Big Lychee, Various Sectors

From the SCMP…

Hong Kong’s first “patriots-only” district council election has been lauded by Beijing and local authorities as “a success in improving governance structure”, calling it “real, functioning democracy” despite the poll yielding a record low turnout.

…Veteran politician Tam Yiu-chung, who formerly served as the city’s sole delegate to the nation’s top legislative body, insisted the voter turnout was “reasonable”.

The 27% turnout is the lowest since 1997 and grabs many of the headlines. But HKFP reports perhaps the most interesting election-related figures…

A total of 163, or 92.6 per cent, of the 176 seats in the small-circle committee elections were themselves members of the three committees, according to a HKFP tally.

In the race voted for by the general public, 84, or 95.4 per cent, of the 88 seats also sat on one of the three committees.

In total, 247, or 93.6 per cent, of the 264 elected seats were members of the three committees.

No-one in government wants to acknowledge the possibility that what happened was a large-scale boycott. Comment in (probably paywalled) international press is less squeamish…

The FT says…

…Hong Kong’s voters largely steered clear of a Beijing-imposed “patriots only” election yesterday, in a blow to official efforts to legitimise China’s vision for governance of the territory.

…The final turnout in the last district election in 2019, when opposition candidates won by a landslide, was 71.2 per cent. The previous record low turnout was 30.3 per cent in 1988.

Local officials had made exhaustive efforts to persuade citizens to vote under an electoral regime that in effect barred opposition candidates from standing. Turnout was seen as an important test of the government’s ability to demonstrate public support for the political order imposed by China’s President Xi Jinping.

Many pro-democracy supporters snubbed the polls after the number of directly elected district councillors was cut to less than 20 per cent of 470 seats, down from 94 per cent in 2019. 

From Bloomberg…

Hong Kong’s local council elections drew their lowest turnout in nearly three decades, as residents snubbed a system lacking political diversity after a revamp to cement China’s control.

…“The election no longer serves as a channel for citizens to speak to authority,” John Burns, emeritus professor at the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong, said before the polls. “Had authorities permitted some pan-democrats or middle-of-the-road candidates, turnout would likely increase.”

…Low turnout despite [the government’s] all-out push would indicate a vast majority of the public are now “outside the stadium,” Kenneth Chan, associate professor of the Department of Government and International Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University, said before the elections.

“It’s not political apathy,” added the former lawmaker, “but a widespread political disengagement by design.”

By which I assume he means the authorities designed a political system that – even by previous standards – cuts the public out of the process, so many people see no point in participating in the new arrangements. 

(The ‘all-patriots’ model is designed to eliminate any critics. Although they have never been allowed to elect their government, Honkongers could previously elect an opposition. Now all they are allowed to do is elect people who follow the government line. That means there is no longer a formal mechanism for upward feedback to register popular discontent. Even such informal methods as small peaceful demonstrations or criticism of the government can now attract sedition charges or menacing threats of action against ‘soft resistance’. Will this really improve governance?)

The WSJ…

The low voter turnout reflects the level of public support for the new system and people’s political disengagement, said Kenneth Chan, associate professor in political science at the Hong Kong Baptist University and a former lawmaker.

“People in Hong Kong felt disinvited from the elections, now heavily vetted,” he said, adding that many believe the government should directly appoint these representatives rather than waste resources on a highly controlled election.

“The bigger embarrassment is that the government had mobilized from top to bottom, using both carrot and stick tactics to push for a higher voter turn out, but it ended in failure,” Chan said. 

Simply appointing members of these bodies would certainly save election-related costs. But why not just scrap the District Councils and LegCo and be done with it? Mainland academics and ideological theoreticians like to stress that ‘separation of powers’ and ‘checks and balances’ are unacceptable in China’s system. 

Not done with the bitchiness, the Journal adds…

The government extended polling hours by 90 minutes after saying a computer glitch had delayed people voting and in the evening canceled hourly updates of voter turnout.

A quick tour of Twitter, starting with defrog…

…the election yesterday was for 88 seats out of 470 (with 27 for rural committee chairs, and the rest either appointed by govt or elected by small pro-Beijing committees), so the pro Beijing camp already controlled 382 seats before the voting even started.

