It’s either this or the status quo

‘Sources’ say Chief Secretary (for nine months) and ex-cop John Lee might ‘run for election’ or ‘enter the race’ for Chief Executive. There being no election or race (ignore blather about candidacy, convenors and campaigns), this means Beijing is appointing him as Carrie Lam’s replacement. The CCP has tired of Carrie’s warmth and charisma and decided to go full grim authoritarian apparatchik.

To the extent it makes any difference in terms of substance, expect an even more top-down, slavishly loyal, law-and-order-obsessed NatSec Regime to mop up remaining dissent and civil society (recent examples here and here). Internet censorship, surveillance, anti-terrorism patrols. Zero tolerance for laughing. The police state c’est moi. Many will look back at 2017-22 as a gentler time – probably from overseas.

Another rumour: Financial Secretary Paul Chan will ‘consider running’. Would a regime that backs Putin in Ukraine pick Paul Chan? Thank you. Also – the apparent leaks are all a joke to manage expectations so everyone is overjoyed at another five years of Carrie. As if people’s feelings are a consideration.

Today’s guest artist (click on a pic) dedicates her song to Regina Ip.

Enjoy the cheerful chaos of Covid policy while it lasts. The Mainland Chinese folk-medicine expert advises Hong Kong to implement the ‘Three Easies’ and the ‘Three Reductions and One Priority’. And the Hong Kong government unveils its latest exercise in futility: universal but voluntary self-testing over three consecutive days, with those testing positive kindly requested to inform the authorities. 

Doing it for just one day would be too easy – you must put serious effort into putting yourself at risk of being sent off to an isolation camp, and don’t expect any actual incentives encourage participation.

Some say the idea is to use (predictable) non-compliance to justify a subsequent compulsory mass-testing. Others think this city-wide self-testing will justify not doing that. As ever, we are left in bewilderment.

I guess columbariums are closed? Some Ching Ming links…

Hongkonger Eric Yip wins the UK’s national poetry competition. He’s 19. Sneaks up on you, and is even more compelling on a second reading.

George Magnus on China’s political and economic outlook – ‘There is no liberal reform agenda in China anymore’.

Antony Beevor (of Stalingrad and Berlin fame) on Putin fighting WWII

An almost Stalinist determination to right the Russian military—backed by the execution of deserters and failing officers—could well extend the conflict in a bloodbath of relentless, grinding destruction.

A look at the town where Volodymyr Zelensky grew up.

A history of Singapore’s 1979-onwards ‘speak Mandarin’ campaigns in posters and other publicity materials. In 1957, most Singapore Chinese used Fujian/Guangzhou languages – and only 0.1% spoke Mandarin.

If you’re passing the FCC, check out the exhibition of up-close photographs of scary Hong Kong wildlife by Lawrence Hylton.

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15 Responses to It’s either this or the status quo

  1. donkey says:

    I am so past trying to figure any of this out that as I watched the press conference where Carrie Lam seemed to be acting like a senile stage actor repeating lines whispered into her ear, I just sat there dull-faced, almost like I was a senile stage actor staring into the audience while someone whispered stage directions into my ear.

  2. Mark Bradley says:

    “Mainland Chinese folk-medicine expert advises Hong Kong to implement the ‘Three Easies’ and the ‘Three Reductions and One Priority’.”

    CCP needs to seriously FUCK OFF with these brain dead slogans

  3. Carrie Morecambe says:

    Thank you fur watching me and my little show here tonight.

    If you’ve enjoyed it, it’s all been worthwhile.

    Goodnight and I love you all.

    And the song:

    https://youtu.be/qWQ_vJYt7DA

  4. Joe Blow says:

    Well well!! Curry Cunt is out. Copper John Lee is the new CCP pro-consul. And Vagina Ip will be too old to ever try for the CE prize again. And the sun is making an appearance.

