Big Lychee, Various Sectors

The SCMP reports that…

Hong Kong’s legislature plans to amend its rules to require lawmakers to attend meetings, take part in votes and regularly submit work reports.

Legislative Council president Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen announced the proposal on Friday, with an aim to implement the changes in the legislature’s next term.

…The proposed requirements include attending meetings, taking part in votes, maintaining contact with different sectors of society and regularly submitting work reports.

…The performance of Hong Kong’s lawmakers has come under the spotlight after a report found at least two-thirds of bills were passed in the 2023 Legco year with under half of all councillors present, falling short of the 45-member quorum requirement.

The current 90-seat Legco, formed after an election in December 2021, is the first since Beijing overhauled Hong Kong’s political system to ensure that only “patriots” hold office.

Mainstream opposition parties sat out the election, with many of their leaders and former lawmakers arrested or behind bars for involvement in national security-related cases. Those still free said the patriots-only rule was meant to keep them out.

…Veteran lawmaker Priscilla Leung Mei-fun wrote on social media that she supported changing the code for legislators, noting that it would set out clear guidelines.

…“Besides following the law, lawmakers must strive for higher moral standards, actively participate in the discussions of policies, raise constructive ideas, be diligent in their work and love the people, as well as act as a bridge for residents and the government,” she said.

If two thirds of bills were passed without a quorum, how is the legislation enacted? (I guess there’s some sort of procedural let-out.)

The SCMP’s claim that opposition parties ‘sat out’ the 2021 election is presumably their idea of a joke. Not only were many formerly democratically elected lawmakers in jail, but the new ‘all-patriots’ system required all candidates to be vetted in order to weed pan-dems out, and only around a fifth of seats were elected by universal suffrage anyway. (Most voters ‘sat out’ the polls, hence a barely 30% turnout.)

Apart from some older pro-Beijing figures like the fragrant Priscilla, most of LegCo’s current members are unknown to most of the public. While making the chamber far less representative, the government for some reason also expanded the number of seats to from 60 to 90, so it’s not just people you’ve never heard of, but loads of people you’ve you’ve never heard of. (Salaries are HK$100,000 a month, plus over double that in expenses.)

With many/most lawmakers now pretty much hand-picked and not representing actual districts – and debates and votes inevitably reflecting the administration’s positions – few Hong Kong people nowadays pay much attention to LegCo. Hardly surprising if that includes the members themselves.

Just in from HKFP: four of the pan-dems have just been released from prison. Claudia Mo, Gary Fan, Jeremy Tam, and Kwok Ka-ki were all popularly elected, and will no doubt still be recognized by many passers-by when they walk down the street.

From the Guardian – posts on UK social media invite racists to attack Hong Kong activists in exile…

[Finn] Lau and his fellow activists have been called traitors, with bounties on their heads that are three times what the authorities offer for murderers. Relatives back home have been arrested and intimidated. As he read the posts, Lau suspected a chilling new tactic: an attempt to harness far-right violence.

Working with the anti-racism group Hope Not Hate, the Guardian found more than 150 posts from 29 accounts on three days in August 2024 that sought to draw the attention of anti-immigrant groups and the far right to Lau and other Hong Kong exiles. Cybersecurity experts who have reviewed the posts say they exhibited some similarities to a major online influence operation that a Chinese security agency is suspected of orchestrating.

HKFP on Hongkongers going to the Mainland to enjoy far lower-priced shopping and leisure…

During the four-day Easter holiday last week, around 1.86 million Hong Kong residents left the city, with around 1.6 million heading to mainland China, according to the Immigration Department.

Meanwhile, the number of travellers visiting Hong Kong over the Easter holiday only reached over half a million.

The tourism deficit has left the city’s shopping malls and restaurants reeling.

Simon Wong, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants & Related Trades, reckoned the city’s food and beverage industry suffered a 30 per cent drop in business during this year’s Easter holiday.

All of which leaves Hong Kong sorely vexed. They view people spending across the border rather like Donald Trump sees cheap imported manufactured goods: somehow bad for the economy even though it’s good for consumers.  

The difference is that Trump doesn’t understand the basic economics, while Hong Kong policymakers have a clear rationale. To them, money spent on groceries and personal services in Shenzhen is money that doesn’t flow into the pockets of Hong Kong landlords. This depresses land valuations, which in turn reduces government revenues, which in turn threatens expenditure on mega-projects and – horror of horrors – bureaucrats’ generous salaries.

But what did they think ‘integration’ would mean?

