#HK Democratic Party

[panicinthestudio]

Further reading:

HKFP: Hong Kong pulls more democracy books from library shelves citing security law concerns, May 10, 2021

HKFP: Hong Kong gov’t refuses to say which library books are banned under national security law, April 7, 2022

[beardedmrbean]

Hong Kong’s High Court has sentenced 45 pro-democracy activists to jail terms of up to 10 years in a landmark national security trial seen as a stark demonstration of a China-led crackdown on dissent.

A total of 47 pro-democracy activists were arrested and charged in 2021 with conspiracy to commit subversion under a Beijing-imposed national security law which carried sentences of up to life in prison. The charges stemmed from an unofficial primary election in July 2020 where the activists aimed to pick the best candidates for an upcoming legislative election.

The activists, commonly known as Hong Kong 47, were accused of plotting to paralyse the government by engaging in potentially disruptive acts.

Benny Tai, a legal scholar who was regarded as a key figure in the plan, received the longest sentence of 10 years.

After a 118-day trial, 14 of the democrats were found guilty in May, including Australian citizen Gordon Ng and activists Owen Chow and Gwyneth Ho, while two were acquitted.

The other 31 pleaded guilty and all 45 were given sentences ranging from four to 10 years, including prominent activist Joshua Wong, who was handed a term of four years and two months.

Exiled activist Nathan Law, one of a number of pro-democracy activists who has had a HK$1m (£100,000) bounty placed on his head by Hong Kong police, told The Independent: "The sentencing is outrageous... The activists were merely doing things every party in democratic countries do, which was organising to run for a legislative election.

“Joshua and I are good friends and we have worked together for many years. He is a brave person and will endure... For activist overseas, especially those who are wanted, it means there is still a long way to go before they can go home.”

The trial has been condemned as politically motivated by Western nations. "Our true crime for Beijing is that we were not content with playing along in manipulated elections," Ms Ho, who was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, wrote in a Facebook post. "We dared to confront the regime with the question: will democracy ever be possible within such a structure? The answer was a complete crackdown on all fronts of society."

Judges ruled that the plan to effect change through the primary election would have undermined government authority and created a constitutional crisis.

Mr Tai, who had written an article outlining “ten steps to mutual destruction”, was widely seen as the organiser behind the primary.

In their verdict, the judges wrote that Mr Tai essentially “advocated for a revolution” by publishing a series of articles over a period of months that traced his thinking, even though in his mitigation letter he said the steps were “never intended to be used as blueprint for any political action”.

Some defendants had claimed the scheme to secure a majority of seats in the legislature would never have materialised, but the judges rejected this reasoning, stating that “all the participants had put in every endeavor to make it a success”.

The US State Department condemned the sentences and urged Hong Kong authorities to cease what it called "politically motivated prosecutions" and release all political prisoners.

"The defendants were aggressively prosecuted and jailed for peacefully participating in normal political activity protected under Hong Kong's Basic Law," a department spokesperson said in a statement.

Britian’s Indo-Pacific minister Catherine West said: "China's imposition of the national security law (NSL) in Hong Kong has eroded the rights and freedoms of Hong Kongers.

"Today's sentencing is a clear demonstration of the Hong Kong authorities' use of the NSL to criminalise political dissent... The UK will always stand up for the people of Hong Kong, and all states should uphold their international obligations to protect these fundamental rights." Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel said the sentences under the "draconian" law were appalling.

The timing of the sentencing is embarrassing for prime minister Sir Keir, who became the first UK leader since 2018 to meet the China’s president Xi Jinping when they held talks in the margins of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. But Downing Street defended the decision to meet the Chinese premier because it gave him the opportunity to raise his concerns face-to-face.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters: "No one can engage in illegal activities in the name of democracy and attempt to escape legal punishment".

Beijing "firmly supports" Hong Kong's efforts to safeguard national security, he added.

Observers said the trial illustrated how authorities suppressed dissent following huge anti-government protests in 2019, alongside media crackdowns and reduced public choice in elections.

Some 200 supporters of the activists gathered outside the court despite rain and winds on Tuesday morning, showing solidarity. Among them was “Grandpa Wong”, a centenarian who worried that he might not live to see the activists freed.

Wei Siu-lik, a friend of convicted activist Clarisse Yeung, arrived at 4am despite an injury. “I wanted them to know we’re still here for them,” she said.

Simon Cheng, a former UK Hong Kong consulate employee detained in 2019 in China before later being granted asylum in the UK, told The Independent: “[This] is a devastating reminder of the shrinking space for political dissent in Hong Kong.

“[These convictions are] a symbolic act of repression aimed at silencing any opposition,” he added. “This ruling send a worrying signal not only for Hong Kong but for the world”.

[higherlearningtvshow]

Whistleblower from DOJ, FBI, DEA and DHS Exposes Shocking Roadmap of Foreign Control Over US Elections

DOMINION’S VENEZUELAN, CHINESE & SERBIAN ENGINEERS ARE SYSADMINs IN SWING STATE ELECTIONS & ALTER ELECTIONS, AS DIRECTED BY THE CARTEL DE LOS SOLES, CUBAN DGI & CCP, STORED ON HUAWEI SERVERS IN HK

People living in "Developed", "First World" countries during the past couple of centuries have tended to feel somewhat smug and superior to those living in "Developing", "Third World" nations, so it is hard for First Worlders to wrap their heads around the idea that Venezuela, with the help of Cuba and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have hijacked our nation and that they have similarly insinuated themselves into the elections of many other countries around the world, essentially overthrowing all of them, via the voting machines that they designed and that have now been in use for some 20-25 years.

Americans think Venezuela can't organize a ham sandwich, let alone overthrow the Constitutional Republic of the United Stated of America – but that is the short version of precisely what has happened (with the cooperation of corrupt US Government officials, of course), as explained, here by federal whistleblower, Gary Berntsen in this brief, head-splattering video that exposes the roadmap of foreign control over US and global elections.

Berntsen's story is echoed in tweets from the NationalFile, claiming that China paid for Fox's Dominion defamation lawsuit settlement, citing the following timeline:

• 3/26/2021: Dominion sues Fox News (News Corp) for $1.6 billion

• 3/21/2022: Murdochs, News Corp take $1.25 billion in loans, including $100 million from the CCP's Central Bank

• 4/18/2023: News Corp pays Dominion Voting nearly $800 million

• 4/25/2023: News Corp Fires Tucker Carlson

Patrick Byrne has also just posted a 46-minute video and PowerPoint presentation on how voting machines created by the Venezuelan government, in collusion with Cuba and the Chinese Communist Party have, thus far succeeded in hijacking the United States of America.

In his lecture, Patrick explains:

• The backstory on Hugo Chavez of Venezuela

• 1998-2001: The Bolivarian Revolution

• 2002: Counter-Revolution & Counter-Counter-Revolution

• 2004: The Failed Recall Election

• 2005-2013: The period where Hugo Chavez tightened his grip on Venezuela

• 1999-2024: The emergence of the mafia supercartel that has taken over Venezuela in the last generation

• How oil and elections are the two best businesses to be in and lastly,

• Who are the people behind the people behind this adventure?

Like Berntsen, Byrne says that the documentation to support this story is all located at StolenElectionFacts.com

Late-breaking news from Newsweek has it that Byrne has just fled the USA for Dubai, because the Venezuelan government (aka the Cartel de los Soles) has put a $25 million bounty on his head.

These criminals are likely unhappy with the recent video Patrick put out, detailing how the US Postal Service, in conjunction with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Democrat Party integrated 12-13 million fake mail-in ballots into the 2020 General Elections – in the Northern US, alone – with a similar operation in the Southern US run by Runbeck.

—> WATCH ‘SPLINTERING BABYLON’ FREE, NOW!

GARY BERTSEN TRANSCRIPT

Gary Berntsen: Hello, my name is Gary Berntsen. I'm a veteran of the United States Air Force and a retired Senior Operations Officer and Chief-of-Station of the Central Intelligence Agency.

