Press statements enter ‘vile conspiracy’ territory

As predicted (it didn’t take much uncanny foresight or general omniscience), the Hong Kong government issues a wrathful press release over the US Senate committee’s resolution. That’s a ‘so-called resolution’ according to an anonymous spokesman apparently on secondment from Pyongyang…

“Through the so-called resolution, the US politicians once again performed a despicable manoeuvre with politics prevailing over the law, exposing their hypocrisy with double standards. Their vile conspiracy of ‘using Hong Kong to contain China’ is doomed to fail.”   

Among various shifts away from Deng Xiaoping-era reformism, Xi Jinping is weakening the separation of Party and State in China. (In theory, the party formulates ideology and broad policy while the state does policy implementation and administration. In practice, the personnel at top levels overlap, but the ‘separation’ allows the state bureaucracy at lower levels some leeway over details.) In line with this, the HK and Macau Affairs Office is to come directly under the CCP Central Committee rather than the PRC State Council, and it will directly oversee the Liaison Offices. The DAB’s Starry Lee says this shows ‘how highly-valued the two SARs are’. Or at least how highly-valued ideology and centralized control are.

The Standard story spells this out a bit more. The new body will officially be called the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office of the CPC Central Committee, though is likely to keep the old name as well.

For some light relief – the Hong Kong government clarifies its stance on a porn star.

Hong Kong’s arrests for book-possession make the international news. The Times (paywalled) notes that the two men received the books by mail from the UK…

Police arrested five speech therapists for creating the books and a Hong Kong court found them guilty last year of sedition. They were each sentenced to 19 months in prison. Police urged parents to destroy the books because they were “too radical and instilled in children the ideas to confront and oppose the government”.

…Ronny Tong, of the government’s executive council, said residents took “legal risks” keeping publications that have been declared seditious. He warned that downloading them may be considered as being “in possession” and advised people to get rid of them.

Interesting question: would lawmakers be arrested if you mailed seditious kids’ sheep-cartoon books to them?

Some weekend reading…

More of a short book than a long essay – Journal of Democracy on Beijing’s strategy of making the world less liberal and more autocratic…

This belief in the superiority of an autocratic Chinese model coexists with deep insecurity…

The Diplomat examines how, having engineered eternal brotherly peace and love between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Xi Jinping will bring his personal international-relations flair to the Russia-Ukraine conflict…

While Xi has proved he is extraordinarily shrewd operator in Chinese domestic politics, the strongman’s heavy-handed diplomacy and idiosyncratic zero COVID policy raise doubts about his ability to play cards skillfully in Europe.

Japan Times announces that the ‘Chinese Century’ is already over – owing to demographics. Some interesting stats on the link between median age and GDP growth rates.

National Interest looks at the KMT’s increasingly pro-Beijing stance.

This entry was posted in Blog. Bookmark the permalink.

18 Responses to Press statements enter ‘vile conspiracy’ territory

  1. Joe Blow says:

    That press release looks like it was written by Yonden Youknowhoo.

  2. wmjp says:

    The anonymous spokesman apparently on secondment from Pyongyang must have been reading your blog yesterday. With that short extract he must have scored a full house, a classic of the genre.

  3. The Points Guy says:

    *ding ding ding!!!!* 50 points to Stanley Lieber for “Doomed to fail”!

  4. Chinese Netizen says:

    “The DAB’s Starry Lee says this shows ‘how highly-valued the two SARs are’.”

    More like not trusted and in need of a shorter leash, sweetie. But your enthusiastic brown nosing is noted.

  5. Chinese Netizen says:

    “Police urged parents to destroy the books because they were “too radical and instilled in children the ideas to confront and oppose the government”.”

    Obviously the so called police don’t truly know the entrepreneurial spirit of HK people and are clueless that they created a limited, highly collectible product out there and must now patrol the pages of Ebay, Carousell and whatever other sites deal in collectibles.

  6. Load Toad says:

    ‘Through the so-called resolution, the US politicians once again performed a despicable manoeuvre with politics prevailing over the law, exposing their hypocrisy with double standards….’

    Any chance these morons could stop writing so-called rebuttals whilst some of us try to get business going after the so-called scientific reaction to the pandemic? It’s supposed to be a so-called international business hub and pissing off our so-called customers is a bit stupid as it brings ever more negative so-called publicity

  7. wmjp says:

    Another interesting question: How did the police know the books had been mailed and in the possession of the 2 men?

  8. Low Profile says:

    @Load Toad – any chance the so-called civil servants who write these so-called press releases could be educated in what “so-called” actually means? And looking at the so-called release, they could use some basic grammar lessons as well – “The Government … strong [sic] disapproved of…” Not to mention that the “etc.” at the end of the first paragraph is just lazy writing.

  9. Sheepless in Hong Kong says:

    @Chinese Netizen
    You might go as far as saying the police have unwittingly created a “black sheep market”.

  10. Knownot says:

    Dirty Dealing

    I was in a street in London, Soho –
    This was years, I mean, decades ago.
    A man I hadn’t noticed sidled closer
    And murmured, “Magazines?
    I’ll show you where to go, sir.”

    Next, it’s fifteen, twenty years ago,
    A stretch of Nathan Road that you might know:
    Waterloo Road is just a bit below.
    Every man on foot would have to squeeze
    Past busy fellows murmuring,
    “DVDs, DVDs.”

    It’s coming soon, the poison, I’m afraid,
    Dirty dealing in the cartoon trade.
    In alleys shady men will watch and creep,
    And murmur, “What you want, sir?
    I got wolves and sheep.”

  11. Sevens Fan says:

    Reminder it is two weeks until the Sevens – starts April 31, 2023

    One of the last chances to enjoy memories of Decent British Hong Kong before they find how to kill it off.

  12. Mark Bradley says:

    “Any chance these morons could stop writing so-called rebuttals whilst some of us try to get business going after the so-called scientific reaction to the pandemic? It’s supposed to be a so-called international business hub and pissing off our so-called customers is a bit stupid as it brings ever more negative so-called publicity”

    No shit. Can these morons at least tell ONE FUCKING GOOD HK STORY?!?! As always these idiots undermine themselves with their NSL and their insecurity and DRIVE EVERYONE AWAY.

  13. Mark Bradley says:

    “Another interesting question: How did the police know the books had been mailed and in the possession of the 2 men?”

    Probably intercepted it and then did a controlled delivery like it’s drugs. Scum of the earth. It’s GOD DAMN BOOK ABOUT SHEEP YOU HUMERLESS INSECURE CUNTS. You morons think you can have HK gain its international financial centre status like this? FUCKING BRAIN DEAD

  14. Bob Barker says:

    Time to update your tagline. It’s darkness at noon.

  15. Stanley Lieber says:

    @The Points Guy

    Thank you. Very gracious of you. Bon weekend!

    Stan “the man” Lieber

  16. Mary Melville says:

    Re Chinese Netizen ; any gravitas that might be accorded to statements made by our sole rep is further undermined by a name more appropriate for a porn KOL.

  17. Quentin Quarantino says:

    April has 31 days this year? Nobody tells me anything.

  18. wmjp says:

    The Deputy Secretary for Justice, Horace Cheung, said on Sunday that the administration is in a better position than the courts to decide what constitutes national security. RTHK

    OK, let’s not bother with trials then.

Comments are closed.