Typhoon Koinu has come and gone, but the political persecution in Hong Kong continues

  

Storm/typhoon front visibly moving in last Friday afternoon

 

This is going to sound familiar but... Hong Kong was visited by yet another typhoon in recent days.  The T1 (lowest) warning signal was raised on Wednesday for Typhoon Koinu, became a T3 on Friday afternoon, a T8 at 12.40pm on yesterday (Sunday) and then a T9 at 7pm that same day -- but a T10 was not deemed to necessary.  Instead, Typhoon Koinu was downgraded to a T8 before midnight yesterday before all typhoon warnings were cancelled earlier today.

Yesterday also saw Hong Kong's second black rainstorm warning of the year issued.  While there were no videos or photos shared this time around of apocalyptic flooding (as had been the case last month), the Hong Kong Observatory "recorded 333.9mm (13.1in) of rainfall in just 12 hours on October 9, which is already the highest daily rainfall in October since records began back in 1884" -- meaning yet another weather record has been broken in recent months!  And while this was not the first time Hong Kong's seen two typhoons that necessitated the raising of T9 (or higher) signals in one year, this was the first time it had happened since 1999 -- and no one seems to know when was the last time Hong Kong saw two T9 (or higher) typhoons and two instances of black rainstorms in a single year!

 

There's no doubt about it: climate change is real.  At the same time though, I find it... interesting that friends living outside Hong Kong worry more how I'm faring during a typhoon or black rainstorm than, say, when they read news about X getting arrested, Y and Z having HK$1 million bounties placed on their heads, and A getting jailed -- for things that can seem well nigh inexplicable (in terms of their appearing to be so trivial or just, well, not (all that) wrong)!

 

To be fair, it may well be that a lot of the political prosecution and persecution happening in Hong Kong is no longer making international news -- due to so much bad stuff happening in the world at large and, also, I often feel, because much of the world has written off Hong Kong (or, at least, those who want it to have such as genuine universal suffrage for the denizens of this territory).  In which case, I feel that I should continue to try to draw attention to this on this blog -- which has just a few readers but, well, even a few is better than nothing, right?  To that end: here are three recent cases, all of which are absurd and also sad:  

One involves an elderly pro-democracy activist known as "Grandpa" Chan who many Hong Kongers came to know (about) by way of his involvement with an organization known variously as "Protect Our Children" and "Protect the Kids" that sought "to mediate between police and demonstrators, as well as buy protesters time when the cops start to charge" during the anti-extradition bill-turned-pro-democracy street protests of 2019 and 2020.  (Grandpa Chan can be seen in action in Kiwi Chow's protest documentary, Revolution of Our Times.)  

 

Now approaching 80 years of age (with his age being variously given as 77 and 79 by different sources), Chan Ki-kau hiked up the iconic 495-meter-high Kowloon Hill known as Lion Rock on the eve of the recent Mid-Autumn Festival and had a photograph taken of him holding up two banners with quotes by Chinese literary great Lu Xun on them.  One week later, on October 5th, he was arrested by the police "for "unlawful display of items in a country park."" , for which "[o]ffenders face a fine of up to HK$2,000 and three years imprisonment."  

 

For the record: The couplets concerned are from Lu Xun's poem entitled "In Mockery of Myself" about self-sacrifice [and] persistence, and can be translated into English as "I cooly defy a thousand pointing fingers. Head bowed like an ox, I serve the youth."  Also, for the record: Grandpa Chan  was released on bail but must report back to the police in early November (i.e., next month).  

 

The second case I think worth highlighting involves a 38-year-old Hong Kong man having been sentenced to four months in prison on Friday "after he pleaded guilty to importing children’s books that were deemed to be “seditious publications""; with the books concerned being the now pretty infamous illustrated tomes produced by speech therapists about sheep and wolves.  Kurt Leung "was arrested in March after he signed for a delivery from the U.K. containing the books."  Incidentally, the number of books he imported: 18 (yes, just 18).

 

The following are further details of the sentencing courtesy of a Hong Kong Free Press piece: "Taking into the account that Leung was not an “instigator” in the case and did not request the import of the books, [Chief Magistrate Victor] So adopted six months as the starting point of sentence. He granted a one-third reduction because of Leung’s guilty plea. Leung, who has been detained for a month pending trial, was eventually sent to prison for four months." 

 

(Note: many individuals accused of breaking the sedition and national security laws have taken to pleading guilty -- not because they actually think they are guilty but because they don't think they stand much chance of getting declared innocent and think that they if they plead guilty, they will get reduction of their sentences.)

 

Lastly, here's relating that it recently came to light that Hong Kong political prisoner (by way of being one of the 47 people arrested on February 28th, 2021, in what amounted to a major assault to the Hong Kong pro-democracy camp) Owen Chow "was sent to solitary confinement for 12 days & given an extra day in prison for "possessing a Portuguese egg tart w/out permission." Prison authorities raided his cell & discovered the offending tart... after he was denied a book because it contained Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus." The visitor who delivered the book received it back with a note: "Nudity! Rejected!""

 

A reminder: Owen Chow has pleaded not guilty to the charge of "incitement to subvert state power" that he and 46 other pro-democracy politicians and activists have been levelled with, and a verdict has yet to be delivered in the case of the HK47. But he is behind bars after his bail was revoked in January 2022 because he posted on social media about the Yuen Long attacks on Jul 21st, 2019, and the Prince Edward MTR station attacks on August 31st, 2019.  

 

Amazingly, the visitor who had sought to deliver the denied book to Owen Chow reports that "Owen considers these incidents a kind of training. "These methods don't work on me anyway."" Frankly, people like him and Grandpa Chan leave me in awe.  Their faith is so strong, and persistence inspiring.  And I truly wish more people knew about them, their actions, their sacrifice, and that there remain many people who truly are unwilling to give up in and on Hong Kong.