The verdict has been delivered by the national security judges in the trial of the Hong Kong 47 but it ain't over yet by a long chalk!

  

Mood this week in Hong Kong

 

It's not yet over but here's stating all the same that it's been one hell of a crap week in Hong Kong.  Never mind the bad weather (which has included typhoon warnings getting issued -- thanks, Typhoon Maliksi!).  Though I must say that the gray days and weeping skies have felt reflective of many people's moods.     

 

The day after the first arrests under Article 23 were made, a seventh individual was apprehended -- also over "seditious posts" by and on a Facebook page known as the ChowHangTung club that appear to be nothing more than "daily posts in memory of the events in Tiananmen Square and the vigils held in Hong Kong until 2019 to remember them"!  ("The initiative", a P.I.M.E. Asia news piece explains, "is linked to Chow’s legal battle. She was arrested for her role in organising commemorations in Victoria Park. For this reason, she has been in prison since September 2021, and is still awaiting trial after almost three years.")

 

As Freedom House research director Yaqiu Wang observed in a piece in The Diplomat: "The fact that the authorities keep throwing new charges at Chow for the one thing she did – organize commemorations to honor those killed by their government for peacefully demanding freedom and democracy – only speaks to the insecurity that she inspires in her own government and in Beijing."

 

Something also worth point out -- which Wang does in her piece: "Beijing’s determination to crush Hong Kong’s freedoms and to erase history is illustrated by the multiple, years-long prosecutions against Chow. However, Chow’s courage and resolve in the face of this repression exemplify Hong Kongers’ collective determination to fight back." 

 

In a development that now passes for a "Thank goodness for small mercies" one, all of those arrestees -- bar for Chow Hang-tung, who was already behind bars at the time of her arrest on this (new) charge -- have been granted bail.  One way in which many of us found this out was by seeing a photo of one of the six, Lee Ying-chi (a dentist by profession), waiting in line to get into court to see and hear on Thursday morning the verdict being given of the Hong Kong 47.  

 

The day before the verdict of the largest political trial in Hong Kong's history was due to be handed out, an observer Tweeted that "If this goes the way GovHK wants it to go, they're never going to shake the optics of arresting/convicting political opponents for the crime of having a strategy to legally win an election they were never supposed to win that also stood a real chance of succeeding"; and "They can scream all they want about subversion and foreign forces etc, and maybe they even believe it, but to everyone else in actual democracies it's going to look like exactly what it is -- an authoritarian govt jailing political enemies who had too much public support". 

 

Sadly, that's what came to pass.  For more than three years and three months after 47 organizers and participants of a pro-democracy primary staged in 2020 were arrested on February 28th, 2021, the three hand-picked national security law judges decided that only two of the individuals concerned were innocent of the conspiracy to commit subversion charges laid on them.   

 

"In a summary of the verdict distributed to media, the court said the [other] election participants had declared they would use their legislative power to veto the budgets" -- ooooh, so bad!  Put another way: In the words of journalist Ryan Ho Kilpatrick, "they tried to win an election."  And, added a member of the diasporic Hong Kong Twitterverse, "In the most peaceful, democratic way."

 

Still, lest barrister (and ex-cop as well as district councillor) Lawrence Lau and former district councillor (and registered social worker) Lee Yue-shun, who made history by being the first two people tried under the Beijing-imposed national security law to be cleared of their charges think it's all over, "Director of Public Prosecutions Maggie Yang on Thursday afternoon said that she had received instruction from Secretary for Justice Paul Lam that the justice department would seek to appeal the acquittal of Lau and Lee." Of course!  

And with mitigation hearings and appeals by at least some of those found guilty also still to come, this case is set to run through the summer; with sentencing not taking place for some months yet.  During which, the stress and misery for many, if not all, of the people involved will continue.  (Reading the piece of AP's Kanis Leung on the toll of Beijing's national security law on Hong Kong's activists before the verdict was already heartbreaking.) 

  

Adding to the tragedy and/or farce of it all, five members of the League of Social Democrats (including Chan Po-ying, the group's head and spouse of "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung, one of the Hong Kong 47) were arrested after attempting to stage a protest outside the courthouse on Thursday afternoon.  In another "Thank goodness for small mercies": they were released a day later (i.e., yesterday). 

