Facebook - "The real “lesson” from HK is that once the democracy genie is let out of the bottle, you can’t put it back in. You can try to suppress it, but you’ll have to resort to increasing repression and state violence... The second “lesson” is that it’s pointless and futile for political (and business) elites to decry the protests, or demonize them as “enemies of the people”, or claim the support of the “silent majority”. When you are not popularly elected, it’s probably wise for you not to attempt to portray yourself as the defender or representative of the people. Far better to admit failure and acknowledge that you’ve lost the right to govern than to pretend that (the stature of) your office confers you any legitimacy. As for those who say that the protests will achieve nothing and that they are driven by foreign interference, they will have to resort to ever more elaborate stories about foreign interference, or how the local council elections aren’t an indication of public support for greater democracy, or how the majority of Hongkongers are stupid/ingrates, or how democracy was a dastardly British conspiracy. We should simply ignore these jokers, i.e. the likes of Leslie Fong. The third “lesson” is that leaders should not underestimate their capacity for self-deception. In fact, that’s their default mode — especially if they’re not subject to genuinely competitive elections. This bubble breeds elitism and complacency, and a self-justifying belief that they know best, that those asking for voice and accountability are a vocal minority, and that the masses are gullible folk asking for strong leadership from the elite. The fourth “lesson” has to do with how we should make sense of popular democracy movements such as this. It’s easy to resort to simplistic and binary narratives, such as “nothing justifies violence”, or “the ends do not justify the means”, or “democracy hurts stability and prosperity”, or “it’s futile, nothing will change”, or “it’s caused by foreign interventions.” Anyone who’s read Hirschmann’s The Rhetoric of Reaction will recognise these “arguments” as those of perversity, jeopardy and futility commonly used by those in power to resist changes to the status quo."
From Lantau to Ealing: Hong Kong’s homesick exiles in Britain greet the Year of the Tiger - "Some 90,000 people have already applied for a new visa scheme that Britain introduced in January 2021, months after Beijing imposed its National Security Law on the former British colony... If they all come, those 90,000 Hong Kongers — equivalent to the population of an English town like Hastings or Hartlepool — will add to an already significant Cantonese community and join the West Indians, South Asians and Eastern Europeans as the latest wave of newcomers to help reshape the fabric of modern Britain after World War II. Beijing criticized the U.K. scheme for turning Hong Kongers into “second class citizens,” but many see flight to Britain as the only lifeboat available to them... Many of those who have just moved to the U.K. have first-hand experience of the massive protests of 2019, when 2 million Hong Kongers took to the streets — some clashing with the police — to call for the local government to withdraw an extradition bill, which could have seen Hong Kong citizens sent to mainland China for criminal trials... There is also a desire to preserve the unique and brash cultural heritage of Hong Kong and not allow Beijing to snuff it out. New groups have been formed teaching “Hong Kong-style Cantonese” and screening (made-and-banned-in-Hong Kong) documentaries chronicling the 2019 protests. A news presenter who used to work in Hong Kong’s largest broadcaster has set up a YouTube channel with Cantonese news about Britain. The British government has also offered funds to campaigners providing assistance and counseling services to recent migrants from Hong Kong... “When we meet up, we only talk about which restaurants to go to, where to do shopping or look for a nice flat. No one feels safe enough to share political thoughts with strangers who’ve just known each other,” said Carol, a recent migrant who works in the tech industry. “There’s a lot of mutual suspicion.” As Lau puts it: “Fear is a major thing, because you know you are never safe. Even in the U.K. there are spies or undercover from the [Chinese Communist Party] and because I still have friends and family back in Hong Kong, I am always aware of this.” Indeed, even many of Lau’s cohort — ex-politicians who had a track record of speaking up — are keeping their heads down. Dozens of other pro-democracy politicians are currently taking refuge in Britain, but many of them refuse to talk to the media — or even publicly acknowledge the fact they’ve emigrated. “We don’t know what might happen to our family members if we become too high-profile here [in the U.K.],” said one former elected politician, who now works as a waiter and prefers not to be named. “It’s better for us to lie low.” The same unwillingness to speak publicly is also true of former journalists, half a dozen of whom requested anonymity to speak for this report. Many of them recalled the worsening level of press freedom, which, in the words of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, has been left “in tatters.” Three independent media outlets, including the pro-democracy Apple Daily, have been shut down within the last seven months, while other media have seen the mass departure of journalists. Hong Kong’s police chief last week reminded those attending a press conference that “press freedom is not absolute.” Unsurprisingly, media workers are among those who are worried enough to take up the new visa quickly. An ex-Apple Daily journalist, who moved to the U.K. about a year ago and spoke on condition of anonymity, said a return to Hong Kong would be out of the question. “I think 70 percent of me wants to explore different countries, different cultures; 30 percent of me is thinking, like, I have to escape,” she said. “I think most of us agree that [the past few years] was a really painful experience. It’s like seeing your friends change into a different character. And you know that things will get worse.” “It’s definitely not a nice thing to see.” On the positive side, the community is showing solidarity in exile."
