The Commonwealth Lawyers Association, the International Bar Association and the Law Association For Asia and the Pacific have all issued statements recently about Hong Kong’s arrest warrants and HK$1 million rewards for the overseas wanted eight exiled activists. A sample of the IBA Human Rights Institute’s…
The charges, carrying a maximum life sentence, are grounded on articles 21, 23 and 29 of the NSL, namely ‘incitement to secession’, ‘incitement to subversion’ and ‘collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security’. The NSL, passed by China’s top legislature in June 2020, has been widely criticised, including by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, as a dangerously vague and broad piece of legislation that can be easily weaponised to crush democracy advocates, not only within Hong Kong but in any part of the world. The extraterritorial reach of the NSL, provided for by articles 37 and 38, represents the long arm of China’s suppression of any form of dissent.
The Hong Kong government could ignore the statements and leave the thesaurus on the shelf. But no…
“The HKSAR Government solemnly urges the organisations concerned to discern fact from fallacy and stop being manipulated by people with ulterior motives, immediately refrain from wantonly slandering and smearing the NSL and the implementation of the Law in the HKSAR. The HKSAR Government will continue to implement the NSL resolutely, fully and faithfully, thereby preventing, suppressing and imposing punishment for acts and activities endangering national security in accordance with the law, so as to allow Hong Kong to advance from stability to prosperity steadily,” the spokesman said.
(Shouldn’t that be ‘advance to continued stability and prosperity’ or something?)
For some reason, I recall an old university friend who had ambitions to be an actor. As a purported way to hone his thespian skills he would occasionally, in a very crowded place, suddenly turn to a companion and scream out ‘I’M NOT PSYCHOTIC!!!’.
Security Secretary Chris Tang says foreign forces were training local activists in organizing mass rallies even before 1997, and the 2003 Article 23 protest was a ‘trial run’…
They found they could draw people into the streets if they could create social issues and confrontations and give the administration a hard time in governance, he said.
“They twisted things around to portray even right things as wrong, making it very difficult for the government to move forward.”
Tang said the government wanted to implement national education in 2012 after it noticed the younger generation has been “radicalized.”
However, the foreign forces “played the same old tricks again” by asking some agents to smear the policy, he said.
In 2014, agents opposed constitutional reforms, leading to the 79-day Occupy Central, which he said severely affected the city’s economy.
Even officials at those times – from Tung in 2003 to Carrie Lam in 2019 – conceded that government mishandling of issues had provoked public opinion, with no CIA input required. Has the current administration found some new information about this?
I totally get it now.
You can’t get shit done? You can’t make the populace trust/love/worship you? You can’t improve the day-to-day lives of the people you’re so-called ruling?
BLAME IT ALL ON “FOREIGN FORCES”.
Hostile foreign forces, books threatening national security…where have we heard all this before?
Transcommunists like John Lee Coo Ca Choo are as predictable as colonial bootlicking civil servants used to be. As are his sidekicks.
“A day never passed when spies and saboteurs acting under his directions were not unmasked by the Thought Police. He was the commander of a vast shadowy army, an underground network of conspirators dedicated to the overthrow of the State. The Brotherhood, its name was supposed to be. There were also whispered stories of a terrible book, a compendium of all the heresies, of which Goldstein was the author and which circulated clandestinely here and there. It was a book without a title. People referred to it, if at all, simply as the book. But one knew of such things only through vague rumours. Neither the Brotherhood nor the book was a subject that any ordinary Party member would mention if there was a way of avoiding it.”
The good thing about all this is that when Transcommunists and Communists squeal, they are on the run. The way forward is to up the pressure as you are getting to them. That sanctions list looks rather short, don’t it? Names, anyone?
Hurrah!
“They twisted things around to portray even right things as wrong”. Looking in the mirror again, Chris?
@ Chinese Netizen: they’re training us, or more specifically, the 40% of the population that leans pro-Beijing, to equate discontent with any policy with foreign interference. No matter what the topic, by definition only troublemakers complain, so any complainers have ulterior motives, ergo all complaints are invalid. Yes, including yours. You can see the loyalists being slow on the uptake – the editors of the Oriental Daily expressed shock when their criticisms of the government got the same panda tantrum reaction as anyone else’s. “How can you treat us like this when we’ve been so loyal?” Guys, you know what loyalty means, right? It means you STFU.
Scary. Very, very scary
@ Winston Smith:
Laugh while you can. Then run away.
What percentage of that 40% that leans pro-Beijing immigrated in from the PRC, one wonders.
Q: (Shouldn’t that be ‘advance to continued stability and prosperity’ or something?)
A: No. They got it right the first time. The transition from stability is almost complete.
You “totally get it now” ??
Nice going there, sport. Three years too late, but lets not split hairs