NatSec police arrest at least 10 people connected with the old 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund for ‘foreign collusion’…
It was the first time second-tier workers of pro-democracy organizations have been held.
…Police said the 10 were suspected of using the fund – set up to provide legal support to protesters in the anti-fugitive bill unrest – to accept donations from overseas organizations in support of people who had fled overseas or organizations that called for sanctions against Hong Kong.
HKFP story.
In appealing the rejection of its attempted Glory to Hong Kong injunction, the government criticizes the court for presuming to have NatSec know-how superior to that CE’s…
…the chief executive should have the “greatest weight and deference in national security matters,” the DoJ wrote in the document.
It said High Court judge Anthony Chan had “erred in failing” to “give any or sufficient deference to the executive’s assessment on the necessity, effectiveness and utility” of the injunction it was seeking.
A 69-year-old retiree who played Glory to Hong Kong on an erhu is in court, defending himself on the grounds that he is protected by a UN convention on cultural rights – and there is a precedent.
The HK NatSec police report 380,000 tip-offs on their hotlines during a 24-month period to last December. They don’t say how many sources there are: was it 380,000 different people or one person calling 380,000 times? Is the information all serious, or are there malicious or prank calls? Nasty suspicious minds might wonder if there are automated or organized tip-offs to make the numbers suitably impressive. It’s over 500 a day – roughly one every three minutes – so no doubt it’s keeping someone busy.
On other matters…
Atlantic looks at the disappearance of Qin Gang and the implications of ‘elite instability’…
The decisions made in Beijing influence the wealth and welfare of billions of people, the health of the planet, and war and peace itself. Yet policy makers and diplomats around the world are too often left guessing about how these decisions are made, who is making them, and why.
Advice from Harris Bricken law firm – all you need to know about exit bans in China, in response to…
…increased trepidation people have about being detained in China, in part due to the newly passed Hong Kong National Security Law and the tribulations of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.
…Do not commit a crime in China. Do not offend anyone in China, especially anyone in the Chinese government. And if you think you might have offended the Chinese government (including with anything you said online from the comfort of a foreign country), do not go to China. Do not have any disputes with anyone in China, and if you do have such a dispute, do not go to China, or leave China immediately. If you are overdue on payment to anyone in China, do not go to China, or leave China immediately.
Australian journalist Cheng Lei gets a message out to her family after three years in detention in China. The full message.
I am not guilty. I only reported my namesake 80,000 times.
He is British, small, brown, shady, a former journalist and masquerades now as a novelist with an obscure Scottish publisher AS WELL AS a turncoat Peking shoeshiner. ‘Nuf said.
Une bonne fois pour toutes..there’s no such thing as Chinese Australians, British, Anerican or anything else. Just as there is no such thing as a foreigner with a Chinese passport – with only few exceptions. Chinesesness is burned it at birth. It’s not racism you see. Be reasonable. See it our way, you hideous foreign devil.
How do you all stand it in Hong Kong? What’s the grift?
Hurrah!
In deference to the CE’s weight….
https://youtu.be/XbebjUYItKw
When is the DoJ going to have itself arrested for sedition and endangering national security by criticising the judiciary and in essence calling a judge incompetent?
do I say more?
Heart breaking to see that excellent folk like Bobo with a long record of community service are the target of stage 2 of the NS pogrom.
A few mornings ago two ladies came to my door. As it has been years since the Jehovah’s gave up on this hood presumably a Happy Honkers or pre election recce???? Whatever, did not engage.
@Mary Melville
As English Bob says to the barber, “A wise policy. A wise policy.”
“Is the information all serious, or are there malicious or prank calls?”
I bet quite a number of them involved the settling of personal scores that in better times were not much more than simple disagreements.
Cheng Lei’s message sounds like ChatGPT with the command “write a message in Australian slang vernacular”
I would be very curious to know how this compares to the daily call or yearly calls / capita to the corresponding hotlines in 1939 Austria, Stalin’s Russia, the East German Stazi, etc. I suspect Hong Kong will post a solid showing in the top quintile of the Fink Score distribution.
Mike –
“Cheng Lei’s message sounds like ChatGPT ”
Yes. Perceptive. I also note that there does not seem to be a single mistake of grammar or usage. And, although there are some personal points, most of it is very conventional.