Ryan Ho Kilpatrick…

In this election, every vote cast is one for the gov’t. The pro-Beijing camp is guaranteed to take 100% of seats, after taking ~18% in 2019. But with just 1/4 of eligible voters (<1.1m) turning up today, they’ll likely do so with even fewer votes than in 2019, when they got 1.2m.

pyBYpy…

What election?  When you jailed all the electable, it is not a election, it is filtration

tyrranywillend…

According to HK01 Beijing demanded a 30% turnout. After wasting taxpayers’ money on fireworks, ad campaigns, outdoor events, free transport to polling stations from elderly homes, a sham election shows itself. No extravaganza will make an illegitimate government legitimate

A list of people arrested (or wanted) for inciting others to boycott the election, disrupt it, or similar things.

Cartoon showing similarity between voter turnout and Hang Seng Index.

News reports have been highlighting the participation of South Asian candidates and voters, particularly in Kowloon. I predicted a week or so ago that there would be fewer brown people in all District Councils combined than in the current UK Conservative administration’s cabinet. Judge for yourself here and here. (In theory, some ethnic minorities could use Chinese-sounding names. Probably not Pinyin ones. Hmmm.)

An AP quote…

“The newly elected district councilors come from diverse backgrounds,” Hong Kong leader John Lee said. “They will make the work in the districts more multidimensional … better aligning with the interests of the citizens.”

…for the District Council election’s ‘District Committees constituency’. It seems they comprise less than 2,500 voters, all government-appointed, and get to choose 176 council members. Winning candidates (apparently most of them) all received surprisingly similar votes – around 80-150 each. Maybe this is what happens when no-one has ever heard of any of them.

Although RTHK sees the 96% figure as worth reporting, officials say the turnout for the 88 popularly elected seats doesn’t matter, or is influenced by nice weather, or by overall public satisfaction. As of 7.30pm, it had reached 24.5% (compared with the 71% total when the polls closed in 2019). In one place, less than one voter a minute for much of the day. Then a technological ‘glitch’ forced poll workers to switch to manual paper records – so as of 7.30 this morning we don’t know either the final results (though we can predict that no opposition figures won) or turnout. (Shatin East had declared results.)

Conspiracy theorists might suspect an excuse to lengthen polling hours or otherwise ramp up the turnout number. Cynics will say the embarrassment of a computer breakdown after such lavish promotional efforts suggests plain incompetence (a task force will investigate). Others may simply see a metaphor.

There were arrests. Seventy-seven-year-old Koo Sze-yiu, for planning to protest against the election system. ‘Sedition’, apparently. Several people for allegedly encouraging others to spoil ballots. And LSD members, who also planned a protest.

While the long lines of voters seen in 2019 were absent, the candidates took the whole thing almost absurdly seriously. Found on the sidewalk in the afternoon, Angel Pang’s last-minute plea for votes…

Even more, just from the last couple of days…

Lee Cheuk-yan’s sister-in-law faces prison for taking items from her sister’s apartment, thus ‘perverting the course of justice’…

Judge Patrick Tsang … said the length of time she spent in her sister’s house and the fact that she entered twice could reflect careful planning on her part. Jail time for Tang was unavoidable, Tsang said.

Hong Kong’s Tiananmen vigil group appeal over their conviction, alleging that the prosecution withheld evidence that they were foreign agents..

The barrister added that it was the responsibility of police and prosecutors to prove that the Alliance was a foreign agent. At present, the activists did not even know which foreign body they were accused of colluding with, meaning they had no way to defend themselves on the basis of facts, [Senior Counsel Philip] Dykes said.

Transit Jam reports that Hong Kong police in Kowloon East want to enlist vehicle owners to pool 24-hour dashcam footage to ‘link into a community recording network’…

The project, dubbed “Project CARCAMS” has nothing to do with traditional dashcam road safety but will use parked vehicle cameras as district surveillance tools to “strengthen community security,” according to a police blurb.

…there are no laws, other the laws of physics, preventing vehicle owners capturing, in full HD, the face of everyone who walks past their car, 24-7, without any warning or permission.

While there may be some genuinely useful police work going on, the issue is how a potentially million-camera high-definition 5G surveillance network is being built right under our noses.

Prison authorities bar jailed activist Owen Chow from receiving a copy of a book on European history and culture because of ‘obscene’ content – a disgusting picture of a nude woman on a beach by Italian porn merchant Boticelli. He is asking for a judicial review.

After a relatively measured government press release, Chief Secretary Eric Chan says Moody’s downgrade of Hong Kong’s credit outlook is ‘part of a United States-led smear campaign to curb China’s national development’. (He does know Moody’s threatened to downgrade the US government’s credit rating last month, right?)

