Over at the Stand News trial, the prosecution continues its eyebrow-raising line of examination…
…lead prosecutor Laura Ng asked [former SN editor PK Chung] whether the 460,000 people who voted for localist candidates in the unofficial democratic primary election were more susceptible to misinformation.
The correct answer to this question is, of course, that far and away the most gullible electors in Hong Kong have always been those who vote DAB – especially the older ones. Chung was too polite to point this out.
But what’s this got to do with sedition?
At one point, the judge agreed with defence counsel Audrey Eu that Ng was repeating questions.
On the Good Hong Kong Stories front…
The LSD warn that the coming crowdfunding law will make non-authorized fund-raising an indictable offense (ie a felony) and will criminalize donors as well as fund-raisers. (Yet another example of the authorities having to ‘plug loopholes’ no-one had noticed for decades.)
And the highest-profile recipient of Hong Kong’s visas-for-talent scheme is a bio-physicist called He Jiankui, who it says here ‘was handed a prison term in 2019 for illegally experimenting on human embryos’…
Kiran Musunuru, a leading genetics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said he was “appalled” at the decision by the semi-autonomous Chinese city.
“He Jiankui is a convicted criminal,” he told AFP, and “woefully incompetent as a scientist”.
Ouch. Something tells me he won’t bother coming here.
Update: Immigration Dept revokes his visa.
More here. It seems the Top Talent Pass scheme does not require applicants to reveal criminal records. Or it didn’t, but does now.
It all sounds like a case of bureaucrats under pressure to prove a talent-attracting policy a resounding success.
Or it didn’t, but does now.
Another “loophole plugged”?
Re so-called Dr He: YET…another own goal by the HKCCPSAR Government in drawing worldwide attention to a patently stupid policy/decision/act that should never have gotten to the point where it did and reinforcing the Laughingstock Asian City moniker. The guy was prosecuted and convicted NEXT DOOR, ffs!!
Un-effing-believable.
Oh, shhh..t!
I was one of the 460,000 misinformed!
Pity we don’t have vocational training centers with a Xinjiang curriculum to get me on the correct backward Marx-Lenin-Stalin- Mao-Xijinping path
Some of you do not like Dimsum, but it highlights issues not covered in other English media.
The Talent scheme is not only attracting dubious academics, it will also resolve the declining birth rate;
https://www.dimsumdaily.hk/pregnant-mainland-citizen-shares-strategy-on-social-media-to-use-top-talent-pass-scheme-to-give-birth-in-hong-kong/
Wow, two for the price of one. Hopefully the budget will include funding for the hospitals to enlarge their maternity wards so that local women will not face the stress of having to fight for a bed.
He Jiankui is Dr. Frankenstein with Chinese characteristics.
When I applied and was approved for an investment visa back in 2005 there was no criminal record check either. They cared only about my business plan and bank statements but never asked for a certificate of no criminal record.
That “Top Talent Scheme” is a great idea if you want Mainlanders. Supposedly, 96% of those that have applied hold a Chinese passport. If I was a Mainlander, I’d apply to get that low tax rate as well.
Hong Kong is becoming Monaco rather than London – New Orleans rather than New York.
Also – will “crowdfunding” now include tithes at churches? This will be an easy way to not only close churches but also that huge threat known as Catholic schools in Hong Kong…