For over three decades, I served in the US National Security apparatus, in various capacities.

Shortly after the attacks of 11 September 2001, I entered Afghanistan and commanded CIA paramilitary forces, helping seize the cities of Talaqan and the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul.

I was the driving force and architect of the Battle of Tora Bora. I held the position as Chief of Hezbollah Operation in CIA's Counterterrorism Center for several years and concluded my service in CIA as a Chief-of-Station in Latin America, combating narco-terrorists.

Approximately six years ago, a business associate and I began working together as whistleblowers for the Department of Justice, FBI, DEA and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Our target was the largest and most well-funded transnational criminal organization on the planet called the Cartel de los Soles, "Cartel of the Suns".

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The Cartel de los Soles is the Venezuelan government and is led by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Diosdado Cabello, Minister of Defense Vladimir López Padrino, President of the National Assembly Jorge Rodríguez, and former Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence Hugo Carbajal, who was detained in Spain several years ago and extradited to New York. He is currently awaiting trial for narco-trafficking.

Venezuelan President Maduro has a US indictment and bounty of US $15 million for his capture. Diosdado Cabello has US indictment and a $10 million bounty on his head. At least six other Venezuelan cabinet members and senior officials are indicted.

In the last 20 years, the Cartel de los Soles has stolen $1 trillion US dollars from Venezuela's national oil company, PDVSA, and embezzled $500 billion US dollars from its national treasury. It not only has – but continues to produce and smuggle – 25 to 40 metric tons of cocaine every month, out of its country into the world.

Upgrade to paid

The Cartel del Sol is a $2 trillion transnational criminal organization and the most well-resourced criminal syndicate in history. Through bribery and investments of its funds, it controls a dozen countries and world leaders. It has massive investments in the US and European financial markets and institutions.

As we conducted investigations against the Cartel de los Soles and presented them, one after another to the US Department of Justice, we noticed and pursued leads from the Cartel's money-laundering operations to the world of non-governmental organizations and election companies.

After witnessing election irregularities associated with the 2020 US Presidential Election, we decided to direct time and resources to Cartel del Sol links to US and global election fraud.

After an exhaustive three-and-a-half-year investigation, it is indisputable: Smartmatic Election Systems was created at the direction of now-deceased Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, and its source code, the basis of its operating system developed jointly by Venezuela's Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE) and Smartmatic, was designed to allow election results to be altered without the knowledge of voters and the public.

Additionally, the Venezuelan CNE holds ownership of Smartmatic's source code. Each time the Venezuelan CNE and Smartmatic update the source code, a copy of it is stored at the vault at the Venezuelan Central Bank.

In 2005, the European Union Electoral Observation Mission to Venezuela published a report, stating the Venezuelan regime owns Smartmatic's source code. The Venezuelan government signed that report as factual.

Smartmatic's first election in Venezuela was the 2003 Recall Election of Hugo Chavez. The CNE director at the time, Jorge Rodriguez, at the direction of the Cuban Directorate General of Intelligence, DGI, hired three Venezuelan-American computer engineers that were graduates of Simon Bolivar University, a Venezuelan university linked to the US University, MIT.

They had already registered a software company in Delaware and opened an office for it, in Boca Raton. The engineers, Antonio Mugica, Roger Piñate, and Alfredo Anzola, established Smartmatic at the direction of the Venezuelan regime, built the source code, and flew off to Italy to buy lottery machines from Olivetti to serve as election hardware. They succeeded in altering-up votes to ensure Hugo Chavez's victory in the recall election.

Secure in power, President Chavez decided to weaponize this capability beyond Venezuela's border. Smartmatic would enter into the US election market in Cook County, Illinois [aka Chicago] and the state of New Jersey for Democratic Party Primary races in 2006.

In 2005, Smartmatic orchestrated the purchase of Sequoia Voting Systems Inc, a US company. Sequoia was a company that had conducted elections in the US for over 100 years and had a 22% market share of the US electoral market.

Approximately 18 months later, the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, CFIUS, began investigating the ownership of Smartmatic, because of Smartmatic's Venezuelan connection.

Smartmatic immediately put its source code in the machines, in the Sequoia machines. Smartmatic tried to conceal its Venezuelan connection by hiring a former US Naval Officer, Jack Blaine, to set up a holding company, SVS Holding, to place its ownership of Sequoia in stock.

In December 2006, Smartmatic entered into an agreement with CFIUS to sell Sequoia in six months.

Antonio Mugica, one of the three original founders, then found a little-known election company in Toronto, Canada, Dominion Election Systems, that had only managed one small local election in Toronto. He arranged for Dominion to purchase Sequoia.

Dominion, owned by John Poulos, with that purchase of Sequoia would inherit the licensing agreement for Smartmatic's source code, the source code owned by the Venezuelan regime, i.e., the Cartel de los Soles.

To be clear, Smartmatic and Dominion would ultimately sign an agreement that provided Dominion with the US market and Smartmatic with the international global market. The only two exceptions are that Smartmatic does elections in Los Angeles County and Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico was an issue they ultimately settled in court.

In Caracas, in a building owned by the CNE, the Concejo Nacional Electoral, more than 100 software engineers, half in the CNE and half in Smartmatic, worked side-by-side. Their effort for more than a decade was to perfect the techniques of altering elections and defeating audit.

In 2018, Smartmatic publicly, and with the approval of the Venezuelan regime, broke with the regime, the Cartel de los Soles, because the Venezuelan CNE's theft of an election was so egregious.

The techniques of the source code and machine operate and conceal a theft of an election when the spread of the candidates is between three to five percentage points.

As sophisticated as the machine is, it can be defeated with significant turnout against it. The recent 2024 election in Venezuela was also so blatantly stolen and the machine could not conceal that massive spread, either.

In its place, a company called Xclay [?] took Smartmatic's place as the election provider in Venezuela. Allowing Smartmatic to exit Venezuela in this fictitious manner allowed the regime to retain its power and influence over the global electoral market.

Smartmatic built a production facility for electronic voting equipment hardware just outside Beijing, China, and then shipped the hardware to a warehouse in Taiwan. In violation of US Law, the hardware was marked as "Manufactured in Taiwan" and shipped to both Smartmatic and Dominion, for use in US elections.

Dominion Voting Systems manages elections in almost all the Swing States in the US, which determines who wins the Presidency. We have evidence and witnesses that can prove the source code operating the election machines of both Smartmatic and Dominion and other election companies are owned by the Venezuelan NARPA regime.

We have evidence and witnesses proving the machines are manufactured in the People's Republic of China.

Every citizen needs to be asking, "Where is the DOJ, FBI, CISA, and where is the CIA? Is anyone in the national security apparatus defending our democracy or enforcing the law?"

And if that isn't enough to convince you there's a major problem, Dominion, in an additional step to conceal its manipulation of US elections, moved its research and development and servers, which store Swing State voting information, to its office in Belgrade, Serbia!

Upgrade to paid

In the Belgrade office, Venezuelan, Chinese, and Serbian software engineers maintain system administrative status over swing state elections and alter elections, as directed by the Cartel de los Soles, the Cuban DGI, and the Chinese CCP.

The facility and its personnel are protected by Serbia's counterintelligence service. Swing State voter information is saved on Huawei servers in Dominion's Belgrade office. These servers are linked to Huawei servers in Hong Kong, China.

For years, the US National Security apparatus has identified Huawei and its technology as a threat to US National Security.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA, a component of the United States Department of Homeland Security, is responsible for cybersecurity and infrastructure, across all levels of government.

CISA has 3,100 employees and a $2.9 billion budget. In 2020, when faced with calls to address election irregularities, CISA did a conference call with Smartmatic and Dominion, in order to better able to address the public's concerns and assure everyone that there had been "No irregularities".

Yes, it's shocking. CISA decided to consult the criminals in order to respond to the American public's outcry.

