The Mainlandization du jour is a juicy one. After being tied to chairs and slapped around a bit, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Jardines finally kowtow to the emperor.
As with forced TV confessions, the point of extracting shows of ‘sincerity’ from these foreign companies is not to convince viewers the victims are speaking freely, but to send a signal to everyone else: this could happen to you. Indeed, if you are a prominent company making money here, don’t expect to avoid having to take a loyalty test.
Having submitted once, they will have to debase themselves again. Maybe they will have to publicly support the imprisonment of Martin Lee or censorship of the BBC website, or denounce UK or US policies on China. And it won’t stop at big firms. Want to practice as a lawyer or get a license to be a news reporter? Sign the loyalty oath. Or get disqualified. Entirely up to you.
It works on the Mainland. Whether it will win China many long-term friends or admirers in the outside world of which Hong Kong has always been a part is a different matter.
Remind me to switch my HKD into USD and work out this VPN stuff.
As Bloomberg says, these are testing times…
The obituary of Hong Kong’s status as a global city has been written before … But there’s a strong case to be made that something more final is under way this time.
In other developments, we learn that the Minister of Public Security now has a permanent seat on Beijing’s top Hong Kong affairs body. And the HK Bar Association appeals to the NPCSC – in respectful simplified Chinese – for public consultation on the National Security law.
HKFP provides a guide to June 4 commemorations around town today. Victoria Park should still be open, and in theory you can hold a vigil with up to eight people (or maybe not if that means ‘splitting into smaller groups’ and the cops’ Mind-Reading Unit detects that all groups have a ‘common purpose’). Before setting off, you might also read this account from one of the 9,000 – a guy clued up on law but still messed around after HK Police arrested and held him last week on quasi-suspicion of unlawful assembly. (Update: oh.)
John Simpson’s statement tallies with most other eye-witness accounts, including many of the protester leaders. A few tens of people were killed, which is not good. However, it was not the 1,000-2,000 number that is commonly bandied about (in the West). Moreover, the PLA’s response was triggered by some “rather exuberant” students wrenching open a “tank-lid” and burning to death its crew. This little “inconvenient truth” seldom gets featured in associated discussions.
Hate to think of the amount of abuse, torture, violations of civil rights and just general sadistic glee by knuckle draggers is put upon arrested protestors. Like the author of that tweet thread said: He’s lucky…he kept a cool head, had a lawyer and was drilled from an early age how to behave in such a situation. And he’s a foreign national, of course.
Wait’ll the popo get the green light to remove the kid gloves on foreigners as well. Especially the foreign nationals that are unfortunately ethnic Chinese. The CCP hate those the most (despite the upper echelons and families all having some kind of alternative passport for just-in-case scenarios).
Yes, HK has reached that (oft used) DYSTOPIAN stage and there’s no going back.
Good job Hemlock:
https://hongkongfp.com/2019/06/04/hong-kong-day-tiananmen-massacre-rumours-unlikely-protests-brutal-reckoning/
@Reactor #4
You are not very intelligent are you?
John Simpson has one pair of eyes and saw 40 people murdered that night? Do the maths ? You may wish to read the now unclassified British cables which estimates the figure at around 10,000.
Whatever the true figure may they all RIP. They were on the right side of history.
“1000 survivors were told they could escape via Zhengyi Lu but were then mown down by specially prepared M/G positions. 1,000 people were allowed to leave on Zhengyi Road, but were fired by ambushing machine guns there.”
“APCs caught up with SMR (Shenyang Military Region) straggler trucks, rammed and overturned them and ran over troops. Armored vehicles caught up with the fallen soldiers of the Shenyang Military Region and even ran over them.”
Tan Yunhe, vice president of the Chinese Red Cross said, “During the June 4th period, a total of 727 people were killed, 14 were in the army, and 713 were local”
Until this incident can be properly investigated, and discussed openly, we will never know the true number of killed, maimed and wounded. Maybe it was only a few tens of people killed, and the numbers were muddled up and counted multiple times to also include those who were injured, by various sources, so as to make the total artificially inflated. Maybe. Whether the true death toll was 15 or 1500, it makes little difference to the victims and their families; a massacre is a massacre.
