As the blogger behind the Big Lychee, Various Sectors noted this morning: no sooner does the flooding subside than it’s back to "National Security" concerns. Yesterday, the rain stopped long enough so that there was a beautiful sunset over Hong Kong. Yesterday also saw exiled former legislative councilor Ted Hui’s parents- and siblings-in-law become the latest to be accorded the ‘taken in for questioning’ treatment.
This ploy has become so familiar that it's no longer news as far as many foreign news outlets appear to be concerned. Okay, thus far, the relatives of the eight people on whose heads the Hong Kong government have put HK$1 million bounties "only" end up spending a number of hours in police stations without ending up being arrested for the most part. But how terrible is it that this is something that appears to have become so "normalised" and that we're becoming used to?
The worst thing about this "normalisation" is that like the slow boiling of the frog who doesn't notice what's happening to it, the ante does get upped over time. Just look at what's been happening with regards to the government's views and actions against people who commemorate the Tiananmen Square Massacre -- something which had been assumed for decades to have been entirely within the right of people in Hong Kong.
For yesterday also saw a law PhD student from Mainland China being sentenced to six months’ prison for sedition over a plan to display a banner featuring the Pillar of Shame sculpture. Yes, 23-year-old Zeng Yuxuan was imprisoned for PLANNING to display a banner of a piece of art that previously had been installed, and stood for decades, on the University of Hong Kong's main campus.
As was reported in the Hong Kong Free Press: "The postgraduate student was said to have obtained the [nine-meter-long vertical] banner through mainland Chinese human rights activist Zhou Fengsuo, a former student leader during the 1989 democracy movement who is currently based in the US. The banner display was part of a global campaign led by Danish artist Jens Galschiøt, whose eight-metre sculpture commemorating the victims who died in the 1989 crackdown – the Pillar of Shame – was quietly removed by the University of Hong Kong citing safety concerns in December 2021."
Note: in December 2021, the pretext for removing the Pillar of Shame involved safety concerns. But now we're talking sedition for displaying a banner of the same piece of art. For shame!
Quoting again from the Hong Kong Free Press piece: "Police found the Tiananmen monument banner inside a parcel from the US at Zeng’s residence following her arrest. Printed on the banner was an image of the Pillar of Shame with phrases including “The Tiananmen Massacre 1989. The magistrate said the content of the banner was “pointed” and could “evoke emotions,” especially when its target audience was “like-minded individuals” whose “emotions could be easily triggered.”"
A reminder: Large, PEACEFUL events were held in Hong Kong to commemorate the June 4th Massacre for 30 years. The emotions triggered at the candlelight vigils involved sorrow, remembrance and solidarity. I guess they aren't the kind of things the Hong Kong government wants from Hong Kongers -- pretty sad, and ironic when you consider that the solidarity includes that with Mainland Chinese people: that is, the very people that Hong Kongers have often been accused of not having familial feelings for!
Something else worth noting: Zeng Yuxuan originally hailed from Mainland China but chose to come over to Hong Kong to study law. I've friends of Mainland Chinese origin who came to Hong Kong to study journalism. These are people who felt that they would be more free and have more (human) rights in Hong Kong. Sadly, even though/if this is still the case, it's still not as much as they probably thought or wanted for it to be so; a sentiment they have in common with many Hong Kongers, of whom I also would not be surprised that they now would consider themselves to be too.
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