All worth reading!
Dr Siddarth Sridhar on how the government’s Covid policies threaten to squeeze other – even more serious cases – out of hospitals. In other words (though he doesn’t put it so bluntly), the dynamic lite zero-Covid ideology could lead to more deaths from non-Covid causes. Nuts.
Senior international lawyers leaving Hong Kong because of quarantine rules and declining business. (A lot of self-righteous mouth-frothing on Twitter about the fact that these individuals cite Covid restrictions rather than the NatSec regime as a reason to emigrate. Not sure it’s that simple. The Beijing-imposed Covid rules are just as much part of the downgrading of ‘One Country, Two Systems’ as, say, no-jury court trials, and many of the curbs seem more to do with social control rather than public health. It’s all the same post-2019 nightmare. And why should quitting Hong Kong to flee NatSec be any more – or less – noble than fleeing travel restrictions? Everyone’s decision is personal and different.)
HK Free Press op-ed on the ‘tell Hong Kong’s story well’ fantasy…
…Hong Kong’s problem with the world is not so much a shortage of good stories as a surplus of bad ones.
(The erhu-player mentioned in the column has a nasty surprise.)
And another on Beijing’s withdrawal from climate-change cooperation with the US…
The message from Beijing is clear: accept our authoritarian rule over Taiwan or we’ll doom Planet Earth and all its inhabitants to the ravages of climate change.
Globe and Mail update on plans for a Hong Kong parliament-in-exile, and Hong Kong authorities’ threats against Canada-based activists involved in the project.
The Hill on China’s property woes…
“The Xi government may provide a burst of liquidity to paper over the insolvency of property developers, but it cannot paper over the demographics of a declining population and forty or sixty million vacant and overpriced apartments.”
And a Substack article on the effects of a potentially greater challenge – China’s record high temperatures.
ASPI Strategist on how China views its United Front influence operations overseas.
I think you need to swap the pics of Visigoths in Rome and Sichuan fires. Unless, of course, the caption actually DOES match the pics. In which case, I’m frightened.
Well it seems magistrate Felix got a good verbal bitch slap from his superiors for letting a NatSec danger out free. Could make the “government” look weak.
What next? Popo will magically find bomb making equipment in the old man’s apartment or erhu sound box?
Tell a good story of Hong Kong to the world, indeed.
ErhuMan’s ‘apartment’?
Subdivided cubicle more likely.
I was wondering if the mainland was going to take their toys and play elsewhere with the climate. Might not go so well in the long run
@Chinese Netizen – I suspect you are unfamiliar with the convention – established by Private Eye magazine in the UK – by which it is customary to reverse the captions in such cases. https://www.private-eye.co.uk/lookalikes
The erhu judge also quietly throws out case law which previously found that buskers have a “reasonable excuse” to perform without a permit if they aren’t otherwise causing a nuisance on grounds of freedom of expression. Oops.
@Low Profile: Ah so! Cheers for that. Learn something new every day. That’s why I keep coming back here!
A few thoughts on the parliament-in-exile:
1. The Hong Kong police or Chinese internal security police operating in Canada will infiltrate it.
2. Don’t let HK residents vote. The HK / Chinese police will likely be able to tell if anyone from HK voted. They would be arrested and charged under the NatSec.
3. Elements within the current Liberal government in Canada are very pro-China or have been compromised by China, so don’t trust the Canadian government.