A late-week flurry of legal news, much of which does not boost confidence in the Hong Kong judiciary or law enforcement.
Tam Tak-chi is denied bail – thus stuck in jail for a couple of months – for allegedly ‘uttering seditious words’.
If you want bail, stab Long Hair. Magistrate Cheang Kei-hong frees a man prior to sentencing for doing just that on the grounds that the guy ‘loves society deeply’ – not because he’s 80, which would be some sort of reason. (Not saying this magistrate is biased against the protest movement, but he sentenced a guy to five months for possessing cable ties and took apparent delight in imprisoning others here and here. He also has a connection to foot-licking it says here, but I guess that’s not relevant. CCP foot-fetishism update here.)
If you’re lucky you might get a magistrate who does not bow to the CCP – like the one who has acquitted a pair of innocent bystanders on the grounds that they were innocent bystanders. Why did the HK Police arrest and charge them (let alone start pushing them around the street in the first place), and why did the public prosecutors waste taxpayers’ money bringing the case to court? People are understandably asking questions about police/prosecution practices. Here’s one: what percentage of the 10,000 protest-related arrests were arbitrary or otherwise unjustified, and will the authorities try to jail all of them?
(Just in – another magistrate hands down a not-guilty verdict [Chinese link] and says cops should show ID. Ramifications?)
But even if the magistrate does find you innocent, that doesn’t mean it’s over. The government is appealing against the not-guilty verdict handed to Jimmy Lai following charges of intimidating an Oriental Daily reporter-stalker. Remember that the magistrate who let Lai go was mysteriously promoted to an admin job within days. It’s almost as if the Secretary for Justice is taking orders from a CCP obsessed with getting Lai in prison whatever it takes.
Some quick reading…
Asia Times puts an eye-catching headline to the story: CCP announces plan to take control of private sector.
Never heard of John Boyega or Jo Malone? Foreign brands’ Mainland marketing practices fix that for you.
Regarding the Asia Times story, we can all see how requiring private firms to employ ‘a certain amount [sic] of CCP registered employees’ to ‘make sure businesses follow the guiding ideology “Guided by Xi Jinping’s Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” is a sure-fire way to increase foreign investment and move the country forward!
The cadres/spies ‘will also guide private business people’ and ‘communication channels will be set up between private business and the party to report back on progress and other matters.’ Oh gawd.
The paranoia of these insecure and petty freaks is almost unbelievable. It actually makes me sick to my stomach.
And Jason Wan is “promoted” to an administrative post in 3…2…1…
Or simply fired.
Comrade Dotard has picked up a few pointers from His Magnificence Coremeister Xi…
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/516941-trump-announces-commission-to-further-patriotic-education?fbclid=IwAR1iF5qX7YvGIlqzT_yQv1P5NlN7XibHUueJ4bkDTIj0M7XneoZ4LaDw738
Hibernian – The cadres/spies ‘will also guide private business people’ in order to ensure that the bribes flow smoothly and efficiently to the proper people in charge.
An argument I’ve heard regarding the current trade dispute was that many American company executives based in China couldn’t give a damn what Trump imposes because most of their market is in China anyway. But the prospect of their JVs and enterprises they’ve built being riddled with CCP is not going to look good back in the US of A. (Do I hear a decoupling clinking back there?)
It is clear that the DOJ is now firmly under the control of the Liaison Office or some other PRC entity and has no autonomy where it comes to protest related prosecutions.
The bringing of hopeless protest related cases where there is video evidence to show the Police are liars, the appeal against Jimmy Lai’s acquittal and other so called “lenient” sentences, The failure to lift a finger against police and other pro-Beijing individuals clearly guilty of crimes against protestors, the stopping of private prosecutions, the resignation of the DPP on the basis he is being completely bypassed, and the mouth frothing nonsense issued in the name of our puppet Secretary for Justice are all signs of this.
This control may be creeping into even run of the mill business. The decision not to prosecute those men who through animals off a roof has rightly been condemned, and it’s an odd one. I wonder whether the reason it’s not been done is because there was nobody to do the work as everyone at the DOJ is tied up persecuting protestors and the Democratic camp.