It is worth remembering that the Peterloo Massacre occurred in Manchester over 200 years ago, and was a defining moment in British politics and the fight for universal suffrage. Although “only” 15 people died, and many hundreds were injured, the event is woven into the collective consciousness of the city. To this day the event is still commemorated on 16 August every year. By comparison, 4 June 1989 is recent history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterloo_Massacre
And if then the tyrants dare,
Let them ride among you there;
Slash, and stab, and maim and hew;
What they like, that let them do.
With folded arms and steady eyes,
And little fear, and less surprise,
Look upon them as they slay,
Till their rage has died away:
Then they will return with shame,
To the place from which they came,
And the blood thus shed will speak
In hot blushes on their cheek
The Masque of Anarchy – Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1819
You don’t need to go to Oxbridge to be in possession of some basic logic. People were killed all the way along on routes into Tiananmen itself. It has to be the worst kind of apologist that just skips past the facts to latch onto whatever narrative appeals!
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/28/world/asia/china-tiananmen-square-massacre.html
Reactor#4
Are there no depths to which you will not sink? Even G. Adams was less repulsive than you, and that’s saying something.
I’ve seen some communist lickspittles in my time, but you take the biscuit.
Peking might find you a useful idiot; I just see you as an idiot.
Don’t feed the troll.
Don’t feed the troll.
Don’t feed the troll.
@Rear End #4 – your post suggests that the PLA only started killing people after the protesters attacked and killed one of their tank crews. Every other chronology I have seen states that the PLA started firing at protesters (and innocent bystanders) long before this incident. Where do you get your version from? You might as well argue that World War Two was triggered when British troops fired at German soldiers at Dunkirk. Furthermore your claimed death toll of “a few tens” is contradicted by the Tiananmen Mothers’ conservative tally of 202 – do you believe they made up their own children’s deaths?
Reactionary #4: Your assertions reflect only what you want to believe, not what actually happened. Fortunately, you have the CCP’s wall of obfuscation to protect you, for the time being. That doesn’t obscure the objective fact that you are a bad actor with far fewer scruples than a paramecium. I’d have a beer with that guy, and we could shake our heads over the likes of you.
@ Reactor 4
“students wrenching open a “tank-lid” and burning to death its crew”
That doesn’t say much for the quality of Chinese tanks.
Rectum #0 is quite obviously an “Energy Vampire” placed here by Colin Robinson of “What we do in the shadows”. He’s on a feeding frenzy from all the time wasting to actually respond to him/it.
Let it wither on its vine.
Read an english translation of the March of the Volunteer lyrics.
They work perfectly well if the goal is to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party.
@Reactor #4a
I know. To this end, wouldn’t it be an effective tool if the HK protesters sang it in English, but did it with such ferocity on the relevant lines (eyes and veins a-bulging, arms a-pumping) it would scare the heck out of the officials? Then the world could watch and “get it”. You might then have the CCP banning HK people from singing the national anthem.
@steve
It’s been a long time since I saw the word “paramecium” in a sentence.
I believe we should all sing the Google Translate version of the anthem: http://ourprivatebeach.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-sleep-of-volunteers.html
It seems that UK Ambassador to PRC Alan Donald’s declassified cable of 5 June 1989 needs airing again:
SECRET
D E D I P
UK COMMS ONLY
FM PEKING
TO DESKBY 051600Z FCO
TELNO 1039
OF 051421Z JUNE 89
AND TO DESKBY 051600Z HONG KONG, JSIS HONG KONG, MODUK
SIC U2b
DESKBY 051600Z MODUK AND JSISHONG KONG.
HONG KONG PERSONAL FOR GOVERNOR.
CHINA: BACKGROUND TO MILITARY SITUATION.
1. HE HAS PASSING ON INFORMATION GIVEN HIM BY A CLOSE FRIEND WHO IS CURRENTLY A MEMBER OF THE STATE COUNCIL. THIS SOURCE HAS PREVIOUSLY PROVED RELIABLE AND WAS CAREFUL TO SEPARATE FACT FROM SPECULATION AND RUMOUR.
