In case you didn’t notice – too busy eagerly preparing to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the handover, perhaps – Chinese officials are bombarding Hong Kong with a new series of their ever-popular ‘You Are Worthless and Powerless Ingrate Scum’ charm-offensives.
Beijing’s smooth-talking Zhang Dejiang has declared, in essence, that all that Basic Law, One Country Two Systems, autonomy stuff can be disregarded: Hong Kong is just another part of the wider Leninist dictatorship, and the shrieking and hysterics will continue until you all jump up and down with joy over it.
Former apparently-still-alive Xinhua official Zhou Nan joins in by adding that Hong Kong people have been subjected to 150 years of colonial brainwashing, specifically in a pernicious and devious form known as ‘an absence of National Education’. The only remedy is the swift introduction of this missing ingredient, at high intensity and maximum volume.
These two guys are of course wielding the stick. For a bit of warm and cuddly carrot, along comes Tian Feilong (the Mainland legal academic and expert who criticizes foreign judges for sentencing cops according to the law).
Tian, seeing Hong Kong opposition groups becoming increasingly radical, lavishes praise upon the Democratic Party for its moderation. All they need to do now, he says, is: 1) stop advocating democracy; 2) accept that Hong Kong is China’s to mistreat any way it wants; 3) start seeing everything from a national CCP perspective; 4) understand the interdependence of Hong Kong and motherland; and 5) acquire sufficient and correct knowledge about the nation, One Country Two Systems and everything. Henceforth to be known as The Five Shut Up and Start Kowtowings.
Our next Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, is caught between this paranoid and psychopathic Beijing on the one hand, and the 7 million people of Hong Kong and the other. She deserves our sympathy.
Her initial (and sensible) reaction is to pat the paranoid psychopath sovereign power gently on the head, and assure it that she will make sure toddlers learn to say ‘I am Chinese’ repeatedly as soon as they enter kindergarten. This will buy her a few weeks, perhaps, until the Communist Party leaders read the latest report on how the number of young Hongkongers who feel they are Chinese has shrunk to a slightly less-than-overwhelming 3.1% (hey, it was a small sample). Then the Beijing grim-faced ogres will be back, and unhappier than ever.
On a bright note, her hyper-capable new cabinet will be there to support and advise her.
You can now get back to those 20th anniversary preparations.
Ace stuff!
You seem to have mised Carrie’s car crash intervew with the BBC today. There was only marginally less denial than the Nuremberg trials.
Curiously, Carrie bears a stunning and scary resemblance to Ellen Burstyn in REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, that moment as the methamphetamine kicks in and she begins grinding her teeth to destruction.
I suggest we all watch Carrie’s pearlies closely the next few months. She needs as much crank, meth and blow as she can get but even Government-paid dentists can’t perform miracles all the time.
Can’t wait for the Queen’s speech.
Ah, the Central Government’s unique “carrot and stick” approach – first they beat you with the stick, then they beat you with the carrot. Bless them!
It’s going to be interesting to see how the CCP reacts when all the South Asians, South-East Asians, Whites, Blacks and, ahem, those of mixed birth born in Hong Kong start chirruping in happy unison “I am Chinese”.
What a bunch of babies. The poor Chinese people having to be ruled by these buffoons.
@Chris Maden: Why not? Semen did ages ago to the point where he’s almost FORCED to wear those silly, ill fitting Shanghai Tang Cheongsams whenever appearing in public.
So being “Chinese” now equates with being an obedient, CCP loving drone? Tell that to Sings, Malaysians, Americans, Aussies, British, Taiwanese, (some) Canadians, etc etc etc….
I love Zhou Nan’s dental work.
For 5 years, the present Govt’s policy appears to have been
* talk down, especially to the young
* to support senior civil servants’ pensions, keep Stamp Duty @ 50%
* ruin Lantau
“She deserves our sympathy” No she doesn’t. She wanted this job and is already displaying naivety beyond belief. Which sizable group are soon going to be the parents of the kindergarten kids that she is proposing to inflict this ethnic tosh on ? Perchance the generation who raised their umbrella’s and two fingers to the CCP in 2014 ? It won’t work. Next idea ?
@ Big Al is correct.
I am reminded of the old saw. ” . . . the beatings will continue until morale improves”.
Pip rah. All together now – It’s a wonderful World…
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-40349611
she is a puppet pure and simple.
Has the ginger buffoon melted away or has he been banished from these means ? This must be the longest we’ve gone without his dribbling.
Not a complaint, incidentally, merely an observation.
To dream the impossible dream,
To deny what no-one can deny,
To lift a load too hard to carry,
To tell the incredible lie,
To march as the masters command,
To comfort the sad SAR,
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star —
This is my quest, to follow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far;
To fight for the right with a smile and a song,
To be willing to march into hell for the sake of Hong Kong —
And I know if I fight with my heart in all weather and seasons
I —
I will —
I will have to resign and explain it’s for family reasons.
[from the musical ‘Man of la Mancha’]
“young Hongkongers who feel they are Chinese has shrunk to a slightly less-than-overwhelming 3.1%”
Looking at the link, that is indeed the first sentence. But then looking at the graph, I see: Chinese 20.8%
Chinese in Hong Kong: 13.9%
That’s 34.7%
Seems Reuters has done away with proof-readers?
A large number of young people in Hong Kong are the offspring of those who emigrated to Canada, Australia, etc. in the 80s and later returned. Many of these kids have had a taste of living in a free country and feel closer to Canada, Australia, etc. than to China. No amount of national education short of direct coercion will change this fact.
By enforcing a ‘National Education’ curriculum is curry lamb covertly working on behalf of the private education sector who will benefit from such a policy? Surely she is not that dumb to believe this CCP BS…….oh, I’ll get my coat