Equal time for the pro-Beijing video-makers out there. These were all forwarded from someone in the government-friendly, anti-protest camp. One thing about these people is that they do not seem too fussy about the provenance of the materials they send each other. I did not sit through every minute of each one, so my summaries might miss better or worse aspects of the entertainment.
In ascending order of weirdness…
Video 1 – as seen on several Twitter threads and other channels: Xinhua interviewing one Ian Stansbury, some sort of think-tank type, on why Western media are (cue melancholy violin) unfair to China.
Video 2 – a quick documentary stressing how just a few hundred violent ultra-radical organized criminals (trained on rooftops, onsite commanders guiding the action and caught with high explosives) are wrecking the beautiful city we call home. Narrator seems to have a Canadian accent. Hosted on Google Drive (owner ‘BBs and Baba Tao’). Looks aimed to please the CCP as much as influence the public, but made by ‘A group of HK residents’.
Video 3 – features an activist called Sara Flounders of the far-left US Workers World Party: authentic ‘tankies’ who supported the Soviet invasion of Hungry in 1956, backed Mao after the Sino-Soviet split and adore North Korea. If you resist Beijing you must be CIA.
Video 4 – by one Jaron Lines, apparently an American in Hong Kong. He says the extradition bill has been exploited by the CIA to infiltrate the city. A quick Google search shows he peddles some sort of self-help/forex-trading thing called Life Ignitor, plus Bible quotes (more here, with thoughts on ‘evil elites backed by the Zionists’ and don’t-ask-why tasteful pic of his wife’s boobs).
Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, here’s some big tough pro-Beijing guys having a go at Dame Conscience herself, Anson Chan – who mercifully spares them a dose of The Handbag.
Funny how Xinhua feels the need to wheel out token Caucasians to make itself look more credible. It’s the pundit version of the random Westerners hired to pretend to be executives at business meetings.
Sorry, a change of mood from today’s post.
A video recorded at Prince Edward Station on Saturday night
showed a young man and woman sitting on the floor of a train.
She was crying and he was comforting her.
He hugs her as she cries.
They’re young, and this must be,
So far, the worst experience
They have had; it came
Not in slum or alley,
Or storm or fire or flood,
Nor in pain or sickness
Or someone’s death; it came
In a metro station,
In a modern, bright,
Air-conditioned train.
Some people used to call
The Hong Kong MTR
The best one in the world.
And even the police,
Long ago corrupt,
Became a force respected.
Now everything is soiled.
He comforts, if he can.
Above them in the street,
With fire and bricks and gas
One side or the other
Destroys or self-destroys.
Everything is soiled:
Fumy, grimy, bloody,
Or – a playful moment –
Dyed in blue. She cries.
Their innocence is lost.
However long they live,
This they won’t forget:
This crazy, brutal night.
Re: Jaron Lines’ wife’s boobs. Personally, I’m an ass man.
Beijing abducts book sellers. Mercenaries/ dupes working for Western capitalists agitate around the world.
There’s no innocent side in any of this…except for the average local Hong Konger who’s been fending off exponentially growing numbers of locusts year by year. They’re under your feet, under your skin and in your hair.
How are you supposed to get on with your own private debt slavery when the gates to the city have been left wide open for the mainland invasion?
That’s not ‘preserving the uniqueness of HK’ as the Chinese government say. That’s swamping a small city with hundreds of thousands of feet on the ground in a short time. When the quota system of mainland ‘visitors’ was relaxed 8 or 10 years ago…that’s when the real shit started hitting the fan in terms of stability.
Coz that’s when locals en mass started saying…this. shit. fucking. sucks.
“Ready for combat!”
People’s Daily eagerly rubbing hands together for bloodshed and mayhem fratricide in HK…
In Prince Edward, after the police held up the orange sign threatening live fire, and a phalanx of riot cops cleared away the crowd, there was silence. For about ten minutes. Then a car honked. And another. Soon the whole block was screeching. Honking cars circled the police station slowly for an hour, a traffic jam at 2:45 in the morning. As if to say “tear gas this, you bastards”.
