Still more questionable actions by the powers that be in Hong Kong

After the news on Thursday about Hong Kongers trying to flee in boats, 

I will never look at speedboats in quite the same way again :S

And, frankly, I wouldn't want to be out on a small boat

in Victoria Harbour in them, let alone the high seas!

Let's start off with the good news: there are sure signs of the third wave of the Wuhan coronavirus has peaked in Hong Kong: with the number of new cases reported today, yesterday and Friday being 15, 18 and 13 respectively compared to the peak of 149 on July 30th (exactly one month ago today).  So I think the authorities are indeed justified in their decision to ease certain social distancing and masking restrictions beginning this past Friday: with such in-restaurant dining now allowed up until 9pm (as opposed to the previous limit of 6pm), cinemas being allowed to re-open and masks no longer required for strenuous exercise outdoors and in the country parks.

Alternatively, it's hard to medically justify the government sticking with their decision, announced back on July 31st when Hong Kong reported 121 new cases, to postpone the Legislative Council election -- and by at least a year (rather than, say, New Zealand's one month postponement).  And, of course, Hong Kong looks particularly bad when compared to the likes of Singapore and South Korea, who held general elections when their daily coronavirus numbers were higher (i.e., Singapore had 191 new cases back on July 10th while South Korea had 27 on April 15th) than what Hong Kong currently has -- and, to judge by current trends, should have on the originally scheduled Legislative Council election date of September 6th  (i.e., exactly one week from today). 

Also hard to justify on purely medical terms is the planned Wuhan coronavirus mass testing that is scheduled to begin on September 1st and last for at least one week.  To be sure, the government has moved to try to censor and censure critics of this scheme.  But there still are many voices speaking out against it, including the the chairwoman and vice-chairman of the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance earlier today -- and, in honesty, no one I know is planning to take the tests for a variety of pretty sound reasons.   

One big problem affecting decisions regarding whether to take these tests or not is the deep distrust  the majority of Hong Kongers now have of the Hong Kong government.  Of course all this already happened way before the Wuhan coronavirus came into the picture but 2020 has really not seen an improvement of relations between Hong Kongers and the local authorities.  Almost needless to say, this is especially the case with regards to the Hong Kong police force, whose attempts at gaslighting earlier this week just only result in further contempt for them, not least because they often end up contradicting themselves.

Take, as an example, the story surrounding the now-known-to-be 12 Hong Kongers who tried to flee by boat to Taiwan which has been making waves in recent days.  Since my last blog post before today, further details have come to light about these desperate individuals: including the vessel they were in being a speedboat and none of them being over 30 years of age, and the youngest being just 16 years old.  

Also uncovered is that, even though Police Commissioner Chris Tang had stated on Thursday that he had no information about the arrest of Andy Li and the 11 others who had sought to flee Hong Kong by boat because this had not been a Hong Kong police operation, it has since been revealed that it was the Hong Kong police who had tipped off Mainland Chinese officials about the group having set off for Taiwan.  Put another way: these 12 Hong Kongers are now languishing in Mainland Chinese captivity because  the Hong Kong police enlisted the aid of their Mainland Chinese compatriots to intercept their attempt to leave Hong Kong.           

Something else that's even harder to mentally unpack is that this was not the first escape  attempt by Hong Kongers to Taiwan by boat across open seas.  Heck, the very thought that it's even happened once should be unimaginable -- but, sadly, no longer is since China's custom security law for Hong Kong came into effect and we're seeing how intent Carrie Lam is on ruling not just by fear but also threats.  

The probability is high now that attempts to flee Hong Kong by boat will cease in the immediate future.  Sadly though, that's not due to people feeling less of a need to flee Hong Kong but, rather, because the maritime escape routes connecting Hong Kong and Taiwan, plied by asylum seekers since July, have been effectively “plugged up” since China’s coastguard strengthened its presence in the waters around Hong Kong in order to intercept fleeing dissidents. :(