#DailyUpdate #May28 #COVID19

COVID-19 Updates (May 28)

At the time writing, 5,822,571 cases of the coronavirus had been reported with 358,126 deaths. 2,522,999 have recovered.

The US, Brazil, Russia and Spain are the four most affected countries.

Hong Kong has no new reported cases today.

The death count in USA has surpassed 100,000. The number is about the sum of casualties in the Vietnam War, Korean War, Iraq War and Afghanistan War.

As Japan lifts state of emergency, epidemic bounce backs are found in Tokyo and northern Kyushu.

South Korea has reported 79 new cases. An infection group related to a logistics center has reach 82 cases. 560 schools in South Korea postponed class resumption.

4 more football players in the English Premier League have contracted the virus, after the third round of inspection.

WHO announced the establishment of a foundation to raise funds, director Tedros claims it has no relation to the recent fund crisis.

WHO Africa says they are seeing "rapid increases" in cases across the continent

Coronavirus could put nearly 14 million at risk of hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean, the UN says

Source: Now News, CNN, Worldometer

#Court #Drug
Chief Justice Orders Judge to Drop Charges for a Woman Living in Police Quarters

The Justice Department withdrew drug trafficking charges for a woman living in Police residence. Judge approved despite frustration.

A woman living in Tsing Yi Police Married Quarters allegedly received a parcel containing narcotics valued up to 2 million HK. She was then charged with drug trafficking.

On May 27, the Justice Department dropped the charges. The case judge was dissatisfied with the decision but ultimately approved. The judge expressed that the case originally has a high chance to be convicted.

In another case on May 28, the police, however, added one more charge of "drug trafficking" to a 26-year-old woman arrested in relation to Spark Alliance, a legal aid fund that provides pro-democracy protesters with legal assistance. The police has been targetting the group by accusing it of "money laundering" since December 2019.

Source: Apple Daily; Stand News #May27
#ChiefJustice #SparkAlliance

#1Country1System

All Dead
Including the Joint Declaration

Photo from Facebook
#May28 #SinoBritishJointDeclaration #AllDead

#Newspaper

3rd session of the 13th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee closes in Beijing

(27 May) The CPPCC closed at the Great Hall of the People. The meeting approved the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee’s work report, and Li Bin was appointed as Secretary General of the CPPCC National Committee, replacing Xia Baolong, Director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office.

In addition, a political resolution was passed with 2039 votes in favour and 1 vote against, which mentioned that the CPPCC National Committee unanimously agrees and supports the establishment of the Hong Kong National Security Law, with full implementation of "one country, two systems", and fully support the protection of national security and the Chief Executive's administration in accordance with law.

Further reading:
Inside the chamber In Beijing
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/21750
China parliament approves plan to impose Hong Kong security law
https://hongkongfp.com/2020/05/28/breaking-china-parliament-approves-plan-to-impose-hong-kong-security-law/

Source: Now News

#OpinionArticle #TheAuthor

Impact of National Security Law

(25 May) As a matter of fact, the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) National Security has been secretly operating in Hong Kong. In 2016, the United States issued a human rights report that Paul Lee's disappearance was suspected to be related to national security, which was quickly denied by the Hong Kong government by saying that "law enforcement agencies outside Hong Kong have no authority to enforce the law in Hong Kong", indicating that they also knew that the truth could not be revealed. The abduction of businessman Xiao Jian-hua at the Four Seasons Hotel in 2017 also caused a stir for a while. Interesting enough, the Police's Hong Kong Island Regional Headquarters received a call for help, but as the matter greatly overstepped the limits of what they could handle, the embarrassment of the Hong Kong Police investigating the National Security was avoided on the pretext that "the subject has reported his safety to the police and his family has requested for the case to be dismissed". From this incident, it is simply false to say that "the CCP National Security forces can come to Hong Kong to enforce the law after the National Security Act has come into effect" because they have been there all along, and there are dens of them in many housing estates such as Taikoo Shing and Fo Tan.

//more convenient for them to blatantly engage in all kinds of unscrupulous activities. They can connect to the database link of the Hong Kong Police Force, and have the power to order banks to hand over the transaction records of their targets or even freeze their assets

//Home raids, kidnappings, killings, and overruns by the CCP will become even more rampant after the National Security Law takes effect.

Full translation:
https://telegra.ph/Impact-of-National-Security-Law-05-28

Source: The Author’s Facebook

#NationalSecurityLaw #BasicLaw #PaulLee #XiaoJianhua #FinanicalHub #Xi #OneCountryTwoSystem

#Newspaper

Hong Kong Is Becoming Ground Zero in the New Cold War

//If Hong Kong falls, the long arm of the Chinese Communist Party will expand further.

