The Odyssey - Democracy in Hong Kong

[Randy W]

Apple Daily goes viral in Hong Kong

from the SCMP on Facebook

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=602252660490693&id=355665009819

 

Edited December 21, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

. . . and released

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2644796425740835&id=355665009819

Edited December 21, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the Global Times

But, but . . . I thought Hong Kong was supposed to be PART of China

From 'Made in HK' to 'Made in China'

• American interests are likely to be hit harder due to surplus: experts

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Imports from Hong Kong to the US will be labeled "Made in China" instead of "Made in Hong Kong" from September 25, according to a notice published on Tuesday by the US Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security.

 

Analysts said that while Hong Kong will suffer a little, the US will suffer more, as the US has a huge trade surplus with Hong Kong.

 

The US customs' move means that it will suspend Hong Kong's special tariff status from September, and from then on, the exports from Hong Kong to the US will subject to the same tariff rates as the products from the Chinese mainland, which would undercut Hong Kong exports' market competitiveness, an executive of a Shenzhen-based trading agency surnamed Duan told the Global Times Tuesday.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from Xinhua on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/369959106408139/posts/4030919133645433/?substory_index=0

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港h奸 o好下

Disaster to Hong Kong and traitors, no good end

 

Edited December 21, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Don't forget - Hong Kong is part of China

 

from the SCMP

 

Asia’s world city: the old Hong Kong brand is no more. Perhaps we should try Asia’s Greater Bay Area city?

• The national security law, which the government used to raid a media outlet and arrest its owner, has left the Hong Kong brand in tatters
• The now-dead extradition bill was a precursor to events that changed how the world sees the city

The Hong Kong the world knew is gone. It was a brand built over many decades: Asia’s top financial centre with a thriving semi-democracy, a freewheeling media, fearless free speech and unhampered anti-government protests. That brand was already fading after what many in the international community saw as heavy-handed police tactics to crush last year’s often violent anti-government protests. The national security law imposed by Beijing, which the government used to raid a media outlet and arrest its owner, has left the brand in tatters. It doesn’t matter how many times Beijing and local leaders insist today’s Hong Kong is as it always was despite the new law. Images can be more powerful than words. The images of more than 200 police officers raiding the headquarters of Next Digital, the parent company of Apple Daily, shocked not only many in Hong Kong but also the Western world.

 

When Hong Kong’s leader cannot go to the US, have any dealings with banks and businesses that have US connections, or even use credit cards issued by US firms, she belongs to the same small club as Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who have also been sanctioned by the US. The US no longer treats Hong Kong as a separate customs territory, four other Western countries have suspended extradition treaties with Hong Kong, Lam has resigned from her honorary fellowship at Cambridge University after Wolfson College moved to reconsider it, and local exports to the US will soon have to be labelled “Made in China”.

 

Hong Kong will remain an important financial centre. Its unique, though eroding, status still makes it the gateway to China. But its global image is tarnished. It needs to rebrand itself, not as Asia’s world city but Asia’s Greater Bay Area city. That may gain traction.

 

 

[Randy W]

Hong Kong: "We're not REALLY part of China!"

 

from the SCMP

 

Hong Kong’s vow to fight US over ‘Made in China’ ruling sparks debate

• Hong Kong confirms intention to launch a World Trade Organisation case over Donald Trump’s order requiring ‘Made in China’ labels on goods exported from the city to the United States
• Some experts are imploring city authorities to stand up to perceived US bullying, but others warn of ‘kicking the hornet’s nest’

[Randy W]

More arrests, from the SCMP on Facebook

 

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/355665009819/posts/313055643251736/

 

Edited December 21, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

. . . and a foiled escape - from the WSJ

 

China Coast Guard Seizes Hong Kong Activists Fleeing to Taiwan

• Target of investigation under national-security law was among group intercepted on speedboat

The group, people familiar with the matter said, included Andy Li, an activist who had been arrested in Hong Kong two weeks ago during a swoop by a new national-security police unit that also raided the office of a newspaper. Mr. Li had been released on bail by police, who said he was being investigated for alleged ties to a dissident group suspected of colluding with foreign countries to interfere in Hong Kong affairs.