An SCMP editorial takes a slightly gutsy view of Agnes Chow skipping bail, somewhere under all that passive voice…

It is not clear whether the trip [to Shenzhen], and another letter expressing regret for her past actions, were part of her bail conditions. This should be clarified.

Such requirements would be unusual, if not unprecedented.

Bail conditions should be confined to ensuring suspects behave and are present for any legal action taken against them. Further details of what happened should be provided.

Chow has already served a prison sentence for an offence committed during the 2019 civil unrest. She has had the national security investigation hanging over her head for more than three years, a very long time.

Efforts should be made to either charge or release suspects expeditiously, or at least explain why it takes so long to make a decision.

Efforts should be made to enjoy some or all weekend reading…

A HKFP op-ed on Hong Kong’s Audit Commission, which is (allegedly) wasting taxpayer’s money not looking into genuine wastes of taxpayers’ money.

Agnes Chow talks to France 24.  And one from Reuters.

Bloomberg review of Among the Braves looks at the authorities’ attempts to convince everyone the 2019 protests were foreign-organized black violence… 

Four years on, the winners are still struggling to make their story stick.

Hong Kong’s official line is that the democracy protests were an attempted color revolution instigated by hostile foreign actors and “black-clad rioters,” and that everything has returned to normal since the city’s post-pandemic reopening. Reality keeps on refusing to cooperate.

…The former police and security personnel who now dominate the upper ranks of the Beijing-appointed Hong Kong government hold all the megaphones, but have won no hearts and minds. The lying-flat apathy of society suggests to me a population that knows it’s being fed transparent falsehoods…

Ends with a quote from Hannah Arendt…

‘…whatever those in power may contrive, they are unable to discover or invent a viable substitute for [truth]’.

FT (probably paywalled) on Moody’s advice to staff in China…

Moody’s Investors Service advised staff in China to work from home ahead of its cut to the outlook for the country’s sovereign credit rating, a suggestion staff believed was prompted by concern over Beijing’s possible reaction, according to two employees familiar with the situation.

The move by the US rating agency highlights the unease of many foreign companies doing business in the world’s second-largest economy, where some have suffered police raids, exit bans for staff and arrests amid tensions between China and the US and its allies.

…In a statement on Wednesday, the National Development and Reform Commission, an economic planning body, accused the rating agency of “bias and misunderstanding of China’s economic outlook”.

Also from the FT – over 8.5 million people, most of working age, have been blacklisted in China for defaulting on mortgages and business and other loans. That’s up from 5.7 million in early 2020 and around 1% of the working population…

Under Chinese law, blacklisted defaulters are blocked from a range of economic activities, including purchasing aeroplane tickets and making payments through mobile apps such as Alipay and WeChat Pay, representing a further drag on an economy plagued by a property sector slowdown and lagging consumer confidence. The blacklisting process is triggered after a borrower is sued by creditors, such as banks, and then misses a subsequent payment deadline.

…Life for blacklisted borrowers can be difficult as they navigate dozens of state-imposed restrictions. Defaulters and their families are barred from government jobs, and they can even be prohibited from using toll roads.

Be careful whom you report. From China Digital Media…

The drama began on November 24, with a video released by the People’s Court of Wenchuan county, in Sichuan province, sternly warning Chinese internet users: “If you use software to circumvent the firewall in China, no matter what your purpose is, it is considered an illegal act.” The spokeswoman in the video further cautioned that “by scaling the wall, you’re actually putting yourself right in the middle of the enemy’s hunting ground, blithely walking into the enemy’s carefully laid illegal, collusive, and political traps.” More worrisome still, the video interprets the vaguely defined crime of “firewall circumvention” as a “hacking attack,” or a criminal intrusion into a computer system.

In response to the video, current affairs commentator and blogger Xiang Dongliang … reposted a quote from the Wenchuan court and duly reported Hu Xijin to the authorities for using a VPN to “scale the wall” and access overseas websites:

Xiang’s account was then banned.

Speaking of ‘scaling the wall’ – Chef Wang is one of the more engaging YouTube cooks going (sample here, for eggplant and pork) and surely a contributor to Chinese ‘soft power’. But he has recently managed to ‘hurt the feelings’ with his recipe for egg fried rice… 

The Chinese Academy of History has said the claim about Mao Anying is a “most vicious rumour”, but the story remains popular. The rumour – and references to egg fried rice – are now a taboo topic in China’s highly sensitive and controlled political environment. References to the dish are not censored but are fraught around this time of year.

