Government hits out at criticism of its hitting out at criticism

From HKFP, more on the suspension of Zunzi’s cartoons. The re-lashing-out at criticism would be a worthy subject for the comic.

SCMP report on the US Congressional-Executive on China’s hearings on ‘One City, Two Legal Systems: Political Prisoners and the Erosion of Rule of Law in Hong Kong’. Transcripts of evidence are here. From Brian Kern’s…

Just this year, my neighbor, a young devout Christian musician, was sentenced to more than four years in prison for taking part in a protest in 2019. I was at that protest. I was about two hundred yards away from him when he got arrested. There but for the grace of God… Millions of us stood up for freedom and democracy, but some are paying for that much more heavily than others.

From Kevin Yam’s…

…the judges still serving in Hong Kong all know which way the winds are blowing. They know that the safest route to survival and promotion is to obey to the hilt. It means that for all the long political show trials with their ostentatious displays of common law court procedure, the will, whether consciously or subconsciously, almost inevitably side with the prosecution. 

On one level, this makes things even worse in Hong Kong than in Mainland China. At least in Mainland China, the kangaroo court is brutally short, with no little pretence of trials being anything other than foregone conclusions. By contrast, the legal agony in Hong Kong is extended and expensive, but mostly with little palpable difference to the final result. 

…Examples of [prosecutorial] abuses include indiscriminately opposing bail for defendants in national security cases, and aggressively pursuing draconian sentences against juveniles as young as 14 years of age or otherwise have issues such as Asperger’s Syndrome. There are also attempts to prove national security breaches with perplexingly childish cross-examination questions…

Expect some forthright – and personal – responses from the government any second.

From the Guardian – Hong Kong schools face closure as both teacher and student numbers fall, notably to emigration. Schools lost one in 25 students last academic year.

On other matters…

Bloomberg vid [link corrected] on how the FBI caught a scientist stealing Western secrets to take to China – Coke can linings. 

A review of Born to Fly – the latest Chinese version of Top Gun. Sounds more like Airplane!

NYT piece on ‘Generation Connie’ – the Asian-American girls named after the 1990s mega TV presenter Constance Chung. Written by a Connie. Photos by another Connie.

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6 Responses to Government hits out at criticism of its hitting out at criticism

  1. MeKnowNothing says:

    Can anyone help me get my head around what casu martzu (Sardinian maggot cheese) has to do with (presumably) smuggling secrets in/on/behind the linings of cans of head bolt juice?

  2. Nury Versace says:

    Apart from the automatism which seems to have gripped every aspect of Hong Kong society, the funniest aspect of it all is seeing supine bourgeois behave like ardent Cultural Revolutionaries.

    Mao suit and Gucci loafers
    Red flag on the Honda Civic
    Prada handbag containing the Thoughts of Chairman Mao

    It’s crying out for a sort of new Moliėresque comedy – no Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme but Le Bourgeois Malgré Lui Communiste. First scenes: the tycoon deciding which red tie to wear that day and then getting a lesson in Xi political thought over buffet breakfast at Gaddi’s.

    Les gens de qualité savent tout sans avoir rien appris? Oh no. Not this time buster.

  3. Stanley Lieber says:

    Another clever headline!

  4. HK-Cynic says:

    RFK JR: “there is no time in history where the people censoring speech were the good guys”

  5. steve says:

    @ HK-Cynic

    Bear in mind that RFK Jr.’s beef is with outlets censoring his flagrant disinformation concerning vaccinations (not just Covid–he was anti-vax well before the pandemic). Along with other such charlatans, his ill-informed and false advice has resulted in much actual death and misery.

    That is, he’s right in general about censorship, but his special pleading for speech that presents a tangible, verifiable danger to public health is disingenuous. The guy is a miserable crank.

  6. MeKnowNothing says:

    Gee, stupid me – it was about the head bolt juice can lining! What’s become of my Engrish? I’m not MeKnowNothing for nothing, you know – you know my talkings?

    Though I think I’d rather have the Sardinian maggot cheese than neck a can of head bolt juice.

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