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Hong Kong: what next?

IMPORTANT DATA:


For the first time since comparable records started, in 1961, Hong Kong's population has fallen/shrunk in the last 12 months.

Despite the continuing annual flooding of the territory by 75,000 ill-educated CCP members. And despite the borders being hugely restricted for the last 18 months. The outflood of residents has been dramatic - a net outflow of @ 120,000 people - about 1.2% of the population. The first time there's ever been an annual net outflow since comparable records began sixty years ago (1961 - the two decades before this saw massive, almost overwhelming, annual immigration, every fucking year - for obvious reasons).

Worse though, these are mostly well educated young families emigrating.

About 6.5% of all nurses have left Hong Kong in the last 12 months and a similar percentage of teachers and doctors. A catastrophic loss to the - already grossly understaffed and overstretched - public healthcare and education infrastructure.

And by my own, humble, anecdotal demographic calculations, these "official" numbers and percentages likely represent an underestimation of the out-flux and also misrepresent the level of the talented that are abandoning/preparing to abandon ship. Once borders are open, expect another deluge of capital, talent and youth departing.

And those less advantaged, but equally talented, families left behind due to their financial circumstances are being forced to subsume themselves into the new regime and send their kids to school for brainwashing every day.


What was it the Brits said? "An Honourable Withdrawal From Hong Kong", or something? Yeah! Sure!


Meanwhile, the news-cycle moves on to the next "honourable withdrawal".


And people go to work.


I'm struggling with all of this bullshit.

A little bitter with it all, obviously.

Most people are far too fucking comfortable to care.

:(


Woof
 
Jessiedog said:
Update:

Hong Kong University has handed a list of names of students who may have been involved in "advocating terrorism" to the National Security Police.

The NS Police have alerted the airport and all other exit points of Hong Kong, to ensure that nobody on the list can leave the region.

Happy days!

:(


(Edit: To add the below.)





Woof
Click to expand...



Remember back in early July this year (2021,) the student leaders (from the now-dissolved HKU Students Union,) that released a statement commemorating the guy who stabbed a cop and then committed suicide?

In very short order, they retracted the statement, apologised and resigned, remember?

Well four of them were arrested today (18th August 2021,) by the National Security Police and charged with "Advocating Terrorism".

I understand that a further three students are detained by police "assisting an investigation" but are not, currently, under arrest.


錯誤 - RTHK

錯誤 - RTHK
news.rthk.hk news.rthk.hk



Surely people will wonder what would happen to the elderly parents of the 50 year old who died, if they took a TV interview where they expressed shock, horror and grief at his actions and explained that he was a really good person that was just pushed over the edge!


The law is what we say it is. And, in this instance, we say that mourning is "Terrorism".

Capisce?


Happy days.


Woof
 
I rarely agree with the economic perspectives of "The Economist", though often appreciate the concise eloquence and lucidity of its contributors.

This piece, I found agreeable. (It requires email registration, I think, so I've reproduced it below - sorry, The Economist, but I'm sure it won't be widely read in these fora).


www.economist.com

Hong Kong’s government is crushing the city’s pro-democracy unions

Workers will suffer | China
www.economist.com www.economist.com



ONCE CHINESE state media labelled the group a “poisonous tumour”, it was clear that its time was running out. Within hours of that slur, in late July, the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union was disowned by the city’s education bureau. For ten days the union, which represents about 80% of the city’s teachers, sought a reprieve. It cut ties with pro-democracy groups and with Education International, a global umbrella group. It promised to dream up new ways for schools to promote Chinese culture. But in mid-August it said it would disband. The Communist Party had warned, through intermediaries, that its assets could be frozen and its leaders arrested if it did not, say local reports.

The organisation was the largest single-profession union in Hong Kong and a stalwart of the city’s pro-democracy movement. Its dissolution is a landmark in the party’s relentless dismantling of civil society. On August 15th the Civil Human Rights Front, a group that has organised many of the city’s biggest pro-democracy marches, also said it could no longer soldier on. In recent years fury at Hong Kong’s government had led to a surge of enthusiasm for organised labour. But one veteran activist says optimism has given way to “a sense of hopelessness, helplessness and fear”.