More than by the way, Chan Po-ying is the subject of a piece by AFP's Xinqi Su which appears on the Hong Kong Free Press' website today with headlines that emphasize that she's spent decades fighting for democracy with Long Hair -- and has continued to do so after his national security law arrest.  The following is how the piece concludes -- and I think is a good way to conclude this blog post:

Chan said it was important that people keep speaking up.

“What we have been trying to emphasise is that we don’t want society to be voiceless,” she said.

“When there is no other narratives than the one and only official version, I think as a humble citizen and resident, it’s our duty to history that we shall not let others alter our history and memories,” she added.

 (My emphasis.)

Cold day anniversaries and political prisoner birthdays

  

Attire appropriate for the cold weather we've been having

in recent days in Hong Kong!

 

The past few days have been unusually cold in Hong Kong.  Yes, it's winter -- but it really is not usual for there to be a frost warning in place, like is currently the case, and for there to be as much frost up Tai Mo Shan as was captured in photos yesterday!  So I feel entirely justified in having my thermal underwear as well as the Norwegian sweater I got in Bergen on in recent days; and even more so when checking and finding both last night and tonight that it's colder in Hong Kong than London!

 

Funnily enough, the last time I felt this cold in Hong Kong was back on... January 24th, 2016: eight years ago today!  That's a day many people remember as that which saw scores of "frost tourists" who had gone up to Tai Mo Shan not having been prepared for the slippery surfaces of the roads and such that they encountered up there needing to be rescued by the Fire Department's Emergency Services.

 

As expected, there's been much talk on social media about the cold conditions; including by expats who one would expect to normally poo-poo local residents' remarks about how cold it is.  But there also have been a number of Tweets today about it being Chow Hang-tung's 39th birthday -- her third spent in jail -- and today also marking her 938th day behind bars.       

Tomorrow will see the barrister-activist learn the outcome of a government appeal against her acquittal for a charge linked to the banned Tiananmen Square Massacre vigil on June 4th, 2021*.  Today, I wish to pay tribute once again to this woman of high courage and principle -- who has been badly treated by the Hong Kong government, including her being put in solitary confinement several times; with the most recent occasion being last month, as a result of her being deemed to have received "too many letters"!  

 

Also, here's noting for the record that last week saw Emily Lau celebrate her 72nd birthday (on January 21st) and Claudia Mo her 67th birthday (on January 18th).  Both journalists turned pro-democrat politicians whose names and faces are easily recognisable to many Hong Kongers, their lives have become so very different since February 28th, 2021, when the latter was arrested (for taking part in pro-democracy primaries that the former had not).  

 

Back in June 2022, there was a Financial Times article about Claudia Mo entitled "She was loved for standing up to China. She may die in jail".  Something which I hope will not be the case!  Though, if truth be told, things really are not looking good; this especially since she's one of the Hong Kong 47 who have lodged guilty pleas, presumably because she hoped for clemency and a shorter jail sentence than if she pleaded innocent, then was found guilty by the three national security judges presiding over the trial (rather than because she actually believes that she has committed any national security law crimes).

Something else I find sad (and yes, I'm guilty of this too): although there were "Happy birthday, Claudia Mo" messages on Twitter last year, there doesn't appear to have been  any this year.  I'd like to think that it's less a case that people have forgotten about Claudia Mo and more that we "just" forgot when's her birthday.  In any case, for my part, here's noting it belatedly -- better late than never, right? :S  -- and wishing her, Emily Lau, and Chow Hang-tung well in the coming year and years to come.   

*Update: The Court of Final Appeal overturned Chow Hang-tung's acquittal over the over inciting people to take part in an unauthorised assembly in 2021 to remember the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.  Not unexpected but sad all the same. :(

Eating jidori in both Kakunodate and Morioka!

  

Oyakodon lunch set in Kakunodate

 

Bonjiri -- my favorite yakitori cut -- in Morioka

 

A friend and I were talking about dining strategies while in Japan.  He and his wife appear to be fans of Tabelog and target restaurants that have high scores on that crowd-sourced restaurant rating site.  I told him that I tend to be far more casual in how I decide where to eat while I'm in the Land of the Rising Sun; having few "must eat at" restaurants on my list and, instead, going for "want to eat" items based on what I've learnt that a region, city/town or prefecture is famous for.

