foreign conspiracy to subvert the government. With his wealth, his unguarded views and his overseas friends, Mr. Lai was portrayed as the devious “mastermind” of this traitorous scheme.

The proceedings had the unmistakable ring of a Soviet show trial. Despite the sober setting of the Hong Kong courtroom and the trappings of British-style justice, the clear intent was to warn off anyone who might even be tempted to think about defying the government.

And a WSJ editorial…

Jimmy Lai’s drawn-out trial in Hong Kong on national-security charges finally concluded Thursday, and amid the wait for a verdict, China might consider what it has wrought. Mr. Lai, the former Hong Kong newspaper owner, is now arguably the world’s most popular political prisoner, nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times. President Trump says he will press Chinese President Xi Jinping for Mr. Lai’s release.

The trial began in 2023. Heavily armed police surround the courtroom whenever Mr. Lai appears, as though the 77-year-old might bust out like Billy the Kid. Hong Kong could never have put Mr. Lai on trial without China’s approval, and far from destroying Mr. Lai it has made him a hero. Perhaps Beijing could come to regret that Hong Kong turned the persecuted newspaperman into a global icon.

…China’s smartest play would be to release Mr. Lai home to his family, unless it wants even more international grief, if it lets Hong Kong turn this political prisoner into a full-fledged martyr.

Another big NatSec trial is due to begin in November – the Tiananmen vigil organizers.

A Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission official and a lawmaker have dropped out of the Bitcoin Asia conference taking place in Hong Kong right now, apparently to avoid being seen near Donald Trump’s son Eric. 

Ideally, Hong Kong officials would keep their distance from anything to do with crypto, but they have never seen a financial fad-cum-potential hub-zone they didn’t like (Islamic banking, green bonds, etc). 

The Trump family has done well out of crypto – by inventing and issuing their own fake money. Oligarchs wanting to surreptitiously gift the president millions of bucks can do it by buying the $Trump coins for real cash. The family makes additional real real money through commissions from everyday suckers trading the ultimately worthless digital tokens. Trump’s sons will also be listing a Bitcoin mining company next month, while daddy pushes regulatory changes designed to boost crypto.

The Bitcoin Asia website. You can get a ‘Whale Pass’ for US$4,999. Note that the prices are in real money. It’s all about real money. The only way to acquire wealth through Bitcoin and other crypto is to sell it to or otherwise enable idiots who can’t tell a fake currency created out of thin air from an asset.

Also on the subject of the madness of crowds: in his blog, Paul Krugman’s asks why, with Donald Trump clearly planning to end Federal Reserve independence, markets are reaching record highs rather than panicking…

Nathan Tankus summarizes this by saying that the market is not, as stylized economic models would have us believe, a mechanism that pools the knowledge and informed judgment of millions of investors. It is, instead, a “conventional wisdom processor.” That is, it reflects views that seem safe to hold because many other people hold them — and the crowd only abandons those views when they become blatantly unsustainable.

If you wonder what researchers in the humanities do all day, here’s an academic paper (free to view) in the Journal of East Asian Studies …

Propagandists discredit political ideas that rival their own. In China’s state-run media, one common technique is to place the phrase so-called, in English, or 所谓, in Chinese, before the idea to be discredited. In this research note we apply quantitative text analysis methods to over 45,000 Xinhua articles from 2003 to 2022 containing so-called or 所谓 to better understand the ideas the government wishes to discredit for different audiences. We find that perceived challenges to China’s sovereignty consistently draw usage of the term and that a theme of rising importance is political rivalry with the United States. When it comes to differences between internal and external propaganda, we find broad similarities, but differences in how the US is discredited and more emphasis on cooperation for foreign audiences. These findings inform scholarship on comparative authoritarian propaganda and Chinese propaganda specifically.

I love that last sentence attempting to justify the endeavour. We’re complete nerds and it’s either this or memorizing pi to 1,000 places.

