#Newspaper

EU urges China to free activists on crackdown anniversary

//The EU on Wednesday urged China to free hundreds of lawyers and rights activists, on the fifth anniversary of a major crackdown.

//Brussels pledged to highlight the "deteriorating situation of civil and political rights in China" including the case of a professor detained after criticising President Xi Jinping over the coronavirus pandemic.

//the EU said it expected China to investigate cases of arbitrary detention and mistreatment of prisoners.

//The United States on Tuesday called for the release of Xu Zhangrun, a law professor at Tsinghua University, one of China's top institutions, and one of the rare prominent figures to offer open critiques of Xi, who has clamped down hard on dissent.

//Last week the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that existing rights must be protected in Hong Kong after police made the first arrests there under China's new national security law.                
Source: WION, (08-Jul)

Further reading:
Wife of Chinese human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng: (My) Husband Was Secretly Sentenced and Inter-Provincially Imprisoned. The Law in China Is Merely “On Paper”.
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/23342
Rejected by the Court to prosecute the Chinese government for concealing the epidemic, a Chinese family member of the deceased is being harassed and under surveillance
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/23333

#709MassArrest #HumanRights #EU #NationalSecurityLaw #Xi #XuZhangrun

#Newspaper

Trends Again After Donnie Yen Celebrates Hong Kong’s Return to ‘Motherland’

//Martial arts star Donnie Yen recently celebrated Hong Kong’s handover to China, sparking heavy criticism from fans and renewed calls to #BoycottMulan.

//Pro-Beijing post: Yen, who plays Commander Tung in Disney’s upcoming live-action Mulan remake, becomes the film’s second cast member along with lead Liu Yifei to spark backlash from fans.

//He also fondly remembered performing for Chinese President and Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping back in 2017, calling it a “memorable night.”

//Yen is now being criticized in Hong Kong for his opinion of Xi Jinping amid Beijing’s recent imposition of the controversial national security law.

// #BoycottMulan movement: Last year, NextShark reported on the backlash “Mulan” star Liu Yifei received after expressing support for the Hong Kong police amid the then-ongoing protests.

// In a Weibo post, Liu shared a text photo from the Chinese state-run People’s Daily, which reads, “I support the Hong Kong police. You can all attack me now. What a shame for Hong Kong.” The Chinese American actress also used the hashtag“#IalsosupportHongKongpolice.”

//At the time, the Hong Kong Police was criticized for the way it handled protesters, journalists, medics and innocent bystanders.

Full Article: Next shark, (06-Jul)

Further reading:
Why should we #BoycottMulan?
https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/4069

#NationalSecurityLaw #Xi #DonnieYen #Disney

#Newspaper

In echo of Mao era, China's schools in book-cleansing drive

//As schools reopened in China after the COVID-19 outbreak, they have thrown themselves into a nationwide exercise to remove books deemed politically incorrect, deepening Chinese President Xi Jinping’s push to instil patriotism and ideological purity in the education system.

//A directive from the Ministry of Education last October called on elementary and middle schools to clear out books from their libraries including “illegal” and “inappropriate” works. Now teachers have removed books from schools in at least 30 of mainland China’s 33 provinces and municipalities, according to a Reuters review of social media posts, publicly available school and local government documents, and interviews with teachers.

//Censorship in China has been intensifying under Xi, but analysts say this is the first national campaign aimed at libraries in decades. It comes as government employees in Hong Kong last week removed books by pro-democracy activists from public libraries to see whether they violate a new national security law.

//The ministry directive did not list titles, but said illegal books are those “that damage the unity of the country, sovereignty or its territory; books that upset society’s order and damage societal stability; books that violate the Party’s guidelines and policies, smear or defame the Party, the country’s leaders and heroes.”

Full article: Reuters, (09-Jul)

#Censorship #BookCleansing #China #Xi #patriotism #Nationalism

#NetiziensVoice #Analysis
 
Let’s talk about the Beirut explosion. It’s only a small talk with some interesting information, please read it if you’re interested, otherwise, please feel free to skip it.
 
(5 Aug) According to BBC, officials reported that the explosion at Beirut’s port is most likely linked to a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored for six years in one of the port’s warehouse.
 
