Pan-dems just can’t please Beijing

Beijing is peeved about pan-dem lawmakers’ mass resignation. The CCP wants to kick them in the teeth repeatedly, but has a panty-wetting tantrum when they move out of teeth-kicking range – a challenge to the Central Government, apparently.

Beijing and the local puppets might actually miss the pan-dems. With no-one delaying business in the legislature through paper-throwing, quorum counts and filibusters, who will be to blame from now on for ‘holding up essential government work’? Unless, of course, the executive branch starts to deliver on housing, health care, schools, etc – in which case everyone will warmly welcome the barring of democratically elected members.

Questions on many minds: What is the purpose now of LegCo? And what is the purpose of the Basic Law? Or of the Hong Kong legal system as a whole? The last question is not overblown – the logic of the NPC disqualification edict is headache-inducing (for example, the government itself kept the four in LegCo by postponing the election, but now even wants to reclaim their salaries). The Bar Association bashes out a quick critique.

Another teacher is de-registered for what RTHK calls ‘dodgy history lessons’. Alleged examples: ancient Chinese invented paper to save tortoises (of oracle bones fame) from extinction, and the Brits launched the Opium Wars to save China from drugs. This would be brilliant stand-up. He or she is utterly wasted teaching kids. What about teaching that no-one died of hunger, disease and cannibalism during Mao’s Great Leap Forward? Would that count as ‘dodgy’? 

It could be that the CCP is now ordering the Education Bureau to find teachers to bar – maybe they have a quota to fill. Schools are resisting, with principals complaining about informers snitching on teachers.

(Speaking of which, fun ideas from the US on how to use a snitch hotline.)

Some links…

HKFP has a lot of explaining to do: how LegCo became a rubber stamp, and how the government is doing the same to RTHK

In a similar spirit, Wired examines Hong Kong as a case study in the death of democracy.

The BBC on Hong Kong news-stands as allegory for declining press freedom. Did you know the SCMP started up Hong Kong’s streetside newspaper stalls as part of its mission to topple the Chinese regime? Does the CCP know?

Slumming it, part 1: The NY Post on the evils of the WHO

It’s been clear from the pandemic’s start that China staged a shameful coverup that cost lives across the world. Now, newly uncovered details show that the World Health Organization didn’t just kowtow to the Communists — the UN agency actively helped Beijing whitewash its deadly deeds.

Slumming it, part 2: Gordon Chang – the pundit who has predicted the coming collapse of the CCP system for close to 20 years – on Beijing’s might-is-right view of the world.

Slumming it, part 3: National Interest enticingly wonders whether Beijing’s man-made islands in the South China Sea are crumbling away like other tofu projects.

From the Interpreter, a review of Thomas Orlik’s book China: The Bubble that Never Pops.

Netizens find ways to overcome the WHO Facebook page’s censorship of references to Taiwan and Winnie the Pooh.

Al Jazeera on the decline of the Kuomintang, which ‘by its own admission has less than 9,000 party members under 40.’ An academic says…

“They’ve been in Taiwan for 70 years. They could rename the party the ‘Taiwanese Nationalist Party’ or do other symbolic things to indicate they are really first and foremost for standing up for the Taiwanese.”

This has been the year of Taiwanese soft power – Ketagalan Media asks how to monetize it, starting with up-market coffee.

And everything you wanted to know about Pocky

The original version of Pocky was totally coated in chocolate, but that caused a problem since the thin chocolate coating melted easily in the hand. The inspiration for the exposed bit of the pretzel stick underneath is said to have come from an Osaka specialty, kushikatsu – breaded deep-fried bite-sized morsels of meat, shrimp and vegetables on skewers.

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8 Responses to Pan-dems just can’t please Beijing

  1. Chinese Netizen says:

    “Unless, of course, the executive branch starts to deliver on housing, health care, schools, etc – in which case everyone will warmly welcome the barring of democratically elected members.”

    What are the odds of THAT happening?? CCP should also consider halving legislative salaries now that there’s no opposition.

  2. Chinese Netizen says:

    “What is the purpose now of LegCo? And what is the purpose of the Basic Law? Or of the Hong Kong legal system as a whole?”

    Indeed…what is the purpose of a CE when you can have the Party Secretary call the shots?

  3. Big Al says:

    And right before our eyes, the small, sleepy fishing village on the bank of the Pearl River that became Hong Kong – the mighty Pearl of Orient – transformed once again into Xianggang, just another large Chinese city. The hopes and democratic dreams of its citizens resolutely crushed by the direct rule of the CCP and and policed by the People’s Armed Police, wearing the uniforms of what were once Asia’s Finest.
    I believe it’s time to change the tagline of this website, Mr Hemlock, as the sun has finally set and we are heading into a long, dark night.

  4. Donny Almond says:

    We all knew this was going to happen circa 2047. Maybe this is the moment that Hong Kong reverts to its real-life role of the Blade Runner town, where all the action takes place at the end of narrow alleys, under the cover of darkness. Who knows what is taking place behind those closed, rusty gates, behind those curtains where Oriental beauties with bedroom-eyes take slow, deep breaths from their lit Marlboro cigarettes and asked if you want to be loved long time.

  5. Hong Kong Hibernian says:

    The BBC piece, “Hong Kong’s dying news stands tell a story of change”, was interesting albeit a bit sad.

    IMHO, the de-registering of the idiot ‘history’ teacher was an obvious psy-op. The level of stupidity, (though hilarious as Hemlock notes), is guaranteed to make most HKers nod their head in agreement with the EDB’s decision, smoothing the way for a general purge. “They’re watching out for our kids”, etc.

  6. where's my jet plane says:

    As with Tiannamen up north, any child under the age of x+5 years since either Occupy or the 2019 ELAB protests will know nothing about them.

  7. Mary Melville says:

    So the priorities of the RS legislature are to tackle the health and livelihood issues that plague the community? So the first bill passed in record time and with ‘overwhelming majority’ was financial support for the unemployed, soup kitchens for the needy, better equipment for hospitals?
    Don’t be silly, this is the FC heavy, pro-business, don’t need the pleb votes at the moment coterie.
    It was the Road Traffic Legislation (Parking Spaces) (Amendment) Bill that in essence means tax payers fork out hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for new smart parking meters that will allow the triads to cut down on the number of punks on the streets ‘managing’ the meters. Going forward one boss sitting in a bar with a few mobiles can ‘manage’ all the meters in his ‘hood. The new meters can be topped up remotely.
    As the discussion took only 3 hours, and some of that was Frankie Yick whining about the shortage of parking spaces – strangely never heard the Liberal Party object to the demolition of key parking facilities like Middle Road in TST and Murray Road in Central when the administration wanted to sell sites to, in these two cases the same, developer – clearly there was no discussion as to what bang the tax payers will get for their bucks as the parking meter charges are absurdly low. And what systems will be in place to prevent abuse or meter-sitting by the driver who gets there first, or, this is Hong Kong, sends his domestic helper to bag the slot for the day.
    Of course keeping the constituents happy is the focus.

  8. Ho Ma Fan says:

    @Mary Melville to be fair, minutiae like car parking space amendments are exactly the kind of thing that our new, more representative, Legco will vigorously pursue now. One; to prove that they can be quickly effective so that it was clearly those troublesome pan dems to blame for the lack of progress all along, and two; a tacit acknowledgment that this is the level of genuine control our very well remunerated parliamentarians actually have in this new era. Next bill likely to resolutely decide the colour of the urinal bleach blocks in all LCSD facilities.

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