Is Trump caving on China without Beijing making any serious concessions at all? This would be an even worse example of his ‘deal making’ than offering Russia most of what it wanted as an opening position on Ukraine. But all the signs are that, as one wit puts it, the US president is ‘negotiating with himself’. 

He obviously miscalculated how much his tariffs would disrupt the US and how much the subsequent U-turns would upset the markets. But his worst decision was to start by alienating every other trade partner, including allies, by imposing tariffs on them all. Many have their own problems with China’s subsidized exports, and he could have enlisted at least some in a grown-up multilateral effort to pressure Beijing to wind down its over-production/under-consumption economic model. China is vulnerable.

And at some stage, the world will have to do something about China’s imbalances. But for the time being, it looks like Beijing has dodged a bullet, thanks to Trump’s ineptitude.

HKFP on the trial of health inspectors enforcing Hong Kong government’s anti-Japanese radiation measures…

…the five inspectors were charged with conspiring to steal food – including canned abalone, white truffle sauce, and crab bisque – ordered for conducting radiation tests.

According to an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) statement published when they were charged in June last year, the five health inspectors bought food samples worth around HK$88,000 for radiation tests in mid-2022 and early 2023.

A total of 82 food samples were subsequently found at their homes, the ICAC said.

No doubt their actions infringe official procedures. But imagine if your boss tells you to buy HK$88,000 worth of perfectly edible (not to say luxury) foodstuffs and then chuck most of it in the bin. What would most people do?

(Full marks to anyone who answers ‘donate some to a charity in case of legal problems and keep the rest’.)

Nathan Law on Lu Siwei, the mainland lawyer who represented the ‘Hong Kong 12’.

Recently saw the Japanese movie First Kiss (was almost the youngest person in the cinema). Then I start to watch the Fuji TV series Omameda Towako and Her Three Ex-Husbands, starring the same actress, Takako Matsu. Mildly jarring to see her again in a different role. But – this being a genre that recycles an apparently limited number of actors – it gets much worse.

The guy playing the first of the three ex-husbands (the publicity photo helpfully numbers them) is also appearing in another series I’m watching, the 156-episode Ama Chan. He plays a talent scout for a Tokyo idols company who recruits a girl who dives for sea urchins in a small northern fishing village. The actor playing ex-husband number 2 also appeared as an alien passing as a hotel staffer in the series Hot Spot, which I recently finished. (More confusion: the multiple-divorcee’s best buddy is played by the actress who is the alien’s colleague at the hotel.) Ex-husband number 3, meanwhile, is played by the same guy who is a judge in the 130-episode drama Tiger With Wings, about Japan’s first female lawyer, which I am also about halfway through. And the actress who plays the lead role in that series does the voice-overs for Omameda Towako and Her Three Ex-Husbands. 

Nothing like Japanese TV dramas to keep your brain alert.

(In case you’re wondering, the 150-episode epics are morning shows lasting 15-20 minutes. I’m not wasting that much time.)

CNN on the imminent disbandment of the HK Democratic Party…

“A dissolution of the party reflects official Hong Kong’s turn away from popular participation, locally accountable government, and increased transparency toward more authoritarian rule,” [academic John] Burns said.

Eric Lai, a research fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said the Democrats’ move “shows there are no more feasible ways for groups to exist as an opposition party.”

“It’s self-conflicting for the government to suggest that nothing has changed,” he said.

Includes a brief history of the party and a video interview with Emily Lau, who days…

“We’ve been around for over 30 years, and we’ve got the support of many Hong Kong people,” she told CNN outside court in February, before another former party lawmaker was jailed on charges of rioting during the 2019 protests.

“I don’t know what they are thinking in Beijing. We have demonstrated, not just words, but by action, that we are reasonable. We are willing to talk, to negotiate, to compromise, reach a deal and go forward.”

Which would be great if talking, negotiating and deal-making with political opponents was a CCP thing.

China Unofficial Archives celebrates a 10th anniversary…

Beneath the calm surface of Hong Kong in 2025 lies the weight of dramatic upheaval. After the 2019 anti-extradition protests, the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Security Law, the “patriots governing Hong Kong” policy, and the passage of the Article 23 National Security Ordinance, the open and free Hong Kong many remember seems to be fading from view. This year also marks the tenth anniversary of the independent film Ten Years, once dubbed a “prophecy” about Hong Kong’s future.

…Back in 2015, Ten Years may have seemed dystopian, even absurd. But in the wake of the 2020 National Security Law, it now appears almost restrained.