Many more Hong Kongers are thinking about moving to Britain | The Economist - "Man-yee Kan of Oxford University surveyed 1,000 Hong Kongers with British National Overseas (BNO) status for the Migration Observatory, a think-tank. She found that just over 6% had already applied to the British scheme or planned to. Since about 2.9m Hong Kongers have BNO status, that implies 186,000 people, plus their dependants. Remarkably, a further 32% were considering it. Some are vague about when they might apply, which suggests they are not serious—at least, not yet. But about 380,000 could apply within the next five years. They are the sort of immigrants any country should be happy to receive. Half of those planning to apply or considering doing so were born in the 1980s or 1990s (BNO status was given only to people born before Britain relinquished control of Hong Kong in 1997). They are more likely to be university-educated than the Hong Kongers who plan to stay, and more likely to be full-time employees. A slight majority are women. Those planning or pondering a move are disgruntled about the governance of Hong Kong. They expect to be freer in Britain, not more prosperous: 63% think their earnings will fall. They are probably right, at least about the short term. Even skilled migrants tend to struggle at first if they come without job offers, and many Hong Kong immigrants are still waiting for National Insurance numbers. A survey in August by Hongkongers in Britain, a self-help group, found that less than a third had found jobs in the country. But their fortunes will surely change. Many of the Asians who fled east Africa in the 1960s and 1970s came with nothing, and took years to find their feet. They ended up better educated than the average Briton, and more likely to hold top managerial and professional jobs."
From Dec 2021, before the UK opened BNO to those born after 1997 in Feb 2022
China shills still claim that only those born after 1997 want to migrate to the UK and that those who lived under the British know how bad life was and prefer Chinese rule
Survey finds majority of Hongkongers holding BN(O) visas in UK are university educated, married, don’t plan on coming back | South China Morning Post - "Most Hong Kong residents who successfully applied for a pathway to UK citizenship are university educated, married or in a relationship with children, and have no plans to return to the city, according to a British Home Office survey. The survey interviewed a random sample of 500 British National (Overseas) visa holders living in the United Kingdom last year, and was released on Monday – exactly a year since the scheme was launched on January 31, 2021... Some 88,900 Hongkongers have applied for the visa scheme since its introduction on January 31 last year, of whom 76,176 have been approved... about 96 per cent of successful applicants staying in Britain said they planned to stay indefinitely... most participants, or 61 per cent, were aged between 35 and 54 years old... 14 per cent were aged 55 to 64. The smallest age groups among visa holders were those aged over 65, at 4 per cent... Most survey participants said they were aware that leaving Hong Kong would mean accepting a lower-paying job and changing industries. But about 69.4 per cent said they were financially secure."
China shills will claim that they will soon realise that their new life is worse and go back to Hong Kong
Hong Kongers warn of 'social conflict' as new arrivals to UK struggle to find jobs, housing and school places - ""The Home Office estimates 150,000 Hong Kongers will come this year alone. Speaking to a friend in Hong Kong, schools are closing down because so many children have moved. "I think this is just wave one - these are the early adopters these are people with money and a bit more social agility and capacity to move quickly, whilst others will have to wrap up businesses, sell houses and make plans for elderly relatives and that takes some time... He revealed concerns that some traditional Chinese groups and businesses in the UK - who are loyal to the communist government in Beijing - may not be as welcoming. He claimed: "Through these organisations the Chinese government are exerting their influence to try to make a hostile environment to put off Hong Kongers. "There have been online messages through WhatsApp and Facebook and social media calling for people not to employ Hong Kongers and not to do business with Hong Kongers."