//Around a decade ago, ammonium nitrate was still somewhat profitable, but it has been declining year after year... Because of the overcapacity.
 
//Who push the market to excess capacity? China... the situation was so bad that even their own people discussed and warned them

//CCP does not encourage people to farm at all; they prefer demolishing and bulldozing good lands to build buildings, for better prices.
 
//Rather than storing the ammonium nitrate in China, we might as well treat them as a favor, half-gifted, half-sold. It doesn't matter if the buyer doesn't have the money, Bank of China could be the syndicated loan guarantee
 
//China began its massive export orders... 2014-2015 were the good years, soon foreign warehouses are full and they were telling China not to send out fertilizer anymore.

//why would a country, and even the capital city Beirut, need to store 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer into its port warehouse

//why we, the ordinary citizens, need to keep an eye on politicians... just like the epidemic, if you don't care about politics, politics will come and kill you.

Full translation:
https://telegra.ph/Lets-talk-about-the-Beirut-explosion-Its-only-a-small-talk-with-some-interesting-information-please-read-it-if-youre-interested--08-12

Source: Facebook
Reference: China Export Ammonium Nitrate 2002 - 2020 (CEIC), China's Ammonium Nitrate Exports up in July 2015

Translated by: Hong Kong Echo

#China #Tianjin #Explosions #Fertilizer #Yuntianhua #AmmoniumNitrate #Xi #Beirut #Lebanon #OneBeltOneRoad

#Estonia #NationalSecurityLaw
#EnnEesmaa #UN
Estonia condemns Beijing for implementing National Security Law in Hong Kong,
Eastern Europe sees China and Russia as foremost threats

Source: Apple Daily #July26
#EasternEurope #China #Russia #Nazi #Uyghurs #Xi #Threat

Read more
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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24329

#Estonia #NationalSecurityLaw
#EnnEesmaa #UN
Estonia condemns Beijing for implementing National Security Law in Hong Kong,
Eastern Europe sees China and Russia as foremost threats

At a time of increasing tension between China and the United States, many Eastern European countries are gradually changing their attitudes, equating China with Russia as their main threat, openly criticizing Beijing, and even withdrawing cooperation on infrastructure projects.

At the United Nations, Estonia joined other countries in condemning Beijing's push for the National Security Law in Hong Kong, and opposition parties called for a stronger government towards China.

The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian parliament, Enn Eesmaa, said he joined other lawmakers in condemning China's push for the National Security Law in Hong Kong. Estonia joined more than 20 countries in a similar statement at the UN Human Rights Committee late in June 2020.

The Estonian president visited China in September 2018 to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and others but mentioned the "Chinese threat" three times in the past year. She said it may even be more significant than Russia's and called for vigilance against China's expanding influence.

The leader of the Estonian Reform Party, Kaja Kallas, criticized China's persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang as equivalent to the Nazis' treatment of Jews in Germany and called on the government to be tougher to China and to criticize Russia for human rights violations. She also mentioned that the Estonian government did not even dare to publicly and formally thank Taiwan for providing health care supplies to Estonia.

Source: Apple Daily #July26
#EasternEurope #China #Russia #Nazi #Uyghurs #Xi #Threat

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#Newspaper
A Ban on Food and Beverage Waste in China

(16 Aug) China's General Secretary Xi Jinping recently ordered a ban on food and beverage waste, and there has been widespread support for the plate-cleaning campaign, but a restaurant in Changsha, Hunan province, yesterday launched a weigh-and-order program that required customers to weigh their weight before they could be served with food according to its calories content.

Adult female customers weighing less than 40 kg could only have two dishes, namely yellow beef stir-fry and chop bell pepper fish head, while adult male customers weighing more than 80 kg could have three dishes, including braised pork.

The restaurant issued an apology on its official Weibo page today, stressing that the original purpose of the event was to advocate the elimination of waste and healthy ordering, and that they also did not require mandatory weighing. They thanked the active cooperation of nearly 1,000 tables of customers on the day of the event.

