A Friday that turned out to be eventful and a weekend that's already tinged with sadness for Hong Kong

The statue of Liu Xiaobo outside the

Tin Hau branch of Herbert Chow's Chickeeduck  

 

An accessory festooned on it yesterday

 

Up until the evening, yesterday was shaping up to be a less eventful day than the day before.  Indeed, I was thinking that the biggest uproar-causing development of the day would be the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department's announcement that it will hereby euthanise wild boars which enter urban areas in the wake of a wild boar having injured a police officer in Tin Hau earlier in the week; with a number of people coming out in defence of the wild animals on social media (both Twitter and Facebook -- the latter via the Hong Kong Wild Boar Concern Group).     

 

But then came news that someone who had been undergoing quarantine in a hotel post arrival in Hong Kong was suspected to have been infected with the Wuhan coronavirus by a fellow hotel quarantine "guest" and that over 50 guests of the Sheraton Hotel in Tung Chung were sent to a government quarantine camp in the wake of the other hotel guest's infection.  And you can imagine the derision that was further rained about the Hong Kong government's pandemic control measures that greeted this development.

 

This not least because, also yesterday, the government announced that the LeaveHomeSafe app it now requires people to use when entering government buildings and facilities (including post offices, libraries and museums) will not be required to enter any of the 620 polling stations that will be set up for use for the December 19th Legislative Council "election" (that people have been threatened with arrests for if they do such as cast blank/invalid ballots)!  As more than one observer's noted, this speaks to the desperation of the authorities that the "election"'s turnout will not be shamefully low.

 

Something else that had the Hong Kong Twitterverse buzzing last night was the discovery of the numbers 8964 (which is a code used for the June 4th, 1989, massacre) having appeared in the Chinese-accented Marvel superhero blockbuster, Shang Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings.  Which is quite the bonus easter egg for a movie already mega popular in Hong Kong thanks, in no small part, because it marks the first English language film appearance of Hong Kong cinema megastar Tony Leung Chiu-wai!

 

Somewhat overlooked in the hubbub was the reportage of the defiantly pro-democracy Chickeeduck store in Tin Hau having been told to remove "obstructive objects" from the section of the street adjacent to it, with the "obstructive objects" including a statue of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo which I'd previously seen at such as the June 4th vigil at Victoria Park a few years back.  While the statue's still there when I went to check this afternoon, it's due to be removed on Monday.  

 

If this is indeed effected, this would mean that its removal will have come before that of the Pillar of Shame -- which, almost unbelievably, is still standing on the campus of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) one month after the official deadline given for its removal.  An update: the university authorities appear to have been shamed into not doing such as going about destroying it -- and its sculptor, Danish artist Jens Galschiot, disclosed yesterday that he has written an open letter to HKU outlining his plans to retrieve and move the statue.  

 

In order to do that though, certain complications need to be resolved -- including the lifting of a ban barring him from entry into Hong Kong.  Galschiot, understandably, also wants to make sure that he has immunity from the National Security Law.  "I can understand from the press that the introduction of the new security legislation in Hong Kong means that there is a legal basis for arresting foreign nationals who engage in activities that criticise China [and the statue’s removal] will lead to activities and media coverage that could be perceived as criticism of China. Therefore, I will have to get a guarantee that my employees and I will not be prosecuted," he wrote.        

 

Still, all this ended up being eclipsed by the shock waves that reverberated from a late night Tweet by The Economist's Sue-Lin Wong disclosing that she -- who is currently out of the city -- will not be returning to Hong Kong.  "Very sad I won’t be able to continue reporting from Hong Kong. I loved getting to know the city and its people. I will miss you all", she wrote.

 

With her employers's confirmation that the Hong Kong authorities have refused to renew Wong's work visa, this makes the Australian journalist the fourth and latest international journalist to have been ousted from the city after the Hong Kong Free Press’s incoming editor Aaron Mc Nicholas was inexplicably denied a visa last year, Chris Buckley of the New York Times was forced to leave weeks earlier, and Victor Mallet of the Financial Times was ousted from the city in similar circumstances in 2018.  And yes, no explanation has been given by the authorities for their work visa denials.

 

Ironically, Beijing had claimed just last week that press freedom "has not been affected at all" in Hong Kong. This act, along with so many others (cf. the shutting down of Apple Daily and the continued persecution and prosecution of those who were its senior executives), is evidence otherwise.

 

And should you have thought that this being the weekend would have temporarily paused further persecutions and prosecutions, it will be pointed out that courts were in session this morning.  And at one of them, a judge found 20 people guilty of rioting during a 2019 anti-extradition bill protest in Sheung Wan (and just three of the defendants innocent).  Among the heartbreaking details of this case is that the average age of the people standing trial was 23.  So, there are many reasons why, "bidding farewell [to those who have lost their freedom] is getting harder and harder".  And so it goes in Hong Kong in 2021. :(