China clamps down on students of Marxism who take Karl too literally about workers’ rights…

Though President Xi Jinping has called for a refocusing on Communist roots — including a May speech which called for Marxism to be promoted in campuses and classrooms — Beijing is increasingly wary of student-run Marxist societies, especially those that try to apply theory to practice.

Over the summer, when university students joined efforts to organise a labour union for factory workers in southern Guangdong province, Chinese authorities flew into action.

In August, a police raid swept up the student activists, beating several of them and confiscating their phones, according to the Jasic Workers Solidarity group, a labour rights organisation that the students joined.

China Media Project explains ‘hyping’ – Beijing’s preferred allegation in response to criticism…

Furious at a wave of reports in September 2023 about the weakness of China’s economy, the official Xinhua News Agency alleged that Western journalists for media such as The Economist had “fundamentally lost their capacity to view China objectively” as a result of “longstanding ideological prejudice” and the “desire to gain readers through hyping and mudslinging.”…

This use of the term “hype” (炒作) to characterize fact-based coverage by Western media of the Chinese economy, which according to a broad consensus by economists and professional analysts faced numerous challenges, is a good example of how the term “hype” — and related phrases such as “media hyping” (媒体炒作) and “news hyping” (新闻炒作) — is routinely used by Chinese state media to attack factual coverage on key issues that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regards as damaging to its interests.

…“hyping” may be paired with the hardline term “hostile forces” (敌对势力), a phrase that for decades has been used by the CCP to broad brush perceived enemies both internal and external — often with the suggestion, apart from any justification, that the two are in collusion.

Asian Review of Books looks at A Young Englishman in Victorian Hong Kong: The Diaries of Chaloner Alabaster, 1855-1856. A precocious 16-year-old sent out as an interpreter. Uses the word ‘beastly’ a lot. 

This might strike a chord with Hongkongers: Japanese complain that there are too many tourists…

…Kyoto has terminated its popular one-day bus pass to discourage tourists from using the city’s busses.

Extended queueing times and jammed public transport have inconvenienced locals. In 2022, roughly 80% of residents complained about public transport and the streets being overly filled with tourists. 

…the sector triggered a dynamic of “tourism gentrification” with locals being pushed out from the housing market since short-term holiday rentals are more lucrative to landlords. Shops and restaurants started catering to travelers rather than locals.

The government is not obsessed with NatSec – and if you say it is, you’re engaging in ‘soft resistance’. According to pro-Beijing figure Lau Siu-kai, the vaguely menacing phrase… 

…refers to ideological work, including “disseminating disinformation, creating panic, maliciously attacking the SAR government and the central authorities and distorting the Basic Law.”

The CE also says…

“Look at my policies. There are policies on national security, but most of them are not about national security.”

On this weekend’s district council elections, Lee said that when deciding who to vote for, people should consider how much the candidates know about their community and whether they are hardworking.

Future district councillors should not make “political noise”, he said.

“Minds should be unified… we are not making political noise anymore. They have to think about serving the community.”

Maybe this will unify minds: the HK Heritage Museum in Shatin (remember the Ghibli and Bruce Lee exhibitions?) will apparently be scrapped, and the HK Science Museum will move into the location, so the latter’s Kowloon site can be used for a ‘National Development & Achievement Museum’ (or whatever they call it) to showcase…

…national development and achievements through ways that allow teenagers to understand and accept easier, with a view to strengthen recognition towards China. 

The content will include Chinese history, such as foreign invasion and soldiers’ “fierceless resistance”, the development of the Chinese Communist Party, the establishment of the new China, the economic reform, sports achievements and aerospace technological advancements, etc. 

The phrase ‘understand and accept easier’ should be carved over the doorway. The story suggests that they will demolish the existing Heritage Museum and construct a new Science Museum from scratch, rather than do a repurposing job. (Can’t wait to see the new National Achievement Museum – it promises to be… interesting.) 

Following Moody’s downgrade of China’s credit outlook rating from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ it does the same for Hong Kong. The government issues a relatively moderate-toned rebuttal…

“Moody’s also made unfounded comments on the high-degree of autonomy of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, our political and judicial institutions, the implementation of the National Security Law (NSL) and changes to the electoral system… 

“Contrary to what Moody’s has suggested in its assessment, the implementation of the NSL has put an end to the chaotic situation and serious violence, which occurred between June 2019 and early 2020, and restored stability and increased the confidence in Hong Kong, thereby allowing the city to resume its normal operation and return to the path of development swiftly…”

No ‘smearing’ or ‘black violence’?

