A cheerful start to Friday: the HK Science Museum and MTR hold a ‘MTR x dinosaur’ painting competition for kids. Check out the entry by Chung Kwok-ching with its mind-warping perspective.
Children’s pictures aren’t – yet – censored in Hong Kong. Unlike movies…
OFNAA ordered the film producers to delete a scene that it said had “reconstructed the illegal occupation movement.” If they did not comply, the film would not be allowed for public screening.
What about a film that ‘reconstructs’ a case of domestic violence, a bank robbery, or cops having sex with an underage girl – all illegal incidents?
The population of Hong Kong has dropped by nearly 230,000 since end-2019. This includes deaths outnumbering births, but the bulk of it (note big drop in 20-somethings) must be emigration. (See also Standard story.) HKT notes emigration as a factor in slow broadband business growth.
Weekend links…
UK magazine The Critic on leaving China after 10 years…
…by 2022, China had become an impossible place to live. China’s initial COVID response was admirable, but it had descended into a mad authoritarian nightmare.
Prospect reacts to the framing/arrest of Drew Pavlou in London.
From Bloomberg – Beijing offers Taiwan the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ formula and drops its old promise not to station troops there. Don’t all rush!
After peaceful reunification, Taiwan may keep its current social system and enjoy a high degree of autonomy — the same promises that were extended to Hong Kong. The words that follow merit attention: “One Country is the precondition and foundation of Two Systems; Two Systems is subordinate to and derives from One Country; and the two are integrated under the one-China principle.”
Essentially, Beijing is saying ‘screw it’.
ABC Oz on China’s problems in convincing ‘Wan Wan’ to return to the fold…
Beijing has failed to create conditions conducive to the “thorough settlement” of the issue.
And those conditions, in large part, haven’t occurred because the people of Taiwan can express their own views, a dramatically different situation to the 1970s and 80s, when a dictatorship still claiming to be China’s rightful government ran the island.
Since China’s strongman leader Xi Jinping came to power in 2012, Taiwanese voters at successive presidential elections have chosen, by landslide, a government that rejects Beijing’s relentless pressure for closer ties on China’s terms.
George Magnus on how China can’t afford to invade Taiwan. But don’t say ‘invade’! Tanky Martin Jacques gets publicly corrected by a Chinese government official.
China Media Project introduces you to the ‘Two Establishes’ – a phrase that has cropped up in People’s Daily a mere 33 times this month…
The phase is essentially a giftbox of loyalty to Xi, establishing him as 1) the unquestionable “core” leader of the CCP, and 2) his ideas as the bedrock of China’s future under the CCP.
Unpacked, the “Two Establishes” is a claim to the legitimacy of Xi Jinping’s rule, and a challenge to any who might oppose him. As such, the phrase is an important part of the process of “loyalty signaling,” or biaotai (表态), the registering of support for the top leader.
“Two Establishes”… “Three Represents”…
“One I Couldn’t Give A Flying Fuck”.
If I were a churchgoing man, I’d pray a meteor the size of Pudong would crash on Beidaihe or wherever the grease headed, waxwork old shits gather every year for their circle jerk of adulation.
And the John Cena 2022 award for Obsequious Brown-nosing goes to…
(rustle rustle)
MARTIN JACQUES for his tweet”You are quite right. Lend me bend over for you now, master.”
Come on up, Martin to accept your hand engraved Pooh statue!
BTW, has anybody managed to read through MJ’s wiki page? I blanked out somewhere in the egrossing account of his editorship of Marxism Today.
And while I’m here. Apropos George Magnus’ article. Leaving aside the cost of actually invading Taiwan, lobbing guided missiles left, right and centre costs a LOT of money. My guess is they’ll keep going with the cheaper fly-overs and artillery star shells option, keeping the big boys for special anniversaries.
I’m concerned where all this censorship is going.
What about a film that ‘reconstructs’ any aspect of an illegal (definitely not colonial) 150-year occupation of a barren rock in the South China Sea?
History is ****, as they say.