Britain betrays Hong Kong activists - "There is, however, one group of people who are not helped by the scheme, and yet are among those most vulnerable and in need of sanctuary: those activists born after 1997. Yet these are the people most in need of protection: 93% of those who have been arrested, charged and tried for involvement in the 2019 pro-democracy protests are under the age of 25. If they have one parent with BNO status, current rules allow them to come to the UK, but only with their parent. For many, this is not possible. Often the parents don’t want to leave — either because their political views are different from their children’s and they back the pro-Beijing establishment, or simply because they don’t want the upheaval of fleeing their home city. And so for those young people who need to escape Hong Kong to Britain, or face years in jail, their only option is asylum."
Hong Kong: Top UK judges resign from highest court - "The UK has announced that two of its Supreme Court judges will no longer be sitting on Hong Kong's top court. The judges said the threat to civil liberties had made their role on Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal untenable... UK Supreme Court President Lord Robert Reed said he and Lord Patrick Hodge were resigning from the court over the threat to civil freedoms posed by the new law... The role of foreign judges in Hong Kong's courts has been legally guaranteed since the territory was returned to China, intending to maintain the common law tradition established under British rule. Non-permanent judges from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand also sit on the court, as well other judges with British nationality."
Hugo Restall: Hong Kong Was Better Under the British - WSJ - "In "Two Cheers for Colonialism," Mr. Davies attempted to explain why the city flourished under the British... The Brits created a relatively uncorrupt and competent civil service to run the city day-to-day. "They take enormous satisfaction in minutes, protocol, proper channels, precedents," as Mr. Davies described them, "even in the red tape that binds up their files inside the neat cubby holes within their registries." Their slavish adherence to bureaucratic procedure helped create respect for the rule of law and prevented abuses of power. Above the civil servants sat the career-grade officials appointed from London. These nabobs were often arrogant, affecting a contempt for journalists and other "unhelpful" critics. But they did respond to public opinion as transmitted through the newspapers and other channels. Part of the reason they did was that Hong Kong officials were accountable to a democratically elected government in Britain—a government sensitive to accusations of mismanaging a colony. Still, local officials often disobeyed London when it was in the local interest—for this reason frustrated Colonial Office mandarins sometimes dubbed the city "The Republic of Hong Kong." And for many decades the city boasted a higher standard of governance than the mother country. Mr. Davies nailed the real reason Hong Kong officials were so driven to excel: "Precisely because they were aware of their own anachronism, the questionable legitimacy of an alien, non-elected government they strove not to alienate the population. Their nervousness made them sensitive." The communists claim that the European powers stripped their colonies of natural resources and used them as captive markets for their manufacturers. But Hong Kong, devoid of resources other than refugees from communism, attracted investment and built up light industry to export back to Britain. And as for taking back the profits, Mr. Davies noted, "No British company here would have been mad enough to have repatriated its profits back to heavily-taxed, regularly devaluing Britain." Most expatriate officials retired to Blighty, so they were less tempted to do favors for the local business elite. The government rewarded them with pensions and OBEs. A Lands Department bureaucrat didn't have to worry whether his child would be able to find employment in Hong Kong if a decision went against the largest property developer. Contrast all this with Hong Kong after the handover. The government is still not democratic, but now it is accountable only to a highly corrupt and abusive single-party state. The first chief executive, Tung Chee Hwa, and Beijing's favorite to take the post next month, Henry Tang, are both members of the Shanghainese business elite that moved to the city after 1949. The civil service is localized. Many consequences flow from these changes, several of which involve land, which is all leased from the government. Real-estate development and appreciation is the biggest