The Mouth-Froth Red-Light National-Security Freak-Out Alarms went off twice yesterday in Hong Kong.
First of all, kids distributed pro-independence leaflets at schools. Under Hong Kong’s legal system, there is no distinction between handing out leaflets advertising pizza delivery or calling for independence. But while we are waiting for Beijing to impose Mainland-style prohibition of splittism and sedition, uncertainty is spreading to the extent that usually-eloquent commentators are too panicky to speak.
The education sector lawmaker says the pro-independence activity is ‘not ideal’. (Ideally, presumably, he wouldn’t be asked to go on the record about this subject.) A moderate pro-democracy teachers’ group claims it is ‘inappropriate as the students are minors’. (Perhaps parental guidance is advised.) What should be a simple free-speech issue is too sensitive to process. All these people can manage to say is: ‘I am morally confused and too petrified to express a coherent belief’.
Oddly, the only public figure with a grip on her principles and ability to talk straight on this is pro-Beijing lawmaker Priscilla Leung. She wants the kids ‘punished and educated’.
For a more robust response to creeping Mainlandization, we have Hong Kong soccer fans, who last night yet again booed the Chinese national anthem. ‘In extreme cases,’ the shocked Standard reports, ‘a few fans turned their backs, while some even raised their middle fingers’. Elsie Leung would have swooned.
Stadium security guards’ valiant attempts to instill respect by waving their arms had, inexplicably, little effect. Such jeering and mockery comes ‘despite’ (as the media put it) increasingly shrill warnings about forthcoming laws imposing stiff penalties on people who do not stand straight for and adore the anthem. Following this latest display of disrespect, pro-Beijing figures will demand that the new law be so retroactive that it covers unpatriotic offenders’ past lives.
What a co-incidence. 50 years ago, 18 year old Tsang Tak-sing was jailed for 2 years for handing out anti-Government and Pro-Communist leaflets at his school. I wonder if history will repeat itself.
Crowd of over 10,000 last night, including a couple of thousand boo-ers. I feel sorry for anyone who only came to boo. They exposed themselves to another shocking second half display by Hong Kong.
Just watched the video at HKFP. I think the security guard was trying to start a Mexican Wave …
The Hong Kong National Front are neo-Nazis. It’s right there in the name, language and symbolism they are using. Their Telegram media contact ID is @Goebbelshknf ffs! The banner and leaflets they use are stylised Nazi war flags. Do some due diligence before jumping on the “muh freeze peach” bandwagon Independence advocates or not, do you really want these people hanging around outside the schools?
@Snufkin – their Instagram page says they stand for “Armed resistance against Communist China regime”. That sounds like a recipe for suicide.
@Old Newcomer – Yeah they say that but have no intention of going first or being on the front lines.
@snufkin
Whilst I don’t condone fascism, you have to admit that thus far in human history, for all the horrors they have inflicted, as a rule of thumb, they’re definitely preferable to communists: less mega deaths, blessedly short regimes before their inevitable fall (tic toc, the CPC!), snazzier uniforms and graphics.
Besides, there’s an indefinable frisson to the knowledge that in just two decades, through an unrelenting and well funded campaign of “love your country” propaganda, the CPC has steered the radically apolitical and mindbendingly moderate populace of Hong Kong to toy with entirely the wrong sort of extremist, jingoistic nationalism.
Could it POSSIBLY be a fake ‘Anti China’ group, using fascist symbolism for extra spiciness, but in fact organized by the Black Hand office of the United Front ?
Will Batman escape just in time from the clutches of the heinous Joker ?
We will find out in next week’s episode of….. (to be continued)
@Joe Blow – alternatively, it could be a group of idiotically naive students who have no idea of what Nazism was really all about but are seduced by the snazzy graphics, uniforms, etc.
@LRE – I’m not sure about “less mega deaths” – the Third Reich polished off 6 million Jews, about 6 million others and an estimated 20 million Russians. Choosing between Fascism and Communism is a bit like being asked whether you would prefer to lose your left leg or your right.
And for some light relief, Gucci Grace Mugabe, Hong Kong’s favourite visitor, is reportedly on the run. Hopefully she did not have time to load up half a dozen airplanes. Even more hopefully she is on our immigration black list should she rock up looking foe non-refoulement protection and the opportunity to put her feet up at that house the Zimbabwe government claims it owns in Tai Po..
@Oldnewcomer
Stalin alone oversaw the killing of about 40million, and he died in 1953: the SSSR lurched on being fairly killy for another 40 years.
Mao tops out at somewhere in the 60million and there’s been plenty of massacres since he was in charge and we’re still counting for the good ole boys of the CPC.