HKFP op-ed says that the Article 23 consultation document uses a slanted version of the 2019 protests to help justify the additional NatSec law…
The official view is generally disseminated via editorials, press releases, official documents, press conferences, trial prosecutions, and public speeches. Authorities have refused to hold an independent inquiry into the events of 2019. Such an inquiry would include the government’s role in triggering the protests.
…Endlessly repeated, the government characterises the events as “black-clad violence,” “colour revolution,” and “insurrection.”
Even “soft resistance” makes an appearance, still undefined. These characterisations appear to be a mix of police and pro-establishment political elite perceptions, led by a Chinese Communist Party verdict, delivered without a publicly available investigation.
…Pro-Beijing scholar Lau Siu-kai has argued that the 2019 anti-government protests amounted to an unsuccessful colour revolution…
The article calls for a public enquiry into the causes of the discontent, as under the colonial government after the 1968 unrest. Such soul-searching is obviously not on the agenda. If it was – in a parallel universe – there would probably be broad acceptance among Mainland officials and the local population that the Beijing-picked post-1997 administrations massively failed to meet public expectations (housing, influxes of Mainland immigrants/tourists/white-elephant projects, extradition bill, refusal to listen). Protests in 2014-2019, culminating in the 2019 District Council elections, reflect the fact that the majority of Hongkongers thought the best solution was a more representative system of government.
Beijing, on the other hand, believed the answer was a more authoritarian one. Implementation of Article 23 is the next step in that process.
Lau Siu-kai’s China Daily analysis of a colour revolution acknowledges such a revolution needs “longstanding deep-seated social problems” for the black hands to do their dirty work. Perhaps someone should ask him what he meant by that, in the Hong Kong context.
Anyway, nice wishful thinking for a Monday morning. Our government is shameless enough to lie about how many people visit an inflatable Tao Bao heart to cover questions of impropriety.
A while back, John Burns seemed at the anodyne end of the commentary spectrum – on point but rather measured and academic. These days he stands out as a beacon of rationality, without having adjusted his position.
Whereas our esteemed host always delivers opinionated truth and clarity (even if today was mostly quoting the piece).
As I recall the Commission of Inquiry was after the “Star Ferry Riots” which happened in 1966. That Inquiry took place in 1967 and there is a published report.
It seems there was no Commission of Inquiry after the longer period of disturbances in 1967, but HK Govt. thereafter undertook a series of social reforms. There was a contemporary book “Colony in Conflict” (John Cooper – 1970) which reads like an official account of the disturbances, but is apparently not one.
@Way of the Loong: travelling at present so havent had a chance to see any reports of numbers or impropriety. However, which other so-called leader actualy would say “I trust your hears are chubby as mine on this splendid day”. How unbelieveably embarrassing. And,this said stood next to his chubby wife who he got up the duff when she was erm… allegedly legal?
In 2019, primary school students were lined up outside their schools holding hands and singing songs in solidarity with the protesters. It will take generations, if ever, to erase those feelings from the hearts of those young people.
I am cued in to the sentiments of the middle and upper middle class of Hong Kong. I can guarantee you that they despise the antics and lies of the HK government, their bosses at the Liason Office, the Gesta-popos, the quislings (like Mike Rowse and Granny Cross) and the asslickers from the DAB. Yes, there were 2 million people marching in the streets, brave schoolkids were holding hands and THEY are the voice of Hong Kong, and always will be. Don’t give up. One day, the oppressors will be flushed out. Dictators are always all powerful and untouchable, until the last 5 minutes, when they make their desperate way to the airport.