Dark days, and it’s going to get worse.
By the way, watch out for Benjamin Yu SC or some other heavyweight silk get wheeled out for the Lai appeal. They will do it properly this time.
Could it be that the echo chamber’s gold-card members are now getting bored? It reminds me of Roger Waters in The Wall performances (1980 and 1981) – “Come on, let’s all have a clap”.
On Friday evening, the Mainland and Constitutional Affairs Bureau said holding by-elections would involve large numbers of voters casting ballots on the same day, which would create a “very high risk” of coronavirus infection.
Has anyone in the MCAB hierarchy ever been on the MTR?
I’m beginning to think that this administration woulld have severe difficulty finding a brewery in which to fail to organise a piss-up
“It reminds me of Roger Waters in The Wall performances (1980 and 1981)”
What is he drivelling on about now?
Penny
Yes. I thought that.
Clearly #4 finds, or claims to find, something in something which “reminds” him of something else.
The fact that nobody else would, in a month of Sundays, get the analogy renders it, of course, entirely pointless.
This sort of thing tends to characterise narcissistic personalities who, essentially due to friendlessness, spend quite a lot of time talking to themselves.
The South China Sea 12
Does SS Lee ever listen to/understand what he actually says?
Speaking in a televised interview on Saturday, Lee said each of the suspects picked two lawyers from a list provided by officials
Wonderful article by S Pepper, with every word carefully measured, on https://hongkongfp.com/2020/09/19/back-to-the-beginning-is-there-still-space-in-hong-kong-for-a-moderate-middle-way/.
Basically, all attempts at moderation/middle way/compromise, when dealing with Peking’s intransigeance and authoritarianism, have failed; and HK seems to have little hope of political salvation.
Jet Plane
It has been standard HK police practice since before 1997 to provide arrested people with a list of solicitors.
Another depressing read for the weekend on the winnowing of our unis via the stealthy elimination of staff holding ‘undesirable’ points of view.
https://www.hkcnews.com/article/33931/%E8%91%89%E8%94%AD%E8%81%B0-%E5%B6%BA%E5%8D%97%E5%A4%A7%E5%AD%B8-33931/%E3%80%90%E5%A4%A7%E5%AD%B8%E6%B4%97%E5%A4%AA%E5%B9%B3%E5%9C%B0%E3%80%91%E8%91%89%E8%94%AD%E8%81%B0%EF%BC%9A%E6%9B%B4%E5%A4%9A%E6%AF%94%E6%88%91%E4%BD%8E%E8%AA%BF%E7%9A%84%E8%A2%AB%E8%B8%A2%E8%B5%B0-%E6%96%99%E5%AD%B8%E8%80%85%E6%97%A5%E5%BE%8C%E8%BD%89%E4%BD%8E%E8%AA%BF?fbclid=IwAR1YxDySzZ-WWQm5qIKKov97GZjkmw7GOYMY9hQUKu3zm7u0_KeZulzVBls
English translation posted to Hong Kong Columns Translated.
Dimuendo
Not quite the same as a list provided by mainland authorities though.
The stupity burns;
A veteran educator has recommended Hong Kong students walk to school when physical classes resume this week if the journey takes less than 45 minutes as a way to avoid crowded public transport during the coronavirus pandemic.
I know of a young person who lives in Tung Chung but goes to school in Sai Ying Pun. According to the MTR journey planner the journey time is ~42 minutes..
James Lam, former chairman of the Subsidised Secondary Schools Council, please explain how it is even possible. OK an extreme case, but a 45min public transport journey translates to several hours walking.
@jet plane: pretty sure they meant less than a 45 minute WALK.
Re walking to school. This is Hong Kong, most of the schools are located in Kowloon Tong despite the fact that this is a low rise district with a limited population!
Instead of ensuring that pupils, particularly younger children, can attend a school within walking distance of their homes, our Education Bureau has long supported the commercialization of education to bolster property developers boasts that their latest overpriced dog kennel development is close to ‘good schools’.
The result is hundreds of school buses clogging up the roads and enjoying exemption from the idling engine regulations.