...and journalists and speech therapists, among others.
A reminder that pro-democracy Hong Kongers come from
various walks of life and professions (this photo from July 1st, 2015)
We'll start today's post with a couple of updates on what I reported yesterday. First off, it's not three ex-Apple Daily staffers charged with conspiring to to collude with foreign forces under the national security law yesterday but four -- namely, writer Yeung Ching-Kei (who wrote for the now defunct pro-democracy newspaper under the pen name Li Ping) as well as fellow writer Fung Wai-kong, former associate publisher Chan Pui-man and former executive chief editor Lam Man-chung. This makes it seven individuals associated with Apple Daily currently detained by the authorities; with three others -- ex-chief editor Ryan Law and its parent company's chief executive, Cheung Kim-hung, as well as founder-owner Jimmy Lai -- having been hit with the same charges.
After spending yesterday behind bars, Yeung, Fung, Chan and Lam appeared in court today, where all four saw their bail applications denied this time around -- meaning that they will be incarcerated up until a decision is made as to their guilt or innocence (with the odds being stacked against the security law judges hearing their case returning an innocent verdict that a jury of their peers would seem more likely to give). Sadly, this kind of decision no longer is a surprise -- with the leveling of security law charges bringing with them a guilty assumption associated with the Mainland Chinese legal system (rather than the "innocent until proven guilty" presumption that Hong Kong previously was used to).
Another court decision reached and announced today involved seven men being sentenced to between three-and-a-half to seven years imprisonment after being found guilty of rioting and wounding during the Yuen Long mob attacks that left 45 people injured back on July 21st, 2019. Few people are celebrating this decision though; this not least because the sense is that the convicted septet are just fall guys and small potatoes while the people who actually ordered and organized the attacks and the majority of the attackers remain at large.
Also, I think much of Hong Kong is in shock about another batch of national security law arrests that were effected today: this one involving five -- and no, I really am not joking -- speech therapists. Seriously, who imagined that speech therapists would be accused of sedition and arrested for being threats to national security?!
Adding to the insanity is that what appear to have got this quintet -- comprising two men and three women aged 25 to 28 years of age -- in trouble is their being members of a professional union that published three children's books with sheep and wolf characters! Honestly, it all sounds so nuts that I think it's best to just quote an AFP article on the matter:
Published by the General Union of Hong Kong Speech Therapists, the books try to explain Hong Kong's democracy movement to children.
Okay, so there's a political slant to their content. But, please, just look at the covers of the books in question (and, for good measure, the animated readings of the tomes) and you tell me whether these books and the people behind them could seriously be considered to be national security threats! (Honestly, China can seem so weird: in that, with actions like this, it's making it really hard to decide whether it considers itself to be a powerful country or one that is so weak that speech therapists and their books about sheep and wolves are genuine threats to its national security!)Democracy supporters are portrayed as sheep living in a village surrounded by wolves.
The first book, titled "Guardians of Sheep Village" explains the 2019 pro-democracy protests that swept through Hong Kong.
"Janitors of Sheep Village", the second book, sees cleaners in the village go on strike to force out wolves who leave litter everywhere.
The book's introduction explains it is a reference to Hong Kong medical workers striking last year in a bid to force the government to close the border with mainland China at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The final book in the trilogy -- "The 12 Braves of Sheep Village" -- is about a group of sheep who flee their village by boat because of the wolves.
It is a direct reference to 12 Hong Kongers who made a failed bid to escape by speedboat last year to Taiwan but were detained by the Chinese coastguard and jailed.
Even after the raining down of so much insanity in Hong Kong in recent months, it's still hard to wrap one's head around this particular piece of news. I think a normal reaction is to want to laugh -- not only because otherwise one would cry but because it really is so very absurd. Ai-men Lau's Tweeted reaction also is one that I have a feeling many others had: namely, "I did not have seditious sheep on my NSL bingo card." (By the way, remember the tear gas bingo we "played" back in 2019?)
Yet consider this pair of Tweets from AFP's Jerome Taylor in relation to the arrests of the speech therapists: one stating that "As a reporter, I'd like to be able to post pictures of the children's books in this thread so local and international readers can make up their own minds about the content.
But doing so might itself be sedition"; and the other, later on the same thread, noting that the "Hong Kong Police have just displayed the books at this afternoon's press conference giving the latest details on the arrests so I feel safe to show at least the front covers."
Yes, it truly is serious stuff, albeit one that has made Hong Kong a global laughing stock once again. Also, this Tweeted by AFP's Hong Kong bureau chief today: "How quickly things are changing in this town." And most definitely not for the better.
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