For years most unions in Hong Kong were affiliated with either the Communist Party or the Kuomintang, which fled mainland China for Taiwan in 1949. New ones loyal to neither party began to form in the 1970s. The teachers’ union was among the first of these. But organisations sympathetic to the Communist Party, such as the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, an umbrella group for pro-government unions, have continued to dominate. They have done a poor job of fighting to improve workers’ rights in a city that has exceptionally powerful business lobbies.

Anti-government protests in 2019 brought hope of a fresh start. In August of that year workers took part in Hong Kong’s first general strike in half a century. Accountants, civil servants, engineers and IT workers started new unions. Bartenders, bus drivers and make-up artists did as well. The founders of these new groups were generally younger and better educated than those who had previously led the labour movement.

Their organisations were set up in solidarity with the pro-democracy movement and with the aim of helping stage further strikes. Some gained prominence during the pandemic. In February 2020 members of the Hospital Authority Employee Alliance, a newly founded union of medical workers, voted to stop work for a week in protest against the government’s decision to keep the borders with mainland China open, despite the spread of covid-19. Most Hong Kongers supported them.

The idea was also that new unions would come to influence politics directly. A share of seats in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, known as Legco, are reserved for “functional” constituencies, namely business, professional and civil-society groups with a pro-government bias. Three of these seats are returned by a vote among the unions. In theory registering lots of new organisations gives the pro-democracy camp a bigger say.

In May 2021 Hong Kong’s labour minister said there had been a “tsunami-like” surge in applications to register new labour groups. He said there had been more than 4,000 such requests in 2020—at least 20 times more than in any of the previous four years—and that his department had so far processed only about a fifth of them. A few hundred of these unions are being founded to improve workers’ rights, say labour activists. Many of the rest result from campaigns run by both the pro-democracy and pro-government blocs of the labour movement to increase their voter base.

The party is hitting back. Winnie Yu, a nurse who led the strike by medical staff, was arrested in January (she had participated in a primary ballot to choose pro-democracy candidates for legislative elections, which the authorities claimed was illegal). Carole Ng of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, which encompasses some 90 independent unions, faces the same charge. Her colleague Lee Cheuk-yan is serving 20 months in jail for participating in protests in 2019. Many think their confederation will become the party’s next target, now that the teachers’ union has put down its chalk.

In July police rounded up five members of a union for speech therapists, saying that children’s books they had published, which featured sheep defending their village from wolves, were “seditious”. Leaders of some other unions have resigned their posts, fearful of arrest. Members are drifting away. Meanwhile new rules prevent unions from having a vote in Legco elections for three years after they are founded (it used to be 12 months). In any case, an overhaul of the electoral system that was made final in May has in effect barred critics of the Communist Party from seeking election.

Activists think trade unions will increasingly resemble the hollow ones in mainland China, which exist primarily to help the party keep a lid on dissent. Workers will suffer. Hong Kong is one of the most unequal places in the world. The minimum wage is about $4.80 an hour. The poor earn more than in mainland China but Oxfam, an anti-poverty charity, says a “living wage” in Hong Kong would be $7. Hong Kongers endure some of the world’s longest working hours, and also have to pay its highest rents.

Many observers think teachers will now be encouraged to join the Federation of Education Workers, a pro-Beijing organisation that is not formally registered as a union. Educators could certainly use support. A survey in May found one-fifth of school teachers planned to retire or find a new career. Over 70% of them complained of “increased political pressure”. The education bureau has lately expelled several teachers from the profession, reportedly because of their involvement in protest movements. Many more have received formal warnings. The Federation of Education Workers says it may be able to help teachers accused of misconduct—but only if they first admit their mistakes. ■


Woof
 
not-bono-ever said:
Strange but I was just reading an article about HK from 83 - declassified recently- UKG proposed relocation of 5.5 m HKers to Northern Ireland
Click to expand...


Yeah. I remember when the news broke in 2015.



coconuts.co

UK officials considered resettling all 5.5 million Hongkongers in N. Ireland in 1983 | Coconuts

Newly released government documents have revealed that the UK discussed the idea of lifting all 5.5 million Hong Kong people and plopping them down in Northern Ireland.
coconuts.co coconuts.co

www.theguardian.com

UK officials discussed resettling 5.5m Hong Kong Chinese in Northern Ireland

Archives reveal debate in 1983 over bizarre idea of moving millions of Chinese to Northern Ireland at height of Troubles ahead of colony’s handover to Beijing
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com




Bottom line? It was more of a dig into the sectarianism of early 1980's Northern Ireland than any serious solution to the "Hong Kong problem" of the time.


