Police charge four ex-Apple Daily staff – three of whom had already been arrested – with ‘conspiracy to collude with foreign forces’. Their alleged sin seems to have been writing or publishing articles calling for foreign sanctions against Hong Kong and Mainland officials. The government insists that criminalizing opinions is fine. And there’s still vague anti-doxxing and fake news laws to come. (Will it be ‘fake news’ to call lawmaker Elizabeth Quat ‘doctor’?)
For more on the impact of Apple Daily’s demise – plus a bold comparison of the Hong Kong press to defenders against Japanese troops in the Battle of Shanghai – see this interview with HKJA chair Ronson Chan.
Did the authorities deliberately choose the Yuen Long anniversary to bring these charges? If it was a Dept of Justice decision, it’s probably a coincidence. If the cops made the decision, it’s easy to believe they imagined it might ‘divert attention’. If it was Beijing officials, it’s plain spiteful malice. Bear in mind that Beijing’s people are running everything behind the scenes – and have an eye for vindictive detail.
More on Yuen Long: some MTR-themed protest artwork; and a great account of how the official line on the attack shifted in the last two years from initial shocked apologies to denials and falsehoods.
Judging by how the legal system “should” operate, wouldn’t it have been the cops? Don’t the cops have to go to Justice and make their case and then they are issued the warrant for the arrest?
I seem to recall that the cops, in past cases, have gone to Justice several times to get legal opinions, but this seems an utter ruse to me. It seems very clear that if anything can be drummed up that even remotely resembles national security legal concerns, the Justice Department will sign on for it, because the whole point now is to: a. not look bad in front of big brother and b. figure out what the actual application of the law is.
You will remember, that for many months during the protests I kept saying that there would never been any military conflict or encroachment of PLA soldiers onto the streets to kill the wanton radicals. The whole point of legal co-opting of the current system is to send a signal to the US and to the rest of the world, and the thinking goes like this:
1. State stability is paramount, ALL AROUND THE WORLD
2. China will first take care of its own and reduce and eliminate any system that has any remnant of democracy or non-state unity
3. Then, having established our own territory and made it integral to China and its ethos, we will do away with other systems in the world by proxy and also by colonization (India, Pakistan, the Himalaya)
They are coming for your democracy, everywhere. They think that democracy is anathema to stability and they believe that anything that is not controlled by the state is a pillaging and looting of human decency, a decency that they proscribe.
Good luck. This ends in conflict. There is no other way. They have focused on this for fifty to sixty years. They are like the underground aliens in War of the Worlds, which itself was a metaphor for the Red Threat during the Cold War. They have mastered this art.
By having such a large show of force at YL station, the popo are essentially admitting their shameful role in the collusion with criminal (i.e. “pro government”) elements. No matter how much lipstick you put on that pig and whitewash, the memory lives on and festers in the population.
@donkey: ‘This ends in conflict. There is no other way.’
Totally agree, and all those folks who think that the monster can be tamed by economic sleight of hand, economic engagement, co-operation on climate change, joint diplomatic initiatives or any other ‘peaceful’ means, are delusional. Every attempt to engage peacefully with the monster is mere appeasement that plays into the monster’s talons.
No rational person wants the conflict especially since the monster has nukes but the monster’s behaviour determines that there is no other way to deal with it.
Beyond belief:
<b.Seditious sheep books don't show reality: police
SS Steve Li in a world of his own.
Next on the NIL action list: raids on anyone suspected of harbouring images of Winnie the Pooh.
Baa baa Black Wolf
Have you any sheep?
Yes Sir, No Sir
Three jails full
@WMJP – you’ll make Knownot jealous with such eloquent verse!
@donkey
“They are like the underground aliens in War of the Worlds, which itself was a metaphor for the Red Threat during the Cold War. ”
War of the Worlds was published in 1898 though before there was a Cold War, but you’re right about the similarities, though they are a coincidence.
“No matter how much lipstick you put on that pig and whitewash, the memory lives on and festers in the population.”
Indeed. It’s essentially a mini Tiananmen Square and people won’t forgive nor forget.
“No rational person wants the conflict especially since the monster has nukes but the monster’s behaviour determines that there is no other way to deal with it.”
How do you deal with such a psychopathic monster without having them go “Fuck it, if we can’t rule then nobody will” and nuke the world?
Shaun will be the new cultural icon
@mark The radio programme that Orson Welles narrated was done in the Cold War, if I am not mistaken. I am not talking about the book.
@ donkey
The radio broadcast was 30 Oct0ber 1938 – just a bit before the Hot War that came before the Cold War.