A reminder that things are bad in Hong Kong but it's still considerable worse over in Mainland China!

If walls could talk, this one would have such tales to tell...

but as it is, even the graffiti etched on it has been censored

 

Twenty seven years ago today, the Chinese Communist regime abducted the 14th Panchen Lama.  Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was just six years of age then.  The Tibetan holy figure would be 33 years old now if he's still alive.  But no one (outside of the Chinese Communist regime) knows if that's the case.

 

And 56 years ago this month, China's "Great Helmsman", Mao Zedong, "unleashed the gates of 10 years of hell on his country with the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, designed to purge traditional culture and bourgeois elements from society leading to out-of-control violence and breakdown of authority" (this in the words of James M Zimmerman, an American lawyer based in Beijing who Tweets, presumably courtesy of a VPN). As many as two million people are estimated to have perished during it.  

One wonders what China's Covid death toll will end up being.  I doubt we will ever know, given the Chinese government's propensity to play with facts and statistics.  But, lately, we have been seeing crazy scenes unfold in the country -- some of which looks like they're out of some surreal movie, others of which do get people thinking that people have gone mad enmasse there once again.    

As Human Rights Watch's Yaqui Wang has Tweeted: "To those who are bewildered by the CCP's current insanity with zero-Covid, just a reminder that it's the same system that carried out the Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen Massacre & many other crazy and cruel things. Abusers don't change without accountability."  Another recent Tweet of hers worth noting: "To those foreigners now lamenting their "beloved," "wonderful," "better-than-Paris/NY/London" Shanghai is turning into this hell, I'm sorry to say: China was wonderful is because you had been ignoring terrible abuses happened to others the whole time until now it's your turn."

 

And yes, Hong Kong still seems (somewhat) sane in comparison to Mainland China -- at least on the pandemic front.  E.g., Carrie Lam declared today that Phase 2 of the relaxation of "social distancing" measures will go ahead as planned this Thursday; with restaurants allowed to operate until midnight (from 10pm currently), bars allowed to resume operations (albeit with a limited capacity) and people able to exercise sans masks indoors as well as outdoors.  And this despite a bump in the total number of daily Covid cases (from 234 yesterday to 328 today) but, mercifully, also zero new reported deaths both yesterday and today.   

However, it's worrying to see that the campaign to shut down Hong Kong's freedoms shows no signs of abating.  A case in point: After targeting pro-democracy legislators and activists (including Cardinal Zen), Beijing mouthpiece Ta Kung Pao has turned its attention to pro-democracy taxi drivers.  

 

In response to which, journalist Timothy McLaughlin was moved to Tweet the following: "Taxi trinkets a risk to Chinese national security. Joking aside, this will no doubt send the signal Beijing wants and have people scrambling to remove this stuff even without an arrest or any word from Hong Kong officials/police."  

 

Lawyer Kevin Yam's come up with a more measured -- even heartening? -- reaction though: i.e., "One way of looking at this is the lengths State Media will go to harass every occupation imaginable. Another way of looking at this is that it is a reflection of how all-encompassing, built from bottom-up the 2019 Hong Kong protests were in terms of breadth and depth of support."

 

Another disturbing possible development reported today: Hong Kong's official (i.e., government) privacy watchdog is considering invoking anti-doxxing laws to ban instant messaging app Telegram.  Upon learning of this news, Charles Mok, the information sector's former legislative council representative who's now one more Hong Konger in exile, was moved to declare that "If they can ban [Telegram] they can ban any app" but also question whether they in fact are able to do so.  More specifically, how would one go about banning an app like it?  Would it actually be possible -- from a technical level?  (And as he pointed out, Russia apparently tried to but found that it couldn't!)

 

On the other hand, what the Hong Kong government is sadly all too capable of doing is to get its case against Jimmy Lai transferred to the High Court, and thus increasing the possible penalty for him and his fellow defendants in the national security law trial to life imprisonment -- as it did today.   In addition, it can do away with jury trials (which Jimmy Lai would undoubtedly stand a better chance of winning than a trial to be determined by government appointed national security law judges).

