Big Lychee, Various Sectors

From HKFP, more on Security Secretary Chris Tang’s ‘soft resistance’ comments…

“Now that we have laws in place, they might be afraid of [committing] officially illegal acts,” Tang said, referring to the city’s national security legislation: both the Beijing-imposed national security law and the locally enacted Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, known colloquially as Article 23.

“So they may think that they can skirt the law, that they’ll be fine if they spread hatred. But these are still all illegal acts,” he said without elaborating. He also did not mention whether the authorities had taken action against those people.

So ‘soft resistance’ is an unofficially illegal act?

Tang also said on Friday that some Hongkongers who had joined the Ukrainian military hoped to use their training against the city’s authorities.

“Our investigations have found that part of their intention is to receive training there and, when they return to Hong Kong, continue their resistance against the local government,” Tang said, without explaining further.

Maybe he should take a vacation.

A WSJ editorial…

Dictatorships rewrite the past to control the present, and so it goes in Hong Kong as its former British legal system becomes a replica of China’s. This month three Hong Kong citizens went on trial for the alleged crime of organizing candlelit vigils to remember the 1989 Chinese massacre at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

For three decades following that Communist slaughter of unarmed Chinese, Hong Kong was the only place on Chinese soil where that crime was publicly remembered. But starting in 2020 any public display of remembrance, however quiet and nonviolent, was banned. Chow Hang-tung, Albert Ho and Lee Cheuk-yan face up to a decade in prison for the crime of memory.

HKFP reports on the latest in the HK Alliance trial…

Two Tiananmen vigil activists facing national security charges persisted with their long-standing advocacy for democracy in China, with one doing so despite a warning from a Beijing official, a Hong Kong court has heard.

Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung are standing trial for “inciting subversion” under the Beijing-imposed national security law, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.

…On Monday, prosecutors finished playing footage of speeches made by the pair at protests and in media interviews, highlighting to the court their comments relating to the Alliance’s advocacy of “ending one-party rule” in China.

Advocacy. Words. That’s it.

A comment yesterday on the short-lived bus safety law…

Just install the wretched seat belts and let people decide whether they want to use them or not (they do not).

And warn people that if they are injured in an accident while not buckled up, they will be billed for the EMS/public hospital treatment they receive. It would be an interesting experiment.

Security Secretary Chris Tang outlines four threats to national security, notably ‘soft resistance’, which he describes as…

…people [using] fake news or information to incite dissatisfaction against the Hong Kong government or stir up conflict among residents, he said.

“This is extremely harmful,” Tang said. “Soft resistance uses problems that seem to be insignificant, simple societal or livelihood issues, where fake news or information is used to stir discontent towards the government.”

The security chief cited the example of the Wang Fuk Court blaze, in which some falsely claimed that authorities had prepared to deploy riot police against the estate’s residents or that first responders did not have enough protective equipment.

“You can see that with any societal topic, there will be some people hoping to stir up conflicts around them,” he said, urging residents to listen to government clarifications and seek out facts.

Would this be a problem if people had more trust in the government, all-patriot lawmakers and pro-government media to begin with? Why don’t they?

Other threats to national security, he said, included the use of sanctions, ‘fugitives calling for Hong Kong independence’ and domestic terrorism such as…

…the groups “Returning Valiant” and “Dragon Slayer Brigade”, with the latter behind a thwarted 2019 bomb plot targeting Hong Kong police.

His remarks came just a day after he told the city’s newest cohort of police officers that they would need “iron bones” in the face of unrelenting “oppression by hostile foreign forces”.

Or – just write out more parking tickets.

Pro-Beijing elder Tam Yiu-chung speaks out against what we might call ‘soft resistance’ in LegCo…

Speaking on a TV programme, Tam said Beijing’s hope is for the three branches of government to co-operate and work towards the same goal.

“The branches should work together within the same framework, avoiding mutual attacks and smear campaigns. They should be actively supporting and co-operating with each other throughout the process,” he said.

“Monitoring still exists in the system, but Legco must not overstep its boundaries – which is replacing the executive branch.

‘Still exists’? Has anyone amended the Basic Law while we weren’t looking? It’s all there in Articles 66-79.

Mable is unable. To enforce the new seat-belts-on-buses law, that is…

The Hong Kong transport chief has announced that a controversial law requiring bus passengers to fasten their seat belts will be “repealed as soon as possible” due to a “technical shortcoming” in the provision.

