1) Hong Kong’s civil servants are told that they work for China too, to which they reply ‘news to us’. Their top official also broadly reminds them that they are servants of the state not the public. Loyalty tests by year-end?
2) Not that she knows any more than the rest of us, but Regina Ip says there will be no juries for national-security court cases, despite saying otherwise when Security Secretary in 2003. It would be pretty amazing if the Chinese Communist Party allowed suspected subversives to be tried by a random selection of fellow citizens. Will the evidence, or even the trials themselves, be public?
3) Students and workers plan a ‘referendum’ on a strike over the national-security law. Probably nothing much will happen, and the government could easily ignore it. But instead we get a blast of extreme hyper-sensitive official phobia about any mention of the word ‘referendum’, complete with whining about innocent kiddies. This isn’t the first time. Worth remembering, if only for civil-disobedience mischief-making: announce a ‘referendum’, and watch the government utterly wet itself.
4) The HSBC kowtow continues with the bank reportedly pleading Beijing’s case on Huawei in the UK. (Ever-charming on the Huawei issue, China’s diplomats in the UK also threaten to blackmail the country using Beijing’s grip on yet-to-be-built energy and transport infrastructure. The prospect of not having CCP-run power stations and rail in return for not having CCP telecoms sounds like a win-win.)
Anything I missed?
Reg also mentioned potentially booting out the British if this BNO carrot / stick goes through.
“Reg also mentioned potentially booting out the British if this BNO carrot / stick goes through.”
She’s a vile cunt. I hope she gets a nice sanction. It couldn’t happen to a nicer person
Police being called into schools if unruly student fail to fawn over “that” song
@Mark Bradley: If after mainland tourists, brits are booted out, notwithstanding the French, Hong Kong will become very livable indeed.
To me the most interesting thing about what Vag Yip said was that she basically admitted that the interests of Hong Kong and the people of Hong Kong are not the same. She commented that if the UK hurts Hong Kong’s interests by granting BNO passport holders enhanced rights, Hong Kong can fight back by ending visa free access to UK citizens. How does helping individual Hongkongers hurt Hong Kong’s interests?
@ Mark Bradley.
Well R4 did tell you so didn’t he? The options were “easy way” or “hard way”. For some reason you and quite a few others thought that the latter would work. What planet are you lot on? You are dealing with the CCP. Like the Soup Nazi in the Seinfeld episode, you don’t 4ck with it. I suggest that you track down the names of a few of the protester kids who have now been banged up and do some prison visits? It’s the very least they deserve.
Note the government hand out/press release refers to Hong Kong as being a “local” administrative region under the central government. Noention of “special”. So now the HK LAR, not the
SAR!
@A Poor Man: In an authoritarian regime, the people are there to serve the government, not the other way round.
I mean, we’ve already been run for well over a century by people who think that the people exist to serve economic growth, and not the other way around, so technically it’s only getting a little worse.
Look on the bright side of life: if HK boots out the British, Reactor #4 has to return to the cheap parts of Stratford-upon-Avon, where he came from.
Quentin.
Does the Reactor troll really come from the poorer parts of Stratford? Are there poorer parts? How do you know that he comes from them?
That said, if there are such parts, and if he does come from them, I do hope that the Chinese commies send him back there, bag and baggage.
It would serve him right for verily he is a cunt.
“Look on the bright side of life: if HK boots out the British, Reactor #4 has to return to the cheap parts of Stratford-upon-Avon, where he came from.”
Personally I doubt they will boot out the British (if they have right of abode) but then again you never know. Rectum #4 is being a twat as usual. I don’t need his lame opinion on the CCP when Hemlock essentially says the same in a far better and more coherent manner. Don’t give yourself so much credit George you old blow hard.
I do think Visa free access for British tourists can be cancelled, which is just petty and lame but it’s not another constitutional or international law crisis like the National Security Law is.
Weren’t they threatening to withdraw the SAR passports for BNO holders a few days ago?
Mark Bradley.
What British tourists?
@A Poor Man: In an authoritarian regime, the people are there to serve the government, not the other way round.
Cassowary – I get this. It was just a bit surprising to hear Vag say it so openly. It seems the local government doesn’t try to hide this fact anymore.
How HSBC is supposed to get any international drug, arms and people trafficking money laundered with all this annoying distraction is beyond me!
You seem them now and again, but good point @Red Dragon
“Weren’t they threatening to withdraw the SAR passports for BNO holders a few days ago?”
Absolutely idiotic when it was tolerated for 23 years. Such petulance.
@Red Dragon
According to UK government:
“470,295 British nationals visited Hong Kong in 2019. Most visits are trouble free.”
Not so many these days though, true enough.
Carrie Lam also threatened to withdraw visa-free entry for Americans in a fit over Trump correctly pointing out that Hong Kong is just another mainland Chinese city now. Hong Kong as just another mainland Chinese city where foreigners can be imprisoned for social media posts and snatched and tortured for hostage diplomacy isn’t an attractive destination, so maybe the bootlickers figure it’s a cost-free threat.