I remember when then-Chief Secretary Anson Chan referred to the Diaoyutai islands as ‘the Senkakus’. There was about 10 seconds of patriotic mouth-frothing – much of it from the anti-CCP/-Japan variety of nationalists – then it was forgotten (by most of us).
Now we have an inane Mainland-style freak-out over a history exam question asking students whether Japanese rule over China was more good than bad. The Education Bureau blasts the exam authorities for ‘seriously hurting the feelings and dignity of the Chinese people’, no less. Someone in the bureaucracy is obviously petrified that Mr Luo from the Liaison Office might march in and give them a good spanking.
(I wonder how students in Taiwan would answer the question.)
This follows Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s recent signals that Mainlandization of schools is definitely on the agenda.
The Education Bureau has a lot of catching-up to do compared with the Security branch.
There are signs that the Independent Police Complaints Council report on the cops’ behaviour in Yuen Long, Prince Edward and so on last year will be even more of a whitewash than the most-hardcore cover-up fans dared hope for. For example, the outrage over collusion with triads was due to a shortage of clarifications explaining that it didn’t happen. And you wonder why overseas advisors refused to touch this inquiry.
You would have thought someone in authority would consider the damage such a distorted account will do to official credibility and legitimacy – but presumably that doesn’t matter anymore.
The Civil Rights Observer group has compiled (and will send to the UN) evidence of torture and other human-rights violations by the HK Police. These are incidents that don’t get caught on video.
The HK Journalists Association has issued a compilation of footage of the police treatment of reporters on Sunday.
Also on media matters, the FCC is asking some simple questions about whether press people banned from China can work in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong government is essentially too scared to answer.
I declare the weekend open with some more worthwhile reading…
UK activist Benedict Rogers joins in the outrage about the HK Police on Mothers’ Day. Interesting how the cops’ (or Liaison Office’s) new tactics for 2020 – Operation Tougher Freaking-Out Over Nothing in Malls – seems to have backfired from the start.
Rogers pleads for international action, which of course won’t happen. Still, the Human Rights Foundation makes a persuasive case – a good intro for anyone overseas who has just woken up to Hong Kong.
Kong Tsung-gan’s quick brief on Hong Kong’s biggest, and then second-biggest, trial – of dozens rounded up for ‘riot’.
Not so much a thread as a multimedia documentary: Eight Hours in the Testing/Quarantine Zone at HK Airport.
HK Free Press on why the ‘Singapore solution’ to going authoritarian without scaring business away won’t work. (Essentially, the Singapore government does not report to or take orders from the CCP. We could also add that they’re not chosen by Beijing either, so tend to have a bit more in the brain-cells department.)
Rest of World on the LIHKG website – the protest movement’s forum.
Bellingcat exposes China’s Twitter and Facebook bot networks.
Andrew Batson looks at the role of Xi Zhongxun (Jinping’s dad) in trying to curb land-reform excesses in the 1950s.
And a bit of culinary history – Asian Review of Books looks at a new work on our friend the chili pepper in China.
I know exactly how students in the independent nation of Taiwan would answer the question…
To the Police
Plant some bombs so everyone can see
The Hong Kong terror.
However, understand that it would be
A blatant error
To plant one in a closed-down school, where you
Have training courses;
It might appear your warnings are not true
Of evil forces.
Invent your plots with care. Fully plan them.
And sing the National Anthem.
A group of black-clothed people might appear
And sing a song.
Scrupulously, they do not stand too near;
There’s nothing wrong.
But you know how to rile them, pick a fight,
And find a way
To add a little flavour to the night
With pepper spray.
Shove them, hit them, grab them, nab them, ban them,
And sing the National Anthem.
For those of us in the know, or in the hoosegaow, this mainand communist behavior is nothing new.
Although it is puzzling that many corporations and governments who have aligned with the CCP and the business community in China never seem to have noticed this, while at the same time, paradoxically, refusing to do anything about that which is surfaced and discussed by those of us experiencing it.
One must wonder just why on earth it’s allowed to continue? It really couldn’t be an issue of markets, could it? Or making money? Or access to influence? I am a bit puzzled over what just could cause people to rush into China, ignore the threat of Communism, and then further distance themselves from it when it becomes apparent how frighteningly destructive and ignorant the ideology is.
Excuse me while I go have a tea.
I rarely comment or even get to the end of some poetry on here, Knownot’s today is one of those rare occasions. Nice one; nail on head…
@HKJC Regular: Agree completely
Just received my government issued face bra. Whoever was responsible for the ordering and delivery should be running the joint. I wonder if Lady McLam is feverishly handwashing hers every night?
This should get the local democracy fanatics and anti-CCP/anti-HKSAR Government swivel-heads a lot revved up.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1282687/EU-law-flag-burning-germany-european-union-protest
It turns out that “German MPs voted for a bill by the Federal Council introducing an additional passage into the criminal code which means defaming the EU flag and anthem will be punishable.”
Apparently, “Violations of the new regulation can – in line with the existing prohibitions – be punished with a custodial sentence of up to three years or a fine.”
Ha. Ha. Ha. It’s time to get singing the national anthem and waving those flags.
Rectum no. 4
You rely on the Express, a publication which makes Alexander de Piffle Johnson’s “journalism” look solid, respectable and accurate, when it was none of those, ever.
Truly , you are an anus.
“Rogers pleads for international action, which of course won’t happen. Still, the Human Rights Foundation makes a persuasive case – a good intro for anyone overseas who has just woken up to Hong Kong.”
Which of course won’t happen? It’s a very cynical view and I can understand why you feel like that, but I think the international community is tired of Panda tantrums especially since they’re now a global threat and sanctions will at the very least be in order. The CCP deserves a hard kick in the teeth, as well as to be completely neutered.
@dimhead.
Don’t like the messenger, that is the Daily Express? Will the BBC suffice?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52674809
If not, what about DW?
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-makes-burning-foreign-flags-a-jailable-offense/a-53445868
Me suspects that you’re going to have a hard time dealing with this wonderfully delicious “inconvenient truth”.
I can only assume that the real reason for the strong objections of the Education Bureau regarding the controversial DSE question is because it was too easy. After all, as Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung himself was quoted in the SCMP, “there is no room for discussion” and therefore only one possible answer. Points in the bag, surely?
Rectum
Touche
But you are still an anus.
I’m going to have to reluctantly agree with Rectum #4 that this flag burning ban in Germany is inconvenient truth and not something The Express made up. This article is in the BBC like he says and it’s bullshit that Germany is doing this. Typical Germans. Even when they aren’t Nazis, they love to have way too many rules over criminalizing activity over symbols instead of over people. Now Carrie and the knuckle draggers can say the National Anthem Law meets “international standards”. You know that makes Rectum #4 cackle with glee.