HKFP op-ed on Chow Hang-tung’s bid to allow female prisoners to wear shorts…

Ms Chow’s suggestion is nevertheless unwelcome, because it comes from her. 

…I would respectfully suggest that (government lawyer] Mr Lee drop the argument that uniform wearing is an essential part of maintaining “custodial discipline,” because this leaves him open to the question as to why custodial discipline in male prisons appears to be compatible with allowing shorts as an option.

What a wonderfully empty city we had over the holiday weekend…

Easter saw an “exodus” of residents, with approximately 2.22 million departures made over four days, an increase of 180,000 compared to the same period last year. In contrast, there were only about 400,000 mainland and foreign arrivals, resulting in a “travel deficit.”

Traffic peaked on the final day of the long break as northbound vehicles returned to the city. At 5.30pm yesterday, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge checkpoint reported a 500-meter vehicle backlog, with border-crossing wait times stretching up to 40 minutes.

According to Immigration Department data, as of 9pm yesterday, there were over 957,000 crossings recorded, with inbound travelers exceeding 631,000, some 86 percent of which are Hongkongers.

Economist Simon Lee Siu-po said the ongoing trade war has weakened the yuan, making products appear cheaper for Hongkongers to shop in the mainland.

Some things you might have missed while contributing to that horrible ‘travel deficit’…

China Media Project looks at the gap between Chinese media claims about the country’s tech prowess and the reality…

The current AI landscape, [tech academic Zhu Songchun] said, is one in which media narratives, investment patterns, and government initiatives present a distorted picture of progress. “What’s truly blocking our progress is not foreign technology restrictions,” Zhu told the audience, “but our own limited understanding.”

The reasons for this problem? Zhu says both Chinese media and officials tasked with promoting AI have little understanding of how it works. For their part, the media have fed the public “exaggerated” stories about AI. While Zhu notes this as a key problem, he tactfully steps around an important impetus behind this coverage — the fact that the leadership’s appetite for promoting AI as the next driver of development is also exerting pressure on state media to signal positivity and success. 

…This disconnect was illustrated once again over the weekend, as Beijing hosted a half marathon where Chinese-built robots raced alongside human competitors. The CCP’s official People’s Daily described the event as a “fierce competition” that had pushed the robots to their limits. Xinhua sang about “infinite possibilities,” and proclaimed in its headline that the racing event had “closed the distance between us and the future.” The less stellar reality, alluded to in a report by Guangzhou’s Southern Metropolis Daily that noted the “many problems” holding the race down, was that the robots had suffered constant failures and necessitated nearly constant repairs by the exhausted human crews running alongside them. In the end, only six of the 21 robot entries completed the race, and one quite literally lost its head.

George Magnus interviewed by Swiss outlet The Market…

If China, with its 1.4 billion people, had an income and consumption structure like the US, the UK or Switzerland, then their economy wouldn’t be in the situation it’s in. But it doesn’t. Why? Because the CCP is wedded to mercantilism, industrial policy, and export promotion. They try to boost growth through exports. But who’s going to take China’s overproduction voluntarily? Many countries all over the world are raising trade barriers against China. They’ve reached the end of the road with their growth model.

…what is the purpose of having a trade surplus? This goes back to Adam Smith, who famously said that the purpose of exporting is to be able to import. To be able to consume other things. That’s the big thing that’s missing in China. They don’t import enough, they don’t consume enough. China’s exports last year grew four times as fast as world trade, and imports didn’t grow as fast as world trade. Something’s wrong there. The philosophy behind China’s economic model is pure mercantilism. 

…so far, there hasn’t been any strong expression [in Beijing] to embark on tax reform, income redistribution, an abolition of the hukou system, or privatization of state assets. Xi is very opposed to welfare payments, he sees them as a Western corrupted practice. There are a few brave Chinese economists at think tanks who have called for such measures. But so far the government hasn’t done it. I’m skeptical that they’re comfortable with the idea of what strengthening household incomes and consumption implies. Because if you really transfer economic power to the citizens, households, and small firms, you are transferring political power as well.

The White House deletes practical info from the US government’s Covid website and replaces it with ‘lab-leak’ stuff. (An investigative journalist’s pithy response.)

What is the conspiracy-theorist/MAGA obsession with the ‘lab leak’ thing? Past experience (SARS, etc) shows that viruses are especially prone to cross species in central/southern China for a combination of natural and man-made reasons. The real scandal, beyond animal-trafficking and mismanaged wet markets, is that local and later national authorities in China tried to cover up the initial outbreak. Next thing, it spread worldwide and cost millions of lives and hundreds of billions in economic damage. The lab-leak story, hinting at evil scientists engineering exotic bio-weapons with Dr Fauci something something, detracts from that.

