Slipping into a new week with some more reading…

HKFP looks at ways of measuring the exodus from Hong Kong – it is impossible to gauge how many are local middle class or overseas ‘expat’ business types, or whether they are leaving because of Beijing’s political clampdown or the government’s onerous Covid restrictions. One telling statistic is departures of students from schools. (Another is perhaps the cost of sending pets overseas.) The number of Mainland immigrants on One-Way Permits has fallen because of Covid. But however you break it down, the stats are a major vote of no-confidence.

More number-crunching from David Webb: the number of people in prison has declined by over a third in the last 20 years, but those on remand have jumped from around 10% to 30% of the total. Samuel Bickett comments that…

In systems that value civil rights and due process, courts deny bail only for, say, alleged murderers and serial rapists.

…while in Hong Kong remand is used to keep political opponents in jail without trial.

The HK Police take delivery of the first of 50 experimental anti-riot buses with opaque windows and tear-gas guns attached to the roof. Is their budget ridiculously bloated, or are they expecting large-scale street protests sometime?

A (paywalled) column in the Economist describes the supposedly democratic process whereby the CCP chooses and promotes members of (mainly rubber-stamp) lower- and national-level Party congresses…

The lists are passed back and forth, up and down the ranks, for further refinement until every province, the armed forces and a handful of other “electoral units” each has its own list of delegates that satisfies the Organisation Department. Despite the party’s role in producing these lists, chosen delegates are still subjected to extensive vetting. This has involved interviews with colleagues, police checks and examination of records relating to everything from tax payments to compliance with family-planning rules. As officials put it, no one is to be selected “carrying sickness”, ie, with a blotted copybook.

If it sounds familiar, it’s the template for the multi-step screening for all-patriot ‘improved’ Hong Kong Legislative Council candidates, with nomination by a group of specially picked insiders, plus a secondary vetting mechanism – and the possibility of being kicked out on an oath-taking technicality.

A UK Daily Mail op-ed on Chinese agent Christine Lee, notably the role played by past British leaders in kowtowing to Beijing and opening the door to United Front influence operations. And an interesting thread with more analysis (fuller version here).

While it is easy for Brits to blame specific former Prime Ministers, universities or business interests, the fact is that up until around 10 years ago nearly everyone from Barack Obama to the Pope agreed sagely that closer relations with Beijing were possible and desirable – and indulged CCP attempts to infiltrate institutions and capture elites. Xi Jinping has done a great job of proving otherwise, even if the Vatican, the WHO, investment banks and some idiot politicians still cling to the ‘partnership and cooperation’ fantasy.

HKFP’s anti-Sedition law shield…

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8 Responses to Slipping into a new week with some more reading…

  1. Stanley Lieber says:

    Re: HKFP anti-sedition shield

    Shield or no shield, if they want you, they’re going to get you.

  2. donkey says:

    For now, the only thing keeping HKFP running is that it’s not run by a local.

  3. Chinese Netizen says:

    Cameron and Osborn were the useful idiots? No mention of BLAIR?? He who came back AFTER his prime ministership to give a token few words in Dongguan for a Chinese developer’s new estate complex grand opening in return for plain brown bags of cash and a villa???
    If anything, Blair blew open the door of useful idiocy for Brit politicians with the conservatives just doing what comes naturally for “conservatives”: laissez faire economics. With helpful dollops of government welfare for corporates.

  4. Toph says:

    Ta Kung Pao has already blasted HKFP for one of its founders allegedly having links to Stand News. It’s only a matter of time now.

  5. Mark Bradley says:

    Archived version of the economist article: https://archive.is/pJLlH

  6. Less is more accurate says:

    @Chinese Netizen
    I think Cameron should really be lumped in with Johnson and May as the useless idiots.

  7. Big Al says:

    OT: In this week’s “driver lost control and mowed-down pedestrians” story, the SCMP reports that more than 90 people died and 1,684 others suffered serious injuries in traffic accidents across the city last year. This is unacceptable if we want to open the roads to the Mainland. I suggest that the government strictly enforce a “Zero Accident” policy by banning all vehicles from our roads (although those senior citizens who are unlicenced will not be penalised). Overseas drivers and foreign-manufactured cars will also be banned. This will prevent needless deaths and overloading the health system with injured drivers and pedestrians.

  8. Mary Melville says:

    At about 7.30pm this evening, Tsui was picked up by his driver and left the Penny’s Bay Quarantine Centre.
    Ummmm ………. but he is on unpaid leave, so why use of official car and driver? Holiday arrangements are private affairs not government business surely?
    Police said today (17th) that they have arrested and charged two former airline cabin crew members for violating the Prevention and Control of Disease Regulation (Cap. 599A).
    So presumably now that the conveniently shortened PBQC stay has given the Birthday revelers an early ‘get out of jail card’ we can expect similar rigorous action with regard to the various transgressions recorded at that event?

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