…Overall, sarcastic uses of so-called tend to precede ideas, claims, or criticism that the Chinese state finds objectionable. In some cases so-called is used to convey that the intended meaning is the opposite of the literal meaning in the text, for example, so-called respect for human rights in the US, or so-called genocide in Xinjiang. In other cases, so-called is used to signal that the concept/entity in question is not recognized or is not legitimate in the eyes of the Chinese state, for example, Taiwan’s sovereignty or Hong Kong democratic primaries.

In Carnegie China, Michael Pettis on ‘involution’ – Beijing-speak for ruinous price-cutting by manufacturing companies struggling to survive amidst over-capacity…

…leading to a zero-sum race to the bottom, marked by vicious price wars, large-scale losses, homogenous products, and improper business practices.

…as long as Beijing’s growth strategy prioritizes growth in production, even when that growth comes at the expense of domestic demand, the underlying pressures that lead to involution cannot be resolved. They can be addressed within specific sectors of the economy, but only by shifting excess capacity to other sectors. That is why, in the end, I expect “involution” will join the list of earlier words and phrases—like “rebalancing,” “dual circulation,” “supply-side structural reform,” “deleveraging,” and “excess capacity”—that had emerged in the past to express the same set of problems, and whose sudden surge in usage often faded away. 

Decreeing investment-led growth at all costs following the property market decline, Beijing incentivized massive expansion of hand-picked industries…

Polysilicon production for solar panels became a posterchild for this process. Before the property collapse, polysilicon and solar panel producers were already manufacturing more than the world could reasonably absorb, but after 2021-22, production capacity soared. In less than four years, the top four Chinese manufacturers alone added about two-thirds of the industry’s existing capacity globally, with Chinese producers eventually accounting for roughly 95 percent of global supply—roughly twice global demand.

In Cold War times, Communist central planning was associated with dire shortages of goods (memories of hitch-hiking through Ceausescu’s Romania and seeing stores with nothing but empty shelves). In China, it has led to hugely wasteful over-production. The situation is driven by debt, and it will take even more debt for the state to buy and dissolve surplus companies and factories

From the Diplomat – China’s official narrative of World War II (or, as Hong Kong now puts it, the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War)…

China’s understanding of its war against Japan has changed significantly over the decades. Alongside Japan’s changing historical narratives of the war, this has caused a divergence in historical memory that fuels tensions between the two countries

…The Maoist narrative of the war was dominant in China from the formation of the People’s Republic in 1949 until the early 1980s. It was rooted in communist ideology and blamed the war on a militaristic international bourgeois elite who tricked the Japanese people into a war against China. 

At the same time, the Maoist narrative portrayed China’s wartime Nationalist government as incompetent in resisting Japan’s invasion and highlighted the efforts of the CCP’s resistance, particularly those of the Eighth Route Army led by Mao Zedong. This is despite historical records from the war indicating that, out of 23 battles and over 40,000 skirmishes between China and Japan, the CCP’s forces only participated in one and 200 of these, respectively.

…[Today’s] narrative portrays the Japanese nation as inherently aggressive, placing blame for the war with the Japanese people. It acknowledges the contributions of China’s Nationalist government in fighting against Japan during the war, albeit portraying them as a junior contributor to the war effort to the CCP.

A video of a prominent Chinese archer spitting on and shooting an arrow through a Japanese flag.

Op-ed in a crypto mag by co-chair of the Hong Kong Web 3 Association…

China’s control over cryptocurrency liquidity in Hong Kong gives it unprecedented power over the Trump family’s crypto wealth. This leverage lets Beijing influence the family’s financial fate — and potentially US-China relations — through market moves. As Eric Trump visits Hong Kong, this crypto-political nexus signals a new era of global power.

A government press statement says…

The National Security Department (NSD) of the Hong Kong Police Force this morning (August 26) laid a charge against a 19-year-old local woman with one count of “doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention”. The woman was allegedly involved in producing promotional videos for a subversive organisation named the “Hong Kong Parliament” from March to May this year, and appealing to others through social media platforms to vote for the purpose of overthrowing and undermining the body of the central power of People’s Republic of China or the body of power of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region…

Background from the Standard…

The accused, Lan Fei, is understood to be the former girlfriend of designated absconder Tony Lam and is suspected of joining the Hong Kong Democratic Independence Union with Lam last year. 

