The 80th anniversary of the end of World War II will be marked around the world, in various ways. In Hong Kong the government will organize…
…a series of events to commemorate the 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
…[Cultural, Sports and Tourism minister Rosanna] Law said the Museum of History and Museum of the War of Resistance and Coastal Defence, are collaborating with two museums on the mainland to roll out a war-themed exhibition.
It seems likely that the exhibition will focus on national rather than the local experience (the fall of Hong Kong, life under Japanese occupation, etc). It will be interesting to see what sort of treatment it gives to such subjects as Chiang Kai-shek’s relations with Roosevelt and Churchill, the scale of ROC forces’ operations, and the role of US aid…
She said such activities are aimed at cultivating people’s national identity and belonging, therefore building a consensus on defending the homeland and contributing to the nation’s development.
“We will fully leverage Hong Kong’s rich and unique cultural and historical resources to showcase our special contributions during the war, deepen cooperation with all sectors of society, promote patriotic spirit, and further enhance Hong Kong citizens’ correct understanding and sense of identity towards the nation,” Law said.
It will also be interesting to see how ‘deepening cooperation with all sectors of society’ comes into it.
HKFP reports that…
Nearly 80 per cent of the 93 vacancies in Hong Kong’s Election Committee – which nominates and selects the city’s leader – will see no competition in next month’s by-elections.
The committee also returns 40 of the 90 LegCo members in December.
Also – the first relative of an ‘absconder’ to be charged under NatSec laws appears in court…
[Kwok Yin-sang’s] daughter, Anna Kwok, who lives in the US, is wanted by national security police for suspected foreign collusion.
According to the charge sheet, Kwok Yin-sang allegedly attempted to obtain funds from an AIA International life and personal accident insurance policy that belonged to Anna Kwok between January 4 and February 27.
Wearing a green T-shirt and a black mask, Kwok Yin-sang said “not guilty” when asked by the court how he would plead.
The conspiracy crowd won’t be impressed, but a serious article in the Conversation dismisses the Covid ‘lab leak’ thing…
Sadly, the focus on the Wuhan Institute of Virology has distracted us from a far more important connection: that, like SARS-CoV-1 (which emerged in late 2002) before it, there’s a direct link between a coronavirus outbreak and a live animal market.
It has also distracted us from the role of Wuhan authorities in covering up the initial outbreak, thus helping the virus spread to the rest of the world. And it has contributed to the anti-science idiocy of the current US administration…
To assign the origin of SARS-CoV-2 to the Wuhan Institute of Virology requires a set of increasingly implausible “what if?” scenarios. These eventually lead to preposterous suggestions of clandestine bioweapon research.
The lab leak theory stands as an unfalsifiable allegation. If an investigation of the lab found no evidence of a leak, the scientists involved would simply be accused of hiding the relevant material. If not a conspiracy theory, it’s a theory requiring a conspiracy.
It provides a convenient vehicle for calls to limit, if not ban outright, gain-of-function research in which viruses with greatly different properties are created in labs. Whether or not SARS-CoV-2 originated in this manner is incidental.
“[Law] said such activities are aimed at cultivating people’s national identity and belonging, therefore building a consensus on defending the homeland and contributing to the nation’s development.”
Are Hong Kongers still prohibited from joining the PLA?
The Holmes article is from 2021, no?
A rebuttal appeared here:
https://ayjchan.medium.com/a-response-to-the-origins-of-sars-cov-2-a-critical-review-5d4a644d9777
This point will probably fall on deaf ears, but… A lab accident hypothesis is not a conspiracy theory. It’s simply the possibility that a virus sample at the lab was handled carelessly and infected a staff member, who then may have (unknowingly) infected others. This hypothesis is falsifiable. There is an easy way to build a case against it: find a chain of transmission from possible zoonotic sources of the virus in Yunnan (likely bats) through intermediary animals (such as palm civets in 2003) to Wuhan. In the case of SARS-1, a possible chain of transmission from the intermediary animal to humans was identified very quickly, by May 2003. In the case of SARS-2, after several years, no such chain has been identified, so a lab accident remains a possible explanation.
For sure there will be no focus on the issue of family fortunes generated through collaboaration with the Japs during the occupation of both China and HK.
Good post from Siujiu.
A lab leak is not a conspiracy theory so much as the bleedin’ obvious.
If the government really wants to “showcase Hong Kong’s special contributions during the war”, perhaps it should arrange school trips to the military cemeteries at Stanley and Sai Wan. The kids might learn something.
I agree with @Siujiu
The Japanese raped & pillaged their way through China for nearly a decade then walked out. Both sides know it.