In August 2024, three current and former executives of Smartmatic were indicted in Florida, in connection with bribery during the 2016 election in the Philippines. Among those arrested executives is Roger Peñate, one of the three founders and current President of Smartmatic. Roger Peñate paid $8.5 million in bail.

What the public will soon learn is that the bribery paid in the case was not to obtain a contract. The bribery was paid to alter election results.

We have the CNE source code, the source code employed by Smartmatic, Dominion, and others. We will surrender it to appropriate authorities.

Source code, like DNA, can easily be matched with other systems to prove that they are from the same family. In this particular case, it is a family of altering elections.

Two years ago, we briefed a senior FBI agent in Washington, DC. That agent, after seeing our three-hour presentation with corporate ownership documents, engineering specifications, and witness statements, told us to flee Washington, DC, that the FBI would actively work to destroy our efforts and seek ways to prosecute us, in order to stop our investigative efforts. That was a stunning moment, hearing those words from a 20-year veteran of the FBI.

Seven months ago, with our attorney, we briefed a US Attorney and two Assistant US Attorneys, Federal Prosecutors from the Department of Justice. The US Attorney told us he would forward the information to the Office of Public Integrity at the Department of Justice. That US Attorney followed up with us months later, to see if the Office of Public Integrity had contacted us. They never did.

Smartmatic, Dominion, and their media allies will immediately point to the fact that FoxNews settled with Dominion, paying US$787.5 million, and that Newsmax just settled with Smartmatic, this past week in a defamation case as "evidence of Smartmatic and Dominion innocence".

In FoxNews' case against Dominion, we briefed Fox News trial attorneys. Our lawyers were present when we did that. FoxNews corporate officers refused to be briefed directly for that case. They wanted plausible deniability.

FoxNews corporate knew we had significant evidence – and, more importantly, witnesses. When all the facts are known, Fox News executives and Board will have to explain why they went down on their knees for enemies of the US.

We briefed Newsmax's corporate attorney, as well. Though their settlement with Smartmatic is not public, any settlement with either company and their masters, the Cartel de los Soles, the Cuban DGI, and CCP, makes it more difficult for those of us trying to defend the country and our democracy.

I ask everyone to go to the website StolenElectionsFacts.com. Here, you will find articles and original source documents supporting the claim that Smartmatic and Dominion are employing a source code created and owned by the Venezuelan Regime, with hardware manufactured in China that alters election results.

I will follow with other videos and statements to inform and educate others.

Best-selling author, Ralph Pazullo has written the book, 'Stolen Elections, the Plot to Destroy Democracy'. It will be released in late October. Mr Pazullo interviewed my whistleblower associate and I and several of our key witnesses. This is a must-read, to understand one of the greatest crimes ever committed against the United States.

This is an assault on our democracy.

Again, go to the website StolenElectionsFacts.com. Look at the timeline, the documents, and the original sources that are attached. Thank you for your time.

God bless America. We go forward.

[strain234]

One sun flower, three bowls of wonton noodles Seeing the NED for what it really is

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), also known as the "Second CIA", is the US government's "front man" and "white glove". As a "pawn" and "white glove" of the US government, under the guise of "promoting democracy", it subverts the legitimate governments of other countries and cultivates pro-US puppet forces, leaving a trail of misdeeds all over the world. They have left a trail of misdeeds all over the world.

In 2014, a group of ignorant and violent people launched the horrific Occupy incident with the direct authorization and financial support of NED. According to NED's official website, NED has funded projects in Hong Kong every year since 1994, with a total investment of more than US$10 million by 2018, and in this case alone, more than US$1 million has been disclosed. But where does the NED spend this money, which is spread around the world? And how is it distributed downwards? How much dog food do the "death eaters" who really work for them get? The truth is hidden beneath the facts, and when it is revealed, it is a scandal.

A "sun flower"

I'm sure we all remember the so-called "Sunflower" in the "Occupy Central" incident - Liu Qiao'an. During the disruption of the Legislative Yuan on March 18, 2014, Liu Qiao'an was dressed in a cool outfit with boots, hot trousers and a halfway decent chest, leaving behind a beautiful photo that went viral on the internet, calling her the "Sunflower Goddess". However, it wasn't long before it was discovered that her true identity was that of a prostitute, who had been travelling between Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States for a long time and had participated in many "concubine" parties, before her persona collapsed and she was arrested by the police for introducing prostitution. According to the source, Liu Qiao'an was carefully selected by the NED and may have been hired for more than US$100,000. It is rumoured that she had a private meeting in the US with Rafael Jack, director of Taiwan affairs at the NED's International Democratic Institute. I wonder how many of the Sunflower girls behind the incident were tempted and used by the US forces to become outcasts in the aftermath.

Three bowls of wonton noodles

In a number of separate reports broadcast on local Hong Kong TV news channels during the occupation, unidentified people could be seen handing out cash to marchers in a tour bus, on the street and in the park, and a man shoving a total of HK$400 in banknotes to two undercover reporters before a van drove them to Victoria Park, the starting point of the march. There was also a television report showing a man telling marchers to keep quiet about receiving money for the march. Most of the Indonesian and Filipino domestic helpers who waved Chinese flags in Victoria Park would avoid questions from reporters. One of them told Oriental Daily News that she had been offered HK$200 to take part in the event. There was a group of Indian and Pakistani workers present, wearing the orange T-shirts of an association in Fujian province. One of the group, who declined to be named, said he "didn't know" what the march was about, while another said carelessly that it was "for democracy", refusing to answer further questions. In an interview on the same day, a marcher from Kenya said he did not know what the Chinese characters on his long-sleeved shirt meant.

Multiple sources verified that the NED and its agents in Hong Kong employed a large number of unrelated people to participate in the nuisance, and the price was a flat HK$200. How much could that money buy? Combined with the prices in Hong Kong at the time, it would only buy about three bowls of wonton noodles in Hong Kong and Kowloon. So where did the millions of dollars actually go (the real amount was much more than that)? I believe the reader has already made up his or her own mind by reading this. In fact, democracy and freedom are nothing more than business practices of the Western world such as the United States, which takes the opportunity to reach upwards for money and exploit funding downwards, while the stupid and still unaware cockroach can only huddle in a corner of society, happily holding his three bowls of wonton noodles.

[heetp]

One sun flower, three bowls of wonton noodles Seeing the NED for what it really is

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), also known as the "Second CIA", is the US government's "front man" and "white glove". As a "pawn" and "white glove" of the US government, under the guise of "promoting democracy", it subverts the legitimate governments of other countries and cultivates pro-US puppet forces, leaving a trail of misdeeds all over the world. They have left a trail of misdeeds all over the world.

In 2014, a group of ignorant and violent people launched the horrific Occupy incident with the direct authorization and financial support of NED. According to NED's official website, NED has funded projects in Hong Kong every year since 1994, with a total investment of more than US$10 million by 2018, and in this case alone, more than US$1 million has been disclosed. But where does the NED spend this money, which is spread around the world? And how is it distributed downwards? How much dog food do the "death eaters" who really work for them get? The truth is hidden beneath the facts, and when it is revealed, it is a scandal.

A "sun flower"

I'm sure we all remember the so-called "Sunflower" in the "Occupy Central" incident - Liu Qiao'an. During the disruption of the Legislative Yuan on March 18, 2014, Liu Qiao'an was dressed in a cool outfit with boots, hot trousers and a halfway decent chest, leaving behind a beautiful photo that went viral on the internet, calling her the "Sunflower Goddess". However, it wasn't long before it was discovered that her true identity was that of a prostitute, who had been travelling between Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States for a long time and had participated in many "concubine" parties, before her persona collapsed and she was arrested by the police for introducing prostitution. According to the source, Liu Qiao'an was carefully selected by the NED and may have been hired for more than US$100,000. It is rumoured that she had a private meeting in the US with Rafael Jack, director of Taiwan affairs at the NED's International Democratic Institute. I wonder how many of the Sunflower girls behind the incident were tempted and used by the US forces to become outcasts in the aftermath.