  5. reductio says:

    How difficult can it be to have this TCM stuff tested by independent parties using double-blind randomised trials? We could even get a bit funky and do block trials so we can test for the effects of age and gender at least. And if there IS anything that appears to work (I’m doubtful) then we can use “Western” science to isolate the effective ingredients and then apply, oh I don’t know, concepts such as cells, DNA, molecules etc to figure out the mode of action. I’m wondering how HK doctors are reacting to all this. Any doctors out there?

  6. Chinese Netizen says:

    Will Currie Cunt retire to Zhongnanhai, compound of ex leaders or to Bowtie’s Shenzhen residence? She’s persona non grata in the UK and I doubt she’d know how to drive or find a Tesco’s there for her feminine products anyway.

  7. Kwun Tong Bypass says:

    Wow!
    What a surprise!!
    I am soooooooooo excited!!!
    Cannot sleep until the election!!!!
    When will be the TV debate?
    Go for it John Chan!!!!!!

  8. justsayin says:

    Curry not ‘running for reelection’ according to news I just saw. ‘Time to go home’ etc.

  9. Henry says:

    @Reductio

    what would be the point of such trials? You can find everything you need to know about TC”M” from excellent online sources, eg

    “It has been described as “fraught with pseudoscience” and the majority of its treatments as having no logical mechanism of action.”

    “Scientific investigation has not found any histological or physiological evidence for traditional Chinese concepts such as qi, meridians, and acupuncture points”

    “The demand for traditional medicines in China has been a major generator of illegal wildlife smuggling, linked to the killing and smuggling of endangered animals”

    Hopefully the authorities are packaging a “Return to Sender” label with this muck.

  10. Beevor Patrol says:

    re the Chief Exonerative selection:
    Pikachu Plod vs The Corrupt Mo-Fo: each a zealous patriot whose whole family is British. What a cornucopia of ersatz choice: be still my beating heart!

    re Leave it to Beevor:
    Methinks the Beevor doth project too much. I doubt Putin has much input in the day-to-day tactics and strategy — one look at his stay-the-hell-away-from-me-you-plebs meeting table marks him as the type to say “bring me Kiev or I’ll poison your families” and leave it at that.
    The state of the armed forces is pretty much par for the course for any serious kleptocracy — it’s brilliant, on paper, but that paper isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, because someone nicked all the paper. See also the PLA.

    So far the Ukraine invasion is pretty much classic Chechnya ’94 (delete Grozny, insert Mariupol). I suspect Russian ground forces are basically verging on a spent force, militarily (NATO says ~10k dead, so assume another 20k casualties, couple that with the general 9:1 ratio of support to combat troops = last scrapings of the barrel), so most likely they’ll end up back at or near pre-invasion lines after a few thousand artillery barrages and will launch a much more brutal follow up in a few year’s time if Putin lasts out the current fiasco.

  11. Chef Wonton says:

    That Carrie Lam “honesty decent adult” quotient in full:

    March, 2021. Lam to CCP: “I will not seek re-election”

    April, 2022. Lam to Hong Kongers: “I’m still deciding to maybe perhaps seek re-election”

  12. Mary Melville says:

    Lau Siu-Kai said Hong Kong will need a strong leader in the next five years, and he believes the central government has already decided who that should be.
    “Beijing has already prepared for the new person to run Hong Kong within a very short period of time,” he said, adding that “Beijing might even have made some arrangements for the new team to come into place afterwards.
    So can we be spared the farcical election and the tedious media coverage of the non-event.

  13. Chinese Netizen says:

    Can we all call it what it is in the future: SELECTION versus “election” (as in “who are you pulling for in the CENO selection?) and/or RESELECTION versus “reelection”?

    Thanks.

  14. donkey says:

    TCM shipments is a pretty obvious strategy in my view.

    Lam is poisoning us on her way out.

  15. HK-Cynic says:

    John Lee? The man who sees subversives and traitors behind every corner? The man who sees “westerners” corrupting HK at every turn? I bet that within two years, the “Great Firewall of China” will also include Hong Kong. So much for “Asia’s World City”.

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