More words of wisdom to be found just minutes' away
So
much has happened in the last 24 hours or so that I feel a need to
write it all down in a blog post. First, a Wuhan coronavirus update:
Sadly, today's number of daily new cases hit a record high again -- with 149 being reported. In addition, Hong Kong has one more person dead today by way of this especially deadly third wave which hit the territory on what has been a seriously disastrous month overall.
On the non-medical front: remember that this is the very first month that China's security law is being imposed in Hong Kong.
And while there may have been people who thought things would stay the
same as before for a time, I think no one thinks that's the case anymore
now that we've seen a veritable whirlwind of political persecution and repression taking place over what really is a relative short period of time.
Just look at today, which began with people trying to figure out how many people had actually been arrested last night on suspicion of organising and inciting secession. (The figure of one turned to three after I finished blogging last night and currently stands at four.) This brings the number of people arrested under China's new security legislation for Hong Kong up to 15 since the law came into
effect at the end of June.
As Kong Tsung-gan noted in a Tweet: Eleven of that number were arrested for holding banners/posters with words on them at the July 1st anti-security law/pro-democracy protests while the actions taken against the four last night were for a single social media post they made. Put another way: all the arrests under China's national security legislation for Hong Kong to date are to do with speech rather than, say, actual, violent action.
The Guardian's initial reportage of last night's arrests (since updated and changed) had it that "three men and one woman aged between 16 and 21 were arrested". Actually, since three of them are teenagers, I'm more inclined to refer to the arrestees arrested for "inciting secession" against a country of 1.4 billion people as youngsters. Lest it not be clear: Tony Chung Hon-lam, Ho Nok-hang, Yanni Loren Ho and Chan Wai-Yan are student activists. The most prominent of the quartet, Tony Chung, is just 19 years old and, as such, still can't legally buy alcohol in the USA (where the drinking age is 21) or, for that matter, Japan (where the drinking age is 20)!
In the afternoon, I went off to the West Kowloon Magistrates' Court to attend the latest court session involving the trial of the Democracy 15 (whose shock arrests took place back on April 18th and first court date was back on May 18th). With the court adjourned after a few hours to September 18th of next year, I came away thinking that the wheels of justice can move super slowly in Hong Kong.
Upon my return home from my trip to West Kowloon though, I was reintroduced to the sense that too much can happen too quickly for comfort upon learning that 12 pro-democracy candidates for the Legislative Council elections currently scheduled for this September 8th have been disqualified for running for office. And should anyone wonder, of course they include a good many of those who had triumphed in the democratic camp primaries which took place earlier this month, and attracted over 600,000 voters!
Put another way: this latest move by the Hong Kong government was not unexpected, given the way the situation in Hong Kong has deteriorated. Even so... Honestly, if I didn't know better, I'd be inclined to think that those who run Hong Kong are going all out to make people really dislike and disrespect them (epecially its fearless -- or is it more likely to be fearful -- leader), and to destroy Hong Kong.
At other times though, I think that they are plain idiotic. Otherwise, how would one explain the actions of an administration who ended up making a u-turn on a purported anti-Wuhan coronavirus measure just 24 hours after beginning its implementation -- no doubt as a result of realizing the terrible optics that it had brought about as well as the actual misery it had caused many?
6 comments:
Your blog posts on what’s happening are very helpful at understanding the on going and rapidly changing tightening grip of Beijing on Hong Kong.
Hi sarah bailey knight --
Thank you for reading and letting me know. There are days when I feel like I'm screaming into a void but scream I plan to do -- until the day I feel it's useless or I get silenced, whichever comes first!
I don't know if it is just recently but I notice few comments to your political posts by people who live in HK. Is that coincidence or are people a little nervous to even comment?
Hi Brian --
I don't know if you've noticed but the vast majority of my posts don't usually receive any comments at all! In general though, the majority of the commenters -- like my blog's readership -- do indeed hail from outside Hong Kong. (The blog usually has more American visitors than Hong Kong ones -- and when I checked the stats today, there are more Singaporeans visiting than Hong Kongers too!)
You used to get a fair amount of comments. Way more than I do!
Hi again Brian --
I used to take part in the Photo Hunt meme and posts involving that would get lots of comments. That was years ago though. Think a lot of people have stopped reading (and writing) blogs but I personally like the format and still do get some readers (if the blogger stats are to be believed!). Hence my keeping up with the blogging -- though, yes, the topics I cover have changed from my original intentions!
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