 

The attempted escape to Taiwan was reminiscent of Operation Yellowbird, when Western intelligence agencies and activists aided Tiananmen Square protesters trying to flee the mainland via Hong Kong—some of them by sea with the help of smugglers—while Chinese authorities tried to intercept them.

 

Mr. Li was a volunteer for an advocacy group for Hong Kong’s movement called “Fight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong.” After the Aug. 10 arrest, the group said the arrested suspects linked with the group had only supported it in November, and as such weren’t criminally liable as the national security law isn’t retroactive.

 

Bookseller Lam Wing-kee, one of the most high-profile figures who chose to flee Hong Kong for Taiwan last year, said the boat escape wasn’t a surprise to him and he would expect to see more people trying to escape Hong Kong after the security law went into effect last month.

 

 

[Randy W]

from the NYTimes - Published Nov. 10, 2020Updated Nov. 30, 2020

Hong Kong Protest Icon Mysteriously Vanished. Then She Returned Unbowed.

• Alexandra Wong, 64, better known as “Grandma Wong,” said she had been detained by the Chinese authorities and made to pledge she would stop protesting.

 

Alexandra Wong expressing support for protesters at a court hearing in Hong Kong last month.Credit...Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

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In Shenzhen, where the police have more leeway to prosecute political dissent, Ms. Wong would often complain about excessive security checks. But unlike in Hong Kong, few of her friends would join her in protest. When she disappeared, many assumed she had been stopped by the mainland police on her way home from protesting.

Ms. Wong said she had been detained while crossing the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen on Aug. 14, and spent 15 days in administrative detention without being told of her crimes. Investigators grilled her about the protests, the British flag and whether she used violence, she said. They showed her photos of protesters and asked her if she knew them.

They showed her news photos of herself: “Is that you?”

She was then sent to a second detention center and kept in a small cell with 15 other people. “It was very difficult for an old woman,” she said. The authorities also took her on a five-day trip from Shenzhen to Shaanxi Province in northwest China. She had visited there years before as a volunteer for a Christian charity organization.

The return trip with the authorities was meant to show her how quickly the area had been developed under Communist Party rule, and to instill a sense of patriotism. While there, she said she had been asked to take photos with the Chinese flag and to sing the national anthem. She was eventually released on a form of bail that prevented her from leaving Shenzhen.

 

 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the Guardian UK - see Wikipedia - Causeway Bay Books disappearances

Exiled bookseller: 'If they can take Hong Kong back, the next place is Taiwan' | Taiwan | The Guardian

• After fleeing Hong Kong for Taiwan, Lam Wing-kee speaks of the danger the island faces and the ordeal of his detention in China

‘It’s important for people to read such works to understand,’ says Lam Wing-kee from his new bookshop in Taiwan. Photograph: Naomi Goddard/The Guardian

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Lam had spent decades selling critical, political and gossipy titles banned by the CCP before he and four others were disappeared from various locations in Hong Kong, mainland China and Thailand, re-emerging in Chinese detention. Lam has said he was grabbed by agents while crossing the Chinese border at Shenzhen with a load of books for distribution in the mainland.

“I never understood why this thing happened, but I understood I could be a threat to the Chinese government,” he says. “I’d shipped many different books, including those that were banned and others just not considered good, because I thought it was important for people in China to know exactly what was going on.”

He was held for five months in the city of Ningbo, where he taped a false confession for broadcast, and then was transferred to Guangdong province. He relates to the group known as the Hong Kong 12, young activists languishing in mainland prisons after they were arrested trying to reach Taiwan by boat.

“You can’t compare custody in Hong Kong to custody in China,” Lam says. “I was really scared in custody.”