Is this ‘soft confrontation’?

On Tuesday evening, China Daily, the ruling Chinese Communist party’s (CCP) English-language mouthpiece, published an editorial saying Donald Trump’s frequent claims of the US being “ripped off” were “hoodwinking the US public”.

“The US is not getting ripped off by anybody,” it said. “The problem is the US has been living beyond its means for decades. It consumes more than it produces. It has outsourced its manufacturing and borrowed money in order to have a higher standard of living than it’s entitled to based on its productivity. Rather than being ‘cheated’, the US has been taking a free ride on the globalisation train.”

It added: “The US should stop whining about itself being a victim in global trade and put an end to its capricious and destructive behaviour.”

What are things coming to when we find ourselves nodding furiously in agreement with that first sentence of the second para in China Daily?

Or how about this?

The Chinese Consulate in Osaka is openly providing anti-Japanese propaganda films to Chinese students in Japan, with a note encouraging students to watch them at home. China is brazenly fanning anti-Japanese sentiment *in Japan*.

Bit of an uphill struggle, perhaps. Chinese students who go to Japan must find the place attractive, even if only because of sushi, manga or space-age toilets, and they surely can’t help noticing over time that their host country has a high quality of life as well as being free and democratic.

Via Forbes on YouTube, a former Meta employee tells a US Senate committee that China-adoring Mark Zuckerburg’s company passed details of Hong Kong and Taiwan users to Beijing authorities. ‘Virality counters’ triggered reviews of any posts getting more than 10,000 views.

(I feel sorry for anyone forced to read posts that go viral on Facebook).

Plenty of quotable quotes arise from the recent 10th National Security Education Day forum.

Although we still haven’t found out what ‘soft resistance’ is. Education Secretary Christine Choi tells us that it has (or is) a “dangerous aspect” and can ‘easily penetrate the heart and mind’.

But now we also have ‘soft confrontation’…

Speaking at the forum, Huang Dahui, a School of International Studies professor at Renmin University of China, noted that soft confrontation has emerged as a new battlefield and strategy among major powers and warned that Hong Kong is susceptible to such ideological warfare.

“We all know that Hong Kong is a diverse, open and highly interconnected society,” he told forum participants.

“And therefore Hong Kong’s interests, social composition and ideologies are also very diverse.

“With such features, Hong Kong is more susceptible to this kind of soft confrontation cognitive warfare.

“And soft confrontations are more likely to work here,” he said.

The professor, also the chief expert in the National Security Interdisciplinary Platform, further elaborated that such soft confrontations often come in the form of “spreading fake information” to confuse the public and represent a cognitive theory of western nations.

Is he referring to a theory about Western nations, or an undesirable cognitive framework – ideas, in plain English – pushed by them? A quick Google search suggests that ‘cognitive theory’ is an actual thing, to do with studying mental processes involved in learning and understanding. Perhaps cognitive theory could help us find out why we can’t understand what the guy means by ‘cognitive theory’. 

Maybe he is referring to ‘soft power’? Of course, we can’t rule out the possibility that Mainland ideologues/academics pushing the party line at conferences lapse into jargon just like anyone else. 

Does Amnesty International count as ‘soft confrontation’? It is re-opening its Hong Kong office, albeit overseas.

Why did the US impose sanctions on a number of Hong Kong officials two weeks ago? CFHK thread on Paul Lam.

HK and Macau Affairs Office Director Xia Baolong slams…

…the United States for its tyrannical and bullying imposition of tariffs and sanctions, which aim to “strangle the lifeblood of Hong Kong.”

…Xia criticized Washington’s suppression of Hong Kong, including imposing sanctions on its officials and the “preposterous” accumulated tariffs as high as 145 percent on the city – a tariff-free port.

“[Such an act] is brutal and shameless, enabling the world to see the US’s hostility toward Hong Kong’s success,” said Xia, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office. “They are not trying to collect taxes, they want to claim our lives.”

…”Those who believe that groveling before the US – currying favor, kneeling in submission, or begging for mercy – will bring peace, respect or development are profoundly naive,” Xia said.

“We must abandon such illusions.

“The United State’s repeated attempts to suppress Hong Kong will ultimately backfire.

“Let America’s bumpkins wail before China’s 5,000-year civilization. Victory will belong to the great Chinese people.”

