Big Lychee, Various Sectors

For a second time, the Hong Kong government gives the drug ‘space oil’ a new name. It seems like barely three weeks ago that they did this. Because it was. They declared then that the short-acting sedative would henceforth be called ‘zombie oil’ in order to vividly describe its effects on users and scare young people away from using it. But perhaps this inadvertently gave the substance a more hip and groovy branding. So they’re renaming it again…

Security minister Chris Tang on Thursday said authorities have officially renamed the “space oil drug” as etomidate, after more than 550 arrests were made over the drug in the first half of the year.

Speaking to reporters after attending a Fight Crime Committee meeting, Tang said the number of arrests was a nine-fold increase year-on-year, and the name change would be more effective in deterring people from taking the drug.

“Some of the drug traffickers make use of the name to promote a sort of fantasy and some of the positive feelings after taking the drug, and I think this is absolutely wrong,” he said.

“Etomidate only brings you harm…We have to properly name it as etomidate so as to eradicate the positive naming and positive side of the drug,” Tang added.

No doubt the new nomenclature will catch on.

I suddenly thought I had some of this stuff in the freezer, but on closer inspection I find it’s this.

(Not a big fan of zombie movies, but I would recommend the French TV series Les Revenants, clearly inspired by David Lynch.)

The annual Pink Dot gathering is cancelled after the usual venue at West Kowloon Cultural Hub-Zone becomes unavailable. (A pre-emptive measure to ward off a possible outbreak of ‘soft resistance’?)

There was a time when Hong Kong lawmakers wouldn’t usually all agree on anything. Not so today. They release this joint statement…

All LegCo Members stress that the Basic Law of the HKSAR of the People’s Republic of China (Basic Law) clearly stipulates that LegCo of the HKSAR shall be the legislature of the region. Fugitives endangering national security who fled overseas have been challenging the bottom line of “One Country, Two Systems” and the HKSAR’s national security. They blatantly organised the so-called “election” for the “Hong Kong Parliament”, seriously violating the Basic Law and the HKNSL, and undermining the Constitution and constitutional order of the HKSAR as established by the Basic Law. The unlawful election is nothing but a farce. Their aim was to disrupt the hard-earned stability and peace in Hong Kong, and attempted to commit the offence of subversion of state power, seriously endangering national security.

Safeguarding national security is in line with international practice. LegCo Members firmly reject and castigate the biased, groundless, smearing and double-standard remarks by some politicians in western countries against the HKSAR Government’s lawful pursuit of individuals who endangered national security.

You want more? Oh, OK then…

The HKSAR Government’s decisive and swift law enforcement actions are not only righteous, but also reasonable, legal and constitutional. The actions are also widely supported by various sectors of the community. All LegCo Members fully support the Hong Kong Police Force in their lawful efforts to apprehend national security offenders who fled overseas. They also resolutely support the statement issued by the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People’s Government in the HKSAR, and firmly support sanctions against the fugitives in order to safeguard national security and the stability of Hong Kong.

Michael Kovrig – held in Beijing for three years – discusses whether it is safe for foreigners to visit China…

For alert foreigners who visit or live in China, this summer has been particularly stressful. A Beijing court sentenced a Japanese Astellas Pharma executive to prison for espionage. Wells Fargo & Co. suspended staff travel after one of its Chinese-American managing directors visited and discovered she couldn’t leave. News broke that state security had detained and interrogated a visiting U.S. Commerce Department employee during a personal trip and subjected him to an exit ban. And BlackRock Inc. warned employees not to use any corporate phones or computers in China.

Sadly, these are only the most recent examples in a growing inventory of incidents in which foreigners fall victim to China’s draconian security apparatus and increasingly weaponized political-legal system.

Some weekend reading: American Prospect on the vast amount of venture capital pouring into AI…

Between VCs, Big Tech, and power utilities, the bill for generative AI comes out to close to $2 trillion in spending over the next five years alone. Adding all this up, some are starting to question the economic fundamentals of generative AI. Jim Covello, head of global equity research at Goldman Sachs, doubts the technology can recoup what’s been invested as, unlike the internet, it fails to solve complex business problems at a lower cost than what’s available today. Plus, he argues, the most expensive inputs for generative AI, GPUs and energy, are unlikely to decline meaningfully for the tech industry over time, given how far demand outstrips supply for both. While AI-fueled coding could definitely boost productivity, it’s hard to see how it could become a multitrillion-dollar industry.

