From the Command and Coordination Group press conference, CE John Lee’s comments explaining how – after months of unconvincingly explained foot-dragging – the sudden Covid U-turn is part of a highly planned strategy. Quick thread detailing the inconsistencies…
The overall perception rather is that HK authorities have been constrained in their decision by what authorities up north (Guangdong and Beijing) might have wanted – and sadly that’s a reality Lee can’t even share with his constituents, even in diplomatic words.
A late entry in the Really Bad Arguments of the Month Competition: Deputy Magistrate Kennis Tai, who ruled that the law banning people from urging others to not to vote in elections is constitutional…
The magistrate ruled that inciting people to cast invalid ballots “was not facilitating democracy,” as the move was “expecting to influence the public with collective power on whether they cast their ballots, or what their votes would be.”
Tai said that people who were incited to cast blank votes would waste electoral resources, and ruled that the restrictions imposed by the law were “reasonable and necessary” as it did not target a particular political group.
She added that people could still cast … invalid votes, they could just not encourage others to do so, and said the legislation preserved “a space for private discussion.”
Surely the government’s pro-voting campaigns are ‘expecting to influence’ etc. And the boycott idea was largely spurred by the ban on ‘a particular political group’ (pro-democrats) from the ballot. And how can ‘encouraging others’ to do something lawful be illegal?
Rubber-stamp LegCo rattles through government funding requests in minutes…
The chairman of Legco’s Finance Committee, Chan Chun-ying, on Thursday said he believes more funding applications can be scrutinized every year now that all lawmakers are patriots…
By ‘scrutinized’ we mean ‘not scrutinized’.
Some weekend reading…
Asia Times op-ed by Bill Emmott on 2022…
The new Chinese emperor, Xi Jinping, has been shown to have no clothes. However long he stays in power, his myth has been broken, both inside China and around the world. More practically, all sorts of assumptions about the future of China and therefore of the world have been called into question.
More politically driven archaeology and historiography. Remember plucky little sunny Zhangzhung? The ancient pre-Buddhist Himalayan kingdom? Beijing does…
Beijing is doing a large amount of research and excavation in western Tibet relating to Zhangzhung, but there is little examination of the topic outside China.
…China wants to link Tibetan culture and religion to Zhangzhung, thereby peeling it away from its Indian roots.
Zhangzhung must be China’s because Tibet is, and Tibet must be China’s because Zhangzhung is.
On out-of-area matters, esteemed speechwriter James Fallows on the drafting of Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to Congress.
A Brief Autobiography
I was born in 1949.
A child of Revolution, you could say.
No, an orphan. My father had some land,
Not large. He farmed, and rented out a patch.
This decent man, who I can’t remember,
Was classified ‘rich peasant’. One day, they came
And tied him up and drove him through the village,
And he was killed.
And I am filled
With love for Country.
My mother died of grief, my brother . . . enough.
I grew up in the Northern Capital, adopted
By an uncle. I was full of hope,
Eighteen. I loved studies, books, and school.
My school was locked. The universities
Were locked. I was blocked, shut out, crushed
In the prime of youth. Then the exile
In the villages. Seven years
Without electric light, without a book.
My education ceased,
And this increased
My love for Country.
Something new was happening. There were changes.
Even I, forty, a compromiser,
Hoped. At the Gate of Heavenly Peace
I watched, and tried to help. One night, the tanks
Appeared, rumbled, swayed, snarled; and soldiers
Marched and fired.
I felt inspired
With love for Country.
Something strange was happening in a market.
Animals, alive and dead, mixed.
There was a virus, never known before.
No, that was rumour. A man who warned
Was captured, and retracted in a video;
He died of the disease. As for me,
Locked out of school when young, when old locked down,
How many keys have turned? The superpower
In the new millennium sent the world
A new export.
And I support
And love my Country.
Wouldn’t this be the right time for a U.S. or Taiwanese fighter jet to accidentally shoot down an encroaching Chinese jet?
Wow with the speed that legco gets shit done these days, you’d think they were in a hurry to mingle with the dirty masses they represent and rub shoulders with the plebs?!
Either that or take to the air flying to such places as Vancouver, London, NYC, Auckland, whatever to…uhhh…conduct research on policy making and governance practices for large metropolitan centers? Make sure the pipes haven’t frozen in the other home and the garden hasn’t been overrun? Hide some cash in the flower bed?
“A Russia whose motives for aggressive military action in Europe likely include regaining the fear-based ‘respect’ accorded the Soviet Union in the past may tire of being viewed—and perhaps treated—as a vassal of China,” ~ From Dec 29th Atlantic article “How China is Using Vladimir Putin”
Ah, with friends like the CCP….
So… 29 meetings of 28 minutes per meeting = 812 minutes in total. That’s one item every 11 minutes and 36 seconds, and $218,596,059 per minute.
I’m glad to see the taxpayer’s money is in safe hands.
do a billion people really not notice how much lying and doublespeak is going on to keep the idea of the China empire together? It’s mind-boggling that people are complacent and can accept the oddness of such a delusional regime.
As the Secretary for Development recently explained:
“Experience tells us that by the time we approach Legco’s finance committee for funding to proceed with the works… by that stage, which is a rather final stage, normally the concerns of the Legco members will be on technical details like whether we have sufficient facilities to support the new population, whether the timing of the whole construction schedule is reasonable and whether we have done our best to respond to the concerns of the local residents affected,”
“Normally, if Legco members really do not want the government to proceed with a certain development project requiring resumption. they will actually voice out their concerns years before we proceed to that stage of seeking funding approval.”
The brevity and lack of depth in discussion is rather alarming when you consider that “In this Legislative Council, 59 of the 90 (two thirds) members elected in the 2021 election were elected for the first time, or were not members of the last Legislative Council.”
@Knownot – good one. My father-in-law’s father was also a minor landlord killed in the Cultural Revolution.
Mary,
Surely the question should be whether the proposal before Legco is the best use of the dwindling treasure (tax-payers money) that Hong Kong has built up over time?
What might be called ‘The Bridge to Nowhere Consideration’.
@donkey: Luckily for the CPP, the vast majority of “Lao Bai Xing” are too undereducated and overstretched to care. Another thing the CCP lucked out on is the cultural propensity to succumb, continue to “eat sour”, have faith in “leaders” and mutter “mei you ban fa” at what cards life has dealt them.
“CE John Lee’s comments explain…the sudden Covid U-turn is part of a highly planned strategy.”
Hugh: From now on I will be much stronger, and the President should be prepared for that.
Everyone doin da poatry alluva a suddan
LINES ON THE ALMOST SIMULTANEOUS DEATHS OF PELÉ AND VIVIENNE WESTWOOD
So farewell den you famous people, one kicked da ball, da other kicked ass.
GOAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!! dat was his catchphrase.
PISSSSSSSSS OOOOOOOFFFFFFFF !!!!! dat was hers.
Knownot, thank you for that. Superb. Poignant.
They would have no legal effect, but I am wondering what would happen if hundreds of thousands of voters cast write-in votes for Jimmy Lai in the next LegCo election. Not that I would urge such a thing, of course.
Some great comments today, folks.
All, that is, except one – a bum note the identification of which is unnecessary.
@knownot — another of your finest. Thanks so much for this, painful as it is to read it and think about the lives of family members.
@Knownot – thanks for this contribution. Happy New Year all!