Massively Overwrought Panty-Wetting of the Day Award goes to the Hong Kong government’s press release strongly deploring and objecting to a senior UK government official’s meeting with political refugee Nathan Law. The statement includes special-bonus no-extra-charge mouth-frothing about the presence of a Hong Kong flag next to the British one at the gathering’s photo-op.
Regina Ip spots the diplomatic-vexillological outrage and patriotically leaps into action on Twitter, accusing Home Secretary Priti Patel of insulting China. (Worth it for the warm and constructive replies from her fellow Twitter users.)
Was this clear breach of protocol just a screw-up, or are the Brits learning Beijing-style trolling? The event was convened by a candidate for London mayor, and seems to have taken place in the Houses of Parliament, so was not as official as it might seem. Still, the pic has unmistakable government-in-exile vibes…
…and as long as we get a nice Panda-Tantrum out of it – that’s the main thing.
More on Regina below – but first, you have to go through the recommended reading for the weekend…
An HKFP column considers Joshua Wong’s treatment at the remand centre – X-rays and solitary confinement.
While we’re on the subject, Kafka gets a name-check in Antony Dapiran’s review of Aftershock: Essays From Hong Kong.
The Diplomat looks forward to 2022 and the 20th CCP Congress. Either Xi stays for a third term as CCP General Secretary and Emperor-for-Life, or the elite are sick enough of him that they kick him out. Interesting look at various scenarios.
China Digital Times on how Chinese pharma companies’ past corruption is affecting the rollout of Covid vaccines.
Thought Switzerland was a sensible, conservative, cautious sort of place? The Guardian on how the government there gives Chinese security goons the run of the country, and even pays their airfares and hotel accommodation. And probably chucks in some free cuckoo clocks and chocolate as well.
American Prospect offers a War and Peace-length saga of how US companies sold out to China for decades.
…this isn’t actually the story of China incentivizing U.S. companies into helping improve their missiles. That’s nothing. This is the story of how, 25 years later, in the midst of a global pandemic, America woke up and realized that it is completely dependent on Chinese manufacturing for everything.
From Reuters, a special report on Beijing’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan.
Nine Dash Line urges everyone to stop seeing Taiwan as a thorny China-related problem, and more as a – well, a country…
…the more the Communist Party of China articulates an exclusionary Chinese identity, the more eager the Taiwanese are to distance themselves from the label and Taiwanese politicians invoking it.
Some critical observers warn that Taipei will inevitably have to deal with the unyielding demands of Chinese nationalism. But that is not the only reality that has to be faced. Beijing must also face the reality of the Taiwanese nation.
And for the pervs out there, a thread of rather fetching Regina Ip photos, including one of her carrying buckets of fish (or maybe copies of Xi Jinping’s book) on a yoke at a wet market, and another of her smiling serenely while having a post-natal massage (or something) – and of course those renowned legs.
The Problem of Cockroaches
I
Clean every cranny, every nook,
Where you eat and where you cook,
And – important in this matter –
Where you empty bowels and bladder.
Find a good effective spray.
Use it every other day:
It will keep its killing powers
Forty, even fifty hours.
Search all places where maybe
Cunning pests will hide or flee.
Spray the surface thoroughly.
Then you’ll have a home that’s free
Of cockroaches.
II
Find a blog, some posts, a tweet
Perhaps a little indiscreet.
That will be enough to beat
The cockroaches.
Search twelve months or even more,
Remember those you nabbed before.
Released, no charge, the first time round;
No doubt something can be found.
Find a personal bank account,
Preferably with a large amount;
When your pest has been well chosen
Tell the bank his money’s frozen.
Scour the teeming internet.
Soon enough your search will get
Dubious words of interest
Leading to a dawn arrest.
Find a judge or magistrate
Willing to co-operate.
Soon you will eradicate
The cockroaches.
I read the responses to Mrs. Ip’s “tweet” with interest.
It occurs to me that the respondent, “Magnetic Robot” might be none other than our old chum, Arsehole #4.
Spooky.
@knownot – A fine piece of work today sir.
@ Red Dragon – Naah, that Magnetic slime would be just another tankie, or a rectum of the #4 rectum who crops up here
Wasn’t Nathan Law a democratically elected Politician, unlike Carrie Lam, and perhaps the inclusion of the HKSAR flag appropriate ?
If Jimmy Lai gets imprisoned for a lengthy time under NIL, it will signal the start of major guerilla warfare in the Greater Bay Area.
@Quentin Quarantino: “If Jimmy Lai gets imprisoned for a lengthy time under NIL, it will signal the start of major guerilla warfare in the Greater Bay Area.”
What twaddle. You really do need to throw away that DVD of yours of First Blood. It’s addled your bonce.
Will anyone ever live long enough for the full course?
Advance agreement will see Sinovac and partners BioNTech and Pfizer provide 7.5 million jabs each for city residents (SCMP)
The effect of one misplaced word…
If Carrie Lam is not for doing another five years as CE, then the latest pitch from Regina Ip could see her being offered the job: https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3113519/whats-so-wrong-china-defending-hong-kong-and-national-security
Critically, the small possibility that this could happen should get a fair few of “you lot” choking on your cornflakes/congee (which is always good). Merry Christmas.
Vagina Ip was banned by Twitter today (Sunday).