And as for “Jaron Lines”….does HK even have basements??
@Knownot: Good one.
Hm. Western media are unfair to China.
But if the CCP are unfair to Uyghurs, and western media are covering it truthfully, is it fair of western media to cover the unfairness?
@ Knownot.
The situation you poetize reminds me of those people who a few years signed up as ISIS Jihadis whose express aim was the destruction of Western Civilization. When it later went tits-up, they became rather regretful. Now some want to return home, for example, that grade 5 weirdo from Oxford who has just had his UK passport rescinded, and Shamima Begum.
Fact. The kids on that MTR train purposely put themselves in that position. By late Saturday night, the protest had transitioned from being a peaceful affair (early afternoon) to something altogether different. Critically, less than a minute prior to their battering they were likely red-mist participants in the trashing of the station. The irony is that the very same public transport system they were intent on destroying was also supposed to deliver them to their nice comfy beds and freedom. How mistaken they were?
Clearly, non-violent protest has to be acceptable in any society. On the other hand, rampant vandalism and/or life-threatening thuggery is plain wrong.
Actually, I suspect that many of those who have viewed the clip cheered for the cops – we forget that a sizable fraction of HK’s population has a great deal of empathy for the Police and their families.
@Cassowary
Pretty good description of the events in Prince Edward… I wonder if that was inspired by Winter On Fire? The AutoMaidan is now AutoMongKok? Auto Hongkong?
Sara Flounder talk is 35:52 minutes of life that I will never get back. Going back to my cages and homelessness in Hong Kong, financed and funded (?) movements that are organized by the National Endowment for Democracy.
Somebody here has once again seemed to have missed material facts – here, the first aid helmet sitting on the floor of that train. Even if that weren’t the case, conflating being in the vicinity with being guilty is a dangerous departure even from rule by law.
https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1477973-20190831.htm
3 teens 13-15 sent to a juvenile home, and here is the magistrate’s reasoning…
“But magistrate Joseph To expressed doubt, and questioned why they had to watch the documentary out on the streets, when there were plenty of videos available online. He added that “there must be a reason” why they had been arrested by police.”
Another one destined for the top, and one of those reasonable people would fear.
OMG. Those guys just go on and on and on. No wonder they can’t get their message acrosszzzzzzzz…….
Among the average middle-class, middle-aged Hong Konger, rumours of the protesters being paid several thousand dollars a pop persist. Nobody seems to ask why, if so much illicit money is sloshing around, why the police haven’t cut off the source of the funds.
If Jimmy Lai or CIA frontmen or whoever is blowing millions of dollars every weekend to stir up shit, why haven’t their accounts been frozen and their assets seized? If they’re doing it in cash, surely a giant warehouse of cash couldn’t be that difficult to find. The financial crimes unit has a lot to answer for if they’re letting their colleagues work double shifts getting bricks lobbed at them for three months straight.
@PaperCuts
“How are you supposed to get on with your own private debt slavery when the gates to the city have been left wide open for the mainland invasion?”
Lovely turn of phrase. I shall use that.
Watching the youth do their stuff over the weekend reminded me of another ‘debt’ saying, this one from Herbert Hoover:
“Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt”.
A sentiment today’s rioters may wish to consider, as the expensive wanton destruction of public property continues unabated, seemingly encouraged by inaction from the boys (and gals) in blue (or black, or khaki….and now, increasingly, in plainclothes too)
Re. video Anchan Chan, I said it before, but my god, those pro-Peking people are an ugly bunch.
China Keeps Getting a Rough Deal, eh?
And definitely not China keeps kidnapping Canadians. Oh no.