Both subsequently fled to Taiwan and participated in the illegal election of the self-styled “Hong Kong Parliament.”

It is understood that Lam’s application for political asylum was rejected by Taiwanese authorities, leading to his deportation. 

The pair later relocated to Canada, where Lan allegedly produced promotional videos for the subversive organization under instruction. 

These videos, distributed via social media platforms, encouraged participation in the illegal election. Lan later returned to Hong Kong alone.

Trying to get my head around ‘doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention’. The teenager allegedly had a seditious intention, and the alleged ‘act or acts’ also did? 

While we’re over at the government’s press releases, there’s this…

​Hongkong Post announced today (August 26) that a stamp sheetlet and associated philatelic products on the theme of the “80th Anniversary of the Victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War” will be released for sale on September 3 (Wednesday).

Eighty years ago, the Chinese people achieved a great victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, marking the final victory in the World Anti-Fascist War after 14 years of arduous and brutal battles. This year, Hongkong Post will issue a stamp sheetlet and associated philatelic products on the theme of the “80th Anniversary of the Victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War”. The design of the stamp sheetlet centres on the theme of the 80th Anniversary of the Victory in the War of Resistance: “remembering history, honouring martyrs, cherishing peace, and creating a great future”.

After all that, the stamp itself is a bit of a let-down…

Jimmy Lai’s lawyer argues that a newspaper should have greater freedom to publish information and opinions. Greater than whom? He doesn’t say, but he can only mean everyone else, as the judges assume….

The court on Monday continued to hear closing arguments from the defence. Lai’s lawyer, Robert Pang, sought to convince the judges that press freedom was established as an individual right alongside freedom of expression because the media should be given greater freedom to publish diverse information and viewpoints.

If “a publisher, or reporter, or journalist, is so concerned [with prosecution], there will not be the ability to provide for the information that the public has the right to know,” Pang told the three judges presiding over the trial: Alex Lee, Esther Toh, and Susana D’Almada Remedios.

In response, Judge Lee questioned whether press freedom could be used as a defence with the rise of the internet, saying that ordinary people could reach as large an audience as the news media do online. “Everyone can say they are engaging in some forms of journalism,” he said.

The judge also said the charges against Lai concern an alleged request for foreign sanctions against China and Hong Kong, and that may fall outside of the legitimate boundaries of journalism.

Pang responded that the press should be given greater freedom because of “the constraints” that were placed on professional news media. Apple Daily “is fairly and squarely a newspaper,” he said.

He added the court must consider the protection of press freedom when deciding whether Lai’s past remarks amounted to a request for sanctions, given that no evidence of him directly making such an appeal had been presented.

Obviously, the defence has to use whatever arguments they think might work. But it does seem odd to suggest that anyone not working for a newspaper is somehow less entitled to freedom of expression.

Taiwan News looks at ‘one country, two systems’…

The imposition of the National Security Law, mass arrests, and the silencing of civil society [in Hong Kong] made clear that one country, two systems had in fact become “one country, one system.”

These developments not only shattered Beijing’s credibility in Hong Kong but also sent a chilling message to Taiwan: the “one country, two systems” is a promise in name only.

…A poll released by Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council in April found that 84.4% of Taiwanese respondents oppose the “one country, two systems” formula proposed by Beijing.

Polls show that Taiwan’s distrust toward the Chinese government has deepened in recent years, in no small part due to events in Hong Kong. The erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong, from press liberty to judicial independence, has confirmed that unification on Beijing’s terms means the end of Taiwan’s democracy.

…Hong Kong has shown that “one country, two systems” is not a guarantee but a conditional offer: it survives only as long as citizens do not challenge Beijing’s authority. When they do, “two systems” collapse into one. Macao shows the other side of the coin: if there is no challenge, autonomy quietly erodes into irrelevance.

