Your mid-week Mainlandizations…

An RTHK ‘advisor’ (dentist-cum-government stooge) says the public broadcaster must provide positive coverage of national-security and national-anthem laws in order to educate the public and nurture their sense of national identity. Obviously ordered by Beijing officials who are too dumb to realize that (in Hong Kong at least) such propaganda will increase alienation and resistance. So carry on!

The Education Secretary tells schools to ban (the wrong sort of) politics and ‘punish’ kids who take part in banner-waving, slogan-shouting, or the dreaded ‘referendum’ on a strike. Again, clearly a Beijing idea. What better way to make kids see protests as even cooler? (I read somewhere the Education Secretary educates his offspring in Australia.)

As if in anticipation of these measures not working – indeed backfiring – the HK Police are already forming a dedicated unit to do ‘national-security’ work. Presumably, this group (the ‘Red Berets’) will house/liaise with/take orders from the Ministries of Public and State Security.

The SCMP has a graphic representing the 9,000 people who have been arrested in connection with protests since June 9 last year – with a whole 17 jailed so far. (Can’t find it on their website, but these graphics are good too.)

Ever since around last July-August, the police have assumed they can arrest protests out of existence. At first they were telling officials that if they could detain one or two thousand ‘hardcore’ it would all be over – and they just carried on upping the figure. More recently, they’ve moved on to mass/arbitrary arrests. One likely reason is to gather intelligence, notably by accessing arrestees’ phones, for a Mainland-style database of dissidents, sympathizers, etc. Which will come under your friendly local Red Berets.

The SCMP is also running a fairly putrid series of puff-pieces on the heroic and under-appreciated cops (here and here if you really want). Lots of oh-so candid ‘caring’ sentiments and tear-jerking tales of hardship. The smell of shallow, hackneyed, money-grabbing PR consultant is overwhelming.

The new HK Police National-Security Unit in training yesterday
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19 Responses to Your mid-week Mainlandizations…

  1. Casira says:

    The good thing with SCMP “Exclusives” is that you can replace “Exclusive” with “Advertorial”. The only piece of info they seemed to be getting from non-PR channels were about Cathay, but I guess the union guy that leaked those got fired as well, or maybe the topic is too touchy now.

  2. Joe Blow says:

    I also got that feeling when I read the puff pieces about Ben Dover (‘look in the camera, Ben. Make eye contact.’) and the saintly acid attack constable. How much of a hand had EdelmanPR in these ‘human interest’ stories?

    Something else: In Victoria Park they have temporarily closed the ‘Basketball-Cum-Volleyball courts’.

  3. If the police haven’t thought of a name for their new unit yet, may I make a few suggestions? Kempeitai, Stasi, Gestapo, KGB, …

  4. Peter says:

    Beijing is using the SCMP’s credibility (or whatever is left of it) to push their position through a more moderate channel. Coincidentally, since announcing the national security law, so called exclusives and so called leaked information have been published on a daily basis, telling us how direly needed the legislation is and how only a minority will be targeted. Quite obviously the newspaper is just another part of all the choreographed events we have seen in the past weeks drumming up support for the legislation.

  5. YTSL says:

    For those who haven’t done so already, I highly recommend that they get a copy of “After Shock: Essays from Hong Kong” (Holmes Chan, editor). Among the contributions are one by ex-SCMPer Rachel Cheung. An excerpt:-

    “In the newsroom where I used to work, journalistic principles were weaponised to bring writers into line. For the sake of “balance,” an article on protest art had to include mentions of state-sponsored artworks that glorify the police. To appear objective, the euphemism “accusations of excessive force” was regularly deployed in news reporting to downplay police violence…”

  6. Roddy the Rodomontade says:

    The word on the street is the SCMP is going back behind the paywall in August. These exclusives must be the last roll of the dice to build up a dedicated, ‘hardcore’ readership.

  7. Andrew Mountford says:

    Can I just add that the ‘adverts’ to stop violence and embrace National Security on TVB are sickening and insulting

  8. Quentin Quarantino says:

    How can I find out if I belong to “the very small number of people” who will be targeted by the National Insecurity Law?

  9. Stanley Lieber says:

    The Hong Kong version of Lei Feng was way overdue.

    The new guys at HKMAO are strutting their stuff!

  10. Chinese Netizen says:

    Stop violence and embrace the fact you’ll be losing more and more of your rights in a slow blood letting…

  11. Chris Maden says:

    @Quentin: If you’ve posted on this website, you already do belong to that select group…

  12. odaiwai says:

    Joe Blow: The ones by the swimming pool (North East Gate)? Those have been closed since they shut the playgrounds.

  13. Big Al says:

    @Quentin: I was going say, if you answer “no” to ALL of the following questions, then you are one of that very small number of people:
    1. Are you Xi Jin Ping?
    2. Are you a member of the NPCSC?
    3. Are you a Vice Chairman of the NCCPPCC?
    4. Are you a card-carrying member of the CCP
    5. Are you a senior member of the Hong Kong government?
    6. Are you a member of the Hong Kong police force?
    7. Are you a member of the DAB, HYK or other pro-Beijing party?
    8. Are you Alan Semen?

  14. Penny says:

    I tried to access the video of HKPThug Dover to see just how bad it would be but got this:
    ACCESS WAS DENIED
    You are not authorized to access the requested URL.
    Same on three different browsers.
    Are these “exclusives” that only exclusive people are allowed to view or is it because I post on this website?

  15. asiaseen says:

    @ QQ
    Just wait for the 4am knock at the door.

  16. Donkeynuts says:

    Fascists are always dumbfounded that people care about things other than their fascism and that they will resist. the ignorance is astonishing.

  17. Reactor #4 says:

    The last week or so has had the feel of “There are 4 minutes to play and the team is 3-nil down.” Most people in the city have accepted that it’s game over. However, the Grade 1 sadist that I am will hang around having a good old gawk at those who congregate here wishing, hoping and whatevering.

  18. The Menace says:

    Sad to say that I agree with Rectum#4 that it is close to game over for HK. Knowing that someday he will get a 4 a.m. knock on the door from the CCP gives comfort.

  19. Penny says:

    Provocative troll at large – do not engage!

Comments are closed.