Video 1. Nervous Canadian who lives in Beijing (Studying Global Journalism at RenDa — People’s University*). For some reason thinks that it’s unfair that French protests (an annual event) don’t get as much coverage as Hong Kong’s populace taking on the CCP who’s previous form on mass demonstrations is to use tanks to kill everyone. Chinese authorities kidnapping nervous Canadian academics may strike him as even more unfair which may be why he’s speaking out against the media’s unfairness.
Video 2. “Why is local and Western media so biased? We’ve compiled this video montage made from local and western media footage together to show you what local and western media won’t…” Another nervous Canuck narrowly avoids kidnapping by taping the narration.
The Guilt-riddled foil-hatted American Exceptionalists’ Gallery
Or Everything is really about the US — because there just isn’t anything we can think of that isn’t really about the US.
Video 3. “We know for a fact that the US is awful. China says the US is awful. Therefore everything China says is true. The US is awful because of its infringement on information and human rights. China is brilliant and kind and super because they say the US is awful. We’re streaming this on Youtube for as long as the evil US government will let us. And we are just going to totally let the awkward fact that Youtube is banned in China slide.”
Video 4. “I believed most of Video 3, but I’m fairly sure the Jews are behind it. I am also just going to totally let slide the awkward fact that my only source of information —Youtube — is banned in China.”
Jaron may have lived in Hong Kong for 10 years but I suspect he hasn’t actually gone outside for at least the last seven.
Planet Earth…
Video 5. The part of that video that shouts the loudest is the bit where the taxi driver didn’t tell her to get hell out of his cab. Priscilla must be fuming.
Capt. Shouty-Placard has also failed to work out that his Beijing-style mad soft power skillz are much more a factor in turning Hong Kong rebellious than Anson Chan, who I’m guessing 70% of the youth protestors would be hard pressed to name.
*Where to even begin!?!?!?
@ Knownot
Not a bad effort today. That video was pretty brutal, you capture it well. These people will NEVER be on the side of the Police for the rest of their days.
However long they live,
This they won’t forget:
This crazy, brutal night.
@Clucks Defiance – for a start, the government could save money by replacing the $2.3 million “smart” lamp posts destroyed by the protesters with ordinary, and presumably much cheaper, ones. If the surveillance features in them are (as the government assures us) not activated, then why spend so much money on them? Unless (surely not!) our government is lying to us… In any case, the value of the property destroyed by the protesters can only be a small fraction of the amount wasted on the government’s white elephant mega-projects. Cancelling the East Lantau reclamation should easily cover it.
I loved -absolutely loved- the drawing that illustrated the article in the paper describing how HK’s people have been screwed by the tycoons. Brilliant: it encapsulated exactly why the young generation are not stake holders and why we, the people, have been squeezed for every last penny by Li Ka-shing et al, and their buddies in the Government and the Civil Service during the last 25 years. It will probably take a committee to sort that problem out.
Magistrate Joseph To: I used to know him about 20 years ago when he was starting his career in the A.G. office in Admiralty. Quite gay and therefore no experience with juveniles (I hope).
We have to stop referring to mainlanders as locusts, first of all because it’s disgustingly racist. More pragmatically, Hongkongers must actively seek allies from across the border, if only sub rosa at the moment. Opinions about HK are already more diverse than official propaganda will admit, and the Great Firewall will leak more and more over time, especially as the economy continues to slow. Our best long term hope is the collapse of the CCP, and here’s where Hong Kong can help to speed that event. To use another insectile metaphor, be termites, my friends.
Re: Jaron Lines’ wife’s boobs – too good for him.
Irritated Observer –
I suppose we both remember the ‘Chalk Girl’?
Boobtube roundup –
Thank you very much for the summaries. I’ve learnt a lot.
Is it really racist for Hong Kongers to call mainlanders “locusts”? I’d say it’s merely descriptive of their behavior…akin to elite Caucasoids in the States calling Trump supporters, sister fuckers and trailer dwellers as “white trash”.
