Professor Michael C. Davis on the vigorous use of Hong Kong’s archaic sedition law…
Public advocacy that had previously passed as legal public protests and critical debate has now been branded sedition, with over 60 arrests so far.
…The court judges that tens of thousands of 2019 protesters “did not recognize the sovereignty of the People’s Republic of China over the HKSAR and did not support the policy of the ‘One Country, Two Systems,’” while supporting calls for “independence and self-determination.” From this characterization it then appears that the defendant [cartoon sheep] book authors, by raising awareness of the protest in children’s books, suffer guilt by association with such allegedly illegal protests.
The local ‘Article 23’ NatSec Law will probably absorb this old legislation, and increase the sentences.
Regina Ip proposes financial incentives for people to have kids, and to freeze eggs and (for some reason) sperm. Interesting that she implicitly admits Hong Kong has a serious demographic – also known as emigration – problem. She’s also pushing ‘Chinese medicine’ to relieve pressure on the scientific sort.
(Won’t ingenious crooks find ways to game this system? For example, organized syndicates giving Regina samples of other people’s sperm every week just for the cash? Or borrowing babies. Or something.)
Ta Kung Pao runs a commentary accusing ‘anti-Chinese elements and anti-China media’ of ‘whitewashing colonial rule’ by encouraging mourning of the Queen. Has anyone ‘encouraged’ this spontaneous public display? (Apart from the taxi driver who picked me up from the quarantine hotel near the British consulate. He was delighted at carrying people laden with flowers up to the place.) They could have just stayed silent rather than show how thin-skinned they are – but no.
Vice looks at the overt expressions of grief – for the death of Hong Kong, if not of Elizabeth II – that riled the CCP paper.
An aging Hong Kong actor retracts his expressions of condolence and expresses deep love for the motherland.
(While we’re at it, all of Private Eye’s past covers featuring the Queen.)
The perversity must continue: Beijing censors the WHO announcement that the Corvid pandemic is coming to an end.
Some (getting stale) links for the weekend…
Foreign Policy on lessons from the Ukraine war for China…
What could be called the Davos view that China is “communist in name only” is fading. In its place, an understanding of the strength of both ethnonationalist and Marxist-Leninist conviction among the Chinese leadership is taking hold.
In Foreign Affairs, an exiled former CCP official criticizes China’s hubris and paranoia…
Xi seems to be positioning himself not as merely a great party leader but as a modern-day emperor.
…Why, unlike his predecessors, is Xi so resistant to others’ advice? Part of the reason, I suspect, is that he suffers from an inferiority complex, knowing that he is poorly educated in comparison with other top CCP leaders.
And a follow-up on the pitfalls of calling Xi ‘president’ rather than ‘general secretary’.
A bird’s eye view of China’s real estate expansion…
We use an innovative alternative data set – satellite Night Time Lights (NTL) – to quantify China’s expansion in fixed assets (real estate, factories, infrastructure).
China Media Project marks the 20th anniversary of the slogan ‘sneaky visit’.
War on the Rocks on the chances of Beijing pulling off an invasion of Taiwan…
The sheer size, scale, and complexity involved with invading Taiwan likely checks even the most self-serving and impetuous instincts inside the Chinese Community Party.
And some out-of-area viewing: interview with a sprightly 98-year-old German-born Russian Jew about his time with US forces interrogating captured Nazis.
So the Corvid [sic] pandemic is coming to an end – and China objects to the WHO crowing about it.
The American Veterans Center interviews (and similar YouTube channels) are well worth listening – especially when you are f***ed off with how crap this place has become. Allows a certain – perspective
The Girl in a Mask
“My love, take off your mask,” I plead.
That is the final act of love I need.
A woman’s treasures, once unknown,
Are now quite often and quite freely shown.
She lies in bed; my eyes can dart
Above, beside, or in each private part.
But, gazing at her face, I pause
Impeded by a strip of plastic gauze.
“Please take it off,” again I ask,
That half-face-hiding, kiss-denying mask.
It hides the glory of her lips;
They’re censored, like offensive video clips.
It seems, in 2022,
This is the human being’s last taboo.
What new alarms the girl can get
Browsing daily on the internet,
Where pompous experts still declare
It isn’t safe to live and breathe the air!
I reach behind her ears and pull the straps –
She frowns and gives me little slaps.
Alas! I’ve tried too little or too much;
Our lips are never going to touch.
COVID pandemic is over- but ‘COVID outbreak with special Chinese characteristics’ is still ongoing
Would it be crass of me to suggest that the main reason why the CCP seems so reluctant to let go of the covid pandemic is that it originated in their territory and spread because of their bungling?
It wouldn’t surprise me if they regard it as one of the great PRC success stories; an example of China’s reach and impact on the global stage.
So Regina is pushing for more mouths to feed in sub divided tenements, the only ladies who would reproduce for $20,000 would be desperate or coerced.
That a legislator would encourage AMA, advanced maternal age, in an era of contagious viruses, increasing levels of pollution and the insidious prevalence of contaminants in the food chain that impact the health of newborns, is quite shocking.
There is considerable research on the many issues related to delaying pregnancy such as higher risk of certain chromosomal conditions, such as Down syndrome.
A responsible legislator should be working to ensure that conditions in our society provide the support for women to start families when the outcome can be most beneficial to both the mother and infant and to ensure that no discrimination is permitted to impact the career path of the women.
Regina in her struggle to remain relevant has exposed the superficial platform of NPP.
When you are watching the live stream of the Queen’s thingy on YouTube and you want to go for a leak, do you touch the pause button, or do you “let it go” ?
The queen didn’t shit for 96 years, surely you can hold it in for a few days?