Every day – or every half-week at the very least – brings yet another bout of protest-police mayhem that is so unprecedentedly shocking that This Time it surely signifies the peak of Hong Kong’s unrest, and marks the turning point at which things will finally start to calm down, and we move on to the next stage that brings the 2019 Uprising to some sort of resolution. Yesterday’s was at the airport (again).
Another thread explaining Beijing’s seemingly nonsensical propaganda-driven strategy towards Hong Kong is particularly worth reading. Essentially, the Chinese leadership is preoccupied with managing Mainland public opinion, nipping any pro-Hong Kong sentiment in the bud with a full-on blast of nationalistic sentiment. They don’t care how it looks in Hong Kong or beyond (even if exacerbates the situation here).
This explains why Beijing is apparently feeding the unrest, for example by ruling out even basic simple concessions. It suggests that Xi and comrades, obsessed with protecting their own backsides, have painted themselves into a corner. It also implies that sending Mainland security forces over the border is, after all, a real possibility. Six weeks to achieve peace and harmony for October 1.
If you’re expecting something called the ‘Hong Kong government’ to take some sort of action to sort things out, you haven’t seen the video of Carrie Lam at yesterday’s press conference being asked the simple yes-or-no question – do you have the authority to officially withdraw the extradition bill? Rather than utter the word ‘no’, she delivers the answer in the form of the most excruciatingly horrible and squirm-inducing evasiveness and silent, praying-for-a-quick-death, despair. It should be absolutely certain now: they do have her husband and kids tied up in a cellar.
A happier thought, courtesy of helpful commenters – if you would like a Silver Bauhinia Star, here’s how veteran Cantopop hero Leon Lai recently got his…
(They are scraping the bottom of the barrel these days with these medals – Leon is about the only name I recognize of all these awardees.)
Well to be fair, the talent pool of CCP friendly/approved stooges (aka Bauhinia awards selectees) is quickly drying up, so yes…scraping the bottom. Can they give multiple awards to past winners? That’s a possibility…
Question is, has anyone actually REFUSED an award? Probably never got out to the public, if so.
The solution in the long run is quite becoming.
First complete the Third Runway and, in the spirit of the age, name it “TREBLINKA” which is short for “Third Runway” and add the soubriquet “Skypath to Heaven”.
Next, designate TREBLINKA as primarily dedicated to exporting “invitees” and “extraditees” to New Hong Kong housing camps for re-education, special treatment and so on.
Next, designate all persons who are not on the Central Personality Index, any Honours List, any Civil Servant present or past, any Disciplined Services personnel present or past, as not exempted from being deemed an “invitee” or “extraditee”.
As I believe you or one your links previously said, the best we can realistically hope for is;
The Trumpster really hurts the Chinese economy;
President Tsai Ing-wen get re-elected and
Hong Kong is reduced to a smoldering, seething mess.
Which hopefully causes a palace coup in Beijing as it’s clear Xi Dada’s nationalistic thuggish ways are not working and a more liberal Marxist Leninist may come to the fore.
Replying to CN: Multiple awards, of course, as you move up the food chain: BBS, SBS, GBS… GBM!
I don’t believe an honour has ever been refused. Revoked, yes.
I gotta take a massive bong hit to calm down. Things are really getting intense
So thousands of passengers are inconvenienced and the airport management goes home early and leaves them to it. But as soon as there is some aggro that involves one mainland police officer, who appears to have been part of a co-ordinated group on infiltrators, and a reporter who does not display his credentials and we have Ben Yu dashing in with an injunction.
No further proof required that at least some of the airport chaos could have been avoided and that flights were deliberately cancelled to paint the demonstrators and movement in a bad light.
Reasonable persons and disgruntled passengers should certainly question why an injunction was not sought early on Day 2 to guarantee smooth operation of flights.
Not all the Honours List names are totally obscure – the Anglican Bishop is on there, for one. But there should surely be a special “Bad Timing Award” for whoever decided to nominate the Permanent Secretary for Security for an honour at this moment. I feel so secure now, don’t you?
The vacuous ridiculousness of it all (HK “honours”) is truly lost on the “elite”, fiddling while HK will soon be burned down by the PLA.
@Stephen: don’t bet on any palace coup. You’d be surprised how many CCP higher ups have their (and their children’s) wealth inextricably tird in with Pooh Bear and Pooh’s continued reign.
TIED in with…not tird in. Although turd might be more appropo
And by the way, anyone who works for Global Times should surely be described as a propagandist, not a journalist. Nevertheless, it was not smart of the protesters to give the Chinese media another excuse for whipping up hatred against them. The media, police families, and dead parents (even those of someone as nasty as Odious Ho) should be off limits.
@Mary Melville
Said reasonable persons might also wonder why a “legitimate” Hong Kong-based “reporter” of a mainland state “news”paper would turn up at a protest at the airport working illegally on a tourist visa that is set to expire in a couple of hours, with one week and precisely 3 articles under his belt all co-written illegally in Hong Kong while on said tourist visa. They might further wonder why the HK Police are not holding him in custody now: they normally seem so feisty on proven illegal immigrants.
It’s all a bit… spooky, shall we say?
In addition the cocky reporter, who feigned while on the stretcher as images show he opened his eyes once at the ambulance, should be charged with “inciting others to create a public nuisance, and inciting others to incite more people to create a public nuisance” as there are dozens of videos showing him encouraging the crowd to beat him up.
Both he and the public security officer were not seriously injured as both left hospital within the day, unlike some of our local victims who have been in serious condition for days.