Authorities spread seditious materials

Some more on the men arrested for posting ‘seditious’ material online. Allegations include ‘offensive slogans’, ridiculing the national anthem, and ‘desecration’ of the national flag. And two of the speech therapists imprisoned for seditious sheep cartoons are to appeal their conviction.

If the government ignored these expressions of opinion that do not endanger life or property, few would even notice them. Instead, enforcement action makes everyone focus on reworded anthem lyrics, and the sheep cartoons are now available in English and Mandarin (Taiwan-style, no less).

The NatSec system’s relentless if futile pursuit of ex-lawmaker Ted Hui – safely overseas – culminates in a sentencing in absentia to over three years in prison. His original sins date back to protests in and outside the Legislative Council back in 2019-20, but the authorities are visibly Mightily Miffed that he skipped town (with the help of Danish lawmakers) and, as the judge put it, ‘undermined public confidence in the administration of justice’. Oh, and he ‘shows no remorse’.

On the subject of running rings around people, a Standard editorial makes some amusing points over Li Ka-shing’s offloading of a luxury apartment complex onto a Singapore-based investment fund. CK Asset stands to continue making money from the Borrett Road development by helping to finance the buyer and taking a no-risk potential slice of future sales for a time.

China Media Project looks at Global Times’ increasing use of ‘Xizang’ instead of ‘Tibet’ in English-language output. With the Ministry of Foreign Affairs following suit, how long will it be before Beijing starts pressuring foreigners to adopt and normalize what is in effect a new name? When will airlines or hotel groups add ‘Xizang’ to ‘Hong Kong, China’ or ‘China’s Province of Taiwan, China’ in their drop-down menus? How many years will it take for overseas audiences to work out where or what ‘Xizang’ is? How many decades will it be before foreign commentators – still struggling to say ‘Beijing’ properly – manage to pronounce this mysterious Pinyin-Han usage?

And what about Xianggang?
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8 Responses to Authorities spread seditious materials

  1. Knownot says:

    Rope

    Let us hope
    This site endures.

    We have to cope
    With new idea and laws.

    The up- or downward slope
    From “riot” to “stability”.

    It can be shown
    To foreign critics
    That Hong Kong is still open.

    We still have scope
    To say we disagree.

    They give us rope,
    Perhaps, to hang ourselves.

  2. Low Profile says:

    The use of Xizang, a name no one recognises, pretty much ensures that nothing China says about Tibet will be understood by foreigners, thus rather defeating the objective. How many years did it take for foreigners to start recognising Myanmar as the new name for Burma?

  3. Red Dragon says:

    Low Profile.

    I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit inconsistent on these new name thingies. I mean, I still say Burma, Rangoon, Moulmein and Maymyo, but I don’t say Tavoy, Mergui, Bassein, Prome or Pegu.

    I still say Calcutta, Madras, Bangalore, Bombay and Poona, but I have forsaken Nyasaland, Somaliland, Bechuanaland, and Basutoland while still clinging gamely on to Swaziland.

    After all, nobody would surely expect me, when speaking English, to start referring to Paris as Paree; Florence as Firenze; Cardiff as Caerdydd; or Bangkok as Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit. That would be the height of pretension.

    For me, therefore, Xiang Gang will always be Hong Kong; Guangzhou, Canton; Beijing, Peking; and Xiamen, Amoy. I’m perfectly at ease with Taiwan as opposed to Formosa, but as for Xizang, you can forget it!

  4. Cartopgrapher says:

    The map of Tibet says it all. Go back to the Ching (oops, silly me, Qing) dynasty, and the are now called QingHai was regarded as being part of Tibet. The Chinese got the hang of drawing maps quicker than the Tibetans.

  5. Dr Zhivago says:

    Ah. For the good old days when it was all about Nationalists v Republicans.

    Now these days it’s only about leftists v adults.

  6. Red Dragon says:

    Dr. Zhivago (or is it Adams?)

    Would you care to expand upon your gnomic adumbration?

  7. Mary Melville says:

    So Quat is gunning for the civil servants who used Covid exemption certs issued by the arrested doctors. She probably believes they are all ‘yellows’
    https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3194502/coronavirus-370-hong-kong-government-workers-suspected
    Reminder to any of short memory, this is the same Legco member who claimed to have three degrees that were subsequently revealed to be issued by a diploma mill based in a shack in Hawaii.
    Righteous citizens were appalled at the time when she was not even disciplined. In other jurisdictions a lawmaker sporting fake academic qualifications would have been forced to resign.
    But in Hong Kong issues of morals and ethics are only applicable to the masses

  8. Chinese Netizen says:

    @Mary Melville: Better red than unread, I suppose.

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