Back in the 80s and 90s, people talking up Hong Kong’s post-1997 prospects liked to point out that 1C2S was originally intended as a structure for Taiwan, and Beijing would respect Hong Kong’s ‘high degree of autonomy’ in order to avoid alienating the Taiwanese. No more.

Economist story (probably paywalled) about the Jimmy Lai trial…

The verdict is expected to be delivered in a few weeks or months; few observers doubt that the 77-year-old will be found guilty. Already serving another jail term, he could face a sentence of life in prison.

In the wake of the unrest, which turned violent, China’s ruling Communist Party engineered sweeping changes in Hong Kong’s laws to prevent further upheaval. These are being used to crush even peaceful activism that is deemed a threat to the party or the government in Hong Kong.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to be after Britain passed Hong Kong back to China in 1997. China promised to preserve freedoms. It allowed Hong Kong to keep a common-law legal system, which set the bar high for putting dissenters in jail. But two new laws have transformed the legal landscape. 

…Hong Kong’s courts still operate very differently from those of the mainland, where such events are often pro-forma, usually wrapped up in days and without media access. In Hong Kong they can last months, with evidence and witness testimony argued over in detail. Journalists can watch and report. There is no sign that the Communist Party intervenes directly in trials as it does on the mainland, where outcomes in politically sensitive cases are determined by its shadowy “political-legal” committees.

Yet the party has other ways of influencing outcomes. The NSL and Article 23 legislation allow related trials to be held without a jury—they now always are. Verdicts in these sorts of case are reached by three judges chosen from a special pool. Its members have renewable year-long terms, but the NSL says that if a judge “makes any statement or behaves in any manner endangering national security” while doing the job, they can be dismissed from the pool. China’s rubber-stamp parliament has the final say in the NSL’s interpretation. The Communist Party sees criticism of its rule as a national-security threat.

….judges know that any attempt to apply [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights] principles in a way that prevents the party getting its way could end in frustration. The party makes clear its views using its local mouthpieces, especially two newspapers Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po. These portray even peaceful protesters as guilty of heinous crimes against the state.

Kevin Yam posts a statement by the Australian Law Council on his disbarment and fining by the HK Law Society. 

HKFP on Anthony Chiu of ‘US 8964’ fame…

When Chiu was finally able to afford his own sports car from the German brand – albeit not his dream model – he was keen to secure a licence plate that would pay tribute to the [Porsche] Type 964. In 2020, he reserved about six standard vehicle registration marks containing the numbers “964” which were up for auction and paid deposits.

Without attending the bidding, Chiu was allocated the licence plate “US 8964” after it remained unsold at the auction.

Little did he know this number plate would put him in the crosshairs of the local authorities over the next few years. It was eventually confiscated by the Transport Department this month.

…Chiu’s prediction became reality this year. The 39-year-old told HKFP in June that he sent his car abroad after he and his family members faced a year of harassment. Anonymous letters were sent to his residence, workplace, his daughter’s school and relatives. The letters, seen by HKFP, contained his personal information, photos of his sports car, and accusations that he may have violated the national security law.

What a sight in the comments section on Friday: a parade of Anglos dismissing a Southeast Asian country’s food.

It is true that there are fewer Filipino restaurants than, say, Thai or Vietnamese in cities around the world. But they are there: I found one once in Bermuda, and there are many here in Hong Kong – one of the best known being Bedana’s in Jordan. 

Is Filipino food as aromatically dazzling as Thai? No – but few cuisines are. The classic dishes like adobo, pinakbet, Bicol express, pancit bihon, sinigang, etc are as distinctive and more-ish as anything you’ll get in a Vietnamese or Indonesian place. Key seasonings include vinegar or citrus for sourness, fermented shrimp, coconut, ginger, garlic and soy sauce. Some Chinese influence, and a little Spanish.