Not all ideologues/American bumpkins are so sure of themselves these days. An NYT column sees radical-right theoreticians starting to have second thoughts…

Nathan Cofnas, a right-wing philosophy professor and self-described “race realist” fixated on group differences in I.Q., wrote on X, “All over the world, almost everyone with more than half a brain is looking at the disaster of Trump (along with Putin, Yoon Suk Yeol, et al.) and drawing the very reasonable conclusion that right-wing, anti-woke parties are incapable of effective governance.”

(That Twitter post has lots more.)

Scott Siskind, who blogs under the pseudonym Scott Alexander, has been an influential figure in Silicon Valley’s revolt against social justice ideology, though he’s never been a Trump supporter. Last week, he asked whether “edgy heterodox centrists” like himself paved the way for Trump by opening the door to once-verboten arguments. In an imaginary Socratic dialogue, he wrote, “We wanted a swift, lean government that stopped strangling innovation and infrastructure. Instead we got chain-saw-style firings, total devastation of state capacity in exactly the way most likely to strangle innovation more than ever, and the worst and dumbest people in the world gloating about how they solved the ‘grift’ of sending lifesaving medications to dying babies.”

Activist Chow Hang-tung goes to court to challenge prison rules requiring female inmates to wear long trousers during summer, while male inmates can wear shorts…

Chow, who has been detained since September 2021, and her lawyers had earlier argued in a writ that the “deprivation of opportunity” to wear shorts for daytime activities “would have the effect of rendering the whole policy discriminatory.”

The female inmates are deprived of an effective way to cool themselves, as they could potentially face a disciplinary offence for pulling up their trousers, Tam added.

Failure to comply with an instruction to wear their trousers properly can result in an offence, according to prison rules.

…However, Tam pointed out that the CSD had not explained how wearing trousers – as opposed to shorts – served the aim of custodial discipline.

Tam said that thermal comfort was only part of the “basket of considerations” that the CSD had taken into consideration when formulating its clothing policies, adding that Chow and her team could not “single out” an individual aspect in their submission.

Citing evidence from CSD clinical psychologist Elise Hung, Lui said that the existing policy was the product of “decades of CSD management” that had identified female inmates’ preference for trousers over shorts.

…Their preference was based on “actual concerns,” including their working needs, the need to cover up scars and wounds, as well as leg hair and mosquito bites, he said.

Citing Hung, Lui said their preference for trousers was largely due to most female inmates’ concerns over “privacy and decency” that could be traced back to “inherent” historical, biological, and psychological differences between men and women.

It surely wouldn’t take the wisdom of Solomon to suggest simply that women prisoners be allowed the choice to wear shorts if they prefer. At least on a trial basis to see whether such a reform would result in a breakdown of custodial discipline.

(I recall seeing male inmates at Victoria Prison emerging every day in brown shorts and bare feet to carry the garbage out of the prison staff quarters on the other side of Old Bailey Street. One guard would stand a few yards up the road and one a few yards down in case a prisoner tried to make a run for it, which they never did. Can’t remember how their legs looked. It later became an Immigration Dept detention facility. I went in a few months after it finally closed, and you could still smell the sweat in the cell blocks.) 

The government’s arguments for requiring long trousers are at least clear. Contrast with the oblique statement on its refusal to allow UK MP Wera Hobhouse to enter the city…

A HKSAR Government spokesman said that it is the Government’s standing policy not to comment on individual cases. The Immigration Department will deal with each case in accordance with the relevant law and immigration policy. It is the duty of immigration officer to ask questions to ascertain that there is no doubt about the purpose of any visit. The person concerned knows best what he or she has done. It will be unhelpful to the person’s case if the person refuses to answer questions put to him or her for that purpose.

The Hong Kong Democratic Party announces that it is starting the process to shut itself down. For a party founded to fight for democracy, it is a depressing end – pressured to disband by figures working for a government that rules out political pluralism. The Reuters story makes clear that Beijing is telling the party to do it…

Five senior members of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, the city’s biggest and last remaining major opposition party, say that Chinese officials or middlemen have warned the party to disband or face serious consequences, including possible arrests.

Amid a years-long national security crackdown by China after pro-democracy protests in 2019, the Democratic Party will hold an extraordinary general meeting on April 13 to seek members’ views and possibly pave the way for the group’s dissolution.

The group’s chairman, Lo Kin-hei, has not given a concrete reason for the likely disbandment, but five senior Democratic Party members told Reuters they had been told in meetings with Chinese officials or individuals linked to Beijing in recent months that the party should close.