That said, post-Brexit, it may indeed be a solution for Ireland. An influx of talented entrepreneurs to the north of the island, creating an economic boom and hastening reunification.

But in the strange half-light, who can tell? ;)


(And let's not forget to support Palestine, Thailand, Burma, Taiwan, Belarus, etc. too!)


(I blame the weird nihilist-Arab-East German Friday night assassin and watchmaking freak!)


Take a shower peeps. Wear a mask. Hug each other.


Be safe. And Keep Thinking!


Blessings one and all!

:)

Woof
 
Three senior Directors of the West Kowloon Cultural District have resigned this year - and it's not anything like properly open yet.


And, contemporarily, Bye Bye Hong Kong Arts Scene.

Three years gaol now, for showing a film that isn't approved.

Happy days.




Woof
 
The purge continues. There will be no democratic voice in any future elections. None whatsoever.


錯誤 - RTHK

錯誤 - RTHK
news.rthk.hk news.rthk.hk


The irony is, having completely rigged all elections, the government is now saying that if pan-democratic political parties do not participate in the charade elections later this year, they serve no purpose.

This is deeply Orwellian stuff.

Happy days.

Stay safe peeps. Wear a mask. Love each other.

Blessings.

Woof
 
Flavour said:
Are they just going to wipe out all those amazing 80s HK movies as if they had never existed?
Click to expand...


Anything that violates the NSL cannot be shown anywhere on earth (it's a law that claims extraterritorial jurisdiction).

But, the thing is, you won't know it until you show it.

That's the whole purpose of the, nebulous, NSL.

Kill the monkey to scare the chickens - then everyone is scared to go near anything that might approach the CCP's "Red Lines".

It really is White Terror. The stench of the Cultural Revolution is all over the place and the SAR Govt's language now sounds like the CCP's.

Be aware that if you travel to Hong Kong or the mainland you will be arrested if you have violated the HKNSL, wherever on earth you did so.

It's not pretty.


And yet, in another 24 hour news cycle, people forget. (Hashtag-What's Happening in Myanmar.)

Happy days.


Woof
 
I've covered much of this over the last couple of months but Matthew Brooker at Bloomberg does a neat, well written, synopsis here.


"The government says the national security law targets only a small minority of people and has restored stability but authorities’ actions in the past year go much farther. This is a Communist-style whole-of-society rectification campaign aimed at moving Hong Kong closer to the social orthodoxy of mainland China. The dissolution of the teachers’ union alone affects tens of thousands. If you include the voters who handed a landslide victory to the opposition in the 2019 District Council elections, then the impact stretches to the millions. In reality, there is almost no aspect of Hong Kong life that has been left untouched. A few endearing and outdated PR slogans can’t change that."

www.bloomberg.com

Reality TV Is the Last Thing Hong Kong Wants

Western entertainment is lending a hand in efforts to rebrand a city that is being remade in Beijing’s image.
www.bloomberg.com www.bloomberg.com


Come Bells. Rest.

G'night good peeps.

Woof
 
Happy days.


hongkongfp.com

University of Hong Kong asks student leaders to report their role and votes during controversial council meeting | Hong Kong Free Press HKFP

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has asked dozens of student leaders to indicate their roles in a controversial student council meeting that passed a now-withdrawn sympathy motion on the suicide of a police attacker. It comes days after four council members were arrested and charged with...
hongkongfp.com hongkongfp.com


G'night. Blessings one and all.

Come Bells.

Woof
 
On this day (28th August,) in 1963, in Washington DC. USA, a man gave a speech. Here’s a snippet:


"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!"


(Edited to eliminate superfluous duplication and substitute an appropriate, time-referenced, quotation.)

:)

Woof
 
Last edited:
Jessiedog said:
And then, of course, there's always the CCP grifter, Junius Ho.


www.scmp.com

Hong Kong Gay Games ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing’, lawmakers warn

Junius Ho is among at least three pro-establishment figures to object to Hong Kong hosting the Games next year.
www.scmp.com www.scmp.com


What a fucking cunt!