After saying all those rude things about SCMP op-eds – here’s a sensible one on expanding congestion charging and devoting less space to cars. 

Hong Kong authorities call their treatment of Agnes Chow lenient. Overseas media like Nikkei take a less-cheery angle…

The chief executive of Hong Kong on Tuesday vowed that authorities will hound prominent pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow for as long as she lives, after she left for Canada and suggested she might never return to the city.

The SCMP puts a more positive spin on it, courtesy of former pan-dem, now government supporter, Ronny Tong. Perhaps he knows a thing or two about such things, effectively saying Agnes Chow’s patriotic tour of Shenzhen and letter of contrition are no big deal. He…

…brushed off concerns on Monday that the unprecedented conditions would infringe upon Chow’s civil rights, arguing the activist had agreed to them to study overseas.

“Once you’ve offended the law, you don’t have a right to leave [the city], as the law stipulates, unless police permit them to leave,” he said.

Bail conditions were usually decided by police and the arrested person, with no defined limits to the conditions as long as both parties agreed to them, Tong noted.

An unnamed opposition activist disagreed…

He feared such practices would become accepted as a new norm in Hong Kong. “Will forced televised confessions be brought to Hong Kong next?” he said.

Funny he should mention that. Hong Kong indeed gets into televised confessions – HK Police release a video showing Tsang Chi-kin saying he was ‘incited’ to take part in 2019 protests.

This looks like the next step in counterproductive propaganda-performance – or where ‘soft power’ goes to die. Like the over-outraged press release demanding that Agnes Chow return, this Mainland-style video is going to alienate, rather than persuade, the supposedly intended audience. But, in the finest tradition of civil-service PR folks stretching back decades before NatSec, it will please superiors.

And the ICAC – originally founded to combat corruption – arrests someone for allegedly sharing a post urging people not to vote at the forthcoming District Council elections…

ICAC also said authorities had issued an arrest warrant for the author of the online post, a YouTube political commentator named Wong Sai-chak. Wong, better known as Martin Oei, is from Hong Kong and now lives in Germany.

(How many fugitives from Hong Kong’s NatSec justice now have de facto asylum overseas?)

Voters will get a tasteful thank-you card ‘designed by civil servants’…

…photo spots will also be set up outside polling stations for those who’d like to capture the moment and mark the occasion.

…A government spokesman added that the photo spots will include signs that feature election mascots, the “Ballot Box Babies”.

The classic cantopop song, ‘Under the Lion Rock’, will also be given new lyrics and be performed by popular artists to boost people’s morale.

SCMP pulls an op-ed advising the West to ditch Ukraine after finding the author is fictitious (maybe a figment of Alex Lo’s imagination)…

Bangkok-based journalist Tomasz Augustyniak said on Twitter, now X, that a reverse image search revealed that the headshot used in the bio was generated by artificial intelligence.

“Peter Sojka – according to his made up bio a fellow at the Slovak Academy of Sciences – argued that the US should convince Ukraine to sign truce with Russia. That would align with Beijing’s interests. But no such person works at the Academy and nobody in Bratislava recognizes him,” he said.

…In July 2020, SCMP pulled op-eds from “Lin Nguyen,” replacing her bio with a statement that the newspaper was “unable to verify the authenticity of the author.” Five columns were deleted, including one which urged Hong Kong protesters to “stay at home” during the extradition bill protests and unrest in 2019.

So how do you go about getting an op-ed published in the SCMP under a fake persona? They don’t usually pay for opinion pieces (boy, does it show), so you don’t need to provide a bank account number or anything. A fake email address and photo are easy enough to create. So it’s just a matter of crafting vaguely believable credentials – something from Eastern Europe (or maybe South/Southeast Asia) will do. Now all you have to do is write an immensely dull article.

This week’s ‘Anything I’ve missed?’ award goes to the Diplomat for an article on Hong Kong’s lessons for Taiwan…

Whereas, once, anyone could vie for office, now the powers that be – China operating behind the scenes – decide who gets a chance, and this gives the pretense of democratic rule over Hong Kong. It is one of many signs that what’s happening here is a cautionary tale for the next objective of China’s expansionary vision: Taiwan. 

Officials tout Hong Kong’s “stability and prosperity,” but people decry, along with the democratic deficit, economic troubles, a sinking property market, weakening judiciary, rising crime rates, mass emigration, administrative mismanagement, compromised meritocracy, security crackdown fears, overzealous “patriotic” education, and the loss of media freedom. These make the “distant mirror” of what “unification” with China might mean for Taiwan look increasingly unappealing.

