After the police dispersed foreign domestic helpers last week, the Labour Department today (15 Aug) sent temporary staff to explain the two-person gathering ban and mask orders in various Asian languages, displaying posters and distributing leaflets near the bridge of Mongkok train station. Ironically, this working group has more than two people and clearly violates the two-person gathering ban; however, the government likely invoked exemptions to legalize their own actions.

#FirstHand #Aug15 #GatheringBan #DomesticWorkers #GovernmentExemption

#PoliceState
Police Arrest Pro-democracy Civilians while escorting Radical Police Fanatics away

In remembrance of 'Yellow Raincoat Man' Marco Leung Ling-kit who was the first pro-democracy protester who sacrificed his life during the Anti-ELAB movement 14 months ago, citizens gathered outside of Pacific Place on August 15, 2020. Soon afterwards, police arrived and ticketed at least 3 civilians on the scene, citing violation of the gathering ban.

Pro-Beijing and pro-police radicalist Shek Fong-yau showed up with a woman and they took close-up photographs of citizens coming to pay tribute to the deceased. Both were escorted to leave by police later.

On the contrary, an InMedia reporter who had filmed the police was forced by the police to delete all the photos.

Source: Stand News
#Aug15 #Neverforget #Neverforgive #HKProtest #PoliceState #PoliceBrutality

#Taiwan #DPP #ChenChiMai

DPP's Representative Chen Chi-mai Elected as Taiwan's Kaohsiung Mayor

Chen Chi-mai, spokesperson of Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party, won the mayoral by-election in Kaosiung, Taiwan on August 15 by a wide margin.

The former mayor Han Kuo-yu of the Kuomintang (KMT), the opposition camp in Taiwan, was ousted after receiving heavy criticism of his Beijing-friendly stance and following a recall vote in June, 2020.

According to the Kaohsiung City Election Commission, Chen received over 70 percent of the votes, while the KMT candidate Jane Lee marked the lowest number of votes the opposition party has obtained in Kaohsiung since 2014. Chen promised to focus on industrial transformation, job creation, the reduction of air pollution and building transport infrastructure in the city.

Source: RTHK; Taipei Times Aug15
Photo: Chen Chi-mai's Facebook #Aug15
#HanKuoYu #KMT

#HealthCode #MassSurveillance #SocialCreditSystem #BigData #Privacy #CCP

"Encode us":
Health Code, or is it CCP's Social Credit System?

"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."

---- Verses 16-18, Revelation 13, King James Bible

Editor's note: The implementation of a "Health Code" system is supported by the Hong Kong and Chinese Governments. Many Hongkongers have fear that the "Health Codes" will become a means of mass surveillance, following China's Social Credit System.

#Graphic Source: Knight Lai #Aug15

#AcademicFreedom
Academics Demand #HKU and #HKBU to Retract their Decisions of Terminating the Contracts of #BennyTai and #ShiuKaChun

Source: InMedia #Aug15

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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24327

#AcademicFreedom
Academics Demand #HKU and #HKBU to Retract their Decisions of Terminating the Contracts of #BennyTai and #ShiuKaChun

The Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has refused to renew the contract of Shiu Ka-Chun, a lecturer in social work and pro-democracy lawmaker of the social welfare functional constituency. The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has terminated the tenured position of Benny Tai, an associate professor of law and convener of the “Occupy Central with Peace and Love” civil disobedience campaign in 2014.

The education sector has initiated a petition condemning the 2 universities, and urging them to retract their decisions. Up to now, nearly 4,000 signatures has been collected.

Choi Bo-King, former associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (#CUHK) and member of Scholars’ Alliance for Academic Freedom, condemned government for intervening academic freedom. She pointed out that the Chief Executive (CE) has been appointing crucial positions in the universities’ committee which made decision on terminating the tenured position of legal professor Benny Tai.

Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union vice-president of Ip Kin-Yuen also criticised the university council of HKU which ignored the opinion of the university's senate of academic staff and insisted on dismissing Benny Tai in such a short time.

Citing a survey of the Global Public Policy Institute, Dixon Sing Ming, associate ptofessor of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (#HKUST) stated that Hong Kong academic freedom was marked with a score of 0.442, sharing a similar ranking with Ethiopia. It implies that academic freedom in Hong Kong has been facing a very serious crackeddown. This reveals how the authorities is suppressing human rights and democracy movements in Hong Kong via different faculties.

Source: InMedia #Aug15

Trump Signed Executive Order Forcing TikTok to be sold in 90 days

US President Donald Trump signed a new executive order requesting TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell or to withdraw its U.S. business within 90 days.

Trump signed the executive order on the 14th and said that there was credible evidence showing ByteDance may take actions to imperil the national security of the U.S. The order required ByteDance to destroy all TikTok data attached to U.S. users after selling its U.S. business in 90 days, then to inform the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (#CFIUS) when it had destroyed all that data.

ByteDance did not respond to this order directly but stated that 100 million Americans loved TikTok because they can get opportunities for entertainment, self-expression, as well as social connections, and would continue to bring joy to the users.

#DonaldTrump #Trump #TikTok #ByteDance #US

Source: Stand News #Aug15

#FakeIdentity #WaterArmy #5Cents #ChineseNetizens
Chinese netizens go after Trump with AI-generated fake accounts

Source: Stand News #Aug15
#Trump #China #AI #USElection #SocialMedia #FakeAccounts #GenerativeAdversarialNetwork

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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24485

#FakeIdentity #WaterArmy #5Cents #ChineseNetizens
Chinese netizens go after Trump with AI-generated fake accounts

In recent months, a network of fake Chinese accounts with artificially generated followers has been criticizing US President Donald Trump on various social media channels, US media reported.