source of wealth in Hong Kong, a major source of public revenue and also the source of most discontent. In recent years, the Lands Department has made "mistakes" in negotiating leases that have allowed developers to make billions of Hong Kong dollars in extra profit. Several high-level officials have also left to work for the developers. This has bred public cynicism that Hong Kong is sinking into crony capitalism. This helps explain why the public is so upset with Mr. Tang for illegally adding 2,400 square feet of extra floor space to his house. Likewise Michael Suen, now the secretary for education, failed to heed a 2006 order from the Lands Department to dismantle an illegal addition to his home. His offense was arguably worse, since he was secretary for housing, planning and lands at the time... now there is one set of rules for the public and another for the business and political elites. Under the British, Hong Kong had the best of both worlds, the protections of democracy and the efficiency of all-powerful but nervous administrators imported from London. Now it has the worst of both worlds, an increasingly corrupt and feckless local ruling class backstopped by an authoritarian regime. The only good news is that the media remain free to expose scandals, but one has to wonder for how much longer... Mr. Davies ended his appraisal of colonialism's faults and virtues thus: "I only hope and trust that a local Chinese will never draw a future British visitor aside and whisper to him that Hong Kong was better ruled by the foreign devils." Fifteen years later, that sentiment is becoming common"
From 2012
Weird. China shills claim that it's the tycoons who are making life miserable for Hong Kongers, and blame the British
Facebook - "Amid a pandemic, Hong Kong arrested 15 high-profile pro-democracy protesters who were accused of joining three unapproved protests last year. The arrested include the billionaire media tycoon Jimmy Lai and 81 year old Martin Lee who has been integral to Hong Kong rights and democracy for decades. The senior barrister co-authored the Hong Kong Basic Law – effectively the constitution of the territory – in the months leading to the British handover in 1997 and is the founder of the Democratic party. Arresting Mr. Lee, the "father of democracy in Hong Kong," is an audacious move by the authorities that should once and for all collapse any illusion that the whole one country, two systems that was constructed over so many years since the joint declaration remains intact. It is also a very symbolic move. Let me take you back to 1997...through the diary of Prince Charles... "The whole business was drearily reminiscent of the Soviets and their behavior when I was in the Royal Navy over 20 years previously."... The Prince described the Chinese president and "his cronies" at a handover dinner that followed. The president "gave a kind of propaganda speech which was loudly cheered by the bussed-in party faithful at the suitable moment in the text," Charles wrote. "At the end of this awful Soviet-style display we had to watch the Chinese soldiers goose-step on to the stage and haul down the Union Jack and raise the ultimate flag." The journal continued: "Thus we left Hong Kong to her fate and the hope that Martin Lee, the leader of the Democrats, would not be arrested..." He said everyone at another reception was "thoroughly optimistic" about Hong Kong's future. "But in the background was the sneaking worry about creeping corruption and the gradual undermining of Hong Kong's greatest asset - the rule of law." Back to present day. It's 2020. Martin Lee has been arrested, and the Prince's ominous thoughts about Hong Kong's future back in 1997 have come to pass. Now what will we do? What *can* the world do?"
How Thatcher failed to ensure democracy in a China-ruled Hong Kong - YP | South China Morning Post - "there was another reason Britain didn’t fan Hong Kong’s democracy: threats from China. Recently unearthed British documents suggest that, as early as the 1950s, the Chinese warned their British counterparts that any attempt to introduce democracy to Hong Kong would be considered a hostile act. And such an act might be met with force from China, according to a recent report by Gwynn Guilford in Quartz, an online newsmagazine. In 1960, Liao Chengzhi, a high-ranking Chinese official, told Hong Kong union representatives that China would "not hesitate to take positive action to have Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories liberated" if the British introduced self-governance."
China shills claim it's fake news by the British that China threatened to invade Hong Kong if the British gave them democracy. Damn MI6 hacking the South China Morning Post!
Taiwan's #FreedomPineapple campaign gathers pace after China ban - Nikkei Asia - "Beijing has so far refused Taipei's calls to reverse the pineapple decision. It says the ban isn't political but is about pests found in some of the fruit last year. Taiwan says this assertion is disingenuous as 99.79% of its pineapples passed China's customs tests last year... Diplomatic offices in Taipei have expressed support for Taiwan following China's pineapple ban. The American Institute in Taiwan posted photos on Facebook of pineapples on their premises, including one of a smiling Brent Christensen, the de facto American ambassador, with three large pineapples on his desk. The Canadian office posted a photo of staff with pineapple-topped pizzas, and Britain shared a recipe for a pineapple upside-down cake. Thompson said that Beijing's consistent economic coercion of not just Taiwan was a "global challenge... and it really needs a global solution." "It's easy for the U.S. to give rhetorical support, but where's Australia and Sweden and other countries who are victims of this form of economic blackmail?" he said. "The bigger issue here is ... really the international community's unwillingness to stand up and coalesce around illiberal behavior by Beijing in the trade space.""
Why is China making a permanent enemy of India? - Nikkei Asia - "In terms of territory gained, China's Ladakh aggression may have been a success. But politically, it has proved self-damaging, driving India closer to Washington and making a major Indian military buildup inevitable. Relations between Beijing and New Delhi are at a nadir. This seems a replay of 1962, when China set out, in the words of then-Premier Zhou Enlai, to "teach India a lesson." China won the war but lost the peace. The difference now is China is making a permanent enemy of its largest neighbor."
'Fragile' song pillorying China's online troll army gets millions of views - "Namewee and Kimberly Chen are blocked in China after the song, which references Taiwan, the coronavirus, forced labor in Xinjiang and Winnie the Pooh. A pop duet taking aim at China's army of nationalistic "Little Pink" commentators and trolls has garnered nearly 10 million views on YouTube after the singers' accounts were blocked on Chinese social media and their songs removed from online platforms. In the official video for "Fragile," Malaysian singer Namewee and Australia's Kimberly Chen sing repeated apologies to a dancing panda, who lives in a hobbit-style house and waves a flag bearing the online insult "NMSL," frequently used by Little Pinks to wish death on the mothers of those they believe have insulted China or hurt the feelings of its people... "You never want to listen to people, but just launch constant counterattacks," Namewee sings. "I'm not quite sure how I've offended you." "You always think the world is your enemy." Namewee and Chen, who are based in democratic Taiwan, which China has threatened to invade if it doesn't accept CCP rule, then sing together: "You say I belong to you, and that I should come home," adding "you are unreasonable ... you want me to affirm that we are inseparable." "Sorry that I hurt your feelings," the pair sing, amid the sound of breaking glass. "I hear the sound of fragile self-esteem breaking into 1,000 pieces."... Taiwan rapper Dwagie and singer Chen Chia-hsing both welcomed the song for speaking out against CCP-backed online trolls, known collectively as Little Pinks, or the 50-cent Party. Chen Chia-hsing told Taiwan's Central News Agency (CNA) that the slang phrase "Chinsult" is used to refer to anything China finds insulting, saying that living in Taiwan is enough to make CCP supporters feel you have insulted their homeland. "Being alive is a Chinsult too ... If you want to be a free person, you will inevitably Chinsult, and as time passes, you get used it, therefore the earlier you Chinsult, the earlier you begin to enjoy the freedom"... Both Kimberly Chen and Namewee's accounts on the Chinese social media platform Weibo were blocked after the song was released, while their music has been taken down from online platforms like QQ Music and Tencent Video. Namewee said on his Facebook page that he had made no mention of China in the entire song, "yet you think every word and phrase is an insult directed at you."... Taiwan-based labor union official Sun You-lien, who hails from Malaysia, said Namewee and Chen have clearly made peace with the loss of access to the Chinese market. "A lot of people are willing to give up [creative freedom] to keep the Chinese market, and avoiding offending people in a system they know is unjust," Sun said. "This song is saying very clearly that [China's] world isn't my world ... and it's getting that message through to even more people that pop artists can play their part [in resisting China]""