 

In the past, I've done such as searched out specialist crab restaurants in Hokkaido, okonomiyaki in Hiroshima and sauce ramen in Funabashi.  And I targeted trying Hinai Jidori in the short time (i.e., less than a day) that I'd be spending in Akita Prefecture.

 

On a visit to Nagoya back in 2018, I had been introduced to jidori -- the chicken equivalent of craft beer (jibiru) vis a vis regular beer or craft ,micro-brew sake (jisake) vis a vis industrial-scale brewed sake.  And, truly, it was a relevation how much tastier and juicier the Cochin chicken I had there was than, well pretty much any other chicken I previously had in my life!  Like, say, Jeju black pig vis a vis normal pork.  Or, well, prime wagyu (like the Hida-gyu I had in Takayama) to regular beef!  

 

So when searching for a place to have lunch soon after I got to Kakunodate from Tazawako, despite the Heavens having opened shortly after I arrived in that historic Akita Prefecture town, I made sure to keep an eye out for places that served Hinai Jidori.  And after having found one, I actually went ahead and waited in line for about half an hour (much of it outdoors in the rain; albeit under an umbrella) for the privilege of eating an oyakodon (mother and child -- i.e., chicken and egg!) lunch set at a popular eatery where I was seated in the more traditional section where one was seated at a low table set on tatami flooring!

 

If truth be told, that seating arrangement was less comfortable than I'd like.  But it sure was nice to get out of the rain for a bit!  Also, the food was delicious -- though I must admit that I'm not sure if it was because I was ravenous at that point or because Hinai Jidori really is so much yummier than regular chicken!  At the same time though, the portions were quite a bit more generous than I expected or was used to -- and I must admit to struggling towards the end to finish it all; though, for the record, yes, I was indeed able to do that, albeit with a significant amount of effort!

 

And although I didn't plan for it to be so, it turned out that my dinner back in Morioka that evening also featured some more jidori: this time, in the form of yakitori sticks of chicken skin, liver and -- my favorite yakitori order, which is easily found in Japan but less so in Hong Kong -- bonjiri (Pope's Nose, aka chicken tail, aka chicken butt!)!  I must admit though that I'm unsure if the jidori in question was Iwate jidori or Akita's.  (It didn't help that the restaurant in question didn't have an English menu!)  Still, I do know though that it tasted good -- and hit the spot before I headed back to the hotel and hit the metaphorical hay after one of the earliest starts to the day I've had in a while! ;b    

Rain couldn't spoil my visit to Kakunodate! (Photo-essay)

This week started badly, with my having nightmares two nights in a row -- the result of worrying about bad things happening in Hong Kong.  Last night though, I had a nice dream involving my being in Japan eating sushi.  I figure the dream was set in Japan in part because I finally got to viewing Hayao Miyazaki's magically evocative The Boy and the Heron yesterday -- and, also, because for some years now, Japan has been a place I have found myself visiting in the imagination, even if not physically (by way of movies, books (I'm a big fan of Keigo Higashino's tomes, among others) and food!).

 

Of course, I did finally visit Japan again this past October -- after a hiatus of some 4 years (thanks to the pandemic).  And there's still so much I want to share about that trip.  So, here's resuming doing so with this post about the next place I went to after visiting Tazawako: the former castle town and samurai stronghold of Kakunodate; one stop away on the Akita mini-shinkansen and, actually, now officially a part of the Akita prefectural city of Semboku along with Tazawako (though I must say that the parts of it that I visited sure didn't feel like a city)!  Anyways, you be the judge by way of the following photo-essay! ;b

 

It was still dry when I walked from Kakunodate's train station

through its Merchant District...

 

But the predicted rain came soon after I got to the Samurai District

(and stayed through the rest of my time in Kakunodate! :()

 

The first attraction I made a beeline to was the 

Aoyagi Samurai ManorMuseum, which actually

turned out to be a compound with multiple buildings...

 

...many of them chockful of treasures, including

samurai armor and swords (that I couldn't help thinking

that Funassyi, the history and katana buff, would LOVE)

 

Suffice to say that I most definitely came away from the visit

thinking that the Aoyagi family were serious collectors

of so much STUFF (including cameras and gramophones)! 

 

The second samurai house I visited, the Ishiguro House,

had far less STUFF inside of it -- but that might be true

only of the areas open to the public!