2. FACT. THE ARMY THAT HAS COMMITTED THE ATROCITIES IN BEIJING IS 27 ARMY WHO ARE TROOPS FROM SHANXI PROVINCE (?), ARE 60 PERCENT ILLITERATE AND ARE CALLED PRIMITIVES. THE COMMANDER OF 27 ARMY WAS YANG ZHENHUA, SON OF YANG BAIDING BROTHER OF YANG SHANGKUN. THEY WERE KEPT WITHOUT NEWS FOR TEN DAYS AND TOLD THEY WERE TO TAKE PART IN AN EXERCISE. A TV FILM WOULD BE MADE OF THE EXERCISE WHICH PLEASED THEM. THEY WERE INFORMED OF MARTIAL LAW ON MAY 20. FOR THE FIRST 4 DAYS AFTER ARRIVAL THEY WERE DRIVEN AROUND BEIJING CITY TO FAMILIARISE THEM WITH THE AREA. 27 ARMY ARE AT FULL STRENGTH WITH THEIR OWN TANKS AND APCS AND A FULL OUTFIT OF AMMUNITION, TEAR GAS AND FLAMETHROWERS. OTHER ARMIES ARE ONLY AT 1 DIVISION STRENGTH. THE LEADERSHIP KEEPS 27 ARMY ON THE MOVE SO THAT IT CAN ATTACK FROM A DIFFERENT DIRECTION EACH TIME.
3. FACT. ON THE NIGHT OF 3/4 JUNE 27 ARMY WAS TO ATTACK FROM THE WEST WITH OTHER UNITS FROM SHENYANG MR. THE PLAN WAS THAT THE FIRST WAVE (SMR) WOULD ATTACK WITH NO WEAPONS. THE SECOND WAVE (SMR) WOULD ATTACK WITH WEAPONS BUT NO AMMUNITION. THE THIRD WAVE (SMR) WOULD ATTACK AS FOR SECOND WAVE BUT OFFICERS WOULD HAVE LOADED SIDE ARMS TO FRIGHTEN THE CROWD. THE FOURTH WAVE WOULD BE 27 ARMY WITH FULL EQUIPMENT AND AMMUNITION. THE FIRST ATTACKS OCCURRED AT MUCIDI AND SHILIPU. THE FIRST THREE WAVES WERE HELD BY THE DEMONSTRATORS AND SMR TROOPS TRIED TO PUSH BACK THE CROWDS TO LET 27 ARMY THROUGH. THEY FAILED AND 27 ARMY APCS OPENED FIRE ON THE CROWD (BOTH CIVILIANS AND SOLDIERS) BEFORE RUNNING OVER THEM IN THEIR APCS.
4. FACT. THE ENRAGED MASSES FOLLOWED IGNORING M/G FIRE TO NEXT BATTLE AT LIUBUKOU. APCS RAN OVER TROOPS AND CIVILIANS AT 65KPH IN SAME MANNER. ONE APC CRASHED AND DRIVER (A CAPTAIN) GOT OUT AND WAS TAKEN BY CROWD TO HOSPITAL. HE IS NOT DERANGED AND DEMANDS DEATH FOR HIS ATROCITIES.
5. FACT. ON ARRIVAL AT TIANANMEN TROOPS FROM SMR HAD SEPARATED STUDENTS AND RESIDENTS. STUDENTS UNDERSTOOD THEY WERE GIVEN ONE HOUR TO LEAVE SQUARE BUT AFTER FIVE MINUTES APCS ATTACKED. STUDENTS LINKED ARMS BUT WERE MOWN DOWN INCLUDING SOLDIERS. APCS THEN RAN OVER BODIES TIME AND TIME AGAIN TO MAKE QUOTE PIE UNQUOTE AND REMAINS COLLECTED BY BULLDOZER. REMAINS INCINERATED AND THEN HOSED DOWN DRAINS.