Image Source: China News
Translated by: Hong Kong Echo

#Xi #FoodBan #FoodSupply #China

#Newspaper

Beijing softened rhetoric after being attacked repeatedly by the US but critics believes it is only stopgap
 
(10 Aug) As the U.S. and China confrontation continues to escalate and expand its scope, China urgently adjusts its strategy - abandoning wolf warrier diplomacy and adopting a more flexible policy. The Chinese media and major propaganda channels have been ordered to change anti-U.S. propaganda slogans to advocate cooperation to achieve a win-win relationship.  Many people in the media industry believe that this is only an expedient measure of the Communist Party of China (CCP), and the nature of the CCP has not changed. 

//prohibit verbal abuse and attacks on the United States... so as not to trigger a greater backlash... defuse the aggressive offensive from the Trump administration.

//Without this idiot, it is impossible to be in this situation

//the sudden change of Hua's words could not be her personal will but the direction from the government.

//this is a consistent practice of the Communist Party".

//CCP's sudden change of tone was only towards the US. CCP currently adopted an even more aggressive approach to the United Kingdom and European countries.

Full translation:
https://telegra.ph/Beijing-softened-rhetoric-after-being-attacked-repeatedly-by-the-US-but-critics-believes-it-is-only-stopgap-08-21

Source: Radio Free Asia
Transited by: Hong Kong Echo

#China #US #Relationship #Xi #CCP #expedientmeasure #Diplomacy #ChinesePropaganda

#Column #Opinion #Aug24 #SpecialStatus #NationalSecurityLaw
Year 2020: The Stranding and Disconnected World

Part 1 - 2

Since Beijing's forceful imposition of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, thrusting the new legislation into the city’s constitution the Basic Law, how the Central and HKSAR governments extends juridiction through the law around the world is no longer the only main issue. In one way or the other, most democratic governments in the free world have suspended their extradition treaty with China and Hong Kong.

Although, the SAR government insisted that the U.S. sanctions has no legal effect in Hong Kong.

Several years ago, when the United States sanctioned North Korea and Iran, Hong Kong was both guarding and avoiding the U.S., while warily sponsoring China’s allies.

At a time in 2020, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (#HKMA) had issued a statement to financial institutions operating in Hong Kong, claiming that impact of the U.S. sanction is negligible. So is the Hong Kong Dollar no longer pegged to U.S. Dollar?

Suppose that the U.S. government will strictly enforce the sanction, and put an end to financial institutions providing services to the 11 individual being sanctioned, will the U.S. government also consider revoking the green-peg, or even withdrawing U.S. bonds from Hong Kong and China financial markets?

No one can predict where this financial warfare is leading to. But any reasonable Hongkonger should expect the Hong Kong and Central governments to turn these 11 people in to face the U.S. sanction. As Le Yucheng, China’s foreign vice-minister said in an interview, “we must stay focused without being swayed by any extreme forces, keep to the right direction of the bilateral relationship to prevent US-China relationship from spiraling out of control or getting derailed. This is also to avoid worsening of the hard-won trade deals.”

If any financial predator targets Hong Kong’s linked exchange rate system at this time, how much financial reserve does Hong Kong government have to defend the linked exchange rate? We must not forget that the government has been pouring out public money in enormous infrastructure projects like Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge, the new runway in airport and Lantau Tomorrow Vision.

Besides, the Central government might need substantial amount of funds from the Hong Kong government to reactivate its trade relationship with the U.S..

One must note that, in China, countless farmlands have been wiped out in recent mass floodings as the #CCP called for food saving. Local authorities sprang into action with proposals targeting food wastage and food recycling, or “operation empty plate”, an initiative reactivated anew by Xi.

Hong Kong could possibly resume its role in supporting China as if during Cultural Revolution: endeavored to purchase American soybeans or Australian beef for the motherland, feeding hungry fellows.

Image: CNN

#FoodShortage #FoodSecurity #Flooding #China #CCPControl #Xi #ExtraditionTreaty

#AsiasFinest #PoliceState
Hong Kong Police coerce and insult a female shopper: "you eat shit"

One day before the first anniversary of 831 Prince Edward Station Attack, netizens initiated commemorative activities in Hong Kong. Police stormed into the shopping malls as protest slogans were heard.

While encircled by the police, a female shopper cried out in anguish, "Hail to Chairman Xi. We come to spend money and shop, what else do you expect us to do here in a shopping mall?"

In response, police shouted to her, "you eat shit".

Source: Stand News #Aug30
#Xi