…“Hong Kong does not have any opposition politicians right now, no free press, no civil society organizations, and no student associations. Everything has been wiped out and been flattened, and no dissidents are allowed to speak up and people are under arrest, many leaders are still in jail… or in exile,” said National Taiwan University Professor Ho Ming-sho, author of a book on Hong Kong social movements. “…Instead of moving forward toward democracy, we see backsliding to the level of mainland China. It’s very worrying,” according to Ho. 

NatSec police ask Agnes Chow to come back to Hong Kong. An official ‘sorely vexed’ press release suggests someone is not happy…

The [HK government] issued a solemn statement today (December 4) to condemn strongly the shameful acts of Chow Ting, who was arrested by the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force for suspected violation of the offence of “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security”, of absconding to avoid legal responsibilities. She blatantly claimed in social media that she planned to jump bail, which is a total disregard of law and order. The HKSAR Government will spare no effort in bringing her to justice in accordance with the law.

Chow Ting’s flagrant disregard for police bail terms showed that she is completely devoid of integrity. She has also never soberly reflected on her acts, which are suspected to have violated the law, but has tried to escape from legal consequences. No matter what excuses she put forward or how she attempted to deceive and win sympathy, her hypocrisy, disgrace and disregard for law and order are laid bare.

Endangering national security is a very serious offence, and the HKSAR Government will fight against it with full force and pursue the liability of the person to the end. Fugitives should not have any delusion that they could evade legal liabilities by absconding from Hong Kong. Fugitives will be pursued for life unless they turn themselves in.

The HKSAR Government urged Chow Ting to repent and co-operate with the Police, be responsible for her own act and turn over a new leaf, before it is too late for regrets.

To paraphrase PG Wodehouse, it is never difficult to distinguish between a ray of sunshine and a HK government press release with a grievance.

Guardian story.

Closing statements in the HK47 trial…

“This charge of conspiracy is like no other charge that has come before the courts,” [barrister Trevor] Beel said, concluding his arguments. “Everything was conducted openly for the simple reason that nobody knew what they were doing was illegal.”

The Chief Secretary denies that civil servants will be penalized if they fail to vote at the District Council election. But it seems the government really wants them to…

The official rejected the speculations at a civil service family day in support of the overhauled election organised by the Disciplined Services Consultative Council and the Police Force Council.

…Local media reported on Sunday citing sources that Secretary for Civil Service Ingrid Yeung had written to all department heads and said government employees must be allowed to leave their posts and vote when polls open this coming Sunday. Civil servants will also be allowed to claim back transportation fees incurred from travelling between the office and the polling station, local media reports read.

Or is ‘living in Canada’, according to taste. From the BBC…

Ms Chow was jailed in 2020 for taking part in the anti-government protests of 2019, and was released in 2021.

She is still under investigation for “collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security”.

…in order to get her passport back, she had to go on a police-escorted trip to mainland China in August with five police officers – a trip she had no right to refuse.

…She said she was shown an exhibition of China’s achievements since the reform and opening up of China since the late 1970s…

…Ms Chow said when she returned to Hong Kong, she was also told to sign letters expressing remorse for all her past political actions, and also to thank the police for organising the trip, so that she could learn of “the motherland’s marvellous developments”.

…Ms Chow was one of the most prominent faces of the city’s pro-democracy movement and was even nicknamed “the real Mulan”, in reference to the legendary Chinese heroine who fought to save her family and country.

Media organizations shouldn’t make the story about themselves, but maybe this time it’s excusable…

In 2020, she was featured on the BBC 100 Women list, which names 100 influential and inspirational women around the world every year and tells their stories.

(Were the authorities seriously expecting her to eagerly come back? Or did someone think she would happily become a poster-child for patriotic re-education?)

This is what opposition looks like now: one-time pan-dem and former government official Anthony Cheung speaks out, saying let’s not go overboard on NatSec…

…authorities have to strike a balance between safeguarding security and maintaining a free and diversified society.

…[and] that Hong Kong should maintain its uniqueness and internationalization, and society should allow people to express different opinions.

There was no need to discuss everything at the level of national security, Cheung added, as this would undermine Hong Kong’s image if it took root in people’s minds.

He also says…

…Hong Kong has “slightly suffered” from reopening its border later than its neighbors.

…Cheung stressed the need to avoid extreme political divisions and adopt more open and inclusive policies.

A group of LSD members are searched while on a hike.