So which of our tycoons will fess up and admit that it is time to share the spoils. This can be easily achieved via distribution of a portion of his/her shareholdings to the staff. He or she would still have more left in the kitty than anyone could spend in a lifetime.
@steve
It’s a metaphor. And what’s a metaphor? To describe. Would it be more politically correct for you if I said the total relaxation of the mainland visiting quota has resulted in school after school of comet goldfish invading HK, raising the cost of living, reducing the standard of living, pushing up stress in an already super stressful environment?
Would that be more appropriate for your touchy socially engineered sensitivities? Locusts swarm, in plague numbers and destroy. That’s what’s happened in HK. It’s an apt metaphor and only the shockingly social engineered squeal ‘racist racist’. It’s nothing of the sort.
You think it reflects negatively on a racial or ethnic group? Well that’s horribly discriminatory of the locust…an animal that, by nature (it can’t help it)…tends to grow fast in numbers, swarm and destroy.
And it’s my contention that this relaxation of the mainland visiting quota is one of the most prominent events/ decisions that really solidified local resentment to the mainland. Coz the average Hong Konger got nothing out of it. The only people who benefited were property tycoons (yet again), hotels, gaudy luxury shops and morons who opened their 10th medicinal dispensary to service the milk powder and toothpaste needs of fevered mainland consumers.
They let thousands in. LIKE locusts.
Get over your politically correct inner policeman slapping your snout like a dog that’s wet the rug.
@ paper cuts
“Locusts”: the term is being used in a derogatory manner and it is highly offensive. Most Mainland Han are decent people (as is the case with other nationalities).
As a consequence of my work, I have Mainland Han friends and colleagues in Hong Kong, the Mainland, Taiwan and Australia (one guy from Nanjing each year sends me the most bizarre Christmas cards known to Man – they are so bonkersly not Christmasy, I know he must deeply value our friendship). I’d be appalled if I was in a space with them and the term was thrust upon them. In fact I might resort to violence. If you can’t comfortably say something to someone’s face, then you shouldn’t say it.
Speech police! Just like the CCP. Mind what you say and how you say it…be sure it conforms to our double plus good official word book.
I refer to it all the time, lest I fall on the floor weeping over a word or term applied to me that I couldn’t find in the book.
Take your political correctness and keep it to yourself. Some of us don’t stand for the kind of social engineering other people eat with a spoon.
@Reactor #4: I have some empathy for the police and their families, too, as human beings. Before this mess began three months ago, few people in Hong Kong did not.
However, what happened on July 21 (just to name one incident) damaged the reputation of Hong Kong’s Finest in many people’s eyes. Thus, residents of neighborhoods that normally would not be so anti-cop have come out against them.
I also don’t agree with many of the acts committed by the rogue protestors, but I hold the police to a higher standard.
Most of all, I blame the government, starting with Lam, for pouring fuel on the fire instead of working to defuse the situation. Allowing a problem to fester increases the probability that some people on both sides will escalate the situation to the point in which it becomes uncontrollable.
One of my friends who has family working for the police is as pro-blue as they come, but even he says Lam must go. I bet he’s not the only one on the cop side who thinks this way.
@ steve – I’m right with you
@ PaperCuts – I’m also with you that there is too much namby-pamby uptightness about not offending people. But in the case of describing mainlanders as ‘locusts’, Steve is right. Too many HKers treat each individual from China as at fault, often personally. Ask any mainlander living here – they get abused and ostracised all the time. This is morally wrong and tactically distastrous, since we need understanding and support from the populace of our giant neighbour/mother country. And could even contribute to saving them from the CCP.
Donny
You claimed you knewReactor #4 as an unemployed and unemployable englisman. He claims to have work Who is correct?
Locusts or not. Ask yourself ” What would the Dalai Lama do”?
@ Bluebottle : ‘Locusts or not. Ask yourself ” What would the Dalai Lama do”?’
Spoken like a true insect.