If you’re a police force that appears to have colluded with gangsters in violent attacks on members of the public – and you were bitter and angry about the widespread perception that you had – what could you do? For the Hong Kong Police, the obvious answer is arrest a journalist who uncovered significant evidence of the collusion on suspicion of a trivial and normally overlooked technicality. If anyone had any doubts about the cops being in cahoots with the thugs, they don’t now. It is also clearer than ever that the HKP are vindictive (let alone institutionally narcissistic and delusional about their own image).
RTHK producer Choi Yuk-ling allegedly applied for details of vehicle ownership (which is essentially public information) for a reason other than the vehicle/transport-specific ones specified on the Transport Dept’s website. (Details here.) Like many investigative journalists, she did this in the course of her work. In her case, making the documentary 7.21 – Who Owns the Truth? (English subtitles), which spells out the collusion and subsequent cover-up. If you haven’t seen it, the HK Police now direct your attention to it.
Inevitably, hundreds of commentators deplore the arrest as a threat to freedom of the press. This is like expressing shock and outrage, after witnessing a vicious tiger attack, that the creature had stripes. The HKP today is an arm of the CCP – of course it aims to curb freedom of the press.
But it’s not personal! The wrathful CCP can also wreak vengeance (or ‘snag’, per SCMP) on non-state-owned fintech giants just about to be listed in the biggest IPO in history – as Jack Ma’s Ant finds out. This is murky, but it’s possible to see parallels with the Choi arrest. Panic, over-reaction, complete blindness to reputation, Hong Kong officials strutting around pretending to be on a par with London and New York left looking like idiots.
Re Ant Group “snag’
Maybe someone in charge has read the report you posted a link to a couple of days ago regarding the discrepancies in the accounts.
The amazing angle to the Ant withdrawal is that the IPO was not only allowed in the first place but was accelerated when it is clear that China could not tolerate loss of control over the movement of cash. Smacks of a behind the scenes power struggle.
Why was Jack Ma called in for a cup of tea when he claimed to have stepped down to concentrate on philanthropy and had handed over management to others?
@where’s my mask
Yeah, or at least, that link from a couple days ago would explain why Ant is not particularly intereted in listing on US exchanges, given the additional scrutiny their books would face if trying to do so.
Handed over management to children of current CCP leaders? Probably.
Thanks for the heads up on the 721 doco. Shall be watching shortly!
@ Hamantha
Ant’s reluctance to list in the US is mostly due to the US’s current avowed policy of insisting (in the very near future) that all Chinese firms listed in the US show all their accounts, like all the other firms listed in the US.
This brings them into conflict with the CCP, whose corrupt officials treat all Chinese company accounts as state secrets, because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to completely make up GDP and other economic metrics, or run said companies corruptly, syphoning off cash to themselves and their families.
This is why Alibaba et al will soon have to delist from the NYSE and the NASDAQ, and why they chose the CCP controlled bourses in HK and Shanghai for Ant’s I “P” O.
There is also a New York Times video of 21 July 2019 incident of collusion of HK’s uniformed thugs with Yuen Long triads here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDtM3dEJdHo
Share it with all your friends so they know how low HK’s not-so finest have sunk.
Correction!
There is also a New York Times video of 21 July 2019 incident of collusion of HK’s uniformed thugs with Yuen Long triads here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDtM3dEJdHo
Share it with all your friends so they know how low Asia’s not-so finest have sunk.
More from NYT on the Yuen Long triads/HK’s uniformed thugs collusion here:
https://twitter.com/mbrookerhk/status/1323844806754271233
Never forget Yuen Long 721