According to a research report by Graphika, a company cited by the Washington Post and other US media, these AI generated fake accounts have been bashing the Trump administration on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube since June. At first glance, it doesn't look like there's anything strange about those account profile pictures, but after careful observations, Graphika discovered that they seem to be produced by an AI program that creates fake faces. Pro-China groups then use these synthetic images to create accounts to share and post comments to attract more views.

Graphika says the common features of the account avatars are the blurred background and the position of the eyeballs in the photo. These strange photos are most likely the work of the Generative Adversarial Network (#GAN), a machine learning technology that specializes in creating seemingly real but fake faces. By studying real people and learning how to recreate facial features, GAN generates synthetic faces. The results aren't always perfect, and AI programs often have trouble showing accessories and other objects around facial features. The backgrounds are often left blurred as well.

Source: Stand News #Aug15
#Trump #China #AI #USElection #SocialMedia #FakeAccounts #GenerativeAdversarialNetwork

Not Binding to a Bank Account, China will Push Digital Currency in the Greater Bay Area, Aim to Replace Notes and Coins.

In July, Lithuania, an Eastern European country, was the first in the world having a digital currency issued by Central Bank. Now China's Ministry of Commerce is preparing to launch a test on digital Renminbi. It announced the proposal of "Overall Plan for Comprehensively Deepening the Innovative Development of Trade in Services" yesterday, which stated several eligible regions across the country to become digital RMB test sites.

These test sites include the Jing-Jin-Ji region, Yangtze River Delta region, Midwest China, and the Greater Bay Area (Pearl River Delta). The People's Bank of China (PBoC) will formulate policies to support the development of the digital currency, then will promote in Shenzhen, Chengdu, Suzhou and the Xiongan New Area, as well as in the winter Olympic venues, before expanding to other regions, based on the results in these pilot areas. The PBoC has collaborated with multiple internet companies, such as DiDi and Meituan Dianping, to study the application of digital currency.

Fan Yifei, Vice Governor of the PBoC, said that China's digital Renminbi was the effort to replace banknotes and coins, and to maintain the attributes and key features of banknotes while satisfying the need for portability and anonymity. Unlike WeChat and Alipay, which are popular in China, digital RMB does not require any bank account or bank card to be tied for payment.

At the video conference held by the PBoC on August 3, it mentioned that the testing of the digital currency had started smoothly, and would actively promote its research and development (R&D) in the second half of this year. Although the digital RMB was being tested on a pilot basis, the Governor of the PBoC, Yi Gang, stressed that this was just part of the R&D process. It does not mean that China officially launch the digital RMB, nor there is a timetable for its launch. He believed that the research, development and application of legal tender could meet the public's demand for legal tender in the digital economy and enhance the convenience, security and anti-counterfeit standard of retail payments.

#Renminbi #DigitalCurrency #PBoC

Source: Unwire #Aug15

https://unwire.hk/2020/08/15/digital-rmb-trial-confirmed/life-tech/

Amnesty International Calling to End Violence on Journalists

Source: Apple News #Aug15, Amnesty International #Aug12

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https://t.me/guardiansofhongkong/24592

Amnesty International Calling to End Violence on Journalists

Belarus has had a series of protests and clashes between civilians and police. Journalists have been arrested, beaten, targeted with rubber bullets while covering police crackdown on protests. Some had their cameras smashed. Amnesty International released a statement on August 12 to call for Belarusian authority to stop attacking journalists.

Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Regional Office Director, said, “ Journalists in Belarus are doing heroic work to ensure the world knows about the authorities’ brutal repression of protests. It is horrifying to see the lengths to which the government will go to suppress this information - attacking reporters with batons and rubber bullets, destroying their equipment, and throwing dozens in jail.”

Struthers continued, “Journalists are being attacked for exposing the crimes committed by the Belarusian authorities against their own people, in a blatant isolation of the right to freedom of expression. The government has even disabled the internet to prevent people from sharing information. As unprecedented numbers of people continue to take to the streets in Belarus, it is essential that press freedom is protected and that no one is harmed simply for doing their job.”

Amnesty International's statement on August 12: Amnesty International calls on the Belarusian authorities to respect media and to immediately and unconditionally release journalists detained solely for fulfilling their professional duties. They must also release all peaceful activists detained solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly. They must end reprisals against peaceful protesters, and investigate acts of unlawful force by police.

Source: Apple News #Aug15, Amnesty International #Aug12

#Belarus #Belarus2020 #AmnestyInternational #HumanRights #FreedomOfExpression

EXC: Cuomo Adviser Registered As ‘Foreign Agent’ To Lobby For Chinese Communist Party

Source: The National Pulse #Aug15

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EXC: Cuomo Adviser Registered As ‘Foreign Agent’ To Lobby For Chinese Communist Party

Daniel Kohns, who also served as Communications Director for Democratic Congressman Mike Honda, leveraged these connections to become Vice President at lobbying behemoth BLJ Worldwide.

In 2018, he was required to file with the Department of Justice’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) as a result of him lobbying on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party, specifically the country’s U.S. Embassy.

There, Kohns “provide[d] ongoing public relations services in support of the embassy’s programming and activities” – placing him on the payroll of the repressive Chinese government. That’s the same government that withheld pertinent information regarding COVID-19’s transmission pathways and continues to hide its genome sequence, severely compromising the ability of the world – and especially New York – to respond.

Source: The National Pulse #Aug15

https://thenationalpulse.com/politics/cuomo-adviser-ccp-foreign-agent/

#DanielKohns #CCP #COVID19 #FARA

#Court #PoliticalProsecution
Pro-democracy Singer #AnthonyWong in Face of Political Suppression: "Sing on and Hang on, Hongkongers"

Source: Stand News #Aug15

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