Why doesn’t it have the international profile of other Asian cuisines? Maybe because it isn’t always all that visually appealing. But also perhaps because many Filipinos themselves see it as second-best: they are hardcore addicts of American junk food. I’ve seen restaurant menus in Manila where you get page after page of salads, steaks, spaghetti and pizzas – and then a small section at the back for ‘native food’. 

A basic dish anyone can do at home: marinate thinly sliced beef in soy sauce and lemon juice; braise meat and marinade until done; add slices of onion towards the end, so they’re still pretty raw and crunchy. Voila – bistek!

As one commenter notes, the US has some outstanding regional cuisines (Cajun, BBQ, etc). And UK cities host great Caribbean, Middle Eastern and other cooking. All, of course, non-Anglo. It’s not that Northwest Europeans centuries ago were stupid – it’s just geography. Cool climates with a limited range of ingredients and lame seasonings produced a tradition of bland stodge, which survives today in the form of mac and cheese, bangers and mash, etc. (Some history.)

For adventurous types who don’t mind trying relatively obscure cuisines – possibly even vegetables – I can recommend Priyo Shaad, a Bangladeshi restaurant on Aberdeen Street, Central. I went over the weekend and will go back.

More on Jimmy Lai, this time from Reuters…

Lai, 77, who founded the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material. He faces a maximum life sentence.

The trial is widely seen as a test for judicial independence in the financial hub under national security laws that were imposed by China in 2020 in response to mass pro-democracy demonstrations.

…Lai’s lawyer Robert Pang, who began his final legal submission on Wednesday, said Lai had been defending and exercising basic rights.

…”It is not wrong to try to persuade the government to change its policy. Nor is it wrong not to love a particular administration or even the country, because … you can’t force someone to think in one way or another,” Pang added.

One of the judges, Esther Toh, said that this was not what the prosecution argued.

“It’s not wrong not to love the government, but if you do that by certain nefarious means, then it’s wrong,” Toh said. Pang also disputed the prosecution’s citing of 161 articles published by the Apple Daily between April 1, 2019 and June 24, 2021 as seditious, saying they were “insufficient to draw any inference” of a conspiracy.

The prosecution repeated its thing about how Lai ‘had done nothing to stop illegal activities’ of others. Trying to work out ‘not loving the government by certain nefarious means’.

More from Esther Toh here.

Not a huge fan of people’s malodorous, slobbering dogs rubbing their slimy noses against my nether regions, but even I could think of less unwieldy rules for pets than those proposed for the MTR, as HKFP reports…

…passengers may only bring their pets aboard on weekends and public holidays. Their pets must be placed inside a carrier, with no body parts of the cat or dog exposed.

There are also size restrictions on the carrier’s size – its combined dimensions cannot exceed 170 cm. Pet strollers or carriers with wheels are not permitted.

Pet owners must use designated doors when boarding and alighting the train, and must keep their pets at the rear of the compartment.

They will first need to purchase a monthly HK$99 carrying pass, which allows them to bring one pet on board at a time. Each passenger can only have one carrying pass.

And it only applies to the Light Rail system up in Tuen Mun-Yuen Long, not the ‘real’ MTR network. File under ‘Why bother?’

Surely, all they have to say is: ‘dogs must be in a suitable carrier within standard baggage size limits’. None of the other rules are necessary. (Separate doors?)

Some weekend reading…

Is Xi Jinping funny? You will have to read the Ramble Substack to find out. To keep you on tenterhooks, here’s a sample…

After some complaints from the Maldives about Chinese tourists not eating out at local restaurants enough, Xi Jinping snuck in this laugher: “Our citizens must model civilization while abroad. Don’t litter plastic water bottles and don’t destroy their coral reefs. Eat instant noodles less, eat local seafood more.”

For cartography geeks – an Asia Times item on a Korean map based on Yuan-era Chinese sources. The Koreans involved appear to have made their homeland look bigger. More interestingly, the author says it shows the Persian Gulf area, Africa and even Italy and Spain, which in theory would not have been known to the map-makers. Indeed, the outlines of Africa, Arabia and the Mediterranean are recognizable. But there is far less detail, a different ‘hand’ or style of draughtsmanship, the scale is obviously inconsistent, and Southeast Asia, India and Sri Lanka seem to be overlooked. 