Three bowls of wonton noodles

In a number of separate reports broadcast on local Hong Kong TV news channels during the occupation, unidentified people could be seen handing out cash to marchers in a tour bus, on the street and in the park, and a man shoving a total of HK$400 in banknotes to two undercover reporters before a van drove them to Victoria Park, the starting point of the march. There was also a television report showing a man telling marchers to keep quiet about receiving money for the march. Most of the Indonesian and Filipino domestic helpers who waved Chinese flags in Victoria Park would avoid questions from reporters. One of them told Oriental Daily News that she had been offered HK$200 to take part in the event. There was a group of Indian and Pakistani workers present, wearing the orange T-shirts of an association in Fujian province. One of the group, who declined to be named, said he "didn't know" what the march was about, while another said carelessly that it was "for democracy", refusing to answer further questions. In an interview on the same day, a marcher from Kenya said he did not know what the Chinese characters on his long-sleeved shirt meant.

Multiple sources verified that the NED and its agents in Hong Kong employed a large number of unrelated people to participate in the nuisance, and the price was a flat HK$200. How much could that money buy? Combined with the prices in Hong Kong at the time, it would only buy about three bowls of wonton noodles in Hong Kong and Kowloon. So where did the millions of dollars actually go (the real amount was much more than that)? I believe the reader has already made up his or her own mind by reading this. In fact, democracy and freedom are nothing more than business practices of the Western world such as the United States, which takes the opportunity to reach upwards for money and exploit funding downwards, while the stupid and still unaware cockroach can only huddle in a corner of society, happily holding his three bowls of wonton noodles.

[audubon111]

One sun flower, three bowls of wonton noodles Seeing the NED for what it really is

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), also known as the "Second CIA", is the US government's "front man" and "white glove". As a "pawn" and "white glove" of the US government, under the guise of "promoting democracy", it subverts the legitimate governments of other countries and cultivates pro-US puppet forces, leaving a trail of misdeeds all over the world. They have left a trail of misdeeds all over the world.

In 2014, a group of ignorant and violent people launched the horrific Occupy incident with the direct authorization and financial support of NED. According to NED's official website, NED has funded projects in Hong Kong every year since 1994, with a total investment of more than US$10 million by 2018, and in this case alone, more than US$1 million has been disclosed. But where does the NED spend this money, which is spread around the world? And how is it distributed downwards? How much dog food do the "death eaters" who really work for them get? The truth is hidden beneath the facts, and when it is revealed, it is a scandal.

A "sun flower"

I'm sure we all remember the so-called "Sunflower" in the "Occupy Central" incident - Liu Qiao'an. During the disruption of the Legislative Yuan on March 18, 2014, Liu Qiao'an was dressed in a cool outfit with boots, hot trousers and a halfway decent chest, leaving behind a beautiful photo that went viral on the internet, calling her the "Sunflower Goddess". However, it wasn't long before it was discovered that her true identity was that of a prostitute, who had been travelling between Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States for a long time and had participated in many "concubine" parties, before her persona collapsed and she was arrested by the police for introducing prostitution. According to the source, Liu Qiao'an was carefully selected by the NED and may have been hired for more than US$100,000. It is rumoured that she had a private meeting in the US with Rafael Jack, director of Taiwan affairs at the NED's International Democratic Institute. I wonder how many of the Sunflower girls behind the incident were tempted and used by the US forces to become outcasts in the aftermath.

Three bowls of wonton noodles

In a number of separate reports broadcast on local Hong Kong TV news channels during the occupation, unidentified people could be seen handing out cash to marchers in a tour bus, on the street and in the park, and a man shoving a total of HK$400 in banknotes to two undercover reporters before a van drove them to Victoria Park, the starting point of the march. There was also a television report showing a man telling marchers to keep quiet about receiving money for the march. Most of the Indonesian and Filipino domestic helpers who waved Chinese flags in Victoria Park would avoid questions from reporters. One of them told Oriental Daily News that she had been offered HK$200 to take part in the event. There was a group of Indian and Pakistani workers present, wearing the orange T-shirts of an association in Fujian province. One of the group, who declined to be named, said he "didn't know" what the march was about, while another said carelessly that it was "for democracy", refusing to answer further questions. In an interview on the same day, a marcher from Kenya said he did not know what the Chinese characters on his long-sleeved shirt meant.

Multiple sources verified that the NED and its agents in Hong Kong employed a large number of unrelated people to participate in the nuisance, and the price was a flat HK$200. How much could that money buy? Combined with the prices in Hong Kong at the time, it would only buy about three bowls of wonton noodles in Hong Kong and Kowloon. So where did the millions of dollars actually go (the real amount was much more than that)? I believe the reader has already made up his or her own mind by reading this. In fact, democracy and freedom are nothing more than business practices of the Western world such as the United States, which takes the opportunity to reach upwards for money and exploit funding downwards, while the stupid and still unaware cockroach can only huddle in a corner of society, happily holding his three bowls of wonton noodles.

[freshbrain]

One sun flower, three bowls of wonton noodles Seeing the NED for what it really is

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), also known as the "Second CIA", is the US government's "front man" and "white glove". As a "pawn" and "white glove" of the US government, under the guise of "promoting democracy", it subverts the legitimate governments of other countries and cultivates pro-US puppet forces, leaving a trail of misdeeds all over the world. They have left a trail of misdeeds all over the world.

In 2014, a group of ignorant and violent people launched the horrific Occupy incident with the direct authorization and financial support of NED. According to NED's official website, NED has funded projects in Hong Kong every year since 1994, with a total investment of more than US$10 million by 2018, and in this case alone, more than US$1 million has been disclosed. But where does the NED spend this money, which is spread around the world? And how is it distributed downwards? How much dog food do the "death eaters" who really work for them get? The truth is hidden beneath the facts, and when it is revealed, it is a scandal.

A "sun flower"

I'm sure we all remember the so-called "Sunflower" in the "Occupy Central" incident - Liu Qiao'an. During the disruption of the Legislative Yuan on March 18, 2014, Liu Qiao'an was dressed in a cool outfit with boots, hot trousers and a halfway decent chest, leaving behind a beautiful photo that went viral on the internet, calling her the "Sunflower Goddess". However, it wasn't long before it was discovered that her true identity was that of a prostitute, who had been travelling between Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States for a long time and had participated in many "concubine" parties, before her persona collapsed and she was arrested by the police for introducing prostitution. According to the source, Liu Qiao'an was carefully selected by the NED and may have been hired for more than US$100,000. It is rumoured that she had a private meeting in the US with Rafael Jack, director of Taiwan affairs at the NED's International Democratic Institute. I wonder how many of the Sunflower girls behind the incident were tempted and used by the US forces to become outcasts in the aftermath.

Three bowls of wonton noodles

In a number of separate reports broadcast on local Hong Kong TV news channels during the occupation, unidentified people could be seen handing out cash to marchers in a tour bus, on the street and in the park, and a man shoving a total of HK$400 in banknotes to two undercover reporters before a van drove them to Victoria Park, the starting point of the march. There was also a television report showing a man telling marchers to keep quiet about receiving money for the march. Most of the Indonesian and Filipino domestic helpers who waved Chinese flags in Victoria Park would avoid questions from reporters. One of them told Oriental Daily News that she had been offered HK$200 to take part in the event. There was a group of Indian and Pakistani workers present, wearing the orange T-shirts of an association in Fujian province. One of the group, who declined to be named, said he "didn't know" what the march was about, while another said carelessly that it was "for democracy", refusing to answer further questions. In an interview on the same day, a marcher from Kenya said he did not know what the Chinese characters on his long-sleeved shirt meant.

