What makes you think that, for all the military might and obnoxious bluster, the CCP lacks confidence? One day they arrest a huddle of teenagers for trying to split the whole nation with a social-media post. The next day they bar the most popular candidates from running in an election that’s already rigged – and which they might postpone anyway because they are still afraid of losing.
(Disqualifications plus postponement would look like overkill. Hard to distinguish nervousness-verging-on-blind-panic from plain poor coordination.)
The reasons for barring a dozen pan-dems from the ballot are what you would expect. Thought-crimes – at least suspected ones – basically.
The Civic Party’s Alan Leong tweets:
This is a blatant and naked contravention of Art 25 of the #ICCPR that guarantees every citizen’s right to elect and be elected. It is an affront to open, equal and fair elections and an insult to the legislature in a separation of powers constitutional set up in #HK’s system!
Obviously true, but it shows the enduring naivety of the older, mainstream pro-dems – total incomprehension upon finding that the Leninist machine crushes opposition without regard to rules or law. They totally reject separation of powers, Alan. The most moderate of this lot, the Democratic Party, apparently escape disqualification.
Which leads to the question of what pan-dems will do if an election happens – nominate substitutes, or organize a boycott? Can they get it into their heads that they will not be allowed to win under CCP rules?
Some links for the coming days…
NPC Observer on some date changes, possibly to rubber-stamp an edict postponing the LegCo elections.
Antony Dapiran on Hong Kong’s new era, when peaceful protest is ‘terrorism’.
In case you missed it, among the Hong Kong government’s smaller idiocies this week – a measure to devote more space to private cars. Maybe not a huge priority, but some sane quality-of-life policies wouldn’t hurt Hong Kong at this time.
Introduction to a book on the ‘Insidious Power’ of China’s intimidation and influence operations aimed at academics and others in eight countries.
Washington Times profile of Miles Yu, Mike Pompeo’s advisor on China. Orchestrated attacks on China-born Yu as a race traitor appear in Global Times and other outlets, including social media (viral video of Yu’s name being erased from his school’s honour roll) – and, interestingly, the SCMP’s own Alex Lo.
Which brings us to just-died Lee Teng-hui, former leader of Taiwan, described by charming Chinese media as a “deformed test-tube baby cultivated in the political laboratory of hostile anti-China forces”.
Maybe you wouldn’t have thought any country could install a leader worse than Donald Trump – But China did it when Xi Jinping took office…
Robert Kaplan, senior advisor at Eurasia Group, said the U.S. was comfortable with China’s system which was “enlightened, benign, collegial, technocratic authoritarianism,” but it has since evolved into a “one-man personality … repressive kind of regime.”
“The result of that is that China has no more friends in Washington…
Wouldn’t usually pay attention to a sport that might have been entertaining when played by normal-size people, but seems pointless when the athletes are all 7-foot-plus mutants: the NBA’s problems with balancing both US and Chinese sensitivities,
And a comparison between nationalism among 1930s Japanese diaspora in the US and among Chinese migrants today.
Time indeed for the Prodem candidates and the populace of Hong Kong To boycott the elections.
Perhaps the best thing to do is to lead a de-registration campaign, where people ask to be struck of the registry for LegCo geographical and rotten borough elections. Local elections are still fair game for now.
No word of how to go about this on the government website, so it is no doubt deliciously annoying for the government to do it.
Furthermore 60-80% of the population de-registering to vote en masse is a far less easily explained and swept under the carpet event than just a low turnout. It also makes LegCo obviously an illegitimate unelected one party rubber stamp
I believe Alex Lo’s brother runs an immigration consultancy in Toronto. Maybe Alex is his hype man.
Whilst not being a lawyer, surely support of the NSL contravenes the Basic Law, not the other way around. Who is up to launch a case to exclude the DAB & FTU lickspittles from the election?
“Furthermore 60-80% of the population de-registering to vote en masse is a far less easily explained and swept under the carpet event than just a low turnout. It also makes LegCo obviously an illegitimate unelected one party rubber stamp”
CCP doesn’t care. They are all separatists. And if people get uppity then they’re getting beat down and arrested.
