Mainlandization du jour: like pro-dem election candidates, startups trying to register companies are now being subjected to political tests.
Fans of parallels between the roles of the police in both Hong Kong and US unrest might like this thread suggesting that Minneapolis cops went ‘on strike’ and deliberately left criminals free to roam in certain areas as an act of revenge against community criticism. This echoes a suspicion/theory that Yuen Long police let triad mobs terrorize parts of the town on July 21 last year to ‘teach’ a hostile public what happens without the oh-so important cops.
The SCMP’s moderate/insipid/inoffensive op-ed columnists spontaneously announce that Hong Kong’s imminent subjugation is, well, all of our fault really, isn’t it? Both this one and this one say the blame lies with incompetence – on the part of local administrations, pro-Beijing politicians, the pro-dem camp, and you and me.
We are told from childhood that with power comes responsibility. The political system in Hong Kong is a top-down one: all power flows from the CCP in Beijing downwards. Beijing picks the local government. The rest of us – pro-Beijing figures with ceremonial titles or radical opposition firebrands – have no input. So how can we be to blame?
(Among the idiocies in Mike Rowse’s piece: ‘Who in the pan-democratic camp is advocating talking to Beijing?’ No-one talks to Beijing. You either kowtow and obey, or you are the enemy. There’s no third type of relationship you can have with them.)
This is a system where the people can elect an opposition but not the government. And the only constitutional role the opposition can have is in exploiting obscure rules (now being scrapped) to hinder the rubber-stamp function of the Legislative Council. This isn’t – as these columnists imagine – a cause of Hong Kong’s problems. Not even the incompetence or corruption of the executive branch is really a cause. These are all by-products.
A paranoid Leninist CCP at the top controls everything. It is by definition responsible when things go wrong. Beijing makes all the choices of its own free will.
For those pro-Beijingers laughing at the US (and Hong Kongers for thinking the US still is better than China): Wouldn’t it be great if the police in Hong Kong (and, for that matter, Mainland China) were more like these American police?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2020/05/31/in-some-cities-police-officers-joined-protesters-marching-against-brutality/?fbclid=IwAR1YvqMloa71ddTBQWXgdRh8zkYi91oPKGICRU2sGBTNLjx3qRTpLlwjV9Q#632f955edb36
Just as a heroin addict has no free will because of his addiction, I wonder if a party addicted to power can be said to have free will. Power corrupts, and absolute power…
So if it is truly pointless to even stand for an election that hands you no true voice and gives legitimacy to an illegitimate government (Look! We have elections!), why don’t ALL HK pro freedom individuals just make a short announcement and then officially pull out of their local area elections, handing the office to some asslick flunky, making his/her “victory” an utter joke with no mandate, guaranteeing total scorn and disrespect by resident constituents?
Is it just the knowledge that the utterly vile “heavyweights” and “shoe polish heads” will crow on endlessly that, without a hint of irony, they WON the “election” and the People have “spoken”?? Probably.
I see Dodwell is in fundamental lickspittle mode in the SCMP on the National Insecurity Law: “What Trump can’t see: Beijing is not bent on suppressing Hong Kong’s freedoms”.
Henry Litton is also showing his true colours: “…internal security has worsened, with increasing evidence of terrorist activities aimed at bringing the Hong Kong police to its knees and overthrowing the government.”
“We are told from childhood that with power comes responsibility.”
That might be the case if you went to Radley, Harrow, Eton, Charterhouse or some other public school, or perhaps I should say non-public school. I was raised in a system that didn’t waste its time conveying such messages to its youth. We were never going to get our mucky mitts on the handles of power. Perhaps this is why I am adjusting so well to Beijing’s reclaiming of the city – if I was back home I’d still be a member of the peasant class despite living, apparently, in a full-fat democracy. Actually, I can’t believe it’s taken Beijing more than 20 years to put its foot down.
Message. In life, always have low expectations. Moreover, the word “hope” should be tip-exed out of everyone’s dictionary – it’s a dreadful state of mind.
@YTSL: being a cop in Murika is a job. Not an ideology or mandatory political affiliation. Naturally they tend to lean more conservative but they at least have the option to think as they like without worry of losing their job. Unlike the New and Improved HKPD which will very soon have a “purity test” I’m sure.
(even in the military a soldier can question and not follow an order he feels is illegal.)
@asiaseen
Henry Litton’s egregious fact-free contribution is a huge disappointment from a person formerly respected for his common sense and independence of mind and spirit.
(Will this comment be an arrestable offence one month from now?)
Reactor #4, you sad bastard.
Don’t worry, you’ll be “back home” amongst your peasant kith and kin before you can say “Das Kapital”.
A richly deserved fate for a lickspittle, l’d say.
@Rear End #4 – didn’t they have Spiderman comics where you grew up?
Awwwww… the Angry Little Tractor’s big bad dragon mummy wouldn’t let him read Spiderman comics when he was a kiddie. Diddums!
No wonder he’s an angry angry little tractor about people rebelling against authority: we should all be powerless and emasculated just like him.
Disappointing piece from Mike Rowse. So basically he’s saying we wouldn’t let them shit on us 17 years ago, so BJ is now planning to drown us in excrement and it’s all our fault cos we refused to ’embrace the poo’! (Or embrace the ‘Pooh’)
Something incredibly sad about people like Mike Rowse, Litton, Granny Cross, Aching-Bones(RIP): spent their whole life in the colonial expat, HK Club bubble, and in old age they suddenly feel the need to betray their heritage and become redder-than-red.
Shades of Sir Robert Kotewall maybe?
@Private Beach – Rear End #4 hasn’t grown up. Grown old, sad and grumpy but not not grown up. Don’t think that is ever going to happen.
All this talk of Hong Kong being in “grave danger” and enduring “terrorism” for the past 12 months is nonsense, of course.
NONE OF THESE VERY FEW REPORTED SEIZURES OF “BOMB” MAKING MATERIALS ETC HAVE ANY CREDIBILTY. THE PROTESTS HAVE NOW BEEN GOING ON FOR ALMOST A YEAR AND NOBODY HAS BEEN INJURED LET ALONE KILLED BY ANY EXPLOSIVE DEVICE.
Hong Kong last experienced true terrorism during the communist insurgency of 1967. Here are a few statistics for the 6 months of the “Disturbances”:
DURING THE WHOLE OF THE COMMUNIST INSURGENCY OF 1967, JUNE TO DECEMBER, THERE WERE 8,352 BOMB REPORTS INCLUDING 1,420 GENUINE DEVICES AND 4,504 SIMULATED/HOAX.
19 PEOPLE WERE KILLED BY BOMBS INCLUDING 4 POLICE, MILITARY AND FIRE SERVICES, TWO LITTLE CHILDREN, MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC AND BOMBERS THEMSELVES.
OF THE TOTA 802 PEOPLE INJURED, 352 WERE WOUNDED IN BOMB INCIDENTS.
A FURTHER 8 POLICE OFFICERS WERE MURDERED IN SHOOTING AND CHOPPER ATTACKS.
Hemlock: “We are told from childhood that with power comes RESPONSIBILITY.”
Reality: Unfortunately… from childhood most mainland elites are told: “With power comes OPPORTUNITY for corruption”.
Word.