Reuters have released a transcript of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s leaked comments – hereby named Dialogue-Gate.
Two obvious questions. One: was she being completely candid with her audience of intimates, or was there some duplicity there? (Does she really want to apologize?) Two: even if she thinks she knows what Beijing is thinking, could it be that they have lied to her? (Do they really see this as a national security issue? Care about international opinion? Are they really determined not to send in the PLA?)
Among her comments, Carrie blithely mentioned that Beijing would happily watch Hong Kong’s economy deteriorate until the anti-government protests end – anything but make concessions. She added that, after the dust settles, Beijing might come in to help Hong Kong in some way. It was at that point she mentioned Bay Area. In the transcript, she says:
…Hong Kong will have to go through several stages. The first is stamping out the violence, maybe doing other things in time to come which at the moment are not very available. Having gone through this stage, the next stage will be, in accordance with the bible, would be resurrection … thereafter we want a reborn Hong Kong and a relaunching of this Hong Kong brand.
The ‘other things … that are at the moment not very available’ sound intriguing. There are some murmurings that the coming Policy Address in October will include Amazingly Radical Warm-and-Fuzzy Livelihood Reforms of some sort. But the speech will be drafted by the usual bureaucrats, so expect Internet subsidies for all seniors with one leg, etc.
Common sense says that after the ‘violence has been stamped out’ Hong Kong needs a more representative system of government. We can be pretty sure, therefore, that the Chinese Communist Party will make it less representative. The tycoons and bureaucrats will be shoved aside, and a more tightly Beijing-controlled administration will come into place. The CE will be a figurehead, so the ‘Who will it be?’ debate is irrelevant.
That administration will, no doubt, improve the livelihood policies a bit. But it will also impose more Mainlandization – Internet censorship, politicization of the courts, National Education in schools and purges of dissidents from universities and companies. (David Webb calls the latter ‘like McCarthyism in reverse – those loyal to the Communist Party could remain’. There could be some severely depleted payrolls.)
The recent – surely irreversible – collapse in the standards and image of the HK Police is a pointer. The Hong Kong of tomorrow will be downgraded in terms of institutions and way of life.
This is surely Beijing’s long-term aim, anyway. The CCP obviously resents Hong Kong’s historic success and separate identity (hence the obsessions with how the city is ‘helped’ by the Mainland, and with the Bay Area vision). It needs to prove the Mainland model is superior – and what better way than by running Hong Kong down?
But first we have to get to Carrie’s ‘violence has been stamped out’ phase. The more Beijing, the local eunuch-administration and the HK Police try ‘stamping out’ this – mostly peaceful – uprising, the more they bolster it. How do you even start to restore a legitimate government in Hong Kong after so thoroughly alienating its population?
Which brings us to a high-school assembly – all rise for the national anthem.
Even the turn of phrase “stamping out” is violent in its imagery. And “resurrection” implies, of course, death. That’s a roadmap for internal healing and peaceful reunification if ever I saw one…
“How do you even start to restore a legitimate government in Hong Kong after so thoroughly alienating its population?”
Unfortunately I think we need to look to Xinjiang for the answers.
I think Alex Lam was harmonised after posting the singing…
yes. the plan is to make the ccp the saviours now. that’s why no pla. they will use this opportunity to rejuvenate their image and reverse the incorrect assumption that they murdered students in Tiananmen square
The sadist in me loves the situation HK finds itself in. So many lives, from across society, have been greatly re-set by events that have happened over the last few months. Many more are destined to follow. In fact if the Universe’s development is scripted, then whoever wrote the scenes we are presently in must have been chomping down the speed tablets by the fistful.
I am especially curious about the sub-plot centred on Carrie Lam and her religious stance. If what I have read about the Catholics’ version of Hell is correct, then it must be weighing heavily upon her that she’ll be making the journey there. Importantly, her resigning from office isn’t going to make that problem go away, and she’ll spend much of her retirement years (? around 30) mulling her fate. Delicious. In an attempt to make amends, perhaps she will become a nun and spend her waking hours walking the streets of Sham Shui Po offering to bathe the feet of the elderly and the infirm.
“the Hong Kong brand…”
Happy to see it plainly stated that cities and nations are corporations.
Get back on that plantation plebs and know your role!
😉
“How do you even start to restore a legitimate government in Hong Kong after so thoroughly alienating its population?”
If the cops didn’t keep committing unforced errors, the average middle-aged TVB-watching shopkeeper and accountant types would get sick of the protests of their own accord. Many of those initially sympathetic to the large peaceful protest marches find the increasing levels of vandalism and violence difficult to stomach. And then the cops have to go and beat up some random people for no apparent reason on live television and then wonder why they have angry crowds gathering every night.
“Which brings us to a high-school assembly – all rise for the national anthem” – YouTube account closed, video no longer available.
The new normal.
“A government source said that Lam will emphasise that the removal of the bill was to streamline the legislative agenda, with the Legislative Council set to reopen in October after its summer break and hence it was a technical procedure.” SCMP 4 September 2019.
Break? I’ll say. Break-in? I’ll say.
Technical procedure? Well I never knew that that was the cause of so much misery.
Rumours circling that the Government will officially withdraw the Extradition Bill (Sep 4).
Which is to say… there is no end in sight of this fracas. Once the proles have achieved one of their Big Five goals they will push for more, and more, and more.
@Chef Wonton
To be fair, they did try evasiveness, dragging it out, going into hiding, likely lying as well as propaganda, and widespread indiscriminate violence first.
@ ChefWonton: “Once the proles have achieved one of their Big Five goals they will push for more, and more, and more.”
Exactly. Once you have gotten to first base by removing the young lady’s brassiere, your “ideal outcome” immediately resets to something higher (which, paradoxically, is anatomically lower) because you know it is potentially achievable.
@ whiny gweilo bitch
Saw that too. Clearly showing the disrespect of the National Anthem is not a good thing for some. Probably cost that poor fella his job.
@ Irritated Observer
Fair point!
@Chef Wonton – your use of the word “proles” suggests that you may be somewhat ill-disposed towards those at the bottom of the ladder. Personally I think it’s about time they got a bigger slice of the Hong Kong pie. Of course, such matters are complicated here because the haute bourgeoisie (or its local equivalent, the tycoons) are in cahoots with the so-called Communist Party to keep them down.
“Happy to see it plainly stated that cities and nations are corporations.”
The nation-state, the church, municipalities are literally corporate entities. They are corporate entities that came before the modern business corporation, but their body politic is the same.
I recommend reading the book “corporate sovereignty” if you are interested in this topic.
https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/corporate-sovereignty
The Police Commissioner must formally apologize to the People of Hong Kong for the police brutality, the sadistic violence and the abuses of our human rights.
To show his sincerity he must also offer his resignation.
@ Joe Blow (September 4, 2019 at 7:20 pm)
What a load of twaddle.
I am unsure of the Police Commissioner’s gong collection, but if he’s missing a jingly-jangly one that he fancies, then I am more than happy to act as the proposer for his upgrading. In my opinion he has done a magnificent job in dealing with the rioters. Anyone out there up for seconding my motion?
@ Mark Bradley
I read Leviathan…that’ll do me. But thanks, I’ll check it out.
@whiny gweilo bitch re school assembly singing
No, it’s still there if you persevere:
https://twitter.com/KowloonSea/status/1169064289405157377