Comments on: Review: ‘Underground Front – The Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong’ by Christine Loh

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:08:06 +0000

NTT,

Many of them are serving as token gweilo non-executive directors of locally listed firms with pretensions of Western-styled corporate governance.

The remainder are in Malta or Derbyshire.

By: Not Ted Thomas

Not Ted Thomas — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:43:30 +0000

I remember the Brits in pre-1997 Hong Kong: insular, provincial, pompous and bad teeth. Wonder where they are now.

By: Dannerman

Dannerman — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:55:29 +0000

My apologies, Historian, if I hurted your feelings. But Dr. Palmerston is right, it’s a colonial mode of operation in HK, both for the Brits and now the CCP, only the CCP prefers to operate even more in the shadows, and they are even less open to public opinion. At least the Brits were accountable to London which is in turn accountable to the electorate.

By: Historian

Historian — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:43:21 +0000

Sorry, but your hastily written, ill-thought-out and angry overreaction to my comment is unworthy of a response.

By: Dannerman

Dannerman — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:24:28 +0000

@Historian
What do you mean by “being tough on Brits”, you think the Brits are perfect and saintly beings? The days of “white men’s burden” is long gone, pal. Sure, the Brits did contribute to the SAR’s prosperity and development by providing the rule of law, education and healthcare. But fundamentally, they were a colonial regime. They owe their paychecks to London, not from the local people. Why do you think Britain never granted Hong Kong democracy? It was to safeguard the elite tycoon interest. But what is in the interest of certain tycoons may not be in the interest of local people as a whole.

And what’s with the attack on “research assistants”? Academic projects requires assistants these days.

By: Chanboy

Chanboy — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:38:14 +0000

Hong Kong needs more people like Christine Loh. Right on, Christine. We need more people to explore Hong Kong’s uncomfortable and inconvienient truths.

By: Sir Crispin

Sir Crispin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:17:11 +0000

Bigot, your statement:

“…someone who has a quaint hairdo, wears boring dark suits an ridiculous ties, never smiles, speaks tersely and lacks a sense of humor?”

describes about 99% of people in HK working in finance!

By: Dr Palmerston

Dr Palmerston — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:11:38 +0000

Your analysis is flawed and biased.

The essential role of the CCP in Hong Kong is not subversive, secret or manipulative.

It is COLONIAL.

The fact that this is merely a continuation of British rule is unpalatable to you, it seems.

All the actions you cite – pandering to the tycoons and having a Fifth Column of imported cadres find echoes in the British attitude and actions in Hong Kong.

For example, were the British civil servants and policemen any better than local ‘cadres’ and the brats of the British, Jardine Johnnies and spooks included, any better than the sons of the CCP?

As for political parties, I wonder how many drinks Martin Lee took with the Governors and how many barristers were urged to join the Democrats to get ahead in their profession.

By: Dan the Man

Dan the Man — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:43:34 +0000

Let’s face it. The real Hong Kong Marxists don’t belong to the CCP. They belong to the LSD. Or the April 5th Action Group.

You’re right that it would be incredibly easy for the CCP to crush the Hong Kong Democratic Resistance – just hand out more money to the poor and middle class and give the people more free things. Perhaps the CCP could even beat up some tycoons. But I don’t think that will ever happen. Perhaps it’s because of Northern snobbery toward the Cantonese. Perhaps it’s because the Northerners who dominate the CCP don’t understand Cantonese. But certainly one of the reasons is because the CCP doesn’t like being challenged. Every time the HK Democratic Resistance does something more outlandish against the HK government or the CCP, the CCP gets angrier. And there’s no way to get the CCP to change its ways.

My own guess is sooner or later the conflict between the HK Democratic Resistance and the CCP will come to a head and we will know who wins. You can already see this happening with the recent political persecutions of Christina Chan and now Long Hair and others. The only real chance genuine democracy can occur in Hong Kong (they aren’t going to give democracy to Hong Kong willingly) is if the CCP continues to act as stupidly as it is acting now and this causes hundreds of thousands of HKers to be so angry they are willing to surround the liaison office and demand democracy. When that happens the question will be whether or not the CCP would be willing to send the PLA to Hong Kong and exercise direct control of it militarily.

By: Historian

Historian — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:03:40 +0000

An fairly interesting book if not exactly a page-turner. A bit tough on the Brits though, I thought. Perhaps trying to add a bit of patriot-cred to avoid accusatons of being controlled by ‘foreign influsences’. Tiananmen Square Massacre is also downgraded to a crackdown. Also, any author that employs research assistants (as mentioned in the acknowledgements) is only as reliable as said helpers, in my opinion.