My theory: it looks like someone doing quite an impressive map of the East Asia region added material copied from a chart from Middle Eastern sources (for example, Omani traders would have known the East African coast). The Yuan dynasty was of course Mongol, and the Mongols had contact with – indeed took over parts of – the Abbasid empire that included much of the Gulf, Middle East and North African region (and knew of ancient Greek and other texts). 

Hardcore fans of this sort of thing can see a larger version of the article here.

Nice article on the Filipino community in London, complete with a restaurant menu. I now have a hankering for adobo fried rice.

The NYT reports on Hong Kong’s ‘soft resistance’.  While the paper struggles to work out exactly what it is (who doesn’t?), it notes the contradiction in the authorities’ narrative. This tension seems to be a permanent feature of Hong Kong now: on the one hand, the city is a modern, stable community that’s excellent for business; on the other, it is besieged by mysterious dangers lurking everywhere…

The phrase, which is used to describe anything seen as covertly subversive or insidiously defiant against the government, is showing up in news reports, speeches by top officials, and warnings from government departments. Officials and propaganda organs have warned of the threat of possible “soft resistance” in a book fair, music lyrics, a U.S. holiday celebration and environmental groups.

…To the authorities, “soft resistance” is nothing short of a national security threat, and at least a dozen senior officials have used the term in recent weeks. Warning signs include messaging that is deemed to be critical of the government or sympathetic to the opposition or to protesters, whom the authorities have described as rioters or terrorists.

“Soft resistance is real and lurks in various places,” John Lee, the city’s leader, warned in June…

…But even some within the pro-Beijing establishment are expressing concern that the government’s campaign risks stifling expression and hurting the economy.

…Prominent business figures with ties to the government say that the repeated emphasis on perceived security threats is undercutting more urgent efforts to attract foreign investment and preserve the city’s image as a global hub.

“We, Hong Kong’s pro-establishment, must clearly understand what the top priority is — national security or the economy, that’s in itself contradictory,” David Tai Chong Lie-A-Cheong, a Hong Kong businessman and a member of an advisory body to Beijing, said in an interview.

“When officials are constantly saying that Hong Kong is not safe, would you invest here?” asked [businessman] Mr. Lie-A-Cheong… He said that foreign business groups were having a hard time understanding the direction of Hong Kong’s policies.

Mr. Lie-A-Cheong described the situation in Hong Kong as “heart-wrenching” and said: “As a pro-establishment member for decades, I feel we have failed our jobs.”

HKFP update on Jimmy Lai’s trial. The prosecution argue that he should somehow have stopped activists lobbying overseas governments.

Lai’s supporters believe that Beijing will not want Hong Kong to suffer the bad publicity that would inevitably follow his death in prison. The Pillar on hopes to see him freed…

Speaking to The Pillar, Mark Simon, formerly a senior executive at Apple Daily and a close associate of Lai’s, said that while the outcome of the trial was seen as a forgone conclusion, Lai’s friends and family hoped its conclusion could clear the way for his release on humanitarian grounds.

“Jimmy’s trial is ongoing, but it is going to end,” Simon said. “And that is when we hope Beijing will start to step in and take a little bit more notice. We know the verdict, when it comes, is going to be guilty. But in a sense we are starting from that eventual ‘guilty’ and hopefully working from there to get him released.”

…Lai appeared in court this week wearing a heart monitor following the advice of doctors, who have confirmed the downturn in his health. According to Simon, this has made what already appeared to many observers to be a show-trail take on an element of absurdity.

“It’s a kind of cosplay,” he said. “Every time Jimmy comes to court, they have a four truck convoy to bring him in. They have guys with machine guns on guard. It’s ridiculous — a 77-year-old guy who’s now wearing an EKG vest because of his heart condition and they act like there is a Seal Team Six ready to bust him out. It’s just the way things are right now.”