Watching a film about communism, I realised I had been lied to as a child in China - "I was born in north-east China in a province that was particularly heavy-handed with party propaganda. I learned to march in formation before knowing how to write, and maybe even count. Every morning at school started with a flag ceremony and obligatory salutes to Mao Zedong. Textbooks were illustrated with watercolour Lenins and Stalins, drawn to look much more handsome than they actually were. The propaganda made its way home as well. I think that, even to this day, my father knows only socialist songs. The life I’ve just described may sound extreme, but in fact it was a relatively free period in the 1990s, after the worst of our state terror and before Xi Jinping’s more recent crackdowns. We never had a democracy, but the 90s were as close to it as we ever got, and life was generally pleasant... What really changed me was the 1997 film Anastasia. Before the first song started and the first talking animal appeared, I saw some familiar faces, straight out of my former life in China: young revolutionaries storming a palace, with the same determined expressions, the same grey or green overcoats, the ushankas, the fists. These were people I recognised very well, only my Chinese schoolbooks drew them as liberators, and the American film drew them as a mob... The most valuable gift from my American years was critical thinking – the ability to see that the way something is presented is not necessarily how things are. Even there it was not always encouraged, and was sometimes punishable, but at least it was possible to go through the school system and come out with a free mind, which, once earned, becomes the one freedom nothing can take away. Over the years I found out that my first home town in China, far from the homogeneous and nationalistic place I remember, is ethnically diverse, and had been much more so before the establishment of the current People’s Republic; in addition, it had once been a Japanese colony. And in fact, I’m not even Chinese, but Mongolian with some Turkic blood – now that’s a twist Princess Aurora might have appreciated. People of my ethnic groups had fought against the communists and, after Mao’s takeover of the region, were heavily assimilated. As there were so many non-Chinese influences for the communists to purge, the repression there was particularly heavy-handed. Although my parents did not discuss it much or openly, I eventually gathered fragments of stories about our family’s involvement in Mao’s revolution"
China Tech Crackdown: $1.5 trillion rout not over - Bloomberg - "Just as a growing number of investors believe China may ease its private-sector crackdown to focus on growth, they were reminded on Friday it may be too soon to make that call... What once seemed an unstoppable ascent of China’s Big Tech started to crumble a year ago, as Beijing’s crackdown in pursuit of “common prosperity” upended the fortunes of the likes of Didi Global Inc. and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The Hang Seng Tech Index has halved from its February 2021 peak. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon Index, a measure of U.S.-listed Chinese names, has slumped about 60%. Investor hesitation lies with the unpredictability of Chinese regulation. The nation’s education stocks took a renewed dip in recent weeks following last year’s plunge as speculation swirled over intensified crackdowns"
I saw a China shill claim that this was good because it helped the common people - at the same time claiming that the CCP was good because it encouraged economic growth
China threatens to nuke Japan non-stop if it tries to defend Taiwan - "They also added that they will take back the Diaoyu Islands and the Ryukyu Islands. ‘We will either manage them or let them be independent’"
China’s Marxism majors prosper amid labour market woes | Financial Times - "Chinese university graduates are struggling to find work in the country’s worst labour market in years — unless they have degrees in Marxism. Despite being China’s ruling ideology, Marxism has for decades been an obscure major for students. But it is enjoying a revival under President Xi Jinping, who has urged Chinese Communist party cadres to “remember the original mission” as he prepares to begin an unprecedented third term in power this year. According to Yingjiesheng, a leading job search website for university graduates, there has been a 20 per cent increase in openings that require a Marxism degree in the second quarter — the peak hiring season — compared with the same period last year. Marxism experts are being sought by employers ranging from government departments to private conglomerates... Xi’s government has cracked down on young people who apply Marxist analysis too critically to abuses of labour allowed under China’s system of state capitalism. But it has boosted demand for Marxism teachers, who now play a critical role in educating the public about why China’s communist regime is superior to the west. In a circular issued in 2018, the same year the party eliminated the previous two-term limit on the presidency, the education ministry told universities they should hire at least one Marxism instructor for every 350 students... Marxism teachers’ salaries and benefits are catching up with those on offer to jobseekers with previously more popular majors such as business administration... Other education institutions, ranging from kindergartens to high schools, are also actively hiring Marxism graduates in accordance with directives requiring students as young as 10 to study “Xi Jinping thought”... Private sector companies are also hiring Marxism majors in an effort to showcase their allegiance to the party in the wake of crackdowns on technology and property entrepreneurs such as Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba and Ant, and China Evergrande chair Hui Ka Yan. “It helps to have someone who speaks the party’s language work for us,” said David Tong, who owns a machine tool factory in the eastern city of Ningbo, near Shanghai. “The government will trust us more.” Tong recently hired a Marxism expert to help his firm improve communication with local authorities. The hire had an immediate impact."