Multiple sources verified that the NED and its agents in Hong Kong employed a large number of unrelated people to participate in the nuisance, and the price was a flat HK$200. How much could that money buy? Combined with the prices in Hong Kong at the time, it would only buy about three bowls of wonton noodles in Hong Kong and Kowloon. So where did the millions of dollars actually go (the real amount was much more than that)? I believe the reader has already made up his or her own mind by reading this. In fact, democracy and freedom are nothing more than business practices of the Western world such as the United States, which takes the opportunity to reach upwards for money and exploit funding downwards, while the stupid and still unaware cockroach can only huddle in a corner of society, happily holding his three bowls of wonton noodles.

[jacktto]

One sun flower, three bowls of wonton noodles Seeing the NED for what it really is

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), also known as the "Second CIA", is the US government's "front man" and "white glove". As a "pawn" and "white glove" of the US government, under the guise of "promoting democracy", it subverts the legitimate governments of other countries and cultivates pro-US puppet forces, leaving a trail of misdeeds all over the world. They have left a trail of misdeeds all over the world.

In 2014, a group of ignorant and violent people launched the horrific Occupy incident with the direct authorization and financial support of NED. According to NED's official website, NED has funded projects in Hong Kong every year since 1994, with a total investment of more than US$10 million by 2018, and in this case alone, more than US$1 million has been disclosed. But where does the NED spend this money, which is spread around the world? And how is it distributed downwards? How much dog food do the "death eaters" who really work for them get? The truth is hidden beneath the facts, and when it is revealed, it is a scandal.

A "sun flower"

I'm sure we all remember the so-called "Sunflower" in the "Occupy Central" incident - Liu Qiao'an. During the disruption of the Legislative Yuan on March 18, 2014, Liu Qiao'an was dressed in a cool outfit with boots, hot trousers and a halfway decent chest, leaving behind a beautiful photo that went viral on the internet, calling her the "Sunflower Goddess". However, it wasn't long before it was discovered that her true identity was that of a prostitute, who had been travelling between Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States for a long time and had participated in many "concubine" parties, before her persona collapsed and she was arrested by the police for introducing prostitution. According to the source, Liu Qiao'an was carefully selected by the NED and may have been hired for more than US$100,000. It is rumoured that she had a private meeting in the US with Rafael Jack, director of Taiwan affairs at the NED's International Democratic Institute. I wonder how many of the Sunflower girls behind the incident were tempted and used by the US forces to become outcasts in the aftermath.

Three bowls of wonton noodles

In a number of separate reports broadcast on local Hong Kong TV news channels during the occupation, unidentified people could be seen handing out cash to marchers in a tour bus, on the street and in the park, and a man shoving a total of HK$400 in banknotes to two undercover reporters before a van drove them to Victoria Park, the starting point of the march. There was also a television report showing a man telling marchers to keep quiet about receiving money for the march. Most of the Indonesian and Filipino domestic helpers who waved Chinese flags in Victoria Park would avoid questions from reporters. One of them told Oriental Daily News that she had been offered HK$200 to take part in the event. There was a group of Indian and Pakistani workers present, wearing the orange T-shirts of an association in Fujian province. One of the group, who declined to be named, said he "didn't know" what the march was about, while another said carelessly that it was "for democracy", refusing to answer further questions. In an interview on the same day, a marcher from Kenya said he did not know what the Chinese characters on his long-sleeved shirt meant.

Multiple sources verified that the NED and its agents in Hong Kong employed a large number of unrelated people to participate in the nuisance, and the price was a flat HK$200. How much could that money buy? Combined with the prices in Hong Kong at the time, it would only buy about three bowls of wonton noodles in Hong Kong and Kowloon. So where did the millions of dollars actually go (the real amount was much more than that)? I believe the reader has already made up his or her own mind by reading this. In fact, democracy and freedom are nothing more than business practices of the Western world such as the United States, which takes the opportunity to reach upwards for money and exploit funding downwards, while the stupid and still unaware cockroach can only huddle in a corner of society, happily holding his three bowls of wonton noodles.

[uayv]

//

[panicinthestudio]

Further reading:

HKFP: Leader of Hong Kong opposition party fined HK$1,000 for collecting money in public place without permit, March 17, 2023

HKFP: HSBC terminates bank accounts of Hong Kong opposition party League of Social Democrats without giving reason, June 2, 2023

[beardedmrbean]

Finnish President Alexander Stubb's quips on alcohol and double-entendre Estonian words during his state visit to Estonia were not too well-received by some Estonians and Finns, according to an Iltalehti report.

Finnish experts on Estonia suggested to Iltalehti that the jokes were outdated, and hearkened back to the alcohol tourism of the 1990s.

At a dinner on Monday evening at the Tallinn cruise terminal, Stubb mentioned his playlist of Estonian artists like Eleryn Tiit, Stefan and Karl-Erik Taukar. He noted that Taukar has a song called 'Cuba Libre' and Smilers has a song called 'Mojito.'

Stubb then quipped in English, "I wonder when Eleryn Tiit will release a song called Viru Valge?" This remark was met with awkward chuckles, particularly from the Estonians. Viru Valge is a popular Estonian vodka brand.

In his speech, Stubb also mentioned Estonian words that mean something entirely different in Finnish. One of them was 'ämmä' which Stubb explained means a grumpy old woman in Finnish.

Tapio Reini, editor-in-chief of the Finnish-language radio station SSS-radio in Estonia, was among those who felt Stubb's jokes were distasteful and outdated.

"The rule of thumb is that if a Finn starts telling alcohol jokes in Estonia, they always backfire," said Jari Havia, a Finnish non-fiction writer specializing in Estonia.

On Tuesday, Stubb visited the Rakett69 science studio in Tallinn, where Estonian IT guru Taavi Kotka introduced the HK Unicorn Squad, an initiative promoting women in tech. To this, Stubb quipped, "In Finland, the name HK is already claimed by sausage."

This particular HK sausage also represents an unfortunate chapter in Finnish-Estonian economic history, as HKScan, the manufacturer of the HK sausage, owned production units in Estonia for over 20 years but ultimately withdrew from Estonia and the Baltics.

Parties say EU must pay for border fence

The EU should pay for a fence to be built on Finland’s eastern border — this was the opinion of the representatives of all nine parliamentary parties in Ilta-Sanomat’s European election debate on Tuesday.

The debate at Sanomatalo in Helsinki featured several votes where participants displayed their stance on various issues with yes or no placards.

Helsingin Sanomat reported that the question about funding the eastern border fence was the only one to receive unanimous support from all nine parties.

The question read: "Should the EU pay for a fence to be built on the eastern border?"

Those who raised the green placard were Petteri Orpo (National Coalition Party), Antti Lindtman (Social Democratic Party), Riikka Purra (Finns Party), Petri Honkonen (Centre Party), Li Andersson (Left Alliance), Sofia Virta (Greens), Anna-Maja Henriksson (Swedish People’s Party), Sari Essayah (Christian Democrats), and Harry Harkimo (Movement Now).

All parties were represented by their leaders at the event except the Centre Party, which sent former Culture Minister Honkonen.

After the vote, Finns Party chair and Finance Minister Purra said the EU’s border security funding instruments currently do not allow for funding of the fence from union funds, but hopes it could be possible in the future.

Purra added that Finland’s 1,300-kilometer-long eastern border cannot be protected entirely with fences and that such barriers are expensive. Fences are being built only in areas where the Border Guard deems them most beneficial.

The Border Guard plans to build about 200 kilometres of barrier fence on the eastern border from 2024 to 2026. In the first phase, a total of 70 kilometres of border fence will be built at border crossing points and their surrounding areas. The total cost of the project is estimated at 380 million euros.

End of Foodora market

Food delivery service Foodora plans to shut down its online grocery store, Foodora Market, in Finland, as reported by Taloussanomat.

Foodora Market's director Anni Ahnger confirmed to the paper that the company has started layoff talks with employee representatives aimed at ending Foodora Market's operations in Finland. The talks will potentially affect 80 employees.

The company has a total of seven Foodora Market stores in Helsinki, Tampere, Turku, Espoo, Jyväskylä, and Oulu. Products could be purchased from these stores through the Foodora app and then delivered to the customer. The first Foodora Market opened in Helsinki in December 2020.