(Come Bells. Bed!)


:snarl:


Woof
Click to expand...

has any sort of consensus emerged about the HK Gay Games? People (from the rest of world) have talked about if it should be boycotted. But don't know if there's any sort of organised front on that point.

it'd be a shame in a way. I remember how great it was when it was announced that HK would be first asian host of the game. Another step forward in GBLT rights. but if it'd be a step backwards for the Games to be cancelled, it feels like that step back has already been taken and much more. going ahead seems like lending the government a fig leaf for pretending HK is still relatively free in any way.
 
Cerv said:
has any sort of consensus emerged about the HK Gay Games? People (from the rest of world) have talked about if it should be boycotted. But don't know if there's any sort of organised front on that point.

it'd be a shame in a way. I remember how great it was when it was announced that HK would be first asian host of the game. Another step forward in GBLT rights. but if it'd be a step backwards for the Games to be cancelled, it feels like that step back has already been taken and much more. going ahead seems like lending the government a fig leaf for pretending HK is still relatively free in any way.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I hear you Cerv.

It's another really complex one for me and difficult to parse and understand the nuances of.


The FACT is that the Hong Kong government has done NOTHING to support these games - no money, no organisation, NOTHING!

The games are a purely private effort, organised and built over the last five years, to achieve this extraordinary event, with participants from close to 50 countries.

The HK govt. is generally homophobic (too many conservatives, traditionalists, twats, zealotist protestants and, particularly, Catholics lobbying and indeed within the hierarchy). And given the recent crackdown on LBGT rights on the mainland (being gay is now a "western" thing apparently,) the HK govt. is just keeping schtum about the event (apart from cunts like Junius Ho et al in LegCo).

So, from this perspective, the games should go ahead ... it's got fuck all to do with the government and is the first of its kind in Asia - a real (potential,) breakthrough.

On the other hand, the global perception will be that the HK govt. DID actually put the games on (IT DID NOT! NOT ONE PENNY AND NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!), which will inevitably lead to a whitewashing of the fascist revolution that has occurred. And the HK govt. (CCP) will inevitably leverage this.

It's a tough one. On balance, I think it should go ahead due to the cause it supports, its uniqueness in Asia (first ever,) and the dedication of all those invovled in making it happen.

The downside of this is that it WILL whitewash what is happening in Hong Kong, it WILL portray the local HK govt. (CCP,) as being more liberal than it is and it WILL propagate the idea that One Country Two Systems is still intact - and these issues are actually, potentially fatally, detrimental to the progression of genuine LGBT rights in Hong Kong.

It's a really hard one!

Beijing 2022, of course, is a no-brainer. Just say NO to drugs kids!


Woof
 
And ...


Another song about leaving Hong Kong,
It's more an Exodus,
Whether it's right or whether it's wrong,
Who's the next of us?
Whether it's Wing or whether it's Wong,
Who'll be left of us?
On leaving a place where I thought I'd belong,
Just don't make a fuss.


Simply another abusive relationship ...






Give me one reason to stay here
And I'll turn right back around
Give me one reason to stay here
And I'll turn right back around
Said I don't want to leave you lonely
You got to make me change my mind
Baby I got your number
Oh and I know that you got mine
You know that I called you
I called you many times
You can call me baby
You can call me anytime, you got to call me
Give me one reason to stay here
And I'll turn right back around
(You can see me turnin')
Give me one reason to stay here
And I'll turn right back around
(You can see me turnin')
Said I don't want leave you lonely
You got to make me change my mind
I don't want no one to squeeze me
They might take away my life
I don't want no one to squeeze me
They might take away my life
I just want someone to hold me
Oh and rock me through the night
This youthful heart can love you
Yes and give you what you need
I said this youthful heart can love you
Oh and give you what you need
But I'm too old to go chasin' you around
Wastin' my precious energy
Give me one reason to stay here
Yes and I'll turn right back around
(You can see me turnin')
Give me one reason to stay here
Oh I'll turn right back around
(You can see me turnin')
Said I don't want leave you lonely
You got to make me change my mind
Baby just give me one reason
Oh give me just one reason why
Baby just give me one reason
Oh give me just one reason why I should stay
Said I told you that I loved you
And there ain't no more to say



(Edit: 'Cos I forgot my "Woof".)