…The abrupt reversal comes just five days after the new law was implemented, sparking widespread public backlash. Under the law, bus passengers not wearing a seat belt risk a maximum fine of HK$5,000 and up to three months in prison.

Former lawmaker Doreen Kong wrote on Facebook on Thursday that, according to the provision’s wording, the rule appeared to apply only to buses registered after the law took effect, meaning passengers on older buses were not required to wear seat belts.

…The transport minister previously said on Sunday that the government would focus on public education rather than harsh law enforcement during the initial stages of the new regulation, striking a balance between “empathy, reason, and law.”

So the legal drafters, policy bureau and lawmakers screwed up? Gold Bauhinia Medals all round! Alternatively, maybe the wording is just a bit slapdash or ambiguous. (I’m not qualified to say/can’t be bothered to read it.) If that were the case, this looks more like a panicky retreat in the face of a pissed-off public. The whole exercise didn’t seem to have incorporated views from people who actually ride buses – ie pretty much everyone not in the government.

Oddly, ‘public opinion’ counts when it comes to private cars…

The proposal to charge a border construction fee on private cars leaving via land checkpoints has been dropped after public opposition.

…Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu said the government carefully considered diverse views and decided not to proceed at this stage.

The 2025 Budget suggested studying a fee—estimated at HK$200 per car—to generate about HK$1 billion annually from departing private cars at land border control points. Buses and goods vehicles would be exempt.

The idea faced strong backlash over cost, impact on cross-boundary travel for residents and businesses, and potential harm to integration with national development.

A car toll harms ‘integration with national development’?

The Standard gives Raphael Hui a rousing send-off, lauding his role in the HK$100 billion market intervention in 1997 and his achievement in getting to be Chief Secretary a few years later. It also allows that…

…he was involved in the Sun Hung Kai probe, the city’s biggest-ever corruption case. Hui was then arrested in March 2012 and charged with misconduct in public office for allegedly accepting multiple payments and unsecured loans…

…He was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison and ordered to return HK$11.182 million in bribes.

…Hui was also reportedly spending HK$210,000 on a single French meal, HK$2 million on records over several years, and approximately HK$7 million on expensive wines. He also disclosed in court that he paid HK$8.5 million to his Shanghai mistress.

A former UK Solicitor-General writes in the (paywalled) London Times on Jimmy Lai…

…on December 15, 2025, Jimmy Lai, a businessman, media owner and democracy campaigner, was convicted of sedition and crimes against national security in Hong Kong. The British citizen’s case symbolises the end of an acceptable version of the rule of law in that once respected jurisdiction.

Wrongly arrested, arbitrarily imprisoned, tried on evidence possibly extracted by torture and then convicted for nothing more than what he thought, said and wrote, Lai has been the victim of a political prosecution leading to a political conviction. 

…On almost all of the 855 pages of the judgment convicting Lai there is a reference to his antipathy towards China and the Chinese Communist Party and his support for the peaceful pro-democracy movement. That these opinions are used as the basis of a criminal conviction shows how far towards tyranny Hong Kong has already travelled.

Lingua Sinica reports on RTHK…

These moves [ending of Letter from Hong Kong and others], following years of heavy-handed management that saw programs canceled, or pulled hours before airing, and sensitive episodes scrubbed from schedules and archives, mark RTHK’s continued retreat on the programming side from its role as a public broadcaster — and increasingly, its integration into the orbit of China’s state media.

The latter shift was crystal clear this month as Hong Kong’s director of broadcasting, Angelina Kwan Yuen-yee (關婉儀), who oversees RTHK, led a delegation to Beijing and Tianjin. She met with officials from China Media Group (CMG) and the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) — both directly under the Central Propaganda Department … [and] said, [RTHK] must “tell the national story and the Hong Kong story well.”

…Even the memory of RTHK’s fearlessness and independence has become a matter of sensitivity. In 2023, the network quietly removed a 34-year-old letter of gratitude from its newsroom, which had honored journalists for their reporting on the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. Once willing to confront sensitive truths, RTHK has now fully retreated from its public mission

According to Bloomberg, Blackstone is in talks to become New World’s biggest shareholder, with the Cheng family possibly losing control of the company…

The move also highlights Blackstone’s focus on acquiring value-rich assets in stressed markets and scaling platforms, with the deal handing it control of a large portfolio of malls and office towers.

