All those farewell gatherings you’ve been going to didn’t happen. A Beijing official says there’s no major emigration trend from Hong Kong, notwithstanding the fact that people here have always been mobile; and the city isn’t being Mainlandized (governments jail people for cartoon sheep or harmonica-playing everywhere in the world, you see). The Standard reports…
Huang … said it’s “inappropriate” to say Hong Kong is facing an emigration wave despite more than 110,000 people having moved to other countries over the past year.
He said the decline in population was caused by various reasons, including deaths, and there is no evidence to show the drop was caused by an emigration wave.
So – where are the missing people? Have they become invisible?
Whatever it is that’s not causing emigration, Tian Feilong promises more of it…
…”Such changes have shown the central government now has a more scientific and complete recognition of its role and functions in one country, two systems.”
But he said Hong Kong still has a long way to go in fulfilling the requirements of the new chapter of one country, two systems in areas like education, rule of law, social culture and sense of national identity. So the SAR has to make improvements to offset its deficiencies.
Now onto improvements to offset Cardinal Joseph Zen: The Conversation on why the elderly cleric scares Beijing.
By way of rectification after implying Lausan Collective are tankies (they just use words like ‘colonialism’ and ‘imperialism’ way too much) – their approving coverage of Hong Kong students who support Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.
That Lausan article still contains whataboutisms about US military operations in the past. It also states the Western countries did not attempt to de-escalate. How about the countries in Central and Eastern Europe – all victims of Russian imperialism – which are the most hawkish? In a true tankie fashion, their agency is denied.
emigration with Chinese characteristics: the police will still keep following you wherever you go in the world and check up with your relatives back in the glorious motherland to make sure you toe the line
PS how many ‘missing people’ are in jail waiting for trial…
some great newspeak from Tian Feilong there about HK’s insufficiencies such as respect for rule of law, due process, free speech there… are these not ‘oversufficiencies’?
People who cannot vote by a show of hands or by marking ballot papers, can vote with their feet, but some don’t.
Diminuendo–See yesterday’s replies for a response to your query about tankies.
Ceterum Censeo–Whataboutism is the adolescent argument strategy whereby one attempts to justify or distract attention from one party’s actions by drawing (an often false) equivalency with the actions of another party.
Lausan doesn’t do this. They do not condemn US imperialism in order to excuse the CCP’s. They condemn imperialism wherever it is observed, including Hong Kong. The British were relatively more benign than King Leopold in the Congo, and they built up the civil service yadda yadda, but that’s a low bar indeed. And they recognize that the Party’s behavior towards Hong Kong is colonialist in nature. An occupied city will never be a stable city.
As always, Ackbar Abbas’s words were prophetic: Postcolonialism without independence, Hong Kong is unique in the world. (Well, plus Macau.)
Since July 1, 2020 – the day the NSL took effect – there have been 338,898 more people who have flown out of Hong Kong than have flown into Hong Kong. Among Hong Kong residents, the next number is -333,882.
That’s about a -4.5% decrease in Hong Kong’s population over the past 27 months. People emigrating? Nah, surely not. My family of four have left Hong Kong for good last year…..but we didn’t emigrate…really!