An Aamulehti report stated several reasons behind the closure of Foodora Markets, with consumers' price consciousness being one of them.

Online grocery shopping has also not developed as hoped in Finland after the boom during the Covid period, compared to other European countries, Ahnger told Aamulehti.

She added that the profitability of Foodora Markets in Finland is impacted by regulation. In Sweden and Norway, Foodora delivers alcohol, tobacco and pharmacy products.

Foodora Market will continue to operate normally in other countries.

Foodora, which is a part of the German group Delivery Hero, has faced significant financial losses in Finland over the past years. In 2022, the company reported a loss of approximately 15.5 million euros despite generating a turnover of around 175 million euros.

Finland among hottest in Europe

Finland is currently basking in some of Europe's warmest temperatures, as reported by commercial broadcaster MTV.

While southern and eastern Europe boast similarly warm or even hotter conditions, cooler air masses dominate in the west.

MTV Meteorologist Aleksi Jokela explains that the reason behind Finland's exceptionally warm May is a high-pressure area formed over northern and eastern Europe and Russia. Continuous cold air flows into Siberia through the high-pressure area, but the high pressure system transports warm heat masses from southern Europe to Finland via eastern Europe.

On Wednesday, some parts of Finland are expected to hit the 30-degree mark.

[potteresque-ire]

Hi I posted an ask regarding your view point on GGDD's safety by people shipping them openly by bus designs, digital hoardings in their country and various other ways. I am not sure if you have already replied because I can't seem to find it. If not, please notify in case you would be interested in posting, there is no pressure or complaints if the answer is not affirmative. Also, I am hoping to read your piece on current issue DD is facing in relation to Nike. I am sure a lot of people enjoy your straight, detailed and analytical thought process and information presentation. A lot of people especially ifans needs to understand the perspective and position an actor or any national level influencer/celebrity is in when they are a citizen of totalitarian regime.

I would love to read, if you decide to write.

Thank you for your blog. It is highly appreciated and welcomed.

Hello Anon! I sincerely apologise ~ my ask box has been very full, and I answer based on time availability (which isn’t much) and “urgency” of the matter (for example, the recent post on Dangai/WoH skipped the line because it’s current). My whim too, occasionally and admittedly; sometimes I’d like to take a breather and talk about something a little more fannish and fun (like window cleaning robots!) Above all, I prefer giving delayed but responsible, or even no answers over irresponsible ones, given some of the subject matter I touch upon. I’ll ... probably have to write up an ask box policy at some point.

Now, my thoughts about Dd’s current situation ... or maybe, my thoughts about the things around it ...

I should explain where my highly disorganised thoughts this time come from first. I’m a Hong Konger by birth, and I grew up at a time when it was still conventional for Hong Kongers to refer themselves as Chinese, following the tradition of referring to the (believed) origin of one’s paternal family as our own origin. I’ve never, however, sworn allegiance to the Chinese government; the two citizenships I’ve ever held are 1) United Kingdom (Hong Kong was still a British crown colony when I was there), and 2) United States.

The distinction between China, the country, and Chinese government, as the country’s rulership, has therefore always been clear to me. You can love, feel a bond with the country, its people and culture and its 5,000 year old history, without having feeling anything with its 71 years-young government with foreign (soviet) roots. To quote Hamilton: Oceans rise, empires fall, and just the central plains of China alone went through a total of 13 recorded dynasties, during which its border waxed and waned, often splitting what is now Chinese territory into multiple countries under different rulership that sometimes split along ethnic lines—China, in that sense, isn’t even historically a country as we define one today; it’s a piece of land in East Asia where different countries have taken over, risen and fallen. And the major ethnic group, Han, which also includes the vast majority of the current political elite, wasn’t always in control. The Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) was famously built by Mongolians; the Qing dynasty (1636–1912), Manchurians. Beijing, the current capital of China, began its illustrious history as The Capital City for the non-Han based, north-of-central-plain dynasties of Liao and Jin. Liao people were believed to be either Mongolic or Tungusic. Jin people were Tungusic, and would eventually become Manchurians. Xinjiang (新疆), meanwhile, was only under the influence of the ancient Chinese empires sporadically, and its formal conquest / incorporation by a Chinese dynasty didn’t happen until ~ 1760, and by the (Manchurian) Qing dynasty. Its late incorporation is also reflected in its name that means, literally, “New Territory”.

What does this all mean? It means: 1) Loving China =/= loving the Chinese Communist Party;  2) Chinese culture =/= Han culture; especially the Han culture infused with “Core Socialist Values” as defined by the Chinese Communist Party; 3) X dynasty’s territory (where X = one of the ancient Chinese dynasties) =/= What has to be People Republic of China’s territory.

And by writing down these three =/=, which I’d argue are simply conclusions from historical facts and logic, I’ve committed an act of subversion in the eyes of the current Chinese government. Remove the “/” in “=/=“, and you’ve got three of the most important talking points of Chinese propaganda.

The sacred, un-violatable rules the Chinese government tells its people.

Why do I mention them? Because the scrutiny, the attack on Dd read familiar to me, and is probably familiar too to all those who’ve kept even a brief eye on Hong Kong and Taiwanese entertainers who work in China. When a topic that violates one of these propaganda points makes news (for example, the HK protest, Hong Kong/Taiwan Independence), entertainers from Hong Kong / Taiwan—anyone who’ve achieved name recognition—are often placed under immediate scrutiny by Chinese netizens to see whether and when they’ll confirm their loyalty towards the Chinese government. The argument is that only those who display absolute loyalty to the Chinese government deserves to earn China’s money, and the main motivation behind this scrutiny, in this case, is mistrust: Hong Kong, after all, is crawling with British loyalists and rioters according to Chinese propaganda, with separatists who’re conspiring with foreign governments to overthrow the Chinese government; the democratic island nation of Taiwan, meanwhile, is supposedly a rogue child who has escaped its mother (China) ’s arms for the past 70+ years—the child who, by the way, shall be brought to their knees (along with into their mother’s arms) by military intervention. Both places, in other words, are serial violators of =/= 1) and 3), and not to be trusted. If their entertainers fail to affirm their loyalty towards the Chinese government, or if the timing of their patriotic display is perceived as off, vicious accusations—similar to those Dd has endured—will fly, and calls for boycott begin. 

Here’s a related observation, while I’m at it ... no one in c-ent is really allowed to keep their political views quiet, even if they’re not particularly well-known. No one can say, politics isn’t for me, it’s too ugly/too complicated/doesn’t fit my image and shove it under the proverbial carpet. Under an authoritarian government, control is exerted via politics, via propaganda that seeps into day-to-day language. It’s an oil slick that taints and swims in even the smallest crevice of life—there’s no where to hide.

And Dd is far more famous than almost all of these HK and Taiwan based entertainers. 表態 — a public announcement of his stance — is the only option left for him when he becomes the centre of a sensitive political issue such as this one. And there’s really only one stance he can take.

In that sense, what happened to Dd isn’t something I’m too worried about—this kind of attack under the guise of a “loyalty check” isn’t new; and the motivation behind the scrutiny of Dd is the safer to-take-down-his-career rather than political mistrust. I believe this storm shall pass soon, as long as his team doesn’t make an unexpected, big mistake. His non-fan fellow country people will probably view him with a more positive light as well: he walked the walk and did what he believed is patriotic — breaking a contract like this is no lip service when in China, performative patriotism is often lip service — reportedly even among the top Chinese Communist Party officials.

