#Hong Kong company law

[panchitacarmensita]

A Guide to Navigating Corporate Legal Requirements in Hong Kong

Operating a business in Hong Kong comes with ample opportunities but also an array of legal and regulatory requirements that corporations must comply with. Failing to adhere to the rules around company formation, securities trading, taxation, employment and other key areas can land your business in hot water. This guide outlines the major legal landscape that HK corporations should be aware of.

Choosing a Business Structure

One of the first steps is deciding how you will formally constitute your HK company. Common structures for small to mid-sized companies include a Private Limited Company and Limited Company. Key legal paperwork includes filing Articles of Association and a Memorandum that specifies company objectives and structure. You’ll also need to formally issue company shares and understand share classes as well as share types like ordinary or preference shares with varying ownership rights. Statutory meetings must be held annually.

Following Securities Trading Laws

If your company seeks investment from the public, then you must comply with Hong Kong securities regulations around registering prospectuses, issuing financial reports and disclosing shareholder equity changes, governed overall by the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO). Listed firms face continuing regulatory burdens around price sensitive information – any data that may impact share prices must be announced. Insider trading is also tightly regulated under SFO, least employees use undisclosed financial information for profit.

Paying Taxes and Filing Returns

As a HK corporation, key taxes will include Profits Tax on company earnings as well as potential Withholding Tax on payments like royalties or service fees sent overseas. Proper calculation of tax residency status is essential to determine tax exposure. Audited accounts may be required, and tax returns generally must be filed annually under strict guidelines. FAILURE_DETECTED

Meeting Employment, Payroll Regulations

Critical employment law issues span offering employment contracts that meet government standards on pay, overtime, leave policies and more per Hong Kong’s Employment Ordinance. Preventing discrimination and sexual harassment is also mandated. Retirement schemes equivalent to at least the Minimum Wage level (currently HK$37.5 hourly) must be provided. Consult deeply on hiring and termination best practices.

Protecting Intellectual Property Rights

Register trademarks and patents early to establish legal ownership over key company innovations and brands in the Hong Kong market. Also enact document management procedures focused on retaining contracts, transaction records, board minutes and other materials that may be involved in potential disputes or investigations for 6-7 years as best practice.

The regulatory pressures on HK corporations are significant, but with proper legal guidance around formation, trading, hiring, tax policies and IP rights, your company can securely navigate the Hong Kong landscape. Government agencies like InvestHK provide additional resources on ongoing compliance requirements as corporate policies evolve. Taking a conservative approach with oversight from your company secretary or legal team is wise as your business grows and expands.

[vintagegeekculture]

So, a friend of mine on Discord said something interesting, and I feel like you might have thoughts on it. So. What do you think of the idea of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as being "The Shaw Brothers for kids", a sort of gateway drug for "the kung fu genre"?

Not the Shaw Brothers, but Golden Harvest. Let me explain: 

I’m going to sound like a conspiracy theorist when I say this, but I believe the New Line Cinema “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (1990) movie was actually a money laundering scheme by the Chinese Mafia, specifically, the Sun Yee On Triad. 

Looking into the role of organized crime in martial arts cinema is a rabbit hole that goes very, very, very deep...and comes out somewhere very shocking at the end.

You mention the Shaw Brothers, but there was another Hong Kong Producer who was the only credible rival to the Shaw Brothers (and who eventually surpassed the Shaws) in martial arts movies: Golden Harvest’s Raymond Chow….a man who started off as the Shaw Brothers’ talent division, but who eventually founded his own rival studio to the Shaws (with rumored triad financial backing), and who made Bruce Lee, Angela Mao and Jackie Chan stars. Raymond Chow is widely, and extremely credibly, believed to be a middleman for the Hong Kong Triad, the Sun Yee On, who used Golden Harvest as a front facing money laundering scheme, as claimed by Frederic Dannen in "Hong Kong Babylon," and Yiu Kong Chiu in "The Triads as Business," books I recommend if you are at all interested in the topic of organized crime in the Hong Kong film industry.