//it is a step that serves no one’s interest, including the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) itself.

//For Hong Kong as a whole, the move delivers a death blow to its century-long status as a separate legal jurisdiction, which is the very foundation of its economic success, freedom, and human rights...It’s also bad news for the establishment, as China’s decision to bypass the Hong Kong legislative process is a vote of no-confidence in the previous model of indirect rule... will find themselves increasingly sidelined under a new direct-rule approach from the center.

//For the West, this step rings the death knell for their presence in Hong Kong. Western companies are going to lose the only Western-oriented business center within Chinese territories and their business interests will no longer be well protected by the British-style common law jurisdiction....international nongovernment organizations (INGOs), media branches, and intelligence operations are also at risk of being uprooted by China’s heavy hand. The West...may forever lose its foothold in the door of China.

//Hong Kong is China’s “financial lifeline,” functioning as its single most important source of foreign capital since the founding of the People’s Republic... Chinese companies are already on the brink of being expelled from the U.S. capital market and dozens of Chinese companies have been forced to plan secondary listings in Hong Kong. Therefore China’s push for a national security law in Hong Kong will only burn its own bridge to the world and add pressure to the vulnerable Chinese economy

//such a lose-lose decision is that it fits with the Chinese nationalist agenda of the Xi Jinping regime. Facing unprecedented challenges at home and abroad... it is comprehensible that the Xi regime would choose to shift the blame to “foreign forces” by playing up its Chinese nationalist card.

//Xi seems to have prioritized the nationalist fervor to control Hong Kong over utilitarian calculations of the territory’s financial contribution.

//By placing pragmatism over nationalist fervor, China provided the room for Hong Kong to function as a geopolitical buffer zone from the Cold War to the post-Cold War period.

//the Xi regime seems to have no interest in keeping Hong Kong as its buffer zone with the West. Driven by a nationalist political agenda, Xi instead sees Hong Kong as the frontline battlefield in the new Cold War with the United States.

//New waves of street fights will happen from now on all the way through the anniversaries of key dates... The extensive disqualification of democratic candidates in September’s Legislative Council election looks inevitable; the election itself may be postponed. A local financial crisis is also looming as a consequence of the massive outflow of local, mainland, and foreign capital from Hong Kong and expectations of the partial (if not complete) revocation of Hong Kong’s special treatment by the United States.

//the fanning of aggressive Chinese nationalism into wider geopolitical conflicts. History tells us that nationalist ambition, once mobilized, will likely develop into ever-more aggressive territorial claims.

//A war between China and the United States is no longer unimaginable.

Source: The Diplomat, (25-May)
https://thediplomat.com/countries/hong-kong/

Further reading:
China is preparing for WAR - Xi Jinping in terrifying alert after global backlash
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1287163/China-news-world-war-three-xi-jinping-latest

#ColdWar #HongKong #China #West #US #NationalSecurityLaw #CCP

#Newspaper

Dawn of Asian century puts pressure on EU to choose sides, says top diplomat

There has been growing discussion in Europe on how to weave a path between China and the US with the seeming end of a US-led global system and the arrival of an Asian century.

The EU’s desire to be tougher on China has been held back by revulsion at Trump’s methods, China’s part in helping Europe’s economy recover in 2007-8 and comparisons between Russia and China as communist regimes in which China appeared to have a more positive image.

With the recent pandemic, however, the pressure to choose sides is growing for the European Union, which appears to be shifting to a more independent and aggressive posture towards Beijing. The shift is sped up by Beijing’s assault on the independence of Hong Kong and its refusal to open its markets.

China’s handling of the pandemic has also backfired with European public opinion and a recent poll showed that 71% Germans believed “greater transparency by China would have mitigated the corona epidemic”.

France and Germany have already become more vocal in their criticism of China with the German cabinet approving new laws to prevent foreign takeovers of medical companies. The challenge now is for European politicians to harness this new awareness to resist China without tumbling into Trump’s cold war.

Full Article: The Guardian
https://bit.ly/2ZIFJ8Q

Further reading:
Merkel Says EU Has ‘Strategic Interest’ in Working With China
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-27/merkel-says-eu-has-strategic-interest-in-working-with-china

#EuropeanUnion #coronavirus #ChinaUSrelations #ColdWar

#BREAKING #HKPolicyAct
US certified that Hong Kong no longer continued to warrant differential treatment

//The Department of State is obligated by law to certify to Congress annually whether Hong Kong continues to warrant differential treatment under U.S. law. After careful consideration, as required by section 301 of the Hong Kong Policy Act, I can no longer certify that Hong Kong continues to warrant such treatment.//

Source: US Department of State #May28 #US