 

A cool element of this house -- parts of which remain occupied

by members of the Ishiguro family -- are the wooden panels,

designed and made in such a way that one's treated to a shadow show :)

 

Yes, I could have done without the rain -- but I also can see

what someone's said: that the rain can make the dark wooden 

buildings more photogenic!

Spotlight on Hong Kong, the national security law trial of Jimmy Lai, and prosecution witness Andy Li

 

Winter is -- and gray days are -- here in Hong Kong

 

This past Saturday, the temperatures dropped quite a bit and there's now a distinct chill in the air.  Still, it wasn't the cold air that made me shiver this morning but, rather, what I read in a piece by Shibani Mahtani for the Washington Post about what happened to Andy Li, a pro-democracy activist who's scheduled to be a key witness for the prosecution in the long-delayed national security trial of Jimmy Lai which finally got underway today. (How long delayed? Here's pointing out that he was arrested back in August 2020 and in and out of jail through to December 2020, when he was decisively denied bail and been behind bars since!)

 

The title of an article in The Guardian about the trial begins with the words "The world watches" -- and it does feel like Hong Kong is back in the international spotlight today.  Jimmy Lai's trial begins "two weeks after another landmark hearing came to an end on 4 December. The Hong Kong 47 mass trial of pro-democracy activists was the biggest national security law case since the legislation was implemented in Hong Kong in June 2020, quelling a year of protests against the tightening grip of the Chinese Communist party on the city. Lai’s trial has just one defendant. But," Amy Hawkins asserts, "it will be just as, if not more, significant for Hong Kong’s global standing."

 

"Lai, who turned 76 in jail this month, is charged with colluding with foreign forces under the national security law, as well as sedition. If convicted, which experts say is highly likely, the British national faces spending the rest of his life in prison."  Something noted there, which many people and media have not done so for much of this time, is that Jimmy Lai has a British passport -- a full fledged one as opposed to the "British National (Overseas)" passports issued to many Hong Kongers. But, due to his ethnicity, the authorities in Beijing -- and their proxies in Hong Kong -- consider him Chinese.  As well as an enemy of the Chinese state.

A reminder: the British government was a co-signer with the Chinese government of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. That 1984 document set the conditions in which then British-ruled Hong Kong was transferred to Chinese control and for the governance of the territory after 1 July 1997.  And it's the Sino-British Joint Declaration that had it that Hong Kong would be governed from July 1st, 1997, to June 30th, 2046, under something that came to be known as "One country, two systems": i.e., it would be part of the People's Republic of China but a Special Administrative Region that would enjoy a "high degree of autonomy" and, among other things, would have universal suffrage for its residents -- something which, of course, does not exist in the rest of China.

 

Returning to The Guardian's piece about Jimmy Lai's upcoming trial: "Lai’s trial is expected to run until spring 2024, with a verdict expected in autumn. It will be presided over by a panel of judges handpicked by the Hong Kong chief executive to handle national security cases.  Elaine Pearson, the Asia director for Human Rights Watch, [has] said [that] “Lai’s trial has been marred by serious violations of fair trial rights such as denying him a lawyer of his own choosing and handpicking judges. Beijing seems intent on imprisoning one of its most powerful critics for many years, possibly for the rest of his life.”"

 

Something else that is disturbing about the trial: its having witnesses for the prosecution like Andy Li.  A member of the Hong Kong 12 taken into custody in Shenzhen after a bid to flee to Taiwan by speedboat was foiled by Chinese coastguards, he looks to have been tortured while behind bars in Mainland China.

 

Quoting from Shibani Mahtani's piece: "Li, a 33-year-old gifted programmer who during the protests became a significant player in international lobbying and fundraising efforts, has already pleaded guilty under the national security law for his own role in the democracy movement, and he is expected to tie Lai to an alleged foreign conspiracy against Hong Kong and China. But Li was mistreated while in Chinese custody, a year-long Washington Post examination of the case found, raising questions about whether his testimony will be voluntary and reliable." 

 

Since returning to Hong Kong, Andy Li has been held in a Hong Kong psychiatric facility.  If that doesn't sound nuts and bad already, consider these passages from the Washington Post article which I find disturbing and chilling:  

For the first three months, according to several people familiar with the conditions, [the Hong Kong 12] were confined to these solitary cells, where two guards on shift took turns to watch them around-the-clock, even as they went to the bathroom. The lights were always on. During the day, they were forced to sit cross-legged on a concrete stool until their joints grew sore, except during mealtimes or interrogations. Walking around the cell was generally not permitted. At night, they were awakened at random hours, for no apparent reason. They were never allowed outside.