6. 27 ARMY ORDERED TO SPARE NOONE AND SHOT WOUNDED SMR SOLDIERS. 4 WOUNDED GIRL STUDENTS BEGGED FOR THEIR LIVES BUT WERE BAYONETED. A 3 YEAR OLD GIRL WAS INJURED BUT HER MOTHER WAS SHOT AS SHE WENT TO HER AID AS WERE SIX OTHERS WHO TRIED. 1000 SURVIVORS WERE TOLD THEY COULD ESCAPE VIA ZHENGYI LU BUT WERE THEN MOWN DOWN BY SPECIALLY PREPARED M/G POSITIONS. ARMY AMBULANCES WHO ATTEMPTED TO GIVE AID WERE SHOT UP AS WAS A SINO-JAPANESE HOSPITAL AMBULANCE. WITH MEDICAL CREW DEAD WOUNDED DRIVER ATTEMPTED TO RAM ATTACKERS BUT WAS BLOWN TO PIECES BY ANTI TANK WEAPON. IN FURTHER ATTACK APCS CAUGHT UP WITH SMR STRAGGLER TRUCKS, RAMMED AND OVERTURNED THEM AND RAN OVER TROOPS. DURING ATTACK 27 ARMY OFFICER SHOT DEAD BY OWN TROOPS APPARENTLY BECAUSE HE FALTERED. TROOPS EXPLAINED THEY WOULD BE SHOT IF THEY HADN’T SHOT OFFICER.
7. SPECULATION. 27 ARMY USED BECAUSE MOST RELIABLE AND OBEDIENT. SOME CONSIDERED OTHER ARMIES WOULD ATTACK 27 ARMY BUT THEY HAD NO AMMUNITION. ZHONGZHAI WAS PROTECTED BY 2 RINGS OF TANKS/APCS ONE INSIDE THE WALL, ONE WITHOUT.
8. RUMOUR. SOME SMR HAD RETURNED TO HOME BASES FOR AMMUNITION. ARMIES FROM SHANDONG, JIANGSI AND XINJIANG HAD LEFT BASES WITHOUT ORDERS FROM BEIJING TO DESTROY 27 ARMY. THE MR COMMANDERS FROM GUANZHOU, BEIJING AND SHENYANG HAS REFUSED TO ATTEND A RECENT MEETING OF MR COMMANDERS CALLED BY YANG SHANGKUN.
9. FACT. BEIJING MR COMMANDER HAD REFUSED TO SUPPLY OUTSIDE ARMIES WITH FOOD, WATER OR BARRACKS. SOURCE SAID MANY BARRACKS IN BEIJING BUT NOTE TV PICTURES OF TENTS. 27 ARMY WERE USING DUM-DUM BULLETS. 27 ARMY SNIPERS SHOT MANY CIVILIANS ON BALCONIES, STREETSWEEPERS ETC FOR TARGET PRACTICE. BEIJING HOSPITALS HAD BEEN ORDERED TO ACCEPT ONLY SECURITY FORCE CASULTIES. SO FAR 6 FOREIGN STUDENTS AND 23 FOREIGN JOURNALISTS HAD BEEN KILLED IN THE FIGHTING (NOTE: WE HAVE NO EVIDENCE OF THIS).
10. FACT. THE FIRST PHASE OF THE OPERATION WAS TO SECURE TIANANMEN. THE NEXT PHASE WOULD BE TO CONTROL MAJOR ROADS AND INTERSECTIONS AND MOVE OUTWARDS FROM CENTRE. THIS WOULD START WITHIN 2 DAYS.
11. FACT. YANG SHANGKUN AND DENG XIAOPING WERE VERY CLOSE FRIENDS. SOME MEMBERS OF THE STATE COUNCIL THAT CIVIL WAR IS IMMINENT. QIN JIWEI WAS FORCED UNWILLINGLY TO APPEAR IN BACKGROUND IN TV PROGRAMME ON 20 MAY TO GIVE AURA OF UNITY. MINIMUM ESTIMATE OF CIVILIAN DEAD 10,000.
DONALD
LIMITED
HD/FED
HD/HKD
PS
PS/Lord Gluanthen
M. Gillmore
M. McLaren
M. Wye—Research Dept.
CONFIDENTIAL
FM PEKING
TO IMMEDIATE MODUK
TELNO U/N
OF 250513Z MAY 89
AND TO IMMEDIATE JSIS HONG KONG, OTTAWA
INFO IMMEDIATE FCO
SIC U2B
MODUK FOR DI ROW 3B.
OTTAWA FOR DA TO PASS TO ND HQ.
FROM NA
MILITARY SITUATION BEIJING AS AT 250200Z MAY.