It’s not like Hong Kong has a shortage of malls and office towers. I guess it depends on what price they’re offering. The company is desperate.

Bearing one or more of the above items in mind – Metaphor of the Week: ‘severely decomposed whale carcass believed to have died [sic] for some time has been found on the shores of Sai Kung’.

From China Unofficial Archives, a plea for accountability for the Wuhan/China Covid cover-up. It’s astonishing that governments, scientists and commentators around the world have barely mentioned Chinese leaders’ role in allowing the disease to spread globally and cause millions of deaths and trillions of dollars worth of economic disruption. Conveniently for Beijing, public attention on the issue has been distracted by irrelevant click-bait ‘lab-leak’ conspiracy theories…

The COVID-19 pandemic eventually spread from China to the entire world. According to public data from the World Health Organization (WHO), by March 19, 2020—nearly two months after the Wuhan lockdown began—the virus had reached over 150 countries and regions, and the number of global cases far exceeded those within China. This rare and massive pandemic profoundly reshaped global economics and politics…

…Looking back, it is evident that the Chinese government provided false information and inaccurate data at the start of the pandemic, which severely misled the WHO and foreign governments. Dr. Gauden Galea, the WHO representative in China at the time, noted that the WHO was entirely dependent on information reported by China—including the critical question of human-to-human transmission—and therefore failed to issue timely warnings. Deborah Birx, a leader of the U.S. coronavirus task force, remarked that the medical community interpreted Chinese data to mean the situation was serious but manageable, not a potential global pandemic.

When Wuhan was locked down on January 23, some argued that the world should have understood the gravity of the situation then. However, this ignores the fact that the Chinese government’s propaganda at the time insisted the lockdown was a massive sacrifice that had contained the virus within China, buying the world time while overseas cases remained under 1%. This narrative continued to mislead the international community. Even on January 24, The Lancet editor Richard Horton stated there was no need to panic, and the WHO advised against travel restrictions. When the U.S. government announced a flight ban in late January, China denounced the move as “unkind.” The world was effectively blinded by a combination of flawed data and state propaganda.

China itself was one of the biggest victims of official secretiveness at the beginning of the outbreak.

…Extrapolating from … leaked figures, the number of excess deaths in China during the biggest wave from late 2022 to early 2023 was at least 4 million, and perhaps as high as 5.95 million. When combined with deaths from the preceding three years, the total represents a staggering loss of life that likely ranks among the highest in the world.

A longish ‘alternative view of China’s declining birth rate’ by a Chinese single mother in Canada.

New Republic on the Slovenian hooker movie…

The documentary detailing the first lady’s return to the White House is projected to make just $1 million in its first week. While documentaries generally do worse at the box office, the sheer amount of money Amazon spent—$40 million for the rights, $35 million for an aggressive marketing blitz—and the constant stream of Truth Social posts from President Trump make this a particularly pitiful showing.

Melania’s early failure comes as a new report from Rolling Stone details serious labor issues behind the scenes and a whopping two-thirds of the film’s staff requesting not to be credited at the end of the film. Director Brett Ratner, who made headlines after six women accused him of sexual assault and harassment during the #MeToo movement in 2017, was perhaps the most loathed person on set. 

Co-founder of Value Partners Cheah Cheng Hye sort of calls for democratic reforms at the Hong Kong Capital Markets Forum…

The Malaysian-born former fund manager — once dubbed “Asia’s Warren Buffett” — questioned that achieving “stability” alone could “make Hong Kong great again,” during a speech on Wednesday at the Hong Kong Capital Markets Forum.

Among other ideas, Cheah — who built Value Partners into a multi-billion dollar stock-picking powerhouse — proposed the city should again consider a one-person, one-vote system for electing its leader to unleash the finance hub’s full potential.

“We need to pivot away from national security to economic and social reforms. Over time, I expect an important solution to emerge. I am referring here to electoral reform,” Cheah said. His audience of about 300 people included at least one senior official from the Chinese Liaison Office in Hong Kong and Regina Ip, convener of the city leader’s Executive Council.

……Cheah’s comments stand out in a city where public debate around sensitive political issues has declined since Beijing imposed a national security law in 2020…

After it returned to Chinese rule, Hong Kong’s leader has long been chosen by a small Election Committee ranging from hundreds to the current 1,500 members.

