Hong Kongers fight on and push back!

A battle between darkness and light over Hong Kong

 

Copies of Apple Daily have been flying off shelves

in recent days!

Hong Kong is not dead.  That's the message of defiant Hong Kongers out there who won't deny that the city been dealt a number of body blows over the past year and more -- and also aren't without fear of the enemy -- but still will do what they can to hold the line, and even push back as much as and however we can.  

Observe, if you will, the reaction Hong Kongers had to the arrests under China's security law for Hong Kong at the beginning of this week of Jimmy Lai and co.  Soon after news came of the Next Media tycoon being taken into custody by the police, Hong Kongers began buying up shares of the media company's stocks -- and in such great quantities that it surged by over 1000 percent by yesterday!  And even while the company's offices were raided by hundreds of police on Monday, its staff still managed to put out a new edition of its flagship publication, Apple Daily, the next day (and even livestreamed the process!). 

With its editor vowing that "We shall fight on", Apple Daily upped the ante by deciding to print five times more copies for Tuesday than its usual run of 70,000.  As it turned out, 350,000 copies were not enough to satisfy the demands for the openly pro-democracy newspaper -- with more than 500,000 copies ending up being printed and snapped up by Hong Kongers eager to show their support for the newspaper, its parent company, its owner and press freedom.  And when Hong Kongers gathered for shopping mall protests yesterday evening, many of them had with them copies of Apple Daily.
 
Later in the evening, there came welcome news of the release on bail of Jimmy Lai, Agnes Chow and the eight other individuals arrested under the security law on Monday.  And while the bail set for them is very high (with Jimmy Lai's topping up at HK$800,000) and they still will have to stand trial at some point in the future, it was a relief to know that they are out of custody, however temporarily, and were not bundled across the border to rot in Mainland Chinese prisons -- like the security law allows.

There is speculation that the relative restraint shown by the powers that be is because of the international publicity and outrage that greeted the news of the arrests (and attendant raid on Apple Daily).  And while Jimmy Lai (who was treated to a hero's welcome upon his return to work today) was the focus of attention in places like the USA and Britain (the latter of which he is a citizen of), Agnes Chow -- who is fluent in Japanese (as well as Cantonese and English) -- was the individual whose arrest the Japanese particularly reacted to.  

One wonders whether the realization that the world is watching also has had an influence in the authorities over in China deciding yesterday that the entire Legislative Council -- including (rather than excluding) those pro-democracy legislatures disqualified for running for the next LegCo elections -- are to stay on for a year, now that the elections have been postponed until next September (at the very least).  But if the authorities think that the democrats will quieten down and be grateful for this decision, it's worth noting that there are legal figures who are disputing whether Beijing's wading in to make this decision violates Hong Kong's Basic Law!

On the subject of the legal sector: There continue to be signs that Hong Kong's judiciary is insisting on its independence and not acting the way that the powers that be want them to.  A case in point: earlier today, a magistrate not only ruled in favor of a pro-democracy district councillor and her assistant who had been accused of assaulting police officers last August but slammed the two police officers concerned for "telling lie after lie"!  And another magistrate similarly ruled that a police witness had lied to in a police assault case that presumably involved a pro-democracy accused yesterday.

Speaking of the powers that be: also yesterday came a piece of news that I found ironic and actually kinda funny. In response to the American government declaring that Hong Kong-made products imported to the United States will have to carry "made in China" labels from this September 25th, the Hong Kong government says it's considering taking action to keep "made in Hong Kong" labels on locally made products.  So, does this mean that they want to assert that there's a significant and substantial difference between (made in) Hong Kong and China and help push back against the subsuming of Hong Kong into (greater) China (too)?! :D