…as AI expert Gary Marcus pointed out, DeepSeek’s R1 model spells serious trouble for OpenAI and the cloud giants. The only way OpenAI could hope to recoup the billions it was spending on GPUs to train bigger and bigger models was to maintain a large enough technical lead over other AI companies to justify charging up to $200 for paid subscriptions to its models. That lead just vaporized and was given to the entire industry for free. In response, Altman has already twice cut the prices of his subscriptions in an effort to stay competitive. But without millions of paid subscriptions, it’s difficult to see the pathway to profitability for a company that loses $2 for every $1 it brings in and expects costs to continue to grow approximately tenfold in five years. OpenAI has set $100 billion as its break-even point, which would require it to increase its revenue by a factor of 25 in just five years, an incredible feat of scale that its current business model does not justify.

(An amusing example of an attempt to train AI – Grok, to be specific – to produce gibberish.)

A young man is found guilty of disrespecting the national anthem…

Lau Pun-hei, a 19-year-old student in politics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was convicted on Wednesday for turning his back to the pitch while the Chinese national anthem, “March of the Volunteers,” played ahead of the match at the Hong Kong Stadium on June 6, 2024.

…[Magistrate Kestrel] Lam rejected the defence’s argument that some other people in the stadium, including the police officers who filmed the spectators while the national anthem was being played, also had their backs facing the pitch.

…Lau’s offence was of a “minor nature,” Kwan [Lau’s lawyer] said, as his act was “quiet, peaceful, and did not involve any violence.”

Kwan urged the court to adopt a non-custodial sentence given the defendant’s young age.

Would the court really jail someone for this? Since you can get seven years for writing ‘seditious’ graffiti, it’s possible – though the anthem-insulting thing is not a NatSec offense.

Also, how many cops in the stadium are actually monitoring the crowd looking for people facing in the wrong direction?

What if you turn 90 degrees to the side?

HKFP reports that publicly funded universities in Hong Kong are signing up to an ‘accountability agreement’ requiring alignment with Xi Jinping’s remarks…

Local media reported on Monday that this was the first time the UGC agreement had explicitly required local universities to follow the guidance of the central government since they began signing the three-year contracts in 2019.

The new agreement instructed universities to strengthen education on China’s Constitution, Hong Kong’s Basic Law, and the national security law. This, the agreement said, would help nurture future leaders with “a strong sense of integrity, law-abidingness, civic responsibility, work ethics, and mutual respect.”

A very quick skim through the agreements suggests that all universities have signed identical documents. The wording allows the institutions to stop short of direct, wholehearted reciting of some distinctly Mainland-style political slogans. For example…

CUHK acknowledges the six strategic directions which the Government has established for the 2025-28 triennium and accepts the continual responsibility to pursue and implement them throughout the triennium, namely – 

(a) Supporting Hong Kong’s integration into the overall development of the country and creating impetus for Hong Kong’s growth The UGC-funded universities should be bold and innovative in their institutional visions that dovetail with the strategic development of our nation and Hong Kong over the longer horizon. They should proactively examine their strategies and priorities to seize opportunities for contributing towards Hong Kong’s integration into the overall development of our nation, particularly “invigorating China through science and education”, the National Five-year Plan, the GBA Development and the Belt and Road initiative. They should also strive to follow the advice and guidance of the Central Government on the future of Hong Kong, particularly in light of the “four musts” and “four proposals” and observe President Xi Jinping’s remark on creating strong impetus for Hong Kong’s growth and nurturing young talents for Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity. 

An SCMP story on the ongoing bursting of Hong Kong’s office bubble…

The Law Society of Hong Kong has bought an entire floor of offices in what was formerly the world’s most expensive tower at a 50 per cent discount, the latest among astute investors who are picking up property in the city at bargain prices.

A ‘bargain’? A 50% discount to what, exactly?

The Law Society paid HK$345 million (US$44 million), or HK$14,000 per sq ft, for 24,980 sq ft (2,320 square metres) on the 26th floor of The Center from Gale Well Group…

The purchase price was half of the HK$693 million that Gale Well paid in 2021, when its founder and CEO Jacinto Tong Man-leung bought the property from the late Ma Ah-muk. Ma, dubbed Hong Kong’s Minibus King, passed away in March last year.

