Transit Jam – a valued source of investigative journalism and transport sanity – closes. HKFP report. Although the site has always focussed on transport/industrial safety, the editor has recently been labelled a ‘foreign troublemaker’ by a CCP-run newspaper. A recent story might be related.
Another urban-environment campaigner, Paul Zimmerman, has bowed out from District Council work.
The latest on the HK47 subversion trial. Report subject to contempt-of-court restrictions. Non-local outlets will, um, likely have more details.
Baptist U’s student union leaders quit after the school’s administration sanctions the body for not conforming to ‘societal values’ and ‘exaggerating descriptions of past events’. You know – usual stuff.
Beijing objects to a Korean NGO awarding Chow Hang-tung a human rights prize…
According to the May 18 Memorial Foundation that presents the award, Monday, three officials from the Chinese consulate in Gwangju, including the consul general, visited the office of the foundation to have a talk with Chairman Won Sun-seok.
During their talk, the trio urged the foundation to reconsider its plan to present the human rights award to the 38-year-old activist, claiming that she is a “criminal who took part in a violent protest that inflicted damage on China.”
The foundation rejected the request, saying a country should not intervene in a decision made by a private institute.
On a less-depressing note, light but interesting Standard story on young Mainland tourists finding unusual things to photograph in Hong Kong, like holding a McDonalds bag on McDonnell Road. (Just keep off my escalator.)
No fewer than a couple of dozen economists and think-tankers pontificate on whether China will do a post-bubble Japan. Some you can probably skim through. George Magnus expands on his contribution (‘don’t bet the ranch on China’) here.
In a way you are lucky living in a kind of throwback nostalgic museum society of backward political thought, a new incubation of Leninism or old style Maoism or whatever. It’s cute! Orwell and Huxley would feel right at home. Hurrah! Crying out for a new sitcom or novel I would say. People are at their funniest when they behave like automatons. And how many robots are there now in the police, government, Legco…
On the traffic front I was wondering how the genetically modified taxi drivers introduced in 2000 were getting on…surely they are all very polite now? Such a relief.
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I am not surprised to see the demise of TJ. Non-partisan news resources which hold officials to account are even more annoying than pro-democracy outlets.
Of all the China vs Japan burbling, only Dean Baker seemed to really get it. Japan 2023 isn’t a basket case, it is a wealthy, stable nation where everyone is better off than they were 20 years ago. Sure, it doesn’t ‘threaten’ the US, but who gives AF? China’s problem is that its leaders focus on being top dog rather than improving the lives of their citizens.
China has a dwindling, ageing population and hundreds of millions of people on Senegalese earnings. But hey, its leaders can swing their dicks on the world stage…
Interesting fact for your photo:
The Chinese characters are the same for Macdonnell and Mcdonald.
The Korean ‘May 18 Memorial Foundation’ have the right idea, gently explaining to Chinese consular officials that their job is not to go round every minor organisation (and individual??) in the host country, ‘correcting’ ideas that their government doesn’t like.
Just who in the Chinese hierarchy doesn’t get this? The consul? His foreign office bosses? Or are they all merely performing for the senior snoozers at the top of the CCP tree?
Re the mainland tourists: So while they are intrigued by what makes Honkers different to the Mainland, the admin in its wisdom is hell bent on wiping out. Visitors to another country want to hear another language spoken – Cantonese – experience a different lifestyle – like using real money – and are increasingly likely to explore the older districts that the URA is hell bent on wiping out.
Now we have Lau Chi Pang – more noted for his misinterpretation of protest slogans than for any achievements as a legislator – come up with this bizarre idea that “another attraction for mainlanders could be visiting places in Hong Kong where Communist Party officials have themselves visited” Ummm … like Bauhinia Square?
That they do not GET IT is a sad burden we have to bear.