Boycotting the legco elections won’t do a thing. Setting up a shadow legco or government exile will simply lead to arrest due to violating the national security law. People are left with no options now.
You lot can moan all you like. The reality is that many of your chose to move to a territory that you knew would one day be returned to its rightful owner, that is China. For those who were born here, your ancestors and yourselves have had more than three decades to ship out since a plan for HK post 1997 was set down by the Chinese and the Brits in 1984. Next point – I suspect that most of us reading this blog are have lived in a world where China has always been governed by the Chinese Communist Party (you’d have to be in your early 80s or older to have been aware of an earlier regime). It must also be said that this somewhat inconvenient truth (CCP is boss) was never hidden away as “small print” – it was clearly displayed on the packet. As I have said before, you’ve got two options – get with the programme or leave. Whatever choice you make, the whinging has to stop, firstly because it’s a waste of time, and secondly because it’s not going to do your health any good.
Re the enlightened advice of the Transport Advisory Committee that includes a number of ladies and some folk one would expect to have a more enlightened such as the ex head of the HK Federation of Youth groups: “TAC also says it will advise the CE to develop parking on certain vacant “Government, Institution or Community” sites, formerly pledged for recreational or outdoor use but not developed. The government identified around 150 such sites in its Hong Kong 2030+ Land Supply plan.”
The sad reality is that most urban districts do not even meet the stipulated requirement of ONE sq.m of local open space per resident. In some districts like Sai Ying Pun and Ma Tau Kok the current and planned provisions are around 50%.
The govt is taking no steps to address this situation but is very concerned about the rights of car owners to have around TWELVE sq.m to PARK THEIR CARS.
As for the New Territories, basketballs courts and football fields occupy a single digit footprint of that taken up by the focal point of any village, the sprawling car park.
Note that there is no recommendation that village house of 2,100sqft be required to include a car port on the ground floor as is common in private developments?
@Mark Bradley & Regedit: Forget even de-registering…simply by silently not voting, handing the boot lickers an absolutely hollow victory they should feel embarrassed to even celebrate (though they will) and walking out of the entire charade without comment, you’re inviting an epic beat down for not displaying enough patriotic fervor in Hong Kong’s wonderful system of “free and fair elections” and thus questioning the CCP since they run the show.
The Neo Gestapo will be knocking doors at night to see IF YOU VOTED. Heaven help you if you didn’t!
@Probably – nice try, but I believe the NSL specifically states that its provisions override all other laws in force in Hong Kong – that would include the Basic Law.
It’s moderately amusing that ‘er in Upper Albert Road had to use colonial legislation to achieve Beijing’s will. It’s all the fault of the Brits we can’t vote.
Meanwhile in weather matters, the Observatory in its bid to boost numbers for storm warnings is considering raising the T3 signal for a storm that is well past and heading west. I’d lay money that none of the designated weather stations get within the spitting distance of the wind speed criteria for T3 in the next 24 hours.
“Carrie Lam says postponing Legco election ‘hardest decision’ in seven months.”
What were the other hard decisions? Also its not hard if you are only following orders.
@Mark Bradley
A valid point and I understand where you’re coming from. On one level you’re spot on, but weirdly the CCP really do care about the look of the thing. It’s why they still have the sham “opposition parties” in their own Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. It’s sort of a face thing, and a get-out clause: “we have democracy, we have opposition parties: we totally legit represent the people’s will.”
In LegCo‘s Case perhaps more so: with no opposition, all the screw ups and riots incurred by stupid policies are entirely theirs and theirs alone. No sympathy for the devil.
Besides if you’re right and the CCP doesn’t care, LegCo doesn’t matter anyway.
China sends probe to Mars. Declares that any life it finds is subject to Hong Kong national security legislation.
@Regedit true but if they really did care then they would ensure there would be some token opposition figures in the provisional Legco in 1997. If I remember right, there were none.
Right now? They’re probably trying to make Hong Kong look like as much of a horror show as possible so that the rest of the world writes it off as a lost cause.
Then in a few years when the money folks wear down the human rights folks, rebrand Hong Kong as a sort of Dubai of Asia.