(Not true: Beijing picks the leader, and the Election Committee pretends to vote for that person, assuming the ballot has more than one candidate.)

A 2014 plan to adopt universal suffrage was opposed by pro-democracy lawmakers and activists, who said nomination rules would pre-screen candidates before voting.

New ideas for Hong Kong need the “buy-in” of society, Cheah said, arguing that universal suffrage would give the city’s leader “a mandate from the people.” His suggestions included restructuring the city’s tax base that depends on land sales and stock market stamp duty, as well as allowing licensed casinos in order to boost local nightlife.

Cheah argued that geopolitical conditions had turned favorable for Hong Kong to reconsider reforms that had previously stoked public unrest. With the West losing credibility, “we now need to worry a lot less” about the trauma of the 2019 protests, he said. Hong Kong can start from the 2014 proposal that was “not Western-style democracy but a hybrid version,” Cheah said.

Cheah is one of very few business people willing to point out that the lack of representative government in Hong Kong is a problem. But the 2014 proposal was simply the same model as before – Beijing would choose the ‘winner’ (or two for appearances’ sake) and the (whole) electorate could vote. There would be as little choice as in the current all-patriots LegCo polls. You can’t have real elections and a Leninist system.

(Whatever happened to Cheah’s interesting sidekick at Value Partners V-Nee Yeh, a former Marxist who would eat only once a day to save time?) 

In fairness, the patriots-only LegCo does show an occasional glimpse of pluralism. Specifically, an argument breaks out between factions who believe lawmakers may drive on the wrong side of the road and those who don’t.

The HK Alliance trial continues…

Three Hong Kong Tiananmen vigil activists had sought the end of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s rule in the name of “so-called democracy,” prosecutors have argued during a high-profile national security trial.

The court also heard on Tuesday that the prosecution will seek to apply the co-conspirator rule – a legal principle allowing statements by one conspirator to be used against others – in the case against Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung, and the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China.

…Defence lawyers told the court on Tuesday that they only became aware of the prosecution’s intention to apply the co-conspirator rule after the trial had started.

They urged the prosecution to clearly define the scope of the evidence falling within the remit of the legal principle before presenting it in court.

While prosecutors did not elaborate on how the rule would be applied, it is expected that they will argue that remarks by Ho can be used against Lee and Chow.

A quick Google search for ‘co-conspirator rule’ yields the phrase ‘vicariously liable’. Doesn’t sound good.

But don’t worry! From the SCMP…

Hong Kong prosecutors have argued that the national security trial of a now-disbanded alliance behind the Tiananmen Square vigil is neither politically motivated nor intended to punish dissidents, stressing that they will not ask the court to determine the merits of any campaign or criticism against Beijing.

In his opening speech on Monday at West Kowloon Court, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Ned Lai Ka-yee said the high-profile case against the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China did not involve adjudication of sensitive political topics, including Beijing’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 1989.

According to Lai, the case would instead centre on the defendants’ “persistent” acts to oppose the country’s constitutional order, thereby threatening national security.

‘So-called democracy’. ‘So-called persistent acts’? A whole thesis on the phrase ‘so-called’ is available for download here. From the intro…

Propagandists face a dilemma. They want to discredit political ideas that rival their own, but to do so they often must invoke those very ideas for their readers. This entails a risk: perhaps the reader/listener will become curious and wish to learn more. After all, consumers of authoritarian propaganda can sometimes “read between the lines” to glean information or meanings that the propagandists did not intend to disseminate (Weiss and Dafoe 2019, 964). Including indicators of disapproval in the text is one technique to simultaneously invoke and discredit an idea. In China’s official discourse, one common marker is to place the phrase so-called, in English, or 所谓, in Chinese, before the idea to be discredited.1 Usually, so-called is paired with ironic inverted commas around the relevant phrase to underscore the intended disapproval. For example, journalists Mary Hui and Dan Kopf noted the dramatic rise in the use of so-called in the official language of Hong Kong as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP or party) consolidated political control over the city in 2019 and 2020. The intent, they write, was for the authorities to “undermine information they find objectionable”

Another two of the HK47 get out of prison….

[Fergus] Leung left from Shek Pik Prison on Lantau Island, while [Sam] Cheung left from Stanley Prison, according to local media, with photos showing seven-seater vehicles with their windows drawn departing from the prisons at around 5.38am.

