Major rants beckon. Beijing and supporters get exceptionally worked up over Google’s closure of John Lee’s YouTube channel, with the Foreign Affairs Ministry saying the US is undermining…
…freedom of expression, freedom of information dissemination and the fairness and impartiality of the internet [and] “trying every trick in the book to intervene in Hong Kong affairs with the evil motive of obstructing the chief executive election…”
A Hong Kong government statement makes the same point, albeit at greater length.
Almost as if YouTube were available in the Mainland, and the ‘election’ were, well, an actual election open to manipulation by outside forces. Not sure where the ‘accusation is a confession’ quote comes from, but it could be the motto of China’s official spokesmen.
(More contrived rage and fury courtesy of a Standard editorial. The SCMP in its parallel universe worries that the ban will impact Lee’s ‘campaign’ fundraising efforts.)
And a group of academics nominate political prisoners Jimmy Lai, Lee Cheuk-yan, Joshua Wong, Gwyneth Chow and Chow Hang-tung for the Nobel Peace Prize. Expect an outburst of official mouth-frothing any minute. Watch out for references to ‘blasphemy’ against the ‘sacred’ Nobel Prize institution, or similar verbal pyrotechnics that draw global attention to the very things Beijing wants to downplay.
Some weekend links…
A qualitative study on why Hong Kong old folks won’t get vaccinated. Includes the phrase ‘peripheral information processing’, which I had to look up. It means being persuaded by the style rather than content of a message. You’re welcome!
ZolimaCityMag on the Chi Ma Wan Trail, which features – among other attractions – a fascinating abandoned prison with an old canteen you can peer into. One of the hike’s big draws is that not many people go on it – so don’t feel you have to check it out.
AP casts a skeptical eye on Shanghai’s low Covid death figures.
Taiwan’s National Defense Handbook in English.
War on the Rocks presents eight ways Taiwan can make itself impregnable against a Chinese invasion.
Foreign Policy on how China could continue expanding its military even as its economy slows…
…military power is often a lagging indicator of a country’s trajectory: It takes time to turn money into military muscle, and massive buildups often persist even after a country’s economic fortunes begin to flag … The China of the 2020s will be a country whose coercive capabilities are more intimidating than ever as its economic dynamism fades. That could be the worst possible combination for the world.
ScaryMommy on the ‘no shoes indoors’ debate. A bit like the ‘face masks during Covid’ hoohah, but with more racial undertones.
Also about footwear, sort of… A fairly long academic read on Sugarcane Cultivation and the Demise of Foot-Binding in Taiwan in the early 20th century. Touches on Japanese colonial rule, industrial rail lines and the costs/benefits for women of being able to walk properly. (Either you’re into this sort of thing or you’re not.)
On more distant matters, a 1968 UK TV documentary featuring liberal anglo white women in apartheid South Africa, like Nadine Gordimer and Helen Suzman – plus some very laid-back businessmen.
I agree with Hemlock, please, it’s not worth your time to go check out the Chi Ma Wan Trail and please do stay away so that we can walk in peace and not suffer your inane music boxes blaring Canto songs in our ears as we try to listen for small mammals in the forest.
The SCCPMP non story on Lee’s so-called fund raising for his so-called campaign is so farcical as to be utterly farcical.
That ScaryMommy page is absolutely terrifying. That is someone’s wife!
What world do reporters at the Globular Times, The Substandard and the SCCPMP inhabit?
Long odds that the pan-dem five will get the Nobel Prize- the seafood lobby in Norway will block that quite quickly after being locked out from the Mainland China market ‘by coincidence’ for the entire remainder of Liu Xiaobo’s lifetime after he received the Peace Prize.
@Chris Madden
Yonder Lynchmob’s world.
Justsayin
I always thought the Nobels were a Swedish shindig.
I wonder what Peking can lock Stockholm out of. Matchsticks, perhaps.
I hopped over from the mainland once to camp at Pui-O. After having hiked/run Sunset Peek the proceeding day I thought I’d set off for neighbouring Chi Ma Wan the next morning; this was a mistake.
Having rolled my ankle that week at rugby I proceeded to repeat that trick half way around the trail; then spent hours stumbling back to humanity encountering the prison complex on the way. Relief only arrived when I came across an old boy on the Chi Ma Wan road who was shopping for housing and gave me a lift back to Pui-O; thank you whoever you were.
Didn’t see a single person the entire loop.
Mary Ma outraged that youtube has blocked John Lee? I guess they should block youtube in China! Oh wait….
Perhaps Mary is just teeing up the justification to extend the Great Firewall to include Hong Kong and ban youtube in HK as well. That’ll show those evil Americans!
As for John Lee promising to “listen” to HK citizens, that is a riot. He was one of CL’s key advisors in encouraging her not to reverse her decision on the extradition treaty in the face of 2 million citizens opposing it in the streets. He’ll listen to those few HK citizens that report to Beijing and no others…
BigCAD.
That was almost certainly me.
The only fly in the ointment is that I don’t drive.
Ah, well.
Red Dragon: Perhaps Shit Jumping could deny the citizens of China their Swedish designed, Chinese made pressboard furniture from Ikea?
Anyway, AFAIK the Nobels were always a Norwegian party.
To slightly clear up the Nobel question: the Peace Prize is awarded by the Norwegian committee, the others are awarded by Swedish committees.
This was specified, but not explained, in Alfred Nobel’s will.
Red Dragon, you are truly a gentleman.