Woof
 
Last edited:
Three people involved in publishing a children's book are apparently too dangerous to be granted bail.

hongkongfp.com

Security law: Hong Kong court denies bail to speech therapists behind kid's book about sheep and wolves | Hong Kong Free Press HKFP

Three more Hongkongers have been accused of sedition over children’s cartoon books featuring sheep and denied bail. Sidney Ng Hau-yi, 28, Samuel Chan Yuen-sum, 25, and Fong Tsz-ho, 26, were among those who appeared at West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on Monday in front of Principal Magistrate...
hongkongfp.com hongkongfp.com
 
On this day (31st August,) in 2019, police entered an MTR carriage and pepper sprayed and battoned civilians. No arrests were made or even attempted. No police have been held accountable.





Woof
 
Highly popular local artist, Denise Ho, also an outspoken pro-democracy activist, was booked to appear at the Hong Kong Arts Council from 8th - 12th of September has just had her performances abruptly cancelled by the Arts Council.






Shameful.

(Edit to add:)


And yet ... How can this be?


錯誤 - RTHK

錯誤 - RTHK
news.rthk.hk news.rthk.hk


Sure Carrie. Sure. Ignorance is strength, right?


Woof
 
Last edited:
This is a thread with a little depth on the four arrested Alliance leaders. One of them was a barrister representing Gwyneth Ho in her separate NSL trial.






Edit: to add ...

1631159885820.png


Woof
 
A dozen Hong Kong democrats, seven of whom were already in custody, have been given jail sentences for "knowingly participating in, or inciting others to take part in" a Tiananmen vigil last year.

"When considering an appropriate sentence, I do not consider the common purpose of the assembly nor the politics, beliefs, stance and opinions of any of the defendants," lied Justice Amanda Woodcock.

hongkongfp.com

Top Hong Kong democrats sentenced over banned 2020 Tiananmen Massacre vigil | Hong Kong Free Press HKFP

Twelve Hong Kong democrats have been handed suspended and jail sentences after pleading guilty to knowingly participating in, or inciting others to take part in, a banned Tiananmen Massacre vigil last year. Former vice-chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements...
hongkongfp.com hongkongfp.com
 
Jessiedog said:
Yeah. I hear you Cerv.

It's another really complex one for me and difficult to parse and understand the nuances of.


The FACT is that the Hong Kong government has done NOTHING to support these games - no money, no organisation, NOTHING!

The games are a purely private effort, organised and built over the last five years, to achieve this extraordinary event, with participants from close to 50 countries.

The HK govt. is generally homophobic (too many conservatives, traditionalists, twats, zealotist protestants and, particularly, Catholics lobbying and indeed within the hierarchy). And given the recent crackdown on LBGT rights on the mainland (being gay is now a "western" thing apparently,) the HK govt. is just keeping schtum about the event (apart from cunts like Junius Ho et al in LegCo).

So, from this perspective, the games should go ahead ... it's got fuck all to do with the government and is the first of its kind in Asia - a real (potential,) breakthrough.

On the other hand, the global perception will be that the HK govt. DID actually put the games on (IT DID NOT! NOT ONE PENNY AND NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!), which will inevitably lead to a whitewashing of the fascist revolution that has occurred. And the HK govt. (CCP) will inevitably leverage this.

It's a tough one. On balance, I think it should go ahead due to the cause it supports, its uniqueness in Asia (first ever,) and the dedication of all those invovled in making it happen.

The downside of this is that it WILL whitewash what is happening in Hong Kong, it WILL portray the local HK govt. (CCP,) as being more liberal than it is and it WILL propagate the idea that One Country Two Systems is still intact - and these issues are actually, potentially fatally, detrimental to the progression of genuine LGBT rights in Hong Kong.

It's a really hard one!

Beijing 2022, of course, is a no-brainer. Just say NO to drugs kids!


Woof
Click to expand...
the Federation announced today that the HK Gay Games has been postponed a year until 2023 due to covid uncertainty.
I have my doubts it'll take place at all :(
 
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