It seems one District Council candidate had previously been working at the Liaison Office…

Former Central and Western District Councillor Sam Yip Kam-lung (葉錦龍) pointed out that after doing community work for years he had never heard Law Kam Fai’s name. He suspects that Law’s experience as the deputy of a Liaison Office Sub-Office means he was directed to seek elected office by his central government employers and definitely has their backing.

The SCMP detects official concern about a low voter turnout at the District Council elections next Sunday. Asked how much it is spending to promote the polls, the government says…

…only that it would be more than the HK$100 million (US$12.8 million) spent on the 2021 Legislative Council polls…

Emeritus Professor John Burns, of the department of politics and public administration at the University of Hong Kong, said such extensive publicity drives only generated more votes in “competitive races”.

“Real competition based on competing policy platforms in elections that have consequences for people’s lives tends to increase voter turnout,” he said. “These elements are mostly absent from our December 10 district council elections.”

Ming Pao reports that the government will offer cash and other help to elderly homes in transporting residents to polling stations.

Speaking of the SCMP, its former editor prays for missing reporter Minnie Chan.

I forgot that candidate-nomination in the District Council elections had been the subject of a judicial review. But voila. The judge…

…expressed surprise that most direct election contenders in the upcoming race also sit on the committees which decide who can stand as candidates.

…[The] submission argued that the government’s requirement was designed to override residents’ right to vote, and that the committees could effectively bar candidates who were popular among constituents from running.

…[Counsel Anson] Wong told the court that some three-quarters of candidates sat on the three committees responsible for deciding who could stand, making it hard for non-committee members to get nominated.

The government’s lawyer says the plaintiff has no evidence to prove how many members of the pro-democracy camp had failed to obtain nominations, or the reasons for this – not a great argument considering quite a few hopefuls (pan-dem and others) complained about their inability to get approved. He also says there’s no rush, and the court can and should take its time. The SCMP report (lost the link) suggests that the action has come too late for the court to deal with, anyway, but some sort of decision is expected today.

Straits Times reports on John Lee’s rising approval ratings…

Veteran political commentator Chris Yeung said there has been more publicity in recent months about what Mr Lee has been doing and less negative news about his government.

“John Lee has not yet been able to impress people with charm, wisdom or competence. He is not likely to be a highly popular leader. On the other hand, he has not made any serious mistakes either, so he is also not likely to be a very unpopular leader,” Mr Yeung said.

Associate Professor Alfred Wu, from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, said he would take Mr Lee’s all-time-high approval rating with a pinch of salt.

“The socio-political conditions in today’s Hong Kong under John Lee are very different compared with those faced by the city’s other chief executives,” Prof Wu said.

“John Lee already has the best base in the polls as some 300,000 residents – likely those who would have disliked him and his government – have already left Hong Kong.”

One way to do it!

A US House of Representatives move to possibly sanction Hong Kong’s Economic and Trade Offices gets the angry-statement treatment for…

…its complete disregard of the status of the HKSAR under “one country, two systems”, its malicious slander against the just and legitimate objective of the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law (NSL) and the fact that human rights and the rule of law are properly protected in accordance with the law by the HKSAR Government, and its gross interference in the affairs of Hong Kong.

SCMP reporter (formerly at Apple Daily) Minnie Chan went to Beijing to cover a security forum four weeks ago. Now she’s missing.

For our local Bonnae Gokson Fan Club – the legendary colonial-era socialite is still indeed a thing – to the extent that she is, well, shutting down her renowned restaurant that we’ve never heard of. Pavva? Savva? Something.

Some other things…

China’s Internet regulators issue new rules against online ‘regional prejudice’, ‘gender antagonism’, and (not very Marxist-Leninist, surely?) ‘class antagonism’. CMP explains what the phrases mean. ‘Gender antagonism’ is feminism, and as for the class thing…

…the word used … in the CAC notice is not the jieji (階級) of Mao’s class struggle but rather jieceng (階層), which can also be translated as “strata.” Although largely interchangeable in everyday usage, the two differ significantly in sociological theory. While jieji relates to Marx’s notion that there are only two classes — the proletariat and bourgeoisie — jieceng invokes the work of Max Weber, who saw class as a more complex outcome determined by both economic and non-economic factors such as social prestige and political power.

…How else do you reconcile the official CCP line that they have eliminated meaningful class distinctions with the reality of a highly unequal society with the highest Gini coefficient in the region?

(Also from CMP, in case you missed it a few months ago, all you need to know about the suddenly-topical phrase ‘old friend of China’.)