The two councillors both served four years and 11 months in prison, after pleading guilty to taking part in a conspiracy to subvert state power. Leung and Cheung were among 47 figures in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp who were prosecuted under the Beijing-imposed legislation. Only two were acquitted.

At the HK Alliance NatSec trial…

Government prosecutors Ned Lai and Ivan Cheung read out about four-fifths of the prosecution’s 86-page opening statement on Monday, a significant part of which quoted verbatim speeches made by the three activists over the group’s three decades of activism.

…The prosecution played videos dating back to 1996 of the group’s activists making speeches at the city’s annual Tiananmen candlelight vigils, as well as at press briefings and during interviews with reporters.

…The years of videos showed in court featured Lee [Cheuk-yan] and [Albert] Ho calling for an end to one-party rule, a key focus of its political platform.

Lee, seated in the public gallery, was seen wiping his eyes at one point after watching a video of a speech he made at the vigil in 1997. In the video, he addressed a crowd at Victoria Park saying: “Without a democratic China, there will not be a democratic Hong Kong, therefore, our support for the Chinese pro-democracy movement is to usher in a democratic future for Hong Kong and for China.”

…“[The activists] spread the Alliance’s long-held illegal subversive goal of ‘ending one-party rule’ through chanting slogans, as well as continuing to incite others to join or identify with the Alliance, further promoting, and appealing for support and donations, for the Alliance,” the prosecution’s opening statement – written in Chinese – read.

That’s it: chanting slogans. There is, of course, no jury. Which brings us on to…

Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office Xia Baolong emphasizes the importance of ‘executive-led government’ in Hong Kong. This has always been code for ‘no checks and balances/separation of powers’, and he spells this out pretty clearly…

[Xia] told a seminar that Hong Kong had faced challenges in implementing the governing mechanism, with attempts by anti-China and external forces to advocate for “separation of powers”.

“[They] had hoped to weaken the authority of the chief executive and the SAR government, thereby undermining the authority of the central government as well as resisting and rejecting the power of central authorities. This is absolutely not permitted,” Xia was quoted as saying in a statement by his office.

…In his address, the Beijing official said the key to maintaining and enhancing the governing principle is for the chief executive to take full responsibility in leading the SAR, while aligning with the country’s latest five-year plan and being more forward-looking and proactive in pushing for development.

The executive-led system requires active support and cooperation from the legislature and the judiciary, Xia said, adding that the three branches must offer mutual help and not undermine one another.

…Legco president Starry Lee pointed out that lawmakers have arranged a gathering to study key messages from the seminar, which she said has clearly outlined the roles and duties of the new legislature.

She said legislators would put their heads together, perform their constitutional duty and fully support the government.

Why have a legislature that ‘fully supports the government’? How does it, as analysts say, add value?

Lester Shum is out…

It has become standard practice for those jailed in the Hong Kong 47 case to be released from prison in vehicles with curtains drawn during the early morning. Some of them have been photographed by reporters when they arrived at their residences.

Chow Hang-tung said Friday that the HK Alliance’s demand for an end to one-party rule was…

…a call for democratization, not for an end to the Communist Party’s leadership in China.

…The prosecution has focused on “ending one-party rule,” one of the alliance’s core demands, by arguing the alliance’s call meant ending the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership, which was against the constitution. There was no legal means to achieve that, it said.

Chow, a barrister who is defending herself, countered the prosecution claim Friday while appealing to the court to admit an expert’s evidence, standing outside the courtroom dock while presenting her argument.

The judges are expected to rule Monday whether to admit the report from a Taiwan-based scholar addressing a definition of democracy and whether democratization must be pursued through unlawful means.

What did the HK Alliance ever do – beyond uttering words – to end one-party rule? And what does any of this have to do with ‘national security’?

The Transport Secretary wants more done to attract ‘southbound cars’…

“Among Guangdong vehicles coming to Hong Kong over the past month, we noticed that half of them stayed for one night or two, meaning the visitors spent three days in the city. The rest were day trippers but they would also consume in Hong Kong,” she said.

“This is exactly the scheme’s selling point that we want to highlight. Drivers will find it more convenient to go shopping, make purchases, attend exhibitions, make business trips and visit relatives with their cars. We hope shopping malls, hotels and parking facilities can offer discount packages to attract these drivers to shop and spend money in Hong Kong.”