…The Center, a 73-storey office tower, was sold in 2018 for a record HK$40.2 billion (US$5.2 billion) by the city’s wealthiest man, Li Ka-shing, to a group of 10 local tycoons in what was then the world’s priciest property deal. Not long after the transaction, Hong Kong’s economy was driven into a slump by six months of anti-government protests and three years of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Does the deal make the Law Society an ‘astute investor’? Leaving aside whether a professional body is (or should behave as) an investor, most of the astuteness in the story must be that of Li Ka-shing, who sold at exactly the right time. It helped, of course, that 10 local tycoons were non-astute enough to pay such high prices without asking themselves why Li was letting such valuable assets go. (Hong Kong has only one real tycoon; the rest are wannabes and amateurs.)

Assuming the Law Society really needs an entire floor of prime downtown office space, the purchase could in the long run save it money it would have spent on rent (assuming also that it has nothing better to do with its apparently significant reserves). Maybe a 50% discount on an utterly stupid price will even offer some long-term capital gains, once the office glut (still growing) is cleared – one day, maybe. It can’t be worse than the previous buyers’ experiences…

Fast forward to 2024, and several of The Centre’s buyers – including the Shenzhen-based developer Kaisa Group, the Shanghai developer Shimao Group and Ma’s family – had to put their prized asset on the market to cash out. The latest was Tong’s Gale Well, which had been trying to sell HK$3 billion of assets to prevent banks from calling on his loans. During a March interview with the Post, Tong said the three floors of The Center – for which he paid HK$2 billion between 2018 and 2021 – were “not for sale”.

Eric Lai in The Diplomat on Hong Kong’s new prison rules …

Five years after China imposed the National Security Law (NSL) in Hong Kong, most of the pillars that once upheld a free and open society – namely independent media, human rights organizations, political opposition, and liberal as well as critical voices – have been dismantled one by one. Hundreds of individuals have been arrested and charged with national security offenses, many receiving long prison sentences.

Yet the local authorities remain unsatisfied with the extent of the crackdown. They are now moving to expand their control inside the prison system.

…the CSD may request that prisoners open letters from their lawyers, potentially breaching legal professional privilege. It also now has the power to obtain judicial warrants preventing prisoners from receiving visits from certain lawyers, clergy, or medical professionals, thus obstructing access to essential professional supports of choice.

Additionally, the CSD may censor or withhold letters and books sent to prisoners on national security grounds. All these measures share a clear objective: to sever communication between prisoners and the outside world, making the prison environment increasingly opaque.

The Standard reports a new fad among the anime crowd: cosplaying the Financial Secretary pushing ‘creative industries’.

Tweet by Sasha Gong, one of the 15 latest overseas people wanted by Hong Kong NatSec police…

Last Friday, I woke up to shocking news: the Hong Kong government had placed a bounty of roughly $30,000 on my head. My photo appeared on a wanted list. The accusation? Treason. They allege that I’ve engaged in activities to overthrow the government. They also claimed that I left Hong Kong in 2013, implying that I was a Hong Kong resident under their jurisdiction.

Let me be absolutely clear. I am not a Hong Kong resident—and never have been. I have been a proud citizen of the United States for decades. 

Reuters report on Taiwan TV series Zero Day…

A new Taiwanese television series that imagines the run-up to a Chinese invasion is getting rave reviews from viewers, who said the first programme featuring the sensitive topic is a wake-up call for the public facing heightened Chinese military threat.

In the show, “Zero Day Attack”, a Chinese war plane goes missing near Taiwan. China then sends swarms of military boats and planes for a blockade as Taiwan goes on a war footing. Panic ensues on the streets of Taipei.

At viewings in Taipei last week attendees have included the top U.S. diplomat in Taiwan Raymond Greene, who is director of the American Institute in Taiwan, and Taiwanese tycoon Robert Tsao, a strident critic of Beijing.

The series is set to premiere on August 2 in Taiwan, followed by its Japanese release on Amazon Prime Video.

…The drama focuses on several scenarios Taiwan might face in the days leading up to a Chinese attack, including a global financial collapse, the activation of Chinese sleeper agents and panicked residents trying to flee the island.