1.AS POLITICAL POWER STRUGGLE INTENSIFIES, SURVEILLANCE OF MILITARY UNITS IN BEIJING AREA WILL CONTINUE BY JOINT EFFORTS OF U S, UK, CANADIAN AND AUSTRALIAN ATTACHE OFFICES.
2.AFTER ROUND-UP P M 24 MAY CURRENT DISPOSITION IS:
A.28 ARMY (FROM MONGOLIAN BORDER) UNLOCATED NW OF BEIJING. PROBABLY NORTH OF NANKOU (NW TAM 45 KM).
B.55 ARMY. FROM DATONG. LOCATED ON BEIJING RIFLE RANGE SOUTH WEST OF NANKOU. TPS ARE CAMPED ON THE RANGE.
C.64 ARMY. FROM LIAONING PROVINCE. SEEN 24 MAY ON TWO TRAINS AT CHANGPING RLWY SIDINGS (NW TAM 40 KM).
D.40 ARMY. FROM LIAONING PROVINCE. LOCATED SHAHE AIRFIELD (N TAM 30 KM).
E.24 ARMY. FROM CHENGDE. LOCATED IN THE HUAIROU AREA (NE TAM 45 KM).
F.39 ARMY. FROM LIAONING PROVINCE. LOCATED ON TONGXIAN AIRFIELD (E TAM 22 KM).
G.27 ARMY. FROM ZHIJIAZHUANG. LOCATED IN DAXING (S TAM 20 KM) H.U/I ARMY. POSSIBLY FROM HENAN PROVINCE. LOCATED SOUTH OF TAM.
I.63 ARMY. FROM SHANXI PROVINCE. UNLOCATED SOUTH WEST OF LIANXIANG (SW TAM 30 KM).
J.38 ARMY. FROM BAODING. SCATTERED AROUND SOUTH WESTERN AREA OF BEIJING CITY. APPROX 10 KM FROM TAM.
K.BEIJING GARRISON ARMY (LOCAL). SEVERAL DIVISIONS IDENTIFIED AS HAVING TAKEN PART IN OPERATIONS DURING LAST FEW DAYS. ALL UNITS BELIEVED QUARTERED IN GARRISON LOCATIONS.
L.43 AIRBORNE DIV (15TH ARBORNE ARMY). FROM WUHAN. LOCATED ON NANYUAN AIRFIELD (SW TAM 15 KM). WITH INDIGENOUS TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT.
M.6 TANK DIV (LOCAL). LOCATED IN THE CHANGQINDIAN AREA (SW TAM 20 KM).
3.LAST FORMATION TO ARRIVE DID SO 24 MAY (64 ARMY). REMAINING FORMATIONS HAVE MOVED TO CONCENTRATION AREAS AND ARE ENGAGED IN LOGISTIC RESUPPLY. OUR BET ESTIMATE OF NUMBER OF TROOPS IN BEIJING AREA IS NOW INCREASED TO 100,000.
4.POLITICAL/MILITARY SITUATION. RUMOURS ABOUND WITH MUCH FICTION AND LITTLE FACT. WE CANNOT SUBSTANTIATE REPORTS THAT SIX MILITARY REGIONS (NOT BEIJING) SUPPORT LI PENG. PEOPLE’S DAILY (OFFICIAL MOUTHPIECE) OF 24 MAY REPORTED THAT PARTY COMMITTEES (I.E. POLITICAL COMMISSARS) OF AIR FORCE, NAVY, LANZHOU AND JINAN MILITARY REGIONS HAVE SENT MESSAGES IN SUPPORT OF LI PENG AND YANG SHANGKUN AND APPEAL TO COMMANDERS TO RESIST CHAOS AND OBEY ORDERS FROM PARTY CENTRAL COMMITTEE AND CENTRAL MILITARY COMMISSION.
5.GENERAL WANG HAI COMMANDER PLAAF PLUS PLAAF COMMANDERS OF BEIJING AND CHENGDU MILITARY REGIONS ARE DUE TO LEAVE CHINA 28 MAY APPROX TO VISIT UK AND FRANCE. THEIR FINAL DECISION TO GO OR NOT WILL BE A VALUABLE INDICATOR.
DONALD
YYYY