 

 

[Randy W]

from the WSJ - Dec. 11

Former Hong Kong Lawmaker Seeks Asylum in the U.S.
Activist seeks Washington’s support for targets of China’s suppression in the city; ‘everybody in my circle is frightened’

China passed a national security law for Hong Kong that aims to quell anti-government protests following a year of unrest. WSJ’s Josh Chin explains why some countries have criticized the law and why critics say it could threaten the city’s status as a global financial hub. Photo: May James/Zuma Press (Originally published June 30, 2020)

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A year ago, Sixtus Leung was busy helping Hong Kong protesters escape from a university campus besieged by police.

Now, after arriving in the U.S. on Nov. 30, he is seeking asylum and lobbying U.S. lawmakers for more support for young activists who want to leave Hong Kong.

“Everybody in my circle is frightened,” said the 34-year-old former leader of a political party that advocated self-determination for Hong Kong. “But Hong Kong is not yielding.”

In September, he served four weeks in prison after losing an appeal against an illegal-assembly conviction for barging into the chamber after his disqualification.

The police have stepped up arrests and prosecutions of higher-profile activists involved in last year’s unrest, and investigations by national security police are increasing. One escape attempt by 12 activists facing charges was intercepted by Chinese authorities. Another group tried to seek refuge at the U.S. diplomatic mission in the city.

 

https://www.facebook.com/scmp/videos/395167838264772/

Edited December 20, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the SCMP
Exclusive | Beijing mulling drastic overhaul of Election Committee deciding Hong Kong’s chief executive and Legislative Council to curb opposition’s influence: sources

• China’s top legislative body could begin process to scrap 117 committee seats decided by district councillors as it meets this week

• Beijing may also axe five legislative ‘super seats’ dominated by opposition camp to erode its influence in city’s political affairs, insiders say

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As part of sweeping proposals that sources said were meant to disempower the district councillors – many of whom were protesters and activists who won their seats riding on a wave of public discontent in last year’s elections – the city’s pro-establishment members were also lobbying Beijing to get rid of five so-called super seats from the local electoral map. Again, the intent was to erode the relevance of the opposition councillors, the insiders said.

 

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

First volume of ‘Chronicles of Hong Kong’ launched as part of HK$780 million, eight-year project

• Organisers deny scheme – which aims to publish a total of 30 million words over eight years – is a political mission by the central government
• The project aims to complete 66 volumes by 2027, telling the stories of Hong Kong as part of China from ancient times to 2017

 

 

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“This is definitely not something politically driven. This is something we in the community have been longing for over many years,” said Executive Council member Bernard Chan, chairman of the executive committee of the Hong Kong Chronicles Institute.

“Hong Kong, together with Macau, are the only places in the whole of China that do not collect our own chronicles.”

 

 

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

Hong Kong national security law: ‘about 30 people overseas sought by police’

• Force insider says most of the suspects now in Europe, the US or Taiwan
• Another 40 have been arrested by police’s national security unit since legislation was imposed by Beijing on June 30

Quote

 

The source said the 30 included some overseas-based activists, while the others had left the city through legal immigration channels before or after the enactment of the law.

He said they were accused of inciting secession or collusion with foreign and external forces to endanger national security, or taking part in activities considered illegal under the new.

He revealed that among those on the wanted list were Leung, who left for the United States on November 30, and Hui, who is now in Britain after flying to Denmark in late November.

Others include activist Sunny Cheung Kwan-yang, a former spokesman of the Hong Kong Higher Institutions International Affairs Delegation, who lobbied support for the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, and student Brian Leung Kai-ping, who fled to the US after he joined other protesters in storming the Legislative Council during social unrest on July 1 last year, and was the only one among them to remove his mask while inside the chamber.

 

 

[Randy W]

Global Times

Yesterday at 11:00 AM  · 

https://www.facebook.com/115591005188475/videos/406780280434765/

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GT Video

【Video】Shenzhen's Yantian District People's Court on Wednesday sentenced 10 Hong Kong fugitives to imprisonment for organizing an illegal border crossing and illegally entering Chinese mainland waters in August. The video tells you why the judgment by Chinese mainland judicial department is fair and legitimate.