HKFP editor on how the outlet tried to maintain neutrality when covering the quasi-election. One key measure is to add explanatory detail to the official phrasing to ensure readers understand that, for example, the ‘election’ is in fact one in which many would-be candidates are barred from participating.
By contrast, the SCMP largely presents the new LegCo at official face value, even suggesting that the chamber will contain exciting!!! competing factions. In reality, proceedings – like the selection of the body’s membership – will be stage-managed.
A Beijing loyalist commentator confirms that the all-patriots rubber-stamp LegCo will be mind-numbingly boring…
In an article published in China Daily the day after the elections, Lau Siu-kai said the revamped Legco means it will no longer “degenerate into a den of anti-China, anti-communist and secessionist politicians”, and “agents or proxies” of “adversarial external forces” will be shut out.
LegCo never had much power anyway. Hong Kong’s courts, on the other hand, were genuinely independent before the NatSec regime came along. A law professor laments the Court of Final Appeal’s latest retreat…
…some had hoped that the CFA might have a mediating effect on the Hong Kong government’s aggressive implementation of the NSL. Instead, this ruling suggests that CFA judges may in fact follow the lead of their lower court counterparts, who have generally issued a steady stream of government-friendly verdicts.
…The CFA’s ruling is an important one. Instead of seeking to curb the impact of the NSL on Hong Kong’s legal system, the CFA has expanded its influence, creating a clear pathway for further intrusions by the NSL into other areas of Hong Kong law.
There are cases coming that will test the courts’ willingness to take a stand where charges make little sense. People who participated in a primary election with a view to winning enough seats in LegCo to force the Chief Executive to stand down, in line with Basic Law provisions, will be tried for ‘conspiracy of subversion’. Those who reposted Facebook posts calling for spoiled ballots will be tried for ‘inciting’ others to do something that is not illegal.
Judges could take a stand and kick out such charges as baseless. Or they might accept the government’s case without question. (Or such trials could be preceded by an NPC ‘interpretation’ declaring a specific new meaning to the relevant passage in the Basic Law, to which the courts will defer automatically.)
What was truly amazing on this morning’s RTHK “news” was the wild enthusiasm with which officials and “elected” members alike greeted and put a spin on the dismal turnout and dreary make-up of our shiny new LegCo, which is apparently – with not a single non-Chinese, let alone LBGTQ+ member – the most diverse and representative the city has ever had. What’s the betting that next time round they’ll dig out a member of some token ethnic minority who can turn up in her headwear.
“What’s the betting that next time round they’ll dig out a member of some token ethnic minority who can turn up in her headwear.”
I’m betting on Nury!
Wonder what dirt the CCP have on Nury. Maybe he’s been playing away from home.
The factions may yet compete. When there’s no more opposition to blame for when things go wrong, the factions can turn on each other like they do in one-party states.
The closing two paragraphs are an excellent summary of the upcoming and probably final scenes of the death of the rule of law in Hong Kong.
@Chinese Netizen – Good one!
Lord Atkins in Liversidge v Anderson sums up HK’s predicament well: ’I know of only one authority which might justify the suggested method of construction: “‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.’ ‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’ ‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.’” (Through the Looking Glass, c vi) After all this long discussion the question is whether the words “If a man has” can mean “If a man thinks he has.” I am of opinion that they cannot, and that the case should be decided accordingly.‘。With the CCP no longer pretending to be hands off, the legal system is now irrelevant.
The factions may yet compete
As in the old roundelay:
One Trot faction sitting in a hall
One Trot faction sitting in a hall
If one Trot faction should have a nasty squall
There’ll be two Trot factions sitting in a hall
Two Trot factions sitting in a hall
Two Trot factions sitting in a hall
And if two Trot factions should have a nasty squall
There’ll be four Trot factions sitting in a hall
and so on
Will there be a dress code in the “patriots” legislature? Dark Mao suit, hair glistening boot polish black and perhaps a badge. Sad, pathetic and history will not be kind.
The New Leggers is far from ‘half the sky’ in composition but when one looks at some of the women who have been ‘anointed’ this is probably a good thing. The female propensity for maleficence can be more profound. The Taiwanese celebrity divorce currently in the news is a good example.
@Stephen – and that’s only the women…