China opens more research centres dedicated to Xi Jinping Thought - "The new addition, dedicated to his thoughts on ecology, brings the total of such research centres to 18... The latest centre, run by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, will be dedicated to “Xi Jinping’s Thoughts on Ecological Civilisation”... Alfred Wu, an associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, said these research centres would serve to consolidate Xi’s power. “In the past, policy areas such as the economy used to be under the purview of the premier. But Xi is now taking over almost all areas and he has to demonstrate that he is a leader with great ideas in all areas”. “It is Chinese tradition that a great leader must also be a great thinker. What’s happening is a combination of Communism and Confucianism.”... He said Fujian and Zhejiang had been chosen because Xi had previously worked there and suggested that Shandong was picked because it was where Confucianism was born."
Xi Jinping Thought Creeps Into Chinese Sci-Fi to Company Filings - Bloomberg - "What sort of science fiction does Xi Jinping like? How can China’s weathermen use the president’s political philosophy to improve their forecasts? In what ways can “Xi Thought” help prepare the country for the next big earthquake? These are the sorts of questions Communist Party cadres are now pondering as they prepare for the next big milestone in the president’s effort to cement control: Elevating Xi Thought alongside Maoism... Once Xi has his own “-ism,” the theory goes, he’ll be elevated to a political standing on par with Mao Zedong, whose portrait hangs over Tiananmen Square and is printed on the currency. It will also make it all-the-more difficult to question his edicts... No other leader besides Mao has had his ideology raised to the level of “thought,” which carries a special meaning in Communist Party propaganda. Deng’s reforms are described as “Deng Xiaoping Theory,” while concepts advanced by Xi’s immediate predecessors, Presidents Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, don’t even carry their names... Criticism of Xi Thought is not an option, as the leader maintains his unprecedented wave of disciplinary investigations against party officials. The country’s top anti-graft body, the National Supervisory Commission, has so far warned 20 central government agencies that they were “not doing enough” to master and implement Xi’s thinking... Writers and producers in the nation’s burgeoning science fiction scene were urged by an official industry association to take Xi Thought on board and transform China into a sci-fi powerhouse. Ultimately, Xi Thought can be whatever Xi thinks he needs to ensure his own rule."
Facebook - ""All content has been blocked. The user is banned from using the account," That's what happened to one of the top Chinese economic analyst, Hong Hao, managing director and head of research at the investment arm of megabank Bank of Communication. His crime? For commenting on the sharp slowdown of the economy and the effects of the shakedown of the tech industry, obviously both not flattering to the commissars. Darkness continue to descent on Chinese asset markets where you cannot even say the bloody obvious and investors can only be fed with the approved comments, obviously the ones that say only good things.. One man wishes for a 3rd time and everything must be subjugated to that objective. As for foreign investors, the risk premium keeps going up. Reserve currency status? You need your head examined."
