How many cops does it take to unroll plastic barrier tape in Hong Kong’s attempt to beat the World 100-metres Barrier Tape Frantic Unravelling record? Count them.
Note the Deputy Sub-Assistant Lockdown Ambush Commander sprinting into the sunset with the tape. His mission: to ensure no residents spot what’s happening and flee Kam Ping Street with seconds to spare. He is clearly massively chuffed – after much pleading with his boss – to have been picked for the job. His mother must be so proud. (Similar video of the cops in action here.)
Links for the weekend…
Hong Kong’s greatest living ‘innovation and governance architect’ says cycling is inconsiderate. (Selfish space-wasters on bikes do leave a mess on your Alphard when you drive into them, don’t they?)
An academic thinks Macau might not renew US casino operators’ licences when they expire next year. Obviously, it would be another way to hit back at the US right now. But Beijing has long been unhappy that foreigners were making so much profit from Mainland gamblers. And it would mirror the earlier pattern in other (infinitely less scummy) industries where overseas investors gained access to China’s market until Mainland companies acquired the expertise to do it themselves.
In Atlantic, Timothy McClaughlin looks at the arrest of activist Tam Tak-chi for sedition and sees Hong Kong going back to being a colony.
What the Hong Kong government has lacked in creativity with regard to addressing the protest movement, it has made up for in finding ways to punish those involved.
(In fairness to the CCP, the Mainland under one-party rule is arguably a colony, too.)
The US State Dept offers writers of press releases a superb lesson in causing maximum offense to the right people with the smallest number of paragraphs and words: PRC pressure on Taiwan threatens regional peace.
China Media Project on how CCP theoretical organ Seeking Truth has become Xi Monthly over the last few years.
John Pomfret in Atlantic on what Xi Jinping is doing when he clamps down on private business
Why is he messing with this golden goose? In a word, control.
National Interest compares (in a fairly non-wacky way) Xi’s China with Nazi Germany and the USSR.
Jeffrey Wasserstrom’s very readable preface for the Thai edition of his book on the Hong Kong protest movement.
Lowy Interpreter on the wolf-warriors’ own goals, with reference to the Big Kimchi War…
…unnecessary, transitory chest-thumping over fermented cabbage.
Great thread on an arrogant-going-on-delusional Xi-inspired war-mongering piece in the SCMP (link included) by Zhou Bo…
Col. Zhou concludes by saying “Biden… can save China-US relations from going into free fall.” Hope springs eternal because otherwise, you are getting into a fight too early and therefore, likely to lose.
A good basic post-pandemic economic outlook for China by George Magnus.
Magnus Fiskesjo in LARB on Racism with Chinese Characteristics.
A Western artist sneaks subversive work into a Beijing exhibition.
Did Covid-19 leak from a lab? A long deep look from New York magazine.
A review of Trade Wars are Class Wars by Klein and Pettis.
On off-topic out-of-area matters…
An extract from American Kompromat, a book on Russian influence over Donald Trump.
A digital game designer’s view of QAnon – a game that plays the players.
Hilarity of the week has been Reddit-based kids forcing hedge funds betting against GameStop into a ruinous short squeeze. David Webb explains why other, later-arriving short-sellers will, inevitably, ultimately win.
For your viewing pleasure: a hyper-in-depth analysis of Max Headroom (amazing VJ-concept wrecked by idiotic backstories. For hardcore 80s pop-culture/media geeks only).
Xi Jinping reminds me of Hitler or Stalin, who both tried to outsmart each other, but ended up spiralling into a cycle of paranoia and missteps that led to the destructions of their own countries and control. Only, in Xi’s case, he’s paranoid about his own people, and the world, and anything that isn’t Xi. It will not end well for China, no matter what some pro-authoritarian anti-democracy blowhards think.
Surely these cocky PLA officers DO realize there are more than a couple nuclear subs well within submarine launched ballistic missile range of all major Chinese cities of importance? And these are the fast attack types…not even the “Boomers” that carry the ICBMs.
This is turning out to be a pretty good read… https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/01/28/china-foreign-policy-long-telegram-anonymous-463120
@Chinese Netizen
Thank you for the Politico link. It is an excellent article.
Another supremely irrelevant announcement from the puppet-master and his puppets:
the SAR government had also stated that BNO would no longer serve as a travel document
So what? Who would use a BNO passport in HK – or even have to admit to having one? A permanent resident leaves HK using his/her ID card without showing a passport (unless, of course, that is next on the agenda). Once safely out of the clutches, it’s recognition of the document by the British government that matters.
One potential snag, though, is if the administration compels foreign airlines not to accept BNO passports as proof of identity at check-in (CPA would, no doubt, knuckle under). The answer though is simple – 2 passports.
China would love to cancel the HK passports of BNO traitors who prefer to live in evil foreigner-land. But that would make them stateless, morally obliging the UK to give them full passports forthwith — which is why neither side mentions it, the democrats hoping the commie bandits won’t realise and the commies unwilling to highlight their impotence.
US State Department should (along with Canada, Oz, and UK) just publish a list of all CCP top tier officials and families holding American passports and/green cards as well as HK “heavyweights”.
Should make for fun, resolute reading at home and abroad.
Low hanging fruit to pick: cease recognition of the so-called “Hong Kong SAR Passport”. I bet many patriots have one or more of these (a certain individual now in Canada against her own volition traveled with 7, apparently all valid). Being forced to use the motherland one suddenly would became more inconvenient especially for those using them to enter the countries where the banks holding their assets are located.
I would extend on Chinese Netizen proposal by requiring these relatives to state if they want to be considered mainland or US/UK/Oz/CAN citizens. You can find surely some funny situations conducive to a deportation back home, including a general confiscation of assets (certain relatives of a high ranking HK patriot in Perth comes to mind immediatley). As for Ip and Cheng, i bet their freewheeling days traveling all around Europe and UK respectively are coming to a fast end. How about a relaxing trip in a massage parlour in Lowu instead?
@Chinese Netizen: Great suggestion!
@FeiLo: More than one person has already thought — and is worrying — about the doing away with Hong Kong SAR Passports. Which, of course, makes them want to acquire another passport, and/or leave all the more before it’s too late to do so.