“Without freedom, Taiwan is not Taiwan,” the actor who plays a fictional Taiwan president says in a televised speech, urging unity after declaring war on China, in the show’s trailer.

The live broadcast then gets abruptly cut off, replaced by a feed of a Chinese state television anchor calling for Taiwanese to surrender and to report “hidden pro-independence activists” to Chinese soldiers after their landing in Taiwan.

The Jamestown Foundation’s contribution to the newly popular genre of of papers pondering Xi Jinping’s hold on power…

Structural purges, which have halved the [Central Military Commission]’s size, likely constitute a systematic rebalancing of Xi’s patronage networks. While these actions do not yet amount to an overt power shift, they signal that the outwardly monolithic military-security apparatus Xi once relied upon is now visibly fractured and contested, even as he retains formal authority.

The possibility of fragmentation and realignment within the elite can no longer be ruled out, though no fixed timetable for such a transition exists. As Xi enters what is effectively the indefinite phase of his tenure, Party elites will increasingly maneuver around the unresolved question of succession. For now, Xi appears capable of dictating terms, but as time goes on, the system will only reduce his power to do so.

Soft resistance hits North Korea…

According to a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong province recently, four people in their twenties were arrested in Chongjin by local state security officers for talking like South Koreans. A local resident had tipped off authorities after spotting the group mimicking lines from South Korean films and dramas.

The four are currently being questioned at the city’s Ministry of State Security branch and will likely face six months to a year of forced labor.

Had my ninth Covid shot. The doctor said not many people are bothering any more. I have not (so far as I know) had the illness.

The Hong Kong government announces HK$200,000 bounties for no fewer than 15 people accused of ‘subversion’ (and other stuff) for taking part in elections for a ‘Hong Kong Parliament’ that few have ever heard of, probably because it doesn’t really exist…

…[the group] held unofficial polls outside of the city to form a shadow legislature to “pursue the ideal of Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong.”

The group also vowed to “uphold the core value of popular sovereignty,” as well as “oppose one-party rule and tyranny.”

…Police said if an offender turns themselves in and “truthfully confesses” to their crimes, they may be granted a lighter or reduced sentence.

“Police urge the wanted individuals to turn back before it’s too late. We hope they will seize the opportunity to surrender themselves in Hong Kong and not continue down the wrong path,” the police said in a statement issued in Chinese.

The government press release says…

The “Hong Kong Parliament” aims to subvert state power; its objectives include promoting “self-determination”, promulgating the so-called “Hong Kong Constitution”, and overthrowing or undermining the basic system of the People’s Republic of China established by the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China or overthrowing the body of the central power of People’s Republic of China or the body of power of the HKSAR with unlawful means, thereby suspected of committing the offence of “Subversion” contrary to Article 22 of the Hong Kong National Security Law.

Several of the suspects (details here) already have HK$1 million bounties on them. The fact that the rewards this time are just 200 grand suggests that even the authorities don’t regard the group’s activities as an especially mortal threat to the PRC’s national security. (I could invite a few friends over, and we could all sit around the table and declare ourselves the ‘Hong Kong Parliament’ – the sovereign power would carry on as if nothing was happening.)

Angry-ish (no ‘despicable’) government press release on UK officials’ criticism of the bounties’ thing,,,

A spokesman for the HKSAR Government said, “Endangering national security is a very serious offence. No country will watch with folded arms on acts and activities that endanger national security. The ‘Hong Kong Parliament’ aims to subvert state power; its objectives include promoting ‘self-determination’, promulgating the so-called ‘Hong Kong Constitution’, and overthrowing or undermining the basic system of the [China]…”

     “…It is both necessary and legitimate, and is also in line with those of other countries and regions around the world … Those absconders hiding in the UK and other Western countries are wanted because they continue to blatantly engage in activities endangering national security. More so, they continue to collude with external forces to cover for their evil deeds. It is necessary for the Police to take all lawful measures to strongly combat the acts of abscondment, and such actions are fully justified, necessary and legitimate.

‘Angry-ish’ perhaps because the UK is considering allowing extraditions to Hong Kong (though presumably it would only apply to cases where the alleged offence is a crime in Britain).

