Just yesterday afternoon, I was having a pee-pee in my apartment’s modestly sized but perfectly formed bathroom, and for some reason I asked myself, ‘Whatever happened to that PR company the Hong Kong government hired after much effort last year?’ Maybe I hadn’t been checking ProvokeMedia.com, or the guy who writes their Hong Kong reports had left, or Consulum’s grand relaunch project was still in the works – or maybe there was some other, perhaps juicier, explanation.
And voila! Hours later, all is made clear. The PR company – one that could stomach the Saudi account – has scurried off. It seems they did some ‘baseline research’ (love to see the executive summary) and maybe cobbled together a plan for some propaganda-ish ads, encouraging the bureaucrats to…
…run a business confidence campaign overseas later this year that will pave the way for a ‘Relaunch’ campaign tentatively next year.
We might guess that the company, watching in mounting horror as the CCP officials behind Hong Kong’s NatSec regime determinedly drove the city into a bigger and bigger reputational ditch, decided – not very tentatively – to grab what they could of the US$6.3 million and run.
Which is exactly what – as I finished my pee-pee – I had surmised. Cue slight deep, warm feeling of glee. (Hint to Information Services Dept managers still adjusting to the new way of doing things: when you relaunch the ‘Relaunch’, slap an extra zero on the budget and don’t quibble about the exact terms/deadlines of deliverables. Works for the other dictatorships.)
Meanwhile, some updates for any PR firm thinking of pitching…
The NatSec regime comes for Falun Gong. Not sure what took them so long to go after this virulently anti-CCP but nonetheless wacky and grubby quasi-Buddhist sect – presumably it doesn’t touch Hongkongers’ lives the way RTHK, pan-dems, Apple Daily, the legal system, etc do.
The FLG idea comes from a legislator trying to ingratiate herself with the regime. Not to be outdone, a colleague of hers comes up with this.
The Bar Association objects to the government giving Justice Dept people ‘Big Macho Senior Counsel’ badges. Nothing they can do about it, of course – what better win-win than to devalue an independent institution’s symbol of integrity while tossing a cost-free reward at your shallower quisling staff?
The HK Police Anti-Flower Division deploy dozens of men outside Sogo as part of Operation Everything is Normal.
Hemlock, in HK it’s called wee-wee, not pee-pee. You should get out more. When I first heard that Columbarium was the designated PR company and that they had hired -of all people- mythical Lan Kwai Fong drunk Eamonn Fitzpatrick (son of an Oirish HK cop) I knew it was going to be a magnificent success. And I was right, again.
You may also have noticed that the Falun Gong have vanished from the corner of Great George Street, but so has the opposite DAB-supported “Family Values Something Association”. Good riddance to both.
The police farce know that they will be standing there for months/years, day in night out, increasing HK’s perception as a police state because they went over the top in their response once again. The second that they leave and pull out the goons, I’d wager a torrent of flowers will be dropped, then they’ll have to stand there again for the next months/year day in night out. Amorous couples walking through the busy commercial heart of HK between restaurants and shopping may even inadvertently pass by with a token of love bouquet or just hurl the flowers on the floor if the date has gone wrong! Asia’s dumbest would probably beat themselves up at the confusion. They are simply stupid, nothing more and mirror their unelected dunderheads.
Just install a permanent CCP homage display in the atrium of HSBC and be done with it. I’m sure the bank management would lose their loads in their trousers at the opportunity to make things right with the regime.
Awful article on SCMP about “Is Hong Kong turning into a breeding ground for terrorism?”. Its conclusion merely shovels quotes from the Security minister and police force. Seems like the paper has finally dropped any lingering pretense of journalistic analysis.
The pro-Beijing toadies proposing the CCP Museum should be careful in calling for a “comprehensive” understanding of party history. A truly comprehensive account would have to include the Great Leap Backward, the Cultural Revolution, and the Tiananmen massacre – and probably land them in trouble under the NSL.
The museum I would like to see is a Museum of Cantonese Culture, while it still exists, but that would probably have to be in London or Vancouver these days.
@Low: We know nothing can be truly comprehensive in HK anymore when it has to do with the ruling regime so let’s not pretend it can even be remotely possible.
Add San Francisco to London & Hongcouver. A place where even a locally born and bred “American” speaks shite “Murican”, no Mandarin and only the most localised dialect of Canto!
@Mjrelje
The squad standing outside Sogo arresting people for possession of flowers and vegetables and the fella who ordered them to do so should really be locked up for the heinous crime of inciting others to attack officers.
They should also nab the idiots who run the plod’s twitter account for posting anti-police messages on social media.
So MTR was asleep at the wheel, again. The incongruously named Pavilia FARM is a joint development with New World so surely MTR in the wake of revelations about shoddy construction work at Hung Hom should have been closely monitoring proceedings.
But hey, no skin off its nose, the millions it will have to forfeit will be easily recouped when the government gives it development rights on another prime site. And there will be no pesky legislators or councilors left in office to raise questions about accountability.