Yesterday’s on-line Standard carried an op-ed (or ‘news’ story) warning that overseas exchange and training opportunities, including the Fulbright and Chevening scholarships, are being used to groom agents for evil foreign forces…
…Some political figures have bluntly stated that such courses use all-inclusive flights and accommodation as a draw but are essentially carefully designed political schemes aimed at recruiting individuals from all walks of life to cultivate them into agents for external forces.
Looking comprehensively at the trajectories of numerous anti-China and Hong Kong-disrupting elements in recent years, it is not hard to discover that such courses are exactly the channels through which external forces identify and cultivate their agents.
From black-clad riot leaders Nathan Law and Joshua Wong, to Ronson Chan, former chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association—which has repeatedly been pointed out by the outside world as an anti-China and Hong Kong-disrupting organization—and Bao Choy, founder of an anti-government online media outlet, all have participated in similar programs.
Facing the deliberate infiltration of external forces, political figures remind all sectors of society not to let their guard down.
In particular, the vast number of youths and elites from all sectors must maintain a clear head at all times, reject these vain temptations that are actually sugar-coated traps, recognize the political schemes behind these so-called “exchanges” and “trainings,” and absolutely avoid being utilized by anti-China forces to become pawns or even betray their country.
…external forces will seize the opportunity to repeatedly instill hostile, anti-China, and Hong Kong-disrupting ideologies into the participants, distorting their perception of the country and the SAR government.
They imperceptibly implant stances and emotions of confronting the state, striving to completely transform the participants so that they willingly serve the external forces.
Haven’t checked, but (like most Standard content) it’s probably a translation from Sing Tao. Too repetitive and ideologically obsessive to be AI. Probably crafted by a full-time ranter at Beijing’s Ta Kung Wen Wei Po. A weird piece for something that’s not state media. But recall that Lingua Sinica story from Wednesday. Sing Tao group then: “We need a property-developer puff piece.” Sing Tao group now: “We need a NatSec scare piece.”
If you like AI-drafted editorials, enjoy today’s ‘Beyond headline rebound: converting Hong Kong’s macro momentum into enduring capital depth’.
Meanwhile, AP reports from Macau…
Au [Kam San] is the first publicly known arrest under Macao’s national security law since its 2009 enactment and critics say his case signals Beijing’s emphasis on security and intolerance of dissenting voices, even though Macao’s pro-democracy activism has never been as influential as the movement in neighboring Hong Kong.
Au is accused of providing false information to anti-China organizations overseas to incite hatred against Beijing and the government in Macao, which has become a Chinese casino hub.
He has faced several restrictions since his arrest including the choice of a lawyer, raising concerns over the fairness of a future trial.
…When he was arrested, police alleged Au had colluded with an unspecified anti-China group outside the city and provided false and seditious materials for public display online or abroad. He also was accused of maintaining long-term contact with multiple entities beyond Macao that oppose China and repeatedly providing false information to them or their media outlets.
A court upheld the indictment on July 2, ruling Au was the “perpetrator” in multiple offenses including subverting state power, breach of confidentiality and establishing contact with organizations, groups or people outside Macao to commit acts endangering national security.
Some weekend reading…
Animation Obsessive Substack piece on Studio Ghibli’s Michiyo Yasuda …
As Ghibli got established, its colors stood apart. They were more nuanced, more subdued, richer than the norm. That was Yasuda’s area. “The reason animation films suffer creatively has to do with the fact that they all use the same colors,” Miyazaki argued in the ‘80s. “It’s like, ‘Oh, the color of animation.’ … I believe that Ghibli is the only studio that has really managed to develop such unique colors.”
Yasuda didn’t brag about what she did. Her work was, she emphasized, just a step in the process. “I create colors to add life to the drawings and to communicate the director’s intentions as much as possible,” she once said.
…color puts across the tactile textures of the world, and the color of a single pond might change dramatically based on angle and time of day. Yasuda and Miyazaki invented whole new terms. “ ‘Underwater color’ is when an object submerged in water is seen from the outside. … ‘Glass-transparency color’ is when an object is seen through glass,” Miyazaki explained.
For archaeology fans – Phys Org on an ancient Amazonian civilization.
For decades, China has been giving out scholarships to students from other countries to study in the PRC. This is, of course, for purely altruistic reasons and not to groom them in any particular ideology.
As for the claim that: “the Hong Kong Journalists Association has repeatedly been pointed out by the outside world as an anti-China and Hong Kong-disrupting organization”, most of the pointing has come from China itself.
If the Standard news story is true, then immediate cancellation of all U.S. student visas for Chinese nationals would be a win-win solution, something the Beijing robots are always banging on about.