All but a tiny number of Mainland visitors will ever come to Hong Kong by air, rail, bus or ferry, and use public transport while here. The ones coming by car make no meaningful difference to tourism revenues – they just add to traffic congestion. So what really is the point of this ‘southbound’ thing? (I would guess optics, to illustrate ‘integration’?)

To make everyone in Hong Kong feel warmer – weather gauge at a cousin’s home in West Virginia…

That’s 2 degrees Fahrenheit, vs 62 in Hong Kong this morning (minus 17 vs positive 19 Centigrade). Plus they were expecting a foot of snow.. 

The trial of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China and its leaders opens…

Lee Cheuk-yan, Albert Ho, and Chow Hang-tung appeared at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Thursday to stand trial for inciting subversion under the Beijing-imposed national security law, after the proceedings were twice delayed since last year.

…“The leadership of the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] is the most fundamental feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” [prosecutor Ned Lai] said in Cantonese, referring to China’s political system as stipulated under its constitution.

“The Alliance’s [call for an] end to one-party rule’ is essentially [a call for] an end to the leadership of the CCP, which is never allowed under the constitution,” he said.

“There is no lawful means to end the leadership of the CCP.”

Nor even to suggest it?

Also being covered by Reuters, the Guardian, etc.

Back in 2003, the Alliance was legal, and could register its opposition to the original proposed National Security law to the Legislative Council.

More bad news about New World’s airport mall project…

Cash-strapped builder New World Development Co. is facing fresh turmoil at its HK$20 billion ($2.6 billion) mall near Hong Kong’s international airport, as a slew of tenants terminate leases, according to people familiar with the matter.

In a striking sign of waning confidence, even a store of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Ltd., tied to New World’s founding Cheng family, has withdrawn from the 11 Skies mall, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private matters. Chow Tai Fook Jewellery is co-led by Sonia Cheng, daughter of family patriarch Henry Cheng.

Other tenants like Uniqlo, and Lukfook have also abandoned plans to open branches there.

Few things are lovelier to behold than the failure of a complex of luxury retail outlets planned at the wrong time in the wrong place, so this has been a compelling story. But I hadn’t previously noticed that little detail in the first para: HK$20 billion. 

It’s just a not-very-tall (next to an airport) building. How can it cost that much? Even the giant cruise terminal at Kai Tak cost under half that.

Some weekend reading…

Apparently, some people in the West think reheating rice can result in fatal food poisoning. A Vittles magazine article explains the origins of ‘fried rice syndrome’…

How do dormant spores turn into a nasty bout of food poisoning? According to Palombo, the ‘danger zone’ in microbiology is between 5°C (the temperature of the fridge) and 65°C (the temperature that food should rise above when cooked). ‘So, imagine you’ve cooked your rice or pasta and there is B cereus in there. You’ve killed the bacteria through cooking but the spores have survived. If you chill it right away, then you’re fine, if you reheat it properly then you’re fine,’ he told me. But if you leave it at room temperature for too long and there’s sufficient moisture, then the spores spring back to life and begin feeding on the starch while secreting toxins. ‘Bingo,’ Palombo continued, ‘these toxins are what will muck up your guts and cause you to have diarrhoea, vomiting or even more severe consequences.’

…If B cereus is a risk with any starchy food, then why aren’t we as fearful of reheated pasta as rice? And if reheating rice does carry this potential to cause illness, why is the perception of risk so inconsistent across cultures?

From Works in Progress magazine, an in-depth look at why South Koreans have so few babies. After reading it you will wonder why anyone has kids there. Hong Kong and other places share many of the underlying problems… 

If current fertility rates persist, every hundred South Koreans today will have only six great-grandchildren between them.

…Contrary to popular myth, South Korean pro-parent subsidies have not been very large, and relative to their modest size, they have been fairly successful.

The story of South Korean fertility rates is thus doubly significant. On the one hand, it illustrates just how potent anti-parenting factors can become, creating a profoundly hostile environment in which to raise children and discouraging a whole society from doing so. On the other, it may offer a scintilla of hope that focused and generous policy can address these problems, shaping a way back from the brink of catastrophe.

Made in China essay on China’s policy of using ‘excavated material as claims of civilisational continuity’ to influence ‘contestable historical narrative’. The author refers to the emergence of……the PRC’s ‘archaeological state’: a fragmented bureaucracy that routinises excavation, registration, and display—mobilising archaeology as both discipline and method—so that material culture becomes a medium of narration, governance, and legitimation.