 

The interrogations were relentless during those initial months, the people familiar with the conditions said. Guards threatened to send them to Xinjiang — where the Chinese government has arbitrarily detained more than a million Muslim Uyghurs and subjected them to torture, forced sterilization, surveillance and other conditions, according to the United Nations — if they did not detail their attempted escape.

 

Most of the 12 were not physically abused, but seven people familiar with conditions at the center said screaming could “consistently” be heard coming from one cell: Li’s.

 

“It is likely that what [Li] faced inside was 10 times worse” than the rest, one person said.

If things were normal in Hong Kong, I think it would be safe to say that anything that Andy Li says at this point would be treated with suspicion as to its credibility.  Instead, the chance is extremely high that his words will be taken at surface value by the handpicked judges presiding over Jimmy Lai's trial.  And that in and of itself already will say a lot about whether justice can still truly be served, and served up, in Hong Kong in the national security law era.

Red leaves and more in Morioka, the first stop in Tohoku on my most recent Japan trip (Photo-essay)

I walked by a few trees in Victoria Park this afternoon with red leaves on them.  This being Hong Kong though, it's possible that the leaves were red because they were young rather than because it's a sign that autumn is here.  And even while there are places in Hong Kong where one can see seasonal red leaves, the ratio of humans to red leaves can leave me cold -- unlike when I was over in Morioka last month!

The prefectural capital of Iwate was where the shinkansen (on which I had had the amazing 30 ingredient ekiben!) took me.  Being some 3.5 hours up north from Tokyo even on the super fast train, I found the temperatures noticeably cooler there than in the Japanese capital, never mind Hong Kong -- and the red leaves of autumn evident in many parts of the town/city, including from my hotel room window as well at the old castle grounds in Morioka which has been conveted into a public park known both as Iwate Park and Morioka Castle Ruins Park.

All this made for some nice visuals -- and quite the change from the previous time I had been up in Tohoku: back in May 2019, when I was pleasantly surprised to come across still blossoming sakura (in Sendai and Hiraizumi).  And while I know there are people who go gaga over sakura, I must say that I adore the sight of koyo (autumn leaves) -- and catching sight of some of them on this recent Japan visit was a nice bonus; something which I didn't really expect to do in view of the leaves of the trees at Shinjuku Gyoen that I viewed on the same trip (and, in fact, just the day before!) having been pretty green for the most part! :)      

 

View of red leaves (and pink sky courtesy of a sunrise)  

from my Morioka hotel window :)

Red leaves at Tawazako (teaser for a future blog post!)

 

Puppet Ponyo and some trees 

with a few red leaves at Iwate Park

 

A nice mix of red and green leaves

 

What a sight this tree would be at the height of the koya season!

 

Some red leaves and really high castle walls!

 

What look to be old castle stones -- 

laid out for a rebuilding project?

 

A stream ran through the old castle/current park grounds

-- and this was one of a two ducks I spotted paddling in it :)

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.

Focusing on Hong Kong matters 22 years after 9/11

  

Remaining flood debris at Sham Shui Po earlier today

 

Half a week after the Hong Kong Observatory first put out the black rainstorm signal late on Thursday night, people are still talking about the catastrophic flooding that Hong Kong has experienced in recent days.  And while the worst does appear to be over (for much of the territory -- with the Hong Kong Observatory finally cancelling the landslip warning at 8.15pm today, 92 hours and 30 minutes after it was first announced!), the weather forecast for the next nine days has rain in it still and there has been more flooding today in the likes of Kwun Tong, the Sai Kung District and Tseung Kwan O!

 

I'm not sure whether I'm in the minority with regards to not actually having personally experienced a flooding situation in the past few days.  But as I said to an overseas friend who enquired how I was doing here in Hong Kong, I feel like I've been living in a parallel world of sorts since I've not even personally seen significant flooding -- as opposed to mere "localized water accumulation" -- when out on the streets in recent days. 