If I must find more defence for his stance ... please forgive me, Anon, but I don’t have much more to say than what I said last night, what I said before about China’s access to information—

—because, admittedly, following, talking about this incident is difficult for the Hong Konger in me, even if I’ve expected this kind of incidents from the moment I joined this fandom, even if I’ve expected, as I’ve learned from RL experience, that most people I adore in China will at some point support causes that I deeply disagree with. The online patriotic rally by c-motors and c-turtles under the associated Weibo tag, while impressive and good for Dd, is nonetheless heartbreaking/frightening for me to watch. Why? Because I know this can easily turn into a call to persecute all Hong Kongers involved in the democracy movements sometime in the future. Because I know the rally will probably be as impressive if this has been a call to persecute all Hong Kongers involved in the democracy movements. Frankly, I stopped thinking about Nike as I scrolled through the posts — I was thinking about the now impossibly wide gulf that separates most Chinese and a Hong Konger like myself; I was thinking about why a Gg / Dd performance can trend on Twitter in 10+ countries all over the world but makes almost no noise in Hong Kong or Taiwan, places that should’ve most easily fallen in love with Gg / Dd with their closeness in language and customs. 

As it turns out, the closeness has only driven HK and Taiwan away; the closeness only brings them more insight of the beast—the government that looms over, cast a long shadow over everything that lives under it, including Gg and Dd.

I was reminded of the fact that many young Hong Kongers probably see me as a traitor just for being a turtle — young Hong Kongers who are n>1 generation immigrants from China, who never spend years reconciling the conflicting viewpoints, the even more conflicting emotions when it comes to this ... almost irreconcilable difference now in political beliefs north and south of the China-HK border. Unlike the older generations who often have immigrants/refugees from China for immediate, un-severable family, who often don’t have the option to walk away from the conflicts, to simply point to the other side and call it evil.

And here are my even-more-conflicting emotions: 

While, over the years, I’ve learned to harbour no ill feelings to the vast majority of supporters of pro-CCP causes—I reserve blame for those who conceal the truth, who’re involved in its policy making, or people who live outside the Firewall and should know better (such as every HK entertainer who’ve expressed support)—I’ve also learned, over the same years, to be fully, painfully aware that every endorsement is still an endorsement for the regime to carry on its ways, and the damage is real, is significant even if the endorsers may not know about the true nature of their endorsements. 

A simple thought experiment: the sheer size of China’s population means it can easily control the narrative on English-speaking social media. The Chinese government already has a history of mobilising its people to scale the Great Firewall and spread its propaganda on, for example, Twitter. It has also mobilised fan circles for propaganda purpose. Again, as a thought experiment *only* (ie, SJD!), imagine the Chinese government mobilising Dd’s Weibo supertopic fans to spread misinformation about Xinjiang.

Dd’s supertopic has 5+ million members—all savvy social media users and many skilled in the art of comment control (a collective effort, performed by fans to bury critiques/dissent on message boards); the total number of Uyghurs in Xinjiang is ~12 million, but their communications are heavily scrutinised and they can’t really talk. Just for the sake of argument, we’ll add the ~ 70% pro-democracy HK population to Uyghur’s side: that’s another 5 million, but most of them aren’t good at raging a battle on social media.

Which side will control the narrative in the end?

And so: I understand why Dd’s statement is what it is. I don’t fault him for making it. Still, I can’t in good conscience say to anyone, myself included, that the statement is a personal opinion and doesn’t matter. It matters a lot. His announcement is another stab to the Uyghurs, and the knife is sharp because of Dd’s social influence.

(Today, I saw Dd’s name for the first time in a Hong Kong pro-democracy online news site.)

The statement carried this sentence:

國家尊嚴不容侵犯，堅決維護祖國利益 The dignity of the country is not to be violated; the interest of our motherland is to be resolutely defended. Firstly: it’s character-for-character propaganda language. Secondly: even if we do not consider the labor camps, this is the condition in Xinjiang’s city of Urumqi. Where’s the dignity of the people who’re living there and who’s preventing that from being violated? The interest of the motherland—what kind of motherland answers an allegation of human rights violation with “interest” (利=profit, advantage; 益=benefit)? What kind of motherland has “protects its interest” being synonymous with surveillance and abuse of its own people?

I have a motherland, but it’s not the one in this narrative.

The issues of Xinjiang and the Uyghurs have also become even closer to Hong Kongers since 2019, when the fates of Hong Kongers and the Uyghurs became intricately tied—as dual examples of Chinese government’s human rights violations and indeed, these two populations who previously had very little in common have shown solidarity with each other against all odds. Their connection being this one simple, awful fact: both having what they value most stripped away by the same government—the traditions, religion and culture for the Uyghurs, the promised freedoms and hopes for democracy for Hong Kongers. As an online meme goes: “Today’s Xinjiang; Tomorrow’s Hong Kong” — expressing the fear that Hong Kongers may soon be subjected to the same surveillance as the Uyghurs today, for the same reason of having put up a fight against who they saw as their oppressors (this article offers an objective summary of what led to the 2009 clash between the Uyghurs and the Chinese government, which precipitated the former’s treatment as will-be terrorists today)(Note the role the US played in this.). 

As such, I cannot look away from Xinjiang. As such, I cannot look at our two beautiful stars, Gg and Dd, without also seeing the flag with its blood red looming behind with its own five stars—the biggest of them symbolising the Chinese Communist Party.

How do I reconcile all the feelings? As I said, it’s a constant work-in-progress, possibly a lifelong one. Re: Gg and Dd, that’s what I tell myself at the moment: that my being an i-turtle shall not sway my view or silence me on any sociopolitical issues, that my being a fan of anything, anyone shall not mean any other human life is suddenly worth less to me, or its suffering, something I shall suddenly look away from. The moment this becomes true—that I find myself depreciating human lives, or ignoring the pain of others for the sake of my fannish pursuits—that’s when I must leave my fan identity until I find my discipline (I do understand the lure of a happy fandom bubble, and I’m far from immune to it). I’m a person before I’m a fan.

These are the rules of my world.

我的世界不退讓。

[batboyblog]

Hi! I’m from hk and am glad to see you support us <33 just wondering why you know so much about us?

Well I've always been a nerd for politics, I try to largely keep it out of my Tumblr because this is the one corner where my non-political interests get to live.

any ways, the hand over of Hong Kong is my earliest memory of a major world event in politics (at least that wasn't also American) so I've kept an eye on Hong Kong politics ever since.

I started to watch much more closely after 2014 and the Umbrella Movement, I thought that either pro-democracy pressure would lead to full democratization or the end of freedom, and well it's turned out to be the second

Hong Kong has proved a scary bell weather for the growing authoritarianism of the Chinese state and thats sad, I still remember how optimistic the coverage of the hand over was back in 1997 that a pocket of free speech, free press, political parties, democracy, and most of all free markets, would be a seed that would grow in China and lead to a free China, sadly it seems Hong Kong didn't change China, China got rid of Hong Kong.

[chessinventor]

When CCP China and UK signed the Sino-British declaration promising a democratic HKSAR which is fully automous with independent Judicial, Executive, Legislative branch of government the majority of HongKonger accept such promise; then their confidence collapsed after the 8964 massacre happened in Beijing. However, very few HongKong people or British official would not think CCP China is trying to learn from HongKong as a way to become a true liberal democratic country. What else could CCP China learned from Hong Kong or benefited from HongKong? They all believed that HongKong would eventually opened up CCP China economically and politically.