On an obscure note – for fans of early 70s psych/prog, a 2023 concert by Steve Hillage of Gong etc. Tight performance, low audio quality, suitably weird video backdrop.

There are still 70 cases arising from the 2019 protests being processed by the courts – plus 30 NatSec ones…

More than six years since the protests in 2019, some who were arrested are still in limbo. In some cases, protesters were acquitted of charges relating to the demonstrations, but found themselves back in court after the government appealed.

…Meanwhile, the national security trial of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China will begin on Thursday, following multiple delays. It was originally scheduled to start last year.

That case involves Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho. The HK Alliance is accused of ‘inciting subversion of state power’, though it existed legally for three decades. 

Eddie Chu’s first public statement after being released from prison…

Prison is a very special place. Those earning millions a year and living a high life and those sleeping under bridges struggling for three meals a day become equal once they put on the same prison uniform. This allowed me to have in-depth conversations with people I had no chance to meet before, broadening my horizons within the walls.

On the off-chance anyone’s interested – I get an email from the China visa people saying ‘Your application form No.HKGXXXXXXXX has been rejected’. My immediate reaction is basically Yippee!!! But there’s also some bad news: ‘Reject Reason: please update form 2.3 because you meet the condition of 5 years multiple entries visa’. A sense of foreboding descends.

The SCMP describes it as an ‘unprecedented development’: four major productions – several helped by public funding and/or other official support – fail to appear as candidates in the HK Film Awards. They are Valley of the Shadow of Death, Vital Signs, Finch & Midland and Mother Bhumi…

…speaking privately, observers point to a common thread among the excluded works: the presence of sensitive figures or themes deemed unpalatable to the Hong Kong government. The controversy comes at a time when Hong Kong cinema is struggling amid a shrinking market and stricter censorship laws introduced in 2021. Those laws explicitly ban films that “endanger national security” – but the HKFA’s pre-emptive exclusion effectively removes films from consideration despite the government having approved them for public screenings in the city.

The story speculates on reasons for their exclusion. In order: stars Anthony Wong (a pro-democrat); features recent emigration from Hong Kong; features Anthony Wong and emigration; stars Fan Bingbing (who got into trouble with Mainland tax authorities and recently won a Golden Horse Award in Taiwan).

The Awards are run by directors’ writers, cinematographers and other bodies. A list of winners since 1982. Why bother having a Hong Kong Film Awards?

Political commentator Wong Kwok-ngon is the first person to be charged with disclosing details of a NatSec investigation, which carries a possible seven-year prison term. The investigation is the one into himself for allegedly ‘seditious’ YouTube videos…

…The 71-year-old does not have a lawyer and is representing himself.

…The defendant, who has been remanded since his arrest, applied for bail on Tuesday, but it was denied by [judge Victor] So. The judge said he was not assured that Wong would not continue to endanger national security if released on bail.

The government’s handling of a government scandal ’is praised’. Even the Standard editorial thinks it shouldn’t be…

The Hong Kong government’s response to the logistics department [bottled water] scandal has concluded with a whimper, not a bang. For Government Logistics Department Director Carlson Chan Ka-shun, the most significant consequence is the withdrawal of his Silver Bauhinia Star. As Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan stated: “This withdrawal is simply the removal of a reward, not a penalty.” This symbolic gesture stands in stark contrast to the disciplinary proceedings launched against three of his subordinates. The message is clear: at the highest levels, the system of accountability is broken, relying on ceremony over substance.

The investigation’s findings are revealing in their careful wording. No direct negligence was found against Chan. Instead, he was faulted for not doing enough to “enhance subordinates’ work capability, sensitivity, and initiative.” This bureaucratic language draws a convenient line, isolating blame to mid-level staff while leaving the senior leader with only a managerial critique. It perpetuates a well-established pattern in Hong Kong’s civil service where senior officials are almost never formally fired. They typically “choose to resign,” a face-saving mechanism that avoids the stigma and legal finality of dismissal.

…For the public, this outcome is deeply corrosive. It confirms a pervasive suspicion that there is one rule for the elite and another for everyone else.

…True accountability is not about finding junior scapegoats; it is about ensuring that leadership is synonymous with responsibility.