Fred Li, a veteran Democratic Party member and former lawmaker, said a Chinese official had told him this should be done before this December’s legislative elections.

Four other senior Democratic Party members also said they had been warned in recent months by middlemen linked to Beijing, some of whom said the party would face “serious consequences” if it did not disband. Three declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.

…”For a long time it seemed like Beijing could live with the situation of having the party around as a figment of opposition,” said one Western envoy.

“It seems they are leaving nothing to chance. The message is it is time to close down once and for all,” said the diplomat, who was not authorised to speak publicly.

The story from AP covers some of the party’s history…

Former chairperson Yeung said in an interview with The Associated Press that Chinese officials told him the party needed to disband. He urged his members to support the motion to give the leadership mandate to handle the process.

“I’m not very happy about it,” said Yeung. “But I can see if we refuse the call to disband, we may pay a very huge price for it.”

…Looking back, former chairperson Emily Lau, who was involved in the talks with Beijing, insists many people supported the outcome because it was a step forward. She said they asked Beijing to continue to have dialogue with others to find a way for universal suffrage, but it never did.

“Maybe the only thing I would have done a bit differently is not to go into the (Beijing’s) liaison office (in Hong Kong). I guess we underestimated how many Hong Kong people hated them,” she said.

As new pro-democracy groups were on the rise, the party’s influence dwindled. That became more obvious after the emergence of younger politicians, including pro-Hong Kong independence activists, following the 2014 massive protests calling for universal suffrage. Still, five years later, when the 2019 protests swept Hong Kong, the party’s activism won widespread support once again.

It seems the authorities don’t want the party openly accused of NatSec, financial or other wrongdoing – though they could no doubt find some sort of ‘collaboration with foreign forces’ if they wanted to. They would rather the group just hurry up with its prevaricating and self-dissolve. As the unnamed diplomat suggests, even a harmless and largely inactive independent body worries the people at the top.

Is this a relatively recent response to continued deterioration of China’s relations with the US? Or is it simply unfinished post-2019 business? Either way, it seems likely other organizations – not necessarily just remaining political groups like the LSD – will be in for more attention.

Meanwhile, far from the world of patriots-only elections, Hongkonger Richard Choi wins a seat on Sutton Borough Council in London. (A landslide victory for the Liberal Democrats – 55% of votes despite fighting 6 other candidates. As it happens, a Lib Dem MP has just been refused entry to Hong Kong, presumably because of her association with the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China.)

After being acquitted of a ‘riot’ charge in 2020, social worker and activist Jackie Chen was re-tried. (Background here.) On the final day, assuming she would be found guilty, she prepared for prison. Translation of a Witness article from Brian Kern’s Substack. Also a link to a video.

National Review on Jimmy Lai’s Bradley Prize…

Xi Jinping has turned Lai into a living legend by subjecting the 77-year-old to a high-stakes national security trial, one likely to result in a life sentence. It now drags into its 17th month and may not conclude until fall. In the meantime, Lai is being held incommunicado in Hong Kong’s Stanley Prison. He has been there since December 2021. He makes no secret that his Catholic faith gives him courage; the government’s arbitrary prohibition against Lai receiving Holy Communion makes his ordeal even harder.

Nathan Law looks at the prospects for NatSec prisoners coming up for release…

…as some of these campaigners prepare to leave prison, their futures remain uncertain. Nominal release does not guarantee true freedom. Under the National Security Law, the authorities have extended their reach beyond the prison walls. The NSL bureau and police have exercised their power through a climate of intimidation—cutting off imprisoned activists’ communication with the outside world, preventing political figures from leaving the city, and targeting the family and friends of exiled dissidents with raids and interrogations.

We still do not know what awaits these individuals once they step outside the prison gates. Will they be allowed to resume life in peace, even in silence? Or will they remain targets, shadows of their former selves, under constant watch? 

Via free-speech group Article 19, a statement on digital gallery Art Innovation’s censorship of four-second billboard clips by Baduciao during Hong Kong’s Art Basel week.

CFHK statement on the introduction of a US Senate bill that would classify Hong Kong as a money-laundering and sanctions-breaking hub.

Bad news for luxury designer labels, but otherwise almost amusing: Chinese factories are going onto TikTok to offer Americans identical products minus the brand logo for a fraction of the usual price, even after paying the latest 100%-plus or whatever tariffs. Behold the non-Hermes Birkin bag for US$1,000 rather than US$38,000.