 

Further making things go in favor of the government: As Samuel Bickett points out, "per the national security law, the decision on whether to allow a jury trial is made not by a judge, but by one of the parties—the Secretary for Justice, representing the govt. It’s one of the clearest indicators that the NSL is intentionally designed to prevent fair trials." In addition, there's the matter of the government somehow having got an ex-Apple Daily executive (and co-defendant), Royston Chow, to become a witness for the prosecution in the ongoing fraud trial against Jimmy Lai.

 

As much as I wish otherwise, the fact of the matter is that things aren't looking good for Jimmy Lai -- and for Hong Kong in general.  But, well, there are people who have been trying to push back against China for so many more years than those Hong Kongers who started doing so only in 2019 or a few years before, such as those Tibetans calling for the release of the Panchen Lama -- and even while their goals have yet to be achieved, they have not given up.  And as history has taught us: in the long run, persistence and resistance often is not futile!  Believe it!

Solidarity with Uyghurs by Hong Kongers faced with oppression

At a protest rally that was peaceful when I was there 

 

"Stand with Ugyhurs" was the main theme of this afternoon's rally

 

But as more than one sign noted, what's sought is for various peoples 

to stand together and act now against the Communist Chinese regime

 

Some two and half years ago, Xi Jinping came to Hong Kong for Carrie Lam's installation as Chief Executive and the massive security lockdown that was effected ahead of his visit got me having dark portends that Hong Kong could become another Xinjiang (i.e., police state within China).  While I may have been in the minority in harboring such thoughts and worries then, that's far from the case now.  

 

Indeed, I'd go so far as to suggest that one big impetus behind many Hong Kong protestors' stubborn resistance against what are overwhelmingly stronger and more powerful forces -- in the form of not only the Hong Kong government but also the Beijing regime behind it -- does appear to be the fear that if we give up the fight, Hong Kong people will suffer the fate of the Ughyurs of Xinjiang. 

 

In trying to explain to the world why Hong Kong matters, Hong Kong protestors have been attempting to send out the message that what Communist China already has done to Tibet and in Xinjiang, it is in the process of attempting to do in Hong Kong -- after which, the Communist Chinese regime will attempt to do to the rest of the world.  And it was just a matter of time before many people in Hong Kong got to realizing that we really should stand with the Uyghurs -- and, for that matter, Tibetans too -- since we have a common oppressor in the Communist Chinese regime.

 

For the record, the first mention I saw of Uighurs (aka Uighurs) by anti-extradition bill protestors was by way of graffiti on a wall of the Legislative Council Complex after it was broken into on July 1st (Specifically, "China will pay for its crimes against Uighur Muslims").  Since then, I've seen references to Uyghurs and Xinjiang on Lennon Walls and also signs carried by protestors at pro-democracy rallies and marches.  But it was only today that there finally was a protest event with solidarity with the Uyghurs as its main theme.

 

Held this afternoon at Edinburgh Place, the Human Rights Rally of Solidarity with Uyghur attracted a sizeable crowd despite the day's air pollution index being on the high side.  For what may well be the first time ever, the flag of East Turkestan could be seen at a Hong Kong protest rally -- along with the more familiar likes of Taiwan's, Tibet's, British colonial Hong Kong's, the United States of America's, Germany's and those calling for Hong Kong independence along with ones bearing the slogans "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times".     

The enthusiastic flag waving not withstanding, my impression was that this afternoon's rally was actually not particularly impassioned.  All in all, I think the protest mood was peaceful, and even tempered somewhat by it happening to take place in an area that was fringed by Filipina domestic workers in a festive mood on their day off.  And the presence of protestors carrying Pepe the Frog plushies and drawings of cat memes, and eating ice cream from a Mobile Softee ice cream van parked nearby only made the protest rally seem less intense to me than a number of others I've attended at the same Central venue.    

After being there for 80 minutes or so, I decided to take my leave despite the rally still going on.  While I did spot some riot police in the vicinity while I waited for the bus that would transport me out of the area, little did I think that they would end up descending upon Edinburgh Place and prematurely ending the legal rally just minutes later!