Of course, I've not deliberately gone over to known disaster areas for photo ops or what-have-you the way that certain government officials have done so.  (A message to those government officials who think they can fool people by posing for photographs that are supposed to look like they're involved in the cleanup: you need to look more sweaty, muddied and actually dirty!)

 

At the same time, I've also not completely stayed cooped up in my apartment for all of these past few days!  Yet it was only over in Sham Shui Po this afternoon that I saw not (completely) cleared flood debris -- with it being entirely possible that the flood debris I saw was fresh from more floods today!  Also, interestingly enough, today and yesterday, I've seen buildings that have experienced power outages and other problems.  

Still, most of the city looks to be back to "normal"/business -- including, alas, the law courts.  Consequently, news from the courts today includes four former student leaders of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), who originally faced one count of advocating terrorism, having pleaded guilty today to a less serious alternative charge -- one which still see the quartet of Kinson Cheung, Charles Kwok, Chris Todorovski and Anthony Yung being handed sentences of up to seven years imprisonment each!  All of which seems really excessive since their "crime" -- committed at a HKU student union council meeting on July 7th, 2021, involved the student body passing a resolution expressing sympathy for the death of Leung Kin-fai, who took his life shortly after he stabbed a uniformed officer six days previously on July 1st, the 24th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover by the British to China!

 

Also today at another law court, Fung Ching-wah, was "handed a four-year jail term for rioting and perverting the course of justice"; with the offences concerned being related to a protest in Tsuen Wan on October 1st, 2019.  (Yes, many people are still being tried and sentenced for actions that took place in 2019 some four years on.)

 

Fung's case caught the public eye by way of his being one of four protestors who, knowing that they were sought after by the police, had hidden in safehouses for two years ahead of a planned escape to Taiwan that was foiled when the quartet were arrested in Sai Kung in July of last year -- and one of that quartet being Tsang Chi-kin, the student who was shot by a police officer at point black range in Tsuen Wan on October 1st, 2019.  (Tsang, and the two others who were also in hiding, Ansen Wong and Alex Wong, will submit their pleas on September 28.  Tsang, Pang, Ansen Wong and Alex Wong have been on remand for over a year since their July 2022 arrests.)

I totally can remember where I was when I heard of Tsang Chi-kin having been shot.  Specifically, I was at the Foreign Correspondents' Club (on the invitation of a friend) when another friend (who's a member there) told me about it, told me to "be careful out there" and had explained that after news came of Tsang having been shot, his news company had asked him to get off the street.

 

Tsang's shooting is one of those shocking events on a long list of ones that I totally can remember where I was when I learnt about it.  And yes, the shocking events that involved planes flying into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon -- and the World Trade Center's twin towers' destruction -- on September 11th, 2001 are on that list.  And it's kind of shocking by itself to realise that 22 years have now passed since that day -- though it's also true enough that they also can feel like they occured in another lifetime; one that existed before such as September 28th, 2014, and June 12th, 2019.   

Much of Hong Kong left high and dry after record rainfall and flooding this past Friday!

  

A flooded area I saw last Saturday -- in the aftermath of

 Super Typhoon Saola's visit -- as opposed to today!

 

After I finished writing my review of Everyphone Everywhere (Hong Kong, 2023) on Thursday night, I checked the Hong Kong Observatory's website and found that a Black Rainstorm Warning had been issued earlier that night.  Although it's the highest level of rainstorm warning (with amber and red being the other colors of lower levels in Hong Kong's system), I didn't think too much about it as that was by no means the first time I've seen it issued.

 

Also, I remember having gone to attend a Hong Kong International Film Festival screening some years back when the Black Rainstorm Warning signal was on. (For the record: film screenings tend to take place as scheduled during a T8 or what's colloquilly known as "Black Rain" in cinemas and such; though people can exchange unused tickets within seven days for others.  And yes, I've also gone to view films during a T8!)

 

As it so happened though, the rainstorm was so major and loud that it led to my sleep being fitful and my waking up a few times in the night.  Still, I did not expect to see that the Black Rainstorm Warning would still be in effect when I checked the Hong Kong Observatory website again on Friday morning.  Nor did I expect to see the dramatic photos and videos of flooding in various parts of Hong Kong (including Wan Chai and Chai Wan -- which, for all of their name similarity, are not located close to each other! -- and Wong Tai Sin) that the social media was full of!  Oh, and landslides and road subsidence too!