At the Council on Foreign Relations, Carl Minzner asks whether the delay in the CCP’s annual plenum is a sign of institutional decay.

Marketwatch on the fall in foreign direct investment in China…

U.S.-China tensions are partly to blame, making investors more cautious.

But Beijing has also closed foreign consultancy and due-diligence firms, which are vital for potential investors and foreign companies to understand risk and other corporate and policy factors before making investment decisions.

First, burner phones; now this… Hong Kong NatSec police arrest a man at the airport for having an allegedly seditious t-shirt. He is denied bail and will be in jail until a hearing in early January.

The government’s press release says…

The National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force today (November 29) laid charges against a 26-year-old man with one count of “doing an act or acts with seditious intention”, one count of “possessing seditious publications” and one count of “possessing a Hong Kong identity card related to another person”.

…On November 27 afternoon, Police received a report that a man was allegedly wearing a shirt with seditious wordings at the Hong Kong International Airport. Police officers sped to the scene and further seized some flags and clothing with seditious wording, as well as an identity card relating to another person from his personal belongings.

They ‘sped to the scene’? It was obviously an exciting day up at the airport.

Will foreign governments now issue travel advisories warning citizens that they could be arrested in Hong Kong for wearing the wrong t-shirt? Could the HK Tourism Board revive its old ‘stay an extra day’ slogan as ‘stay an extra six weeks, in jail, for your t-shirt’? (Meanwhile, the SCMP says Hong Kong will host a glitzy show to burnish its image as a fashion capital.)

As the HK47 trial nears its conclusion, the prosecution argues for a ‘wide interpretation’ of the NatSec law…

The prosecution examined the definition of “other unlawful means” as specified in Article 22 of the Beijing-imposed security law, which says people are guilty of subversion if they organise or conduct certain acts “by force or threat of force or other unlawful means.”

Man said Article 22 created two categories of activities under which national security could be endangered. The first was “force-related,” and the second was “all other means apart from force-related means.”

He claimed that the legislative purpose of the security law was to “punish, prevent, and suppress any endangering of national security,” and a narrow interpretation of the phrase “other unlawful means” would compromise the effectiveness of the law.

Samuel Bickett writes…

As written, NSL “subversion” under Art. 22 requires first proving a predicate offense—an associated crime (“unlawful means” in the NSL) that was committed as part of the subversion, like assault or fraud. But in the HK47’s case, defendants were literally just exercising their right under the Basic Law to get elected and veto the budget. So what is the “unlawful means” the DOJ is alleging and the judges are allowing as a predicate offense? The NSL itself. 

In other words, the defendants committed subversion by committing subversion. 

This is brazenly stupid legal interpretation, even by HK court standards.

Wait! There’s more! Chinese U is criticized by the Audit Commission (who ‘sped to the scene’, right?) for not including clauses on NatSec in contracts and tenders.

Elsewhere…

Channel 4 Dispatches reports on attempts to intimidate Hong Kong dissidents in the UK.

Video: the best of Charlie Munger, who has died at the age of 99. (If you’re into random vids – here’s a deranged Elon Musk at a business conference telling companies to shove the ad-spend on which his own profits depend.)

The Hong Kong government will hold a range of activities to encourage interest in the patriots-only District Council elections next month. The events include a ‘drone show’ (lemme guess – candidates giving speeches?), free museum visits and outdoor music, which will take place only the day before the election. 

Chief Executive John Lee hopes people will not just vote, but buy stuff…

“Before the voting day, we want to enhance a sense of engagement, so that on December 10 everyone comes out to vote. We want to raise awareness, we also want to cheer everyone up. This is also the point of improving district governance,” he said.

“We hope more people will join these large-scale events in Hong Kong… and we will have more local consumption. This is what we have been trying to promote, to have people stay in Hong Kong to spend money and cast their vote.”

(The theory is that people would love to vote, but have an urgent massage/dinner/shopping run to Shenzhen that day.)

You may also get officials knocking on your door urging you to cast a ballot. (‘Hello! Yes I will – when you let the candidates I support out of jail. Thanks for the fridge magnet! Goodbye!’) RTHK reports that its own staff are on the streets promoting the polls. If you encourage people not to vote, however, the ICAC will arrest you.

After 71% last time, the authorities would probably regard a turnout of over 30% as a success. Less than 20% would look pretty bad. But an all-patriots/zero-opposition slate is the main thing.

While candidates permitted to take part are handing out leaflets on the street, League of Social Democrats members are facing 26 charges for unauthorized fundraising and displays of posters.