Another slap in the face for the growing number of incarcerated youth:
Former Chief Executive Carrie Lam and many top officials in her administration were on Friday appointed Justices of the Peace (JP) by the new government.
Former ministers Sophia Chan, Frank Chan, Patrick Nip, Alfred Sit, Wong Kam-sing and Edward Yau were on the list, together with the ex-heads of the Audit Commission, the ICAC, and the Customs and Excise Department – John Chu, Simon Peh and Hermes Tang.
Several senior members of the current government were also given the honour, including the Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration Warner Cheuk, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Algernon Yau and Secretary for Innovation and Technology Sun Dong.
According to the blurb : The main function of JPs in Hong Kong is to visit custodial institutions regularly, and they have played an important role as watchdogs over the operations of these custodial institutions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is another colonial function that should be binned. No doubt the intention of the system is laudable but now it functions as nothing more than a poor man’s Bauhinia.
There are hundred of appointees but no mechanism in place to ensure that they fulfill their role in an impartial manner, if at all.
https://www.info.gov.hk/jp///en/JPList_g_31b.htm
In 2020 all these hundreds of JPs managed to make a mere 391 visits to prisons
https://www.info.gov.hk/jp///files/anreport20_eng.pdf Page 20
And for every visit they reported satisfactory conditions!
The report makes depressing reading for anyone hoping that so many could achieve even a modicum of improvement but clearly this is not the case.
Pretty sure those raptor drawings of Prince Edward station are subversive.
It seems that it is good to be a po po. Only $8K bail when charged with rape and child pornography! I wonder what sentences they would receive if they are convicted. Time served?
Regarding the latest population statistics: Since 300,000+ foreign domestic workers have no right of abode here, only about 7 million people can considered to be “citizens” – about the same number as 20 years ago. To me the big drop in 0-9 year olds is the most significant. Education should be added to the growing list of subjects to avoid (journalism, public policy, social work, etc) at local universities.
@A Poor Man
The weirdness coursing through Hong Kong society as a result of the unprecedented tumult we are experiencing pops up in the strangest places.
For example, because mid-career teachers have been amongst the most enthusiastic emigrants in the past two years, demand for qualified teachers is high.
At present, graduating from a local university and gaining a teaching certificate will lead to an iron rice bowl at a starting salary of $40K per month and summers off.
For a lot of 24-year-olds, that’s nice work if you can get it.
Why is the only age group with an increasing population the 70-79 catagory? It is not as if more of them are being born.
Hope it is not a PRC ploy to ship geriatrics to HK to burden a health system they have never paid into.
@Probably
They grow into it… and people in that category and the previous category die less than they used to.
@Probably
It’s the result of China’s post-war baby boom. Demographics are destiny.
The CPC WHITE PAPER ON THE QUESTION OF TAIWAN mentions peace or peaceful reunification 50 times in the course of justification of reunification. It also skips over China signing 20th Century Treaties and Declarations on Taiwan, by representing that the CPC signed those as the legitimate Government. It claims to speak in the name of Taiwanese and threatens anyone who disagrees, with violence.
Stan Lee – Even for a relatively good salary, I think most young, educated locals would rather avoid being a teacher due to the national security implications and risks. Sure, there are some who dream of being a teacher form a young age, but many wouldn’t want to waste their time teaching nonsense and worrying about what they say and about having their students or their parents report them to the po po. Also, nowadays being a teacher at a local school is generally a 10 hour a day, 6 days a week job without much time off in the summer. Only teachers at international schools have a couple of months off in the summer.
Currently there is virtually zero unemployment among 20 somethings who are literate and have reasonable English skills (presumably the minimum qualifications necessary for being a teacher in a local government school). For example, a nephew of mine who only finished form 5 about 10 years ago is making about $35K a month doing customer service work at a bank branch in Admiralty. He only works 9 to 5, 5 days per week in a relatively stress free job helping rich housewives and elderly people complete paperwork. According to him, these types of jobs are very easy to find these days. It seems that in the future the HK workforce will be a large number of young working class people serving the needs of a small class of wealthy old people.