Swiftly followed by another…

The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) today (July 27) strongly opposed and disapproved of smears with distorted facts by government officials and politicians from countries like the United States, Canada and Australia, as well as anti-China organisations, on HKSAR’s lawful act to pursue wanted persons endangering national security absconding from Hong Kong. Not only did such foreign government officials and politicians, as well as anti-China organisations, turned a blind eye to illegal acts of criminals, but also deliberately smeared and spread irresponsible remarks, in an attempt to mislead the public, about the measures and actions taken by the HKSAR Government in accordance with the law. The HKSAR Government strongly disapproved of such acts.

An HKFP op-ed ponders the question of how NatSec police caught the 18-year-old who wrote seditious graffiti on the wall of a China Hong Kong City men’s room. The investigation presumably started after someone reported the presence of such a message. The writer rules out the installation of cameras inside toilet cubicles. Assuming that’s the case (hmm…), the police must have used CCTV outside the restroom, positioned so it showed the faces of everyone entering or leaving. Then, they would need to station at least one cop there everyday to check the walls of the stalls for fresh scribblings every time after someone had used the facilities. Since they would probably have had more than one plain-clothes man hanging around at any given time (the same guy lingering all the time would raise suspicions), we could be talking hundreds of man-hours. 

(I wonder what the cops themselves thought of having to do this. Did they ask themselves if this is what they signed up for when they joined the force?)

An SCMP op-ed looks at restaurant closures and pleads for lower rents…

Former Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying … has been trying to talk sense into landlords. Last month, he called on them to cut rents or risk missing out. This month, he warned of the “sheer self-delusion” of holding out for high rents.

…Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has been calling for Hong Kong’s traditional industries to innovate … But, unlike Leung, Lee has not really addressed the elephant in the room: rent. If we understand Leung correctly, he is in effect telling landlords they must change their ways or businesses could perish in this economic environment.

The brilliant songwriter Tom Lehrer has died at the age of 96. He has left his work to all of us. My father introduced me to his songs when I was around 12. ‘In the land of the boll weevil, where the laws are medieval’ (here).

From Thematic Markets, a long piece suggesting that China’s industrial overcapacity is deliberate and the country’s economy is incompatible with much of the rest of the global economy…

…contrary to another popular myth, China’s rise has little to do with efficiency or productivity.  China’s ascent results mostly from beggar-thy-neighbor industrial policies.  China’s total factor productivity (TFP) growth – growth in output not resulting from adding more labor or capital, i.e. efficiency and innovation – has been negative for nearly a decade (Figure 1); i.e. more than all of China’s growth since 2013 has come from increasing capital, even as efficiency subtracted from output.¹³  As a middle-income country, China should offer higher returns on investment than an already rich country, yet the marginal product of capital in China had fallen below that of the United States (Figure 2).  Put another way, China’s economy now is so inefficient that it requires an extraordinary $11 of investment to create $1 of incremental of output.  Furthermore, these figures likely understate China’s inefficiency since they are based on reported Chinese GDP growth that probably is overstated.

…For nearly 30 years, Chinese political, military and diplomatic doctrine has been to use economic development to raise China to a position where it could challenge and displace the US-dominated world order.  President Xi has been unabashedly clear in his desire to create a new “multipolar” order that returns China to its historic role as the ”Middle Kingdom.”¹⁷  He has been similarly blunt that he expects and is preparing for war with the West that he aims to win.¹⁸  Mr. Xi’s top international and domestic policy priorities – the “Made in China 2025” and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – aim to make China as self-sufficient as possible while placing it at the center of a new international order based on dependencies to China that guarantee the domestically unavailable resources. 

Hot on the tails of the SCMP’s article on why people like decent affordable food outlets, the BBC asks why locals in places like Barcelona hate tourists.

From Ars Technica – how conspiracy theorists think they’re normal…

In 2015, Pennycook made headlines when he co-authored a paper demonstrating how certain people interpret “pseudo-profound bullshit” as deep observations. Pennycook et al. were interested in identifying individual differences between those who are susceptible to pseudo-profound BS and those who are not and thus looked at conspiracy beliefs, their degree of analytical thinking, religious beliefs, and so forth.

They presented several randomly generated statements, containing “profound” buzzwords, that were grammatically correct but made no sense logically, along with a 2014 tweet by Deepak Chopra that met the same criteria. They found that the less skeptical participants were less logical and analytical in their thinking and hence much more likely to consider these nonsensical statements as being deeply profound. That study was a bit controversial, in part for what was perceived to be its condescending tone, along with questions about its methodology. But it did snag Pennycook et al. a 2016 Ig Nobel Prize.