 

In the end, the Black Rainstorm Warning was in effect for an unprecedented16 hours and 35 minutes.  But by the time I headed out of my building to see what my neighborhood looked like (at around lunchtime yesterday), whatever flood waters there had been -- which an acquaintance told me had been ankle deep late on Thursday night -- had subsided, only leaving a bit of debris over on the main road, part of which is close to a hilly area, but really not much at all elsewhere.  Also, at least half of the shops and restaurants had opened for business -- with a number of the eateries that had been closed at lunch time having reopened for dinner service when I went out again in the evening.

 

Still, I feel for the small/local businesses who must have lost quite a bit of business and money on two consecutive Fridays; with it being a T10 two Fridays ago, and then black rain yesterday.  And then there in other parts of Hong Kong that did get flooded; with among the worst hit being those at the Temple Mall North over at Wong Tai Sin, whose basement level was almost entirely underwater at the height of the flooding!

 

Yesterday's floods made the international news.  I guess it should be no surprise since it produced dramatic visuals and the rainfall that caused it is the heaviest Hong Kong has had since records were first compiled (in 1884).  I wonder though if the pretty amazingly rapid cleanup that has been undertaken (and that has made it so that, say, the Wong Tai Sin MTR station is back in operation today) will be as widely reported.  Otherwise, it might get people outside Hong Kong thinking that the city is in the same boat as the sections of Greece that (also) has experienced major flooding in recent days -- and sounds like it might never be the same again as a result.  

Of course, this is not to belittle what Mother Nature unleashed on Hong Kong as many of us were asleep on Friday.  In addition to what must be hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, at least two lives were lost as a result and some 15,000 people over at Yiu Tung Estate are currently without water.  For comparison: There were no fatalities due to  Super Typhoon Saola.  Hell, even Typhoon Manghkut back in 2018 left ZERO people dead in Hong Kong. 

 

So yeah, these are not good times for Hong Kong indeed.  And it really doesn't help that its political leadership is so... lacking at best (and uncaring at worst).  As Oscar Liu commented on Twitter: "Facing public anger over Hong Kong’s unpreparedness for the sheer impact of the record-breaking downpours leaving citywide devastations, the city’s leader [finally] showed up 19 hours later [at a disaster site] and left without taking English questions."  And as another Hong Kong resident observed: "It's times like this that I'm reminded that John Lee is not really a leader. He's a provincial sheriff appointed by the emperor to keep order and mind the store."

When Typhoon Saola was still a T8 (Photo-essay)

As the Dinah Washington song which I first heard in Chungking Express goes: "What a difference a day makes."  When I went to bed last night, the T10 signal was in place in Hong Kong.  But Typhoon Saola has moved far away enough from the city that only a T1 signal is currently effect.

 

Actually, when I woke up this morning, the T10 signal had already downgraded to a T8.  And even though it stayed at T8 up until late in the afternoon, the weather was calm for much of today; with little wind and not that much rain encountered when I went out for a walk along the Victoria Harbourfront after having been cooped up for some 36 hours in my apartment, and the only signs that there was still a typhoon in the area being the darkened skies and clouds that looked menacing but actually weren't anymore!

 

Five years ago, I also had walked along the section of the Victoria Harbourfront -- and had seen more signs of destruction in the aftermath of Severe Typhoon Mangkhut's visit.  I guess it's as expected -- since, as the account known as Waterfront Runner pointed out over on Twitter, Saola was actually smaller (even while being more intense) than Mangkhut!

 

Even while the T8 signal was up, some boats had decided

the waters were calm enough to leave the typhoon shelter

 

Still, it also was the case that a number of boats

were content to remain anchored at the

Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter

 

Something I had previously noted in the aftermath of

Typhoon Mangkhut: there suddenly be a lot of dragonflies about!

 

And while I didn't see any boats sunk by the typhoon this time around,

I did spot typhoon damage on land such as this tilted over guard box!

 

A man bailing water out of his dinghy

 

Broken bits of decorative panels scattered a section 

of the path along the harbourfront

 

A helicopter coming into land in T8 conditions which

presumably had flown over from an Outlying Island

with a patient bound for a Hong Kong Island hospital

One of the tree casualities of the typhoon -- but, honestly, there 

really wasn't that much typhoon damage that I could see (and report)! :)