 

The trouble reportedly began with someone having taken down the Communist Chinese flag that had been flying in front of City Hall.  The riot police looked to have gone to the flag's rescue in record time.  And then all hell looked to have broken loose, with pepper spray, pepper balls and rubber bullets being shot as well as batons wielded, and a police officer pulling his gun out and aiming it at bystanders -- while simultaneously holding a pair of glasses in his gun hand -- after he dropped his can of pepper spray!!  

 

Despite a black flag warning having been given, no tear gas had been fired though -- thank goodness for small mercies?  Actually, no, since the way things stand, it really does seem that the Hong Kong police care more about objects than for the physical safety of their fellow human beings.  Just like Hong Kong's supposed leader, Carrie Lam. 

Black Code should be a "must watch" for anyone who values freedom and the internet (film review)

Canadian filmmaker Nicholas de Pencier (with an HKIFF 

interpreter by his side) at his film's Q&A session

Black Code (Canada, 2016)

- Screening as part of the HKIFF's Reality Bites program

- Nicholas de Pencier, director, scriptwriter, producer and cinematographer  

After many years of resisting the impulse to do so, I finally joined the Facebook community a few weeks ago.  In so doing, I've been witness to how people can seem willing to reveal so much about themselves via the posts they put up, share and like on that social media platform; many of which tend to be on the light-hearted side but some of which are also are seriously political in nature.

How many Facebook users, I wonder, really do realize and care that they are leaving a super detail-filled information trail out on the internet for such as various government agencies to see?  And can they envision that even seemingly innocous comments could land one in big trouble and result in one getting tortured and forced to flee one's homeland?

To be sure, the Facebook user in question who recounted his having undergone precisely that experience in the disturbingly thought-provoking Black Code is Syrian (rather than, say, American, Japanese or living in some other country whose citizenry tend to trust their government).  And it's also true that the vast majority of cases that Canadian filmmaker Nicholas de Pencier has chosen to focus on in his work are Third World ones.  

But, as the cinematographer turned documentary director sought to make clear in a Q&A session after the Hong Kong International Film Festival screening of his film that I attended: he's by no means intending to say that the Chinese, Ethiopian, Pakistani, Syrian, Brazilian and other national governments shown monitoring the moves of their citizens in his documentary are the only ones out there engaging in internet surveillance along with censorship and cyber espionage.  (Also, he pointed out, it's not like he's unaware of companies also engaging in activities that threaten free speech and privacy on the internet; instead, it's just that the subject is so vast that it's worthy of a whole different film.)

Inspired by Black Code: Inside the Battle for Cyberspace, a book by University of Toronto political science professor Ron Diebert, whose Citizen Lab has been examining government actions designed to disrupt and/or control the internet for more than a decade, Nicholas de Pencier travelled the world to chronicle diverse examples of state surveillance, political activism and citizen journalism to show how governments seek to crush political dissent but individual citizens also are seeking to fight back. 

Certain segments of his powerful documentary are disturbing and horrifying, with real deaths being shown on film and also being shown having been preceded by violent threats and other inflammatory comments against the eventual deceased posted online.  And there are points when watching Black Code that one might feel tempted to just give up on the whole internet thang and get out of cyberspace.  

Probably realizing how his often alarming work would make many thinking people feel, Nicholas de Pencier consequently also goes out of his way to not only emphasize how brave many of the people (political activists, content providers, journalists, etc.) who feature in his documentary are but, also, that there are indeed netizens out there who have managed to strike blows for free speech, freedom, justice and a whole plethora of human rights.  

Something else that Black Code makes clear is that there really are some benefits to our world being increasingly interconnected, by the internet and otherwise.  For example, Brazilian citizen journalists can better do their job using an app that previously was only popular in Japan.  And here in Hong Kong, people watching a documentary by a Canadian filmmaker can see parallels, say, not only between what the Mainland Chinese government is trying to do in Tibet and Hong Kong but also people protesting political injustice and economic inequality in Brazil and participants in -- and those who continue to be sympathetic to -- the Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement.  

My rating for this film: 8.5