..Take the case of the Sandy Hook conspiracy, where adherents believe it was a false flag operation. In one sample, 8 percent of people thought that this was true. That 8 percent thought 61 percent of people agreed with them.

An 18-year-old is arrested for allegedly writing ‘seditious’ messages on the wall of a men’s room at Hong Kong China City…

According to the police, the messages were deemed to have provoked hatred, contempt or disaffection against the constitutional order and the executive, legislative or judicial authorities in Hong Kong. The contents also incited other people to commit illegal acts, the police alleged.

Were they messages or essays?

“Police remind members of the public that ‘doing with a seditious intention an act or acts that had a seditious intention’ is a serious offence. Offenders shall be liable to imprisonment for seven years on first conviction. Members of the public are urged not to defy the law,” the statement read.

Some reports are saying that the guy wrote ‘Liberate Hong Kong’. 

If that counts as seditious intention (squared?), what about the Hudson Institute’s new paper on ‘Preparing for a post-CCP China’? From the synopsis…

While the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has weathered crises before, a sudden regime collapse in China is not entirely unthinkable. Policymakers need to consider what might happen and what steps they would have to take if the world’s longest-ruling Communist dictatorship and second-largest economy collapses due to its domestic and international troubles. 

The whole thing is a 128-page PDF referencing – among other things – the Zhou Dynasty. I just skimmed.

Asia Times does a pithier take…

But does this [list of economic and other problems] translate into active opposition within the Central Committee—the body that could potentially remove Xi? No. Because these officials believe that to fix the problem, they’d need to remove the “big man.” But this is a highly hazardous operation, attempted a few times with no success, and often leading to the demise of the rebels.

Moreover, there’s a broader calculation at play. The system is built around the emperor—if you bring him down, will the system survive? If it doesn’t, the officials risk losing their posts along with the leader. As an act of self-preservation, they defend the emperor, no matter what.

The middle class is in a similar situation: their homes have lost half of their value, and their savings have diminished dramatically. But half is better than nothing—especially in the event of a revolution. They still have a lot to lose, and revolutions are fought by people who have nothing to lose but their chains.

Hong Kong’s Security Secretary wants civil servants to identify and respond to ‘soft resistance’…

In a newspaper interview published on Tuesday, Secretary for Security Chris Tang said foreign interference in local affairs has become more diverse and covert as Hong Kong takes on an increasingly prominent position on the global stage.

The government says “soft resistance” involves people channels such as disinformation and the arts to divide society through public opinion and to try to cause distrust or hostility towards the authorities.

Compared to “hard resistance”, it is more difficult to guard against “soft resistance” due to its infiltrating nature, Tang added, while vowing to work on various fronts to safeguard national security.

He said the administration will release new guidelines for civil servants as soon as possible, outlining how they should fulfil their duty in safeguarding national security.

One such way, Tang said, is paying close attention to the emergence of “soft resistance” and taking proactive countermeasures.

We are still none the wiser about what ‘soft resistance’ actually is. It is nowhere, yet it is all around us. It is apparently not illegal, but it is a serious threat. It might involve the arts. It tries to ‘divide society through public opinion’. (What if ‘soft resistance’ is public opinion? What if it is simply ‘society’? What if the problem is people in charge who see the public as a threat?)

What is even less clear is what civil servants are expected to do to respond to it. If, as seems likely, much ‘soft resistance’ is in fact simple criticism of the government, maybe officials could try proactive countermeasures like listening to complaints, and acting to make sure the government does a better job, thus leading to greater public satisfaction. Just an idea. Or is suggesting such a thing ‘soft resistance’?

The government is budgeting HK$1.2 billion for December’s Legislative Council election. The body these days has 90 members, but only 20 of them are returned by popular vote. Another 30 represent functional constituencies, returned by small-circle groups comprising mainly non-human entities. And 40 are returned by a small-circle ‘election committee’. The whole chamber is ‘patriots-only’, with all nominations subject to a screening process; in 2021 many seats were uncontested and voter turnout for the directly elected seats was barely 30%.

