Some things from the weekend…
An SCMP op-ed uses copious amounts of the passive voice to urge caution over the forthcoming local Article 23 NatSec Law…
…the process should not simply be about finding new ways to lock people up. It is an opportunity to provide the city’s national security laws with much-needed clarity, so that people understand where the red lines lie…
…(Chief Executive John] Lee referred to “soft resistance”, warning it can undermine governance. But there is no clear definition of soft resistance, legal or otherwise. There have been suggestions it is an area involving the media, and arts and culture sectors. This must be handled with caution.
The criminal law should only be invoked to combat genuine threats to national security. If the resistance is soft, does it need to be criminalised? There are other ways in which the government can counter dissenting views, if that is all they are.
Paywalled FT piece on Rowena He, historian (specializing in Tiananmen 1989) at Chinese U who was abruptly fired the second the HK Immigration Dept refused her visa extension. She is apparently not the first academic to be, in essence, kicked out of Hong Kong in recent years. Note also how CUHK dumped her immediately.
From Georgetown Law, a long analysis of arrests and prosecutions following the 2019 protests. Covers such subjects as legal framework, prosecution decisions, use of charges like ‘rioting’, bail, the judiciary, court procedures, treatment of juveniles, etc.
On other matters…
Elizabeth Economy on YouTube describes what the world would be like if China ran it.
Simon Kuestenmacher in New Daily outlines ways to solve Australia’s housing crisis. Applicable to many other places…
Gone are the days of silly first-home-buyer grants that never ever did anything but drive up house prices. Government finally actively helps to increase housing supply. Mostly, I see positive change and movement into the right direction, but I will also do some moaning.
Some major policy changes are under way already. New South Wales and Victoria are becoming increasingly serious about taking vetoing power from local government to enforce strict housing targets. That’s a reaction to the systemic issue of local elected officials being incentivised to veto all development.
For crypto (as in ‘disaster’) fans, David Gerard on the Beautiful Mind of Sam Bankman-Fried.
If jazz is more your thing, on YouTube, Straight, No Chaser – a 1988 documentary on Thelonious Monk.
I don’t see how CUHK had any option regarding Rowena He. At the very least she has to leave HK since she doesn’t have a visa to stay here. Maybe she could have been an “overseas fellow” or something?
And there are already more residential properties in HK than there are people needing one. The obvious fix is to make sure that our our esteemed leader’s edict that property is for living in not for speculation is actually implemented by his minions in Hong Kong. They need to find a way to ensure that the tens of thousands of empty properties in Hong Kong don’t remain that way. Otherwise the esteemed leader should dispose of them and replace them with people who will implement his edict.
Does Mr. Buddle not realise that the entire point of civil law is to make things UNCLEAR so that power is never questioned, removed or altered? Good luck to the sane and logical in our new era.
“I don’t see how CUHK had any option regarding Rowena He.”
True. And I don’t see why she would want to ever be further associated with that group of spineless, pathetic sacks of manure afterwards, overseas or not.
GCHQ is so stretched these days. Don’t go poking around too much in Taiwan. They have a great counterintelligence setup.
Sell the housing estates to the tenants, you fools.
@redphoenix
Sadly, Mr Buddle belongs to the small but persistent cluster of deluded people that believes the integrity of the written word means anything at all to a totalitarian regime or its malevolent minions.
I’d recommend reading this about SBF/Crypto/NFT/Tether..
https://www.amazon.com/Number-Go-Up-Cryptos-Staggering/dp/0593443810
#Ghost
It’s been done. 80% of the flats in 39 suitable HA estates have been sold to tenants. The Tenant Purchase Scheme was stopped after pressure from developers.
Granting that Rowena He herself must have seen the writing on the wall, given the nature of some of her research, CUHK firing her almost instantaneously smacks of reflexive panic and fear. They didn’t even make an attempt to mouth some weak protest about academic freedom, blah blah blah. That stuff will bring Chris Tang’s hounds down on you these days.
He was returning, after all, from an extremely prestigious overseas fellowship, her receipt of which CUHK was only too happy to use in its own promotional activities. But if the Party says she’s persona non grata, it’s over the side with her. So much for the myth of Rocky Tuan as a relatively reasonable university head. CUHK faculty are noting all of this and recalibrating their future plans.
@Freddie
I guess that means it was working.
@Steve
CUHK must have been heaving a sigh of relief that she didn’t have PR. And of course the overseas optics on this are terrible: on the one hand we have our glorious leader and bum-chum saying HK is open for business, we welcome overseas talent etc ad nauseum, at the same time as Article 23 is going on the books, and academics are refused visas. The only people coming here will be wide boys setting up crypto scams.
In a seemingly inexplicable administrative mixup, police this morning arrested Hong Kong cobbler Cliff Tuddle on counts of endangering national security and suspected terrorism.
So now that the fake car accident scammers have realized that dashcams are everywhere, the action has moved to ATM machines. Scammer comes up behind and accuses punter who has just withdrawn cash of picking up the money they forgot to take with them.
In view of the number of CCTV cameras installed at ATM centres odds are this scam will be short lived. However there are always folk who are intimidated and will be fooled.
Probably prudent to take a withdrawal receipt as proof.
This is HK, the scam capital populated by a community of gullible/greedy punters.
@justsayin
The scribbler left the scump some time back and is safely back in England. Smart lad.