Comment (elsewhere): "A word of caution to the SInophiles here wishing the RMB to be a reserve currency. There are huge issues to do with governance, movement of capital or currencies and the risk premium of China announcing sudden market-impacting measures - esp when it is to preserve whatever narrative they are promulgating at any one time. The current situation is not ideal with the hegemony of the USD, but it sure is better than the alternative"
Sony Refuses Chinese Demand to Delete Statue of Liberty from Latest ‘Spider-Man’ - "When Sony refused to delete the statue from the movie, Chinese authorities asked if the company could diminish the statue’s presence. Sony considered the request, the sources told Puck, but ultimately decided against editing the movie and did not release it in China. It’s unclear whether Chinese censors blocked the movie’s release or if Sony preemptively opted against releasing it... The news that Sony apparently declined to make the edits comes after years in which Hollywood studios have acceded to various requests by Chinese censors in order to distribute movies in that country. Most recently, Warner Brothers removed dialogue referencing a gay relationship in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore in the version released in China. “In the case of ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,’ a six-second cut was requested and Warner Bros. accepted those changes to comply with local requirements but the spirit of the film remains intact”"
Chinese Spies Accused of Using Huawei in Secret Australian Telecom Hack - Bloomberg - "The U.S. government has warned for years that products from China’s Huawei Technologies Co., the world’s biggest maker of telecommunications equipment, pose a national security risk for any countries that use them. As Washington has waged a global campaign to block the company from supplying state-of-the-art 5G wireless networks, Huawei and its supporters have dismissed the claims as lacking evidence. Now a Bloomberg News investigation has found a key piece of evidence underpinning the U.S. efforts — a previously unreported breach that occurred halfway around the world nearly a decade ago. In 2012, Australian intelligence officials informed their U.S. counterparts that they had detected a sophisticated intrusion into the country's telecommunications systems. It began, they said, with a software update from Huawei that was loaded with malicious code... The update appeared legitimate, but it contained malicious code that worked much like a digital wiretap, reprogramming the infected equipment to record all the communications passing through it before sending the data to China, they said. After a few days, that code deleted itself, the result of a clever self-destruct mechanism embedded in the update, they said. Ultimately, Australia's intelligence agencies determined that China’s spy services were behind the breach, having infiltrated the ranks of Huawei technicians who helped maintain the equipment and pushed the update to the telecom’s systems. Guided by Australia's tip, American intelligence agencies that year confirmed a similar attack from China using Huawei equipment located in the U.S... Huawei and ZTE don’t need to be a participant in — or even be aware of — any attacks for them to occur through their employee ranks. “Chinese intelligence services need only recruit working-level technicians or managers in these companies” to carry out compromises of customer networks... In the years since then, various reports have linked Huawei or its employees to spying and surveillance. In 2019, for example, the Wall Street Journal reported that Huawei technicians, in at least two instances, helped African governments spy on political opponents, intercepting their encrypted communications and using cellphone data to track their locations. Last year, Australia’s Financial Review found that Huawei built a facility to store the entire data archive for the Papua New Guinea government, but it contained glaring security gaps that exposed sensitive files to being stolen. And on Dec. 14, the Washington Post published documents from Huawei showing that the company has played a broader role in tracking China’s populace than it has acknowledged... the U.S. and its allies have had evidence for years that China has manipulated Huawei equipment through software updates. “Huawei has thrown a lot of head fakes by saying it would never put a back door in the hardware — a back door means nothing because there's a front door that's open every day through software,” he said. “Huawei’s software updates can push whatever code they want into those machines, whenever they want, without anyone knowing.”... In Australia, after nearly a decade of hostility with the government, Huawei has abandoned many of its operations. Last year, the company revealed a $100 million financial cut to its Australian investment and more than 1,000 local job losses, according to the Financial Review. A key factor behind that 5G ban, the Sydney Morning Herald reported, was an intelligence assessment that the vulnerabilities associated with Huawei products were so severe that more than 300 separate risks would need to be mitigated in order to use it securely."
Recent Spy Case Shows How Industrial Espionage Helps China's Military - "A historic court decision sheds light on how China has used espionage to gain a military and economic advantage over the US and the rest of the world. US counterintelligence officials managed to lure Yanjun Xu, a senior Chinese intelligence officer, out of China in 2018 and then get him extradited to the US to stand trial for attempting to steal advanced aircraft-engine technology, which China's military has struggled to develop... During his presentation, Zheng had technical difficulties with his laptop, which contained five GE Aviation training documents. The hosts offered assistance, and a Chinese student inserted a thumb drive into Zheng's computer — an apparent effort to insert malware or copy the hard drive — and "fixed" the problem... Under China's national security law, every Chinese citizen and firm is obliged to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party on matters of national security. In practice, that means Chinese companies that do business with foreign firms are required to share any technology or information they acquire with the Chinese military or intelligence services. Similarly, researchers and postgraduate students working on science, technology, engineering, or mathematics projects are expected to share their research with Beijing. US companies are always at the top of the target list, but "friendly" countries aren't safe either. Earlier this year, it was reported that Rubin Design Bureau, one of Russia's main submarine designers, was hit by a cyberattack likely done on behalf of China. In 2012, two Russian academics were jailed for passing information on nuclear missiles to Chinese intelligence"
