The Chinese Communist Party geniuses overseeing the gradual Mainlandization of Hong Kong probably don’t dwell on local perceptions and nuances. But the local bureaucracy that has to implement their demands to crush hostile elements and eradicate splittists should know better. So the presentation side of the attempt to ban the HK National Party is interesting. It seems designed to appease hawkish paranoid thugs in Beijing, even at the cost of credibility among local audiences and the international media.
The Hong Kong Police claim HKNP must be outlawed before it uses violence, as an imminent threat to national security, public order and safety, and in the interests of (ahem) protecting the freedom and rights of others.
The police report on why HKNP should be banned as a matter of urgency portrays the group in terms that would befit an Islamic State cell that has downloaded bomb-making recipes and is starting to buy the ingredients. The cops have obviously spent considerable resources assiduously monitoring and recording the group’s activities in order to amass evidence of grave danger to society and nation.
And what have they found? That the HKNP (primarily one named person) has given mainstream media interviews, made Facebook posts, set up street booths (17 times) and appeared at protests. Lots of speeches and banners. So far, so lame (the anti-shark-fin campaigners do all that before breakfast). Edgier, but still perfectly legal, the group has distributed leaflets outside schools and met fellow skeptics of CCP/Han nationalism overseas.
In terms of opinion, the group openly disagrees with the constitutional definition of Hong Kong as an inseparable part of China. (The police report repeats the government’s misleading implication that such an opinion is itself somehow unlawful.) Perhaps more naughtily, HKNP has arguably envisaged possible conflict arising from Hong Kong-Mainland friction, and also arguably said nasty things about Mainlanders – though who among us shall cast the first stone here?
But obviously, the cops can’t find any offenses being committed, and HKNP’s views are certainly no worse than some pro-Beijing groups’ threats, incitements and even use of violence.
The cops’ bulging dossier of evidence for a ban might look good to CCP officials in Beijing. But to local and other audiences, it is flimsy and contrived. When you imagine dutiful constables spending months tracing every HKNP on-line post and every Andy Chan speech, it gets so absurd as to be creepy. But it certainly isn’t credible. Any administrative or legal process that seriously proceeds with it will look like a joke.
I’ve yet to see any legal opinion on how the Societies Ordinance applies to a group that hasn’t got (indeed, hasn’t been permitted to obtain) any kind of legal status, either as a registered society or as a company. The government suggested any number of people greater than one can be considered a “Society” under this archaic, PRC-resurrected law. Is that really so? How on earth does one define a society beyond that? Two people meeting for lunch are a “Society”? And what happens when HKNP disbands and forms NPHK? The government will have to go through all this legalistic hoopla all over again. And then again when they reform as HKPN….
I once knew a Andy Chan. Spooky.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, and I have no doubt that there are a lot of policemen in Hong Kong who are similarly conflicted.
“The cops have obviously spent considerable resources” – which we as long-suffering taxpayers are paying for. If Beijing wants to pursue this sort of nonsensical activity, let it foot the bill.
I always wonder how those deliberations go within the HK police when they tasked with these non sense. Surely they can’t be all DAB aunties and uncles.
“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, and I have no doubt that there are a lot of policemen in Hong Kong who are similarly conflicted.”
Nah, they’ve trained ’em good. Occupy instilled a siege mentality in frontline police officers that they are the underappreciated, heroic bulwark against the forces of hooliganism. The Christian ones even think they’re serving God by busting rabble-rousing university students’ heads.
I also guarantee you that at least 45% of the population think the National Party should be banned. Many people don’t believe in human rights as an end in an of itself. They’re a nice-to-have, to be balanced against the needs of an Orderly Society. They go around grumbling that these Westerners have too many rights, and that’s why they’re awash in gay married mugger-terrorists.
Cassowary: B I N G O
I just checked the leading police officer Rebecca Lam picture, surely a DAB uncle.