Category Archives: Blog

RTHK news gets a scoop – Security Secretary Chris Tang is thrilled about attending today’s military parade in Beijing…  Tang is part of a 360-strong delegation from Hong Kong, led by Chief Executive John Lee, which is in the capital … Continue reading →

Hong Kong has just been through a ‘water-gate’ scandal, which I have ignored out of laziness/boredom. Full details here. A few questions… Why don’t civil servants want to drink the ordinary tap water that their employer, the government, says is … Continue reading →

Overseas coverage of Jimmy Lai will peak when the verdict comes through in the coming weeks or months (unless it’s ‘not guilty’). Meanwhile, it’s about the conclusion of the trial. To spare others the trouble, the SCMP summarizes some basic … Continue reading →

A Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission official and a lawmaker have dropped out of the Bitcoin Asia conference taking place in Hong Kong right now, apparently to avoid being seen near Donald Trump’s son Eric.  Ideally, Hong Kong officials … Continue reading →

If you wonder what researchers in the humanities do all day, here’s an academic paper (free to view) in the Journal of East Asian Studies … Propagandists discredit political ideas that rival their own. In China’s state-run media, one common … Continue reading →

A government press statement says… The National Security Department (NSD) of the Hong Kong Police Force this morning (August 26) laid a charge against a 19-year-old local woman with one count of “doing with a seditious intention an act or … Continue reading →

Jimmy Lai’s lawyer argues that a newspaper should have greater freedom to publish information and opinions. Greater than whom? He doesn’t say, but he can only mean everyone else, as the judges assume…. The court on Monday continued to hear … Continue reading →

Economist story (probably paywalled) about the Jimmy Lai trial… The verdict is expected to be delivered in a few weeks or months; few observers doubt that the 77-year-old will be found guilty. Already serving another jail term, he could face … Continue reading →

More on Jimmy Lai, this time from Reuters… Lai, 77, who founded the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, and a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material. … Continue reading →

The NYT reports on Hong Kong’s ‘soft resistance’.  While the paper struggles to work out exactly what it is (who doesn’t?), it notes the contradiction in the authorities’ narrative. This tension seems to be a permanent feature of Hong Kong … Continue reading →