In December, there will almost certainly be no opposition candidates on the ballot, and it is likely the bulk of the public will take little interest. The new-style Legco election is, after all, designed to ensure they have no meaningful participation or input: they’re not allowed to vote for most seats, and the candidates they would want can’t take part anyway. There must be a cheaper way for the executive to install its own legislative branch. And…

Another HK$200 million would be needed for the Election Committee subsector by-elections on September 7.

How much can this cost?

On the subject of diverting tax-payers’ money into performances…

Over 100,000 Japanese seafood and aquatic products scanned for radiation in nearly two years since Hong Kong restricted imports due to the discharge of treated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant, with exactly ZERO found to exceed WHO safety levels

From China Unofficial Archives – how Lau Chun Kong came to write Dark Night in Yuen Long on the 7/21 attack.

The SCMP notices the success of two dishes-plus-rice (mostly take-away) restaurants and asks: ‘Why are Hong Kong eateries selling ‘poor man’s meals’ bucking closure trend?’ 

The paper’s sleuth-like reporters solve the mystery…

The growth of such businesses has defied a wave of closures among food and beverage establishments in Hong Kong…

…Gary Ng Cheuk-yan, a senior economist at the Natixis Corporate and Investment Bank, said the rise of this-this rice dining’s popularity over the past few years was largely due to the affordable prices amid broader economic uncertainties.

“Such economic uncertainties mean that consumers are much more prudent when spending, choosing more value-for-money options,” he said.

Who would have thought that entrepreneurs could do well – and even pay some hefty rents – by offering what customers want at prices they find attractive? (Perhaps management theorist Peter Drucker, who defined a company as ‘an organization that makes a profit by meeting a public need’, or something like that.)  

As one customer explains, it’s not simply price, but convenience and genuine appeal…

…“I have a soft spot for this-this rice. I come here for lunch two to three times a week as it’s the closest thing to home cooking.

(Also, I would add, a great way to get quick rice and greens to go with a protein dish you’re making yourself.)

The people behind these no-frills lunchbox places seem to have two things in common. First, they are not civil servants or op-ed writers desperately wondering how to stop Hongkongers from shopping in Shenzhen. And second, they did not open independent bookstores.

Which brings us to an HKFP report on recent tax audits for small bookshops…. 

The directors of the five companies spoke to HKFP on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisals. While the IRD has completed audits of some companies, others are still under investigation. Among the five, three were established over eight years ago, while two were set up within the past five years.

Brian, a director of an independent bookshop that opened less than half a decade ago, told HKFP that the IRD informed him the company was under tax investigation in late 2024, soon after the company filed its first tax return. 

“Our accountant found it strange. While the IRD can probe tax affairs over the past seven years, it is uncommon for the IRD to investigate newly established companies,” Brian said in Cantonese. “Ours is such a small-scale operation, and the profit is small; is it worth auditing from an economic perspective?” 

…Lily has been running an independent bookshop for more than eight years. Since it was established, business has been tough, recording losses in most financial years. The IRD had never investigated her company until early last year.

According to an IRD document Lily showed to HKFP, the tax authorities began probing the company’s tax assessments over the past six years. It took the bookshop almost a year to answer all the questions from the IRD. 

Lily said the audit was completed late last year after the company was fined “a tiny amount of money” for some understatement of income. 

AP on the new regulations expanding restrictions on prison visits…

Under the new rules, effective Friday, magistrates can issue warrants on application by correctional service officers to bar exchanges between specific legal representatives and persons in custody if the judges believe such connections could harm national security or cause bodily harm to any person, among other reasons.

The department can also restrict certain visits, including those made by specific chaplains, for purposes such as maintaining national security, preventing crime and facilitating inmate rehabilitation.

…In a discussion of the changes with lawmakers this month, Hong Kong Secretary for Security Chris Tang said some prison visitors specifically went to see inmates who were jailed for their roles in “the black violence” — a phrase officials use to describe the 2019 protests — and they continued to stoke anger against the government. 

…Brandon Yau, secretary of the prisoner support group Waiting Bird, said it seemed some authorities believed former demonstrators of the 2019 protests were still planning organized resistance in jail, but that it doesn’t match reality.

…“It seems they (authorities) are doing something further to create an atmosphere that they would continue to target and suppress the political prisoners who were convicted for their roles in the social movement,” he said.