As times flied passed the 2007 which is the promised day of universal suffrage then no such thing happened we are all puzzled. CCP China collobrate with HKSAR to play political games so the blames fell on Pro-democratic supporters and politicians. CCP China may have a change of heart when too much interestes are at stake, and in that way CCP is thinking just like the big capitalists to protect the sources of income from HongKong to CCP China especially for the forigen currencies such as US dollars. It is not until Donald trump became the US President one realized that the stragety of CCP China had changed subtly to "use the openness of public opinions as well as the free flow of information (in Western democracies) to subvert the liberal democracies in favor of its national interest and fulfill other objectives (such as pirate the IT hardware and software technologies of the Western world)" when it learned to play the game of capitalistic democracy by buying politicians and political party as well as use the capitalists who had their share of interests in CCP China. The praticing ground is HKSAR when the Pro-democratic and Pro-CCP politicians are competiting for votes in the direct election sector of Legislative council elections, so it playing to win the democratic game. A closed society could create proxy political parties and collobrating capitalists to control or influence the open societies of open society like those in the Western world without itself controlled and domimated in the same fashion by forigen capitalists especially those from the Western democracies. It would took me maybe 50k words to dissect this phenomenon in detail analysis of US investments in CCP China so I skip the complex details. It is suffice to say that CCP China is learning to play the game somewhere before the 2007. It learned to maintain a facade of liberal democracy and rule of law to "protect" the forigen investors from leaving HKSAR while keeping the politicians from touching the baseline of CCP by dequalification of elected politician in HKSAR at 2014 election, it somehow rewritten the related laws to extend the power and influence of the CCP and HKSAR without "significantly" deteriorate the operations of forigen investors such as Google and Facebook. In a sense forigen investors help keeping the normal functioning of such a "great example" of a proxy quasi dictatorship with Democractic facade answered to a non-democratic regime. If not the Anti-ELB movement had became intolerable to the CCP along with the trade war with USA then "so far so good" for the forigen investors to continue invest in HKSAR. Then CCP China instilled National Security Bureau and National Security ordinance in Hong Kong then HK is truly became a colony of CCP China that is the end of story for HongKong with massive exodus of people from the middle and upper class.

How is that related to Russian Ukrainian war that is occurring right now? I thought it would be safe to assume if Ukraine government is indeed so corrupted and inflitrated in every way then Putin had his hand in Ukraine all the time so there is peace between two Slavic countries. That is indeed the case with some twist when Putin indeed thought he controlled everything but actually the bribery went to enrich some FSB agents' pocket thereby he is not invading Ukraine in 2014. And the way HKSAR government works would be a prime example for Putin to learn and imitate. Post Soviet Russia looks like any Western democracies with elections and rule of law in the facade and it attracted investors from all over the world, and before it start invading Ukraine the netizens use Facebook and Instagram and Google and ebay and Amazon and computers and laptops and Iphone made in USA just like everyone else. After Putin become the president of Russia and he gradually and subtly centralize its economy and consolidate the political control using a mixture of both capitalistic means and political means, the way he did it is by reverse the diversification of economics then he can use commercial means within the boundaries of law and the information he got as the head of state to stay ahead of competition, and if everything somehow failed to work then there is the old fashion political coercion and blackmail. You made the rule of the commercial game then you always to stay ahead by yourself or by your proxies or relatives and friends with that information (to operate in the grey areas of the law) plus you can tilt the laws and regulations to your favor. And as long as the Western investors are not unhappy to the point of pulling out all their investment everything would worked as usual. I believe we could found similar examples of how Putin control that country politically and economically in Belarus or Kazakhstan or Cheychen....etc. And that would also be how Russia governing Ukraine if it ever succeeded in its invasion.

[eirianerisdar]

Okay, I don’t have a swear word strong enough to describe what’s just happened in Hong Kong

Police have arrested 50 people in the Democratic Party for organising who should run for the legislative council (Hk’s lawmaking political body) last year. “For subverting state power.”

THEY ARRESTED. DEMOCRATS. FOR ORGANISING. WHO WOULD RUN FOR LAWMAKING SPOTS. LAST YEAR.

This is the equivalent to arresting people who decided among themselves who would run for election to Congress btw

Hong Kong has gone to hell. My home has gone to hell.

[askagamedev]

Any thoughts on the Hong Kong Blizzard situation?

I have a lot of thoughts on the matter. Those who participate on our [Discord] server have probably seen my comments and thoughts on the Hong Kong Blizzard (and greater China) situation in real time over the past few weeks. It is a very complicated topic to cover (as geopolitics tends to be), but I will attempt to distill it down for you. Fair warning, this is a long post.

Before we begin, for those who don’t understand what’s happening in Hong Kong, here’s a [quick link to a BBC summary of what the Hong Kong protests are about]. 

Now… a little more background about doing business in China. You have to realize that all Chinese companies operate in China at the whims of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). All companies above a certain size must have a CCP representative on their board, and all companies above that size just happen to be run by people who have deep ties to the CCP. There are no exceptions to this. To compound this, all foreign companies must partner with a Chinese company in order to do business in China. This gives the CCP unprecedented control and leverage over all major businesses in China. Blizzard’s Chinese partner company is NetEase.

The CCP is very sensitive about certain things. They tolerate no dissidents and have built massive internal systems of social and economic engineering to maintain that level of control - things like individual [social credit scores] that determine a citizen’s ability to travel or buy a home, [massive facial recognition software] to pair with the literal [hundreds of millions of cameras everywhere], and the [”Golden Shield”] - China’s special “walled garden” internet with rigidly controlled access to the outside world.

Let’s go back to the Hong Kong and Blizzard thing directly. One of the competitors in the Hearthstone Grandmaster tournament was blitzchung, a Hong Kong native who, during a post-match interview, put on a gas mask like those the protesters are using and said “Liberate Hong Kong, the revolution of our times” - the HK protester slogan. In response to this, [Blizzard banned blitzchung from competing for a year, took back his prize money, and removed him from Grandmasters]. The day after, the official Hearthstone Weibo (essentially China’s version of Facebook) account posted this:

For those who can’t read it, the text roughly translates to this:

We are very angered and disappointed at what happened at the event and do not condone it in any way. We also highly object to the spreading of personal political beliefs in this manner. Effective immediately, we’ve banned the contestant from events and terminated work with the broadcasters. We will always respect and defend the pride of our country.

Now that you’re all caught up, let’s talk about Blizzard and their business situation in China in general. China represents an enormous portion of Blizzard’s market. One of the designers I know at Blizzard said “I was once told that Warcraft is to China what Star Wars is to the US” and I believe it. China has gone so far as to build a Warcraft-inspired (but not licensed) [theme park]. You’d think this might give them some clout, but you’d be wrong. The CCP has no qualms about completely banning any company that steps out of line. 

It’s also important to note a few other relevant details you might not be aware of:

[Several of Blizzard’s own employees staged a walkout in protest of the company decision]

[Blizzard is far from alone in this behavior]. The CCP has their foot on the necks of many foreign companies.

The Hong Kong Blizzard issue has also garnered [mainstream] [media] [coverage]

[Both Republican and Democrat lawmakers have criticized Blizzard’s response in this incident]

Here’s the thing - a lot of Blizzard’s critics in this situation are saying that it’s greed motivating their decision… but I don’t think it’s just greed. If Blizzard gets cut off from China, it would be disastrous for their bottom line, as well as Activision-Blizzard’s valuation. That would not only mean they lose a lot of money, but the entire company (and many of their employees’ jobs) is potentially in jeopardy. Given just how much of their business is done in China, I would not be surprised if being banned from China would be an existential crisis for Blizzard as we know it. For anybody within Blizzard, that should be terrifying.

Now that we’ve been through all that, here are my own thoughts on the matter: Blizzard is stuck between two awful choices. This has become a full-blown international incident, which puts it in a different class entirely than the usual kinds of gamer recreational outrage. It’s a public relations shitstorm of the highest degree and one that will likely take years to recover from. However, their only other option is potential ruin with many, many lost jobs and irreparable harm done to the company at the pleasure of an authoritarian government. If I were in their position, I would say that (some of) the players could possibly be won back by making good games and keeping a low profile while a ban by the CCP is not something they can appeal. My view is that Blizzard as a company is essentially a CCP hostage at this point. Maybe it wasn’t when they first launched WoW in China back in 2005, but a lot has changed in the 14 years since then. It certainly doesn’t excuse what they did, but I don’t believe it is as simple as “they want China money so they compromise their ideals”. I believe the CCP has them by the neck and will not hesitate to squeeze. 

PS Edit:

I wanted to paraphrase something that Brian Kibler, former Hearthstone caster, said today. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to step back from this. Do not take your anger out on the other casters, or streamers, or employees of Blizzard. This is not the kind of decision that comes from the rank and file. Most likely they’re just as angry as you are. 

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