Flimsy public health threat excuses and real tears that give the bluff away

No games -- or candlelight vigils -- on Victoria Park's

football pitches after June 4th (and maybe beyond?)

 

A familiar scene from previous years that 

won't be seen on June 4th this year :(

 

It's official: the annual candlelight vigil to remember the Tiananmen Square massacre will not be allowed to take place this year.  The Hong Kong police (who are given the authority to issue "letters of no objection" or ban planned public gatherings in Hong Kong) say that they are not allowing a crowd to assemble at Victoria Park this Thursday for health reasons.   

 

To be sure, Hong Kong still has not completely eradicated the Wuhan coronavirus within the territory; with yesterday and today seeing not only new cases but local transmissions at that.  But, to put things into context, we're talking there having been one and three new cases respectively on Sunday and this Monday -- and for more than two weeks before that, there were zero local transmissions among the new daily cases reported.  

 

Also, as the Israelis showed back on April 20th, it is entirely possible to socially distance while protesting -- and this particularly for something like Hong Kong's June 4th vigil, where the vast majority of attendees remain in just one spot for pretty much the duration of the event.  So, truly, there should be no question that the decision to ban this particular memorial vigil which, to date, has taken place every year since 1989 is a political one on the part of the authorities; and this even more so when the eternally unpopular 689 stated two Sundays ago that the June 4th vigil could be permanently banned in future after China's national security law for Hong Kong is passed.

 

Rather than gnash and wail about this anticipated decision, the vigil organizers have already got and publicized a plan B for this year -- and invited the world to take part, not just Hong Kongers.  I hope people will do so as this year, particularly, since this June 4th commemoration will be as much about Hong Kong as the Tiananmen Square Massacre; so they'll be signalling their willingness to Stand with Hong Kong as well as Never Forget 6.4.  

 

Returning to the issue of the national security legislation: various organizations and individuals are still coming out (post coercion?) to give their public support to its passing.  But there's little doubt in my mind that the vast majority of Hong Kongers oppose and even fear its passing; with this particular piece of Communist Chinese regime legislation provoking the worst anxiety since the handover in many people.  

 

And if that's not enough, Hong Kongers also have the US sanctions to worry about in the wake of the American government officially recognizing that Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China.  As proof: just look at how world stocks, especially those listed on Hong Kong's stock exchange, took a hit last Friday and how there's been a rush by people to change their Hong Kong dollars to US dollars, with the demand being so overwhelmingly high that money changers ran out of the American currency.  

Hong Kong financial secretary Paul Chan has tried to put on a brave face in recent days, stating today that there are no plans for Hong Kong to remove the Hong Kong dollar's peg to the US dollar and suggesting yesterday that the United States of America has more to lose from revoking Hong Kong's special trade status than Hong Kong.  But it says so much that he suddenly started weeping when asked to further comment today on these threatened actions.   

More than one person has interpreted these tears to have come from self-pity; seeing as Chan is included in the Gang of 30 to be sanctioned in a report compiled by an overseas team with regards to the USA's Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 (HKHRDA).  However Cambridge University history professor Jeppe Mulich has a more generous take on the matter, tweeting that: "Here's the thing about people like Paul Chan, Matthew Cheung, and the five university presidents. They know what the [National People's Congress's security legislation] decision means for Hong Kong's future. With the exception of diehards like C.Y. Leung, nobody at the top wants this. They just don't think they have a choice."  

 

A reminder: Hong Kong currently is one of the world's major financial centers; with only New York and London being rated more highly than it.  And for all the talk of its GDP being dwarfed by Mainland China's, it still has an outsize importance to China.  There's a detailed Twitter thread by geo-political analyst Navroop Singh on this.  Alternatively for those who want it put more succinctly, a recent Wall Street Journal article declared that Hong Kong bankrolls Mainland China!