The judge sentencing four men for trying to help students at the siege of PolyU in 2019 calls their actions ‘nearly paedophilic’ (though he gives them up to two years in prison). Does this extreme terminology spring from the judge’s personal bias, or a lack of awareness of what was happening at the time? (And how can something be ‘nearly’ paedophilic?)
The Lantau reclamation plan could end up delivering a glut of housing – and costing HK$800 billion. Simple question: what else could Hong Kong do with that wealth? Other than sending a man to the moon?
I’ll be getting my ‘bivalent’ vaccination tomorrow, and then in theory a week or two of holiday-season inactivity. Some non-festive links…
Recent Guardian piece on the reasons behind Beijing’s persecution of Jimmy Lai.
Pithy British Medical Journal piece by Dr David Owens and Jane Parry asking what China can learn from Hong Kong and Singapore in extricating itself from zero-Covid.
A longish essay by a Hongkonger in Taiwan on the search for a new home.
China Media Project on Mainland media’s relentlessly positive coverage of the nation’s leadership.
If you can stomach any more Elon Musk, a thread on his ties to China.
From state-backed voice of warm-and-cuddly reason Sixthtone, an archaeologist counters claims that the bronze-age Erlitou site was the capital of the Xia – the mythical first dynasty…
Experts, including not just historians, but also many archaeologists, continue to view archaeology as a subdiscipline of historiography. They see it as a tool for proving the validity of historical texts…
…Chinese archaeologists believe their main task is to verify the authenticity of ancient historical records.
Worth a look just for the graphics – special ASPI feature on the border clashes between China and India.
ArtNet on how Beijing pressures overseas artists to self-censor.
And for photography fans: LeaveHomeSafe snapshots (at last – someone found a use for that app!) and an exhibition (ends Dec 31) at the FCC of Magritte-inspired surreal photomontages by Basil Pao…
Speaking of twisting arms to make artists self censor… this ought to trigger the shoe polished hair crowd in Zhongnanhai: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/21/ai-weiwei-opera-covid-ukraine-turandot
Dat paedophilia..how did Gary Glittah keep his yoof?
On data sticks.
Keep it real, bro.
Do you think the judge meant “nearly paternalistic” but got the terminology wrong? I can see “nearly paternalistic” being accurate, given it was older men trying to help students succeed in their protest.
@Hemlock
“I’ll be getting my ‘bivalent’ vaccination tomorrow, and then in theory a week or two of holiday-season inactivity.”
Well. Maybe that. Or maybe you will drop dead from “suddenly” over the holidays. You know, because of science. Because, er, follow the science. Roll those dice, baby.
Still, if you clock out, feel good that at least you helped Trump’s election win 2020 get stolen. You know, because, er, because of science.