Raymond Chow was also the producer and primary funder of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies. I mean, what does it mean when your movie is entirely produced and funded by a guy well known for being a triad middleman and money launderer?

And all of this happened at New Line Cinema, a borderline independent film company…one known for having dodgy financials it’s entire existence, no less, which ultimately doomed it? One of the most extraordinary things about the 1990 Ninja Turtles movie is that it was, essentially, an independent film. New Line would later become a powerhouse as a studio and created Lord of the Rings, but at the time, it was a mainly low rent operation, rather like Cannon films, known for the success of the slasher series “Nightmare on Elm Street.” So yes, I do believe "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (1990) was a money laundering scheme by the Chinese Mafia.

The triads in Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan take enormous interest in financing martial arts movies for the same reason that they take a tremendous interest in financing porn movies: they’re quick, cheap, dirty, and can be used as a mechanism for laundering money, and a way to claim money from illegal sources (say, heroin) comes from a clean and legal source that can be claimed on taxes, like say, a movie studio. In addition, Hong Kong’s strict rating system, the Category III (equivalent to a far stricter R-rating) meant that very violent movies were handled in ways that were outside the law in ways similar to pornography. And according to several Senate investigations in 1991 ("Hearings on Asian Organized Crime"), the triads were actively involved in money laundering as well outside of Hong Kong, including currency trading and real estate, and the idea they could back a studio is entirely possible.

Everyone working in Hong Kong cinema has a story of dealing with the triads, who are interwoven into the city. Anita Mui's manager was was shot dead by mafiosos. Jimmy Wang Yu, the first Kung Fu star, was a suspected member of the Bamboo Union triad, and once borrowed money from one triad to pay another....and may have used his reported connections with the Triads to get Jackie Chan out of his initial contract with Golden Harvest, a favor Jackie repaid. Golden Harvest studios were actually firebombed in 1984, an event suspected to be due to Triad activity. Raymond Chow’s fellow producer and good friend who discovered Steven Chow, film producer Charles Heung, is well known to be the son of Heung Chin, who founded the Sun Yee On Triad, the largest in Hong Kong with over 25,000 members. And you don’t have to take my word for it; a US Senate Committee in 1991 on Asian Organized Crime identified Cheung as a leader of the Sun Yee On along with his brothers. Because of his association with Charles Heung and the Sun Yee On, Steven Chow, director of Kung Fu Hustle, cannot enter Canada legally.

Jackie Chan asserted Raymond Chow’s triad connections in his autobiography, and also claimed that he only hired triad members and other people who were mobbed up at Golden Harvest. One example would be producer Ng See Yuen, who produced Once Upon a Time in China for Golden Harvest, and who Jet Li refused to work with ever again after his manager was assassinated by triad gunmen (Jet Li blamed Ng See Yuen for his manager's death).

There's also Lo Wei, a Shaw Brothers director and known “Red Pole” enforcer of the Sun Yee On Triad, who came over to Golden Harvest, where he directed Bruce Lee’s Chinese Connection and Big Boss, and also directed Jackie Chan’s earliest “period” historical movies for GH. Jackie Chan, in his autobiography, stated that the reason he initially left Hong Kong to go to the United States for an American career was because Lo Wei, his director on Laughing Hyena, put a hit out on him for refusing to make Laughing Hyena 2, and Jackie had to flee the city when Lo Wei sent gunmen to his house to abduct him. When arriving in the United States, he had to avoid some men with machine guns at the airport. To this day, whenever possible, Jackie Chan goes out in public armed for fear of gangsters. 

Even Jackie Chan though, never made the assertion that Raymond Chow and the Sun Yee On had Bruce Lee killed. This is important to mention because if you talk to any Chinese person, nearly all of them believe with unshakable, absolute certainty that the Chinese Mafia killed Bruce Lee, which is literally the plot of Game of Death (which, incidentally, Raymond Chow produced). Everyone around Bruce was mobbed up, because everyone in the Hong Kong film industry was mobbed up; in fact, it’s an open question how much it existed for its own sake. It’s notable Bruce Lee died at the home of Betty Lo Ting Pei, Golden Harvest actress, and his known mistress…who was married to a triad gangster. It’s also known that the first person that Betty Lo Ting Pei called when Bruce died was not medical services but Raymond Chow, something that to this day, she has not attempted to explain. 

It can be hard to imagine what the motive is for Raymond Chow and the triads to kill Bruce Lee. After all, wouldn’t Bruce Lee be more useful to Raymond Chow alive than dead? I never saw the angle, here. But then, you consider that in the last few months of his life, Bruce Lee started to set the stage for his transition to behind the scenes roles like producer, and was assembling a lot of stunt talent around him (a lot of productions down the pipeline intended to have Bruce Lee in producer roles, like Circle of Iron). The rumor among the stunt players, as recounted by Sammo Hung, was that Bruce was attempting to form his own stunt and film production company (as Chiba later did successfully in Japan) and that would involve organizing and peeling off half the talent in Hong Kong….in a deeply triad controlled industry, no less. There was also a story recounted by witnesses that Bruce Lee, a temperamental and explosively violent man, physically assaulted Raymond Chow in his office with punches and kicks when he heard Chow had two sets of books in their shared production company, as Bruce was always keen to keep the triads out of his films. Ten days later, Bruce Lee was dead. And for weeks before his death, Lee told his friends "Hong Kong is getting too hot, I have to get out."

And you know something? A Ninja Turtles movie from 1990 is probably the least of it. In 2020, a few documents were declassified by the Taiwanese government that showed that the members of the Bamboo Union Triad had 19 top governmental positions in Taiwan from 1955-1984 (the era when Taiwan was in a complete state of military rule), including the National Security Bureau and all branches of the armed forces. In other words, Taiwan during the military rule era wasn't just corrupted by the triads, the triads were the government.

I never cease to be amazed at the incuriousness of the journalistic professions. Governments don't declassify documents - especially something as damning as triad involvement in government - unless they have to. So why would the Tsai Ing-Wen government reveal this now in 2020, especially when anti-corruption is the driving force of Taiwanese politics, and anti-corruption sentiment pushed the KMT out of power since the 90s? Outsiders believe that the single biggest question in Taiwanese politics is their relationship with the mainland. Kinda...the status quo is more or less a settled question. It's actually anti-corruption and anti-triad infiltration, which is why the DPP are the ruling party now.

The answer, I suspect, is that the triads are no longer working with the Taiwanese government, but with the mainland government. In the 1980s, Wong Man Fong, editor of the Xinhua paper of Hong Kong, said in several interviews he was asked by the People's Republic of China to reach out to the triads to help make a deal: no government interference in their activities, if they pledge to keep order in the city after the handover in 1997. I strongly suspect the mainland now has a similar arrangement with the Bamboo Union, Green Gang, and the Si Hai Bang they did in Hong Kong, especially since so much money is going back and forth with the release of trade to the mainland. In other words, the triads in Taiwan are active agents of the PRC.

Backdoor deals between government and the mob aren't out of the question, just ask the CIA, who used Giancana Crime Family assassins sent to kill Castro as a key plank of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the role of the mafia in the Kennedy Assassination, or how control of opium was a key under-the-table reason for the invasion of Afghanistan.

What I suspect happened is, the Taipei government is turning on organized crime now after decades and decades of ludicrous and obvious corruption, because to the triads, the money to be made with the mainland and unification is far more lucrative. It's no coincidence that the largest pro-unification party in Taiwan is led by a triad gangster who spent time in jail for racketeering, Chang An Lo, nicknamed "the White Wolf." Like John Gotti, everyone knows he's a mobster and that's even part of the White Wolf's coolness and appeal (if you could vote for Tony "Scarface" Montana, boy, I bet a lot of guys would), but nobody can touch him. In fact, combined with how the "light world" financial institutions are intertwined along with the underworld, there's an argument to be made that the reason the PRC hasn't tried to take Taiwan is that for all intents and purposes, they already have it.

In other words, the triads have gone from using the Ninja Turtles to money launder to essentially setting global geopolitics.

[girlactionfigure]

THURSDAY HERO: Ernst Leitz II

German businessman Ernst Leitz II, owner of the Leica camera company, saved hundreds of Jews from the Nazis by “transferring” them to Leica offices around the world. Ernst inherited the Leica camera company from his father in 1920. It was founded as Leitz Camera in 1869 and later took on the name Leica: Lei for Leitz + ca for camera. From the beginning the company stood out for the compassionate way they treated their employees, many of whom were Jewish. Leica provided health insurance, sick leave and retirement pensions.

After Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, the Nuremberg laws were enacted, depriving German Jews of the rights of citizenship. They were banned from schools professions, and lost many of their most basic freedoms. Ernst Leitz began receiving desperate calls from his Jewish employees, begging him to help them escape.

Leitz hatched a brilliant plan. He began “transferring” his Jewish employees, along with their extended families, to Leica sales offices in France, Britain, Hong Kong and the United States. After Kristallnacht, when hundreds of Jewish businesses and synagogues were destroyed throughout Germany, Leitz’ rescue efforts kicked into high gear. At this point, all of the refugees were being sent to America by ocean liner. Once they arrived in New York they were instructed to go to Leica’s office in Manhattan, where they received a Leica camera and a weekly stipend until they were employed. The Jewish refugees went on to careers in photography, camera repair, sales and marketing.

To save Jews, Ernst Leitz risked the company he and his father had lovingly built over 70 year. Indeed, he risked his entire life.

The Leica Freedom Train operated until September 1, 1939, when Germany closed its borders. The Nazis suspected that the Leica company had been illegally helping Jews escape, but they were unable to pin anything on Ernst Leitz, and instead arrested his top executive, Alfred Turk, who was imprisoned until his boss paid a huge bribe for his safe release.

Even after the borders were closed, Leitz’s daughter Elsie Kuehn-Leitz continued helping Jews escape from Germany. Elsie was captured by the Gestapo while smuggling Jewish women into Switzerland, and thrown into prison, where she endured harsh interrogation and frequent beatings before being released in the early 1940’s. By that point, the Nazis had forced the Leica plant to hire 800 Ukrainian women as slave laborers. Elsie spent the rest of the war advocating for these women and working to ensure they had acceptable working and living conditions, and were treated humanely.

Later to be known as the “Leica Freedom Train”, Ernst Leitz’ bold plan saved the lives of 200-300 Jews.

A rare light in a sea of darkness, the Leitz family never wanted publicity for their heroism. The story of the Leica Freedom Train only came out after the last immediate Ernst Leitz family member was dead.

For their courage and sacrifice, we honor Ernst Leitz and his daughter Elsie as this week’s Thursday Heroes.

[the-monkey-ruler]

The Monkey King 2 (2016) 西游记之孙悟空三打白骨精

Director: Zheng Baorui Screenwriter: Ran Ping / Ran Jinan / Wen Ning Starring: Aaron Kwok / Gong Li / Feng Shaofeng / Xiao Shenyang / Luo Ziyi / Fei Xiang / Kelly Chen / Ngawang Rinchen / Peng Yu / Cheng Dong / Liu Chutian / Yu Xin / Wei Lu / Qi Xier / Mu Qi Miya / Zhang Zimu Genre: Comedy / Action / Fantasy Country/Region of Production: Mainland China/Hong Kong, China Language: Mandarin Chinese Date: 2016-02-08 (Mainland China) / 2024-09-14 (Re-release in Mainland China) Duration: 120 minutes Also known as: Journey to the West: Havoc in Heaven Sequel / Journey to the West: Three Strikes of Bone Demons / Three Strikes of Bone Demons / 西遊記之三打白骨精 / 西游记之大闹天宫续集 / 西游记之三打白骨精 / 三打白骨精 IMDb: tt4591310 Type: Retelling

Summary:

500 years after Sun Wukong's (Aaron Kwok) imprisonment under the Five Fingers Mountain, a young Buddhist monk Tang Sanzang (Feng Shaofeng) sets out for a journey to the Thunder Monastery in India to collect Buddha's scriptures. When he is attacked by a tiger, he is forced to free Wukong and the Monkey King learns that he has to protect the monk throughout the journey, because the Bodhisattva Guanyin ensured he would be bound by an enchanted circlet that can cause him pain whenever Tang Sanzang chants a certain sutra. Soon the duo meet Zhu Bajie (Xiaoshenyang), a lustful pig demon, and Sha Wujing (Him Law), a djinn-like monk. He fights a dragon, defeats it and transforms it into a horse as his mount.

The company travel to the Yun Hai Xi Kingdom, a land terrorized by the White Bone Demon (Gong Li) who has been eating people in order to extend her unnatural life and avoid the Wheel of Reincarnation. As the demoness learns about Sanzang, she decides to eat him in order to stop her reincarnation cycle and achieve everlasting demonhood. She takes the appearance of an old woman and lures the group into a cottage in the woods. To prevent Wukong from using his truth-seeking eyes to see through her disguise immediately, she throws tainted dust into his eyes that clouds his sight. Then while her disguised minions keep Wukong, Bajie and Wujing occupied, the demoness tells Sanzang a story about how she was forced to marry as a young girl, and when her village suffered famine, the people blamed her for it, even calling her an evil demon, and attempted to kill her as a sacrifice to the gods. As Tang comforts the old lady, she attempts to kill him, but is stopped by Wukong. The demoness escapes before Wukong can deal the killing blow and leaves the dead body of the old lady behind. Sanzang and the others don't believe Wukong that all the women he murdered were demons, and blame him for killing the innocent. Sanzang punishes Wukong by chanting the sutra and causing the circlet to tighten painfully on his head. Afterwards, Sanzang climbs to the top of a mountain where Wukong is sulking. Sanzang tells Wukong he thinks they are both very alike, for they both only trust what their own eyes sees. But together, they are better able to discern the truth. This is why they were all chosen to be on this journey together.

The group arrives to the kingdom's capital and the King (Fei Xiang) throws a feast for them, begging Sanzang to exorcise the bloodthirsty demoness from their land. Suddenly Lady White appears and demands the monk, but he offers her his help in enlightenment instead. She tells Wukong that they are both very alike, and tries to persuade Wukong to let her devour the monk, but he deceives her instead and a fight ensues. During the chaos, the King's guards kidnap Sanzang. It is revealed that it's actually been the King kidnapping and killing the children in a desperate attempt to cure himself of a cursed disease by drinking their blood. He tries to kill Sanzang, but Wukong arrives and saves the monk and the surviving children as well. All of the group are celebrated as heroes, but as a little girl approaches Sanzang, Wukong beats her and her mother to death as well, because his truth-seeking eyes perceive both were possessed by the White Bone Demon. In a fit of anger and disbelief, Tang banishes Wukong away. As soon as Wukong leaves, Sanzang gets kidnapped by the demoness.

In the demoness' lair, the White Bone Demon gives Sanzang a day to convince her to give up her evil ways and embrace nonviolence and enlightenment as the true path to immortality. She reveals to him the story she had told him earlier was true, recounting her previous life as a mortal. Right before Sanzang's time is up, he is saved by Wukong at the last minute. Wukong, Bajie and Wujing fight the White Bone Demon and her army and finally defeat her, with Wukong mortally wounding her. The Buddha comes down from the Heavens to collect the defeated demoness' soul and banish it to oblivion but Sanzang pleads Buddha to grant her mercy and give Sanzang one last chance to save her soul from destruction. Buddha tells him that he would have to lead her on the path herself, meaning he would have to sacrifice his own life. The monk begs the demoness to show remorse and accept the Wheel of Reincarnation, but the White Bone Demon would rather die as a broken tainted soul in Sanzang's body instead of returning to the Wheel of Reincarnation. Saddened, Tang begs Wukong to kill him, too. The Monkey King refuses at first, but Sanzang explains how he used to think he just had to recite Buddha's teachings to convince people to become good. Now he understands he must also lead by example and do good in order to convince people. Sanzang had to do this for his own journey towards enlightenment. Wukong finally understands the monk's desire to help the demoness change her fate, and tearfully agrees, promising Sanzang to wait for his return. Wukong brings his staff down and Sanzang's body is changed into a statue. In return Sanzang says if he gets a chance to do so in his next life, he would be glad to be Wukong's master again. Because of Sanzang's sacrifice, he succeeds in leading the demoness to her next reincarnation, freeing her of her pain and hatred.

Some time later, Wukong and his friends still wait for the return of the monk, but continue their journey to the Thunder Monastery. Wukong rides on Sanzang's horse with Sanzang's statue strapped to his back. From Heaven, Guanyin drops a bead of water from her magic vase that falls to earth and hits right at Sanzang's hand. The surface cracks, revealing a human finger underneath.

Source: https://movie.douban.com/subject/25827963/

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A7XSayGf04

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

#15yrsago HOWTO make a packing tape ghost https://makezine.com/article/craft/how-to-packing-tape-ghost-sculptures/

#10yrsago Animation explains the dangers of Computercop, the malware that US police agencies distribute to the public https://web.archive.org/web/20141003115913/http://fusion.net/video/19094/who-needs-the-nsa-anyone-could-spy-on-your-kids-thanks-to-computercop/

#10yrsago Mobile malware infections race through Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/10/year-of-the-rat-chinas-malware-war-on-activists-goes-mobile/

#10yrsago Larry “Wide Stance” Craig busted (again) https://www.loweringthebar.net/2014/10/larry-craig-cant-catch-a-break.html

#5yrsago Straws are a distraction: how the plastics industry successfully got you to blame yourself for pollution https://theintercept.com/2019/10/03/plastics-industry-plastic-pollution/

#5yrsago Resource Generation: rich kids who are determined to give away their parents’ money and make America more fair and equal https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a29008841/rich-kids-revolution-resource-generation/,/a>

#5yrsago CN Tower’s management company claims that any picture of the landmark building is a trademark violation https://memex.craphound.com/2019/10/03/cn-towers-management-company-claims-that-any-picture-of-the-landmark-building-is-a-trademark-violation/

#5yrsago What happened to the 2008 bailout money? https://www.propublica.org/article/the-bailout-was-11-years-ago-were-still-tracking-every-penny

#5yrsago Tiktok’s internal policies are both weird and terrible https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-time/

#5yrsago “I just love to solve problems”: how people who work at predatory lenders avoid thinking about the pain they inflict https://newrepublic.com/article/155212/worked-capital-one-five-years-justified-piling-debt-poor-customers

#5yrsago Adversarial Interoperability https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

#1yrago Google's enshittification memos https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/03/not-feeling-lucky/#fundamental-laws-of-economics

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

[mariacallous]

In 2024, increased adoption of biometric surveillance systems, such as the use of AI-powered facial recognition in public places and access to government services, will spur biometric identity theft and anti-surveillance innovations. Individuals aiming to steal biometric identities to commit fraud or gain access to unauthorized data will be bolstered by generative AI tools and the abundance of face and voice data posted online.

Already, voice clones are being used for scams. Take for example, Jennifer DeStefano, a mom in Arizona who heard the panicked voice of her daughter crying “Mom, these bad men have me!” after receiving a call from an unknown number. The scammer demanded money. DeStefano was eventually able to confirm that her daughter was safe. This hoax is a precursor for more sophisticated biometric scams that will target our deepest fears by using the images and sounds of our loved ones to coerce us to do the bidding of whoever deploys these tools.

In 2024, some governments will likely adopt biometric mimicry to support psychological torture. In the past, a person of interest might be told false information with little evidence to support the claims other than the words of the interrogator. Today, a person being questioned may have been arrested due to a false facial recognition match. Dark-skinned men in the United States, including Robert Williams, Michael Oliver, Nijeer Parks, and Randal Reid, have been wrongfully arrested due to facial misidentification, detained and imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. They are among a group of individuals, including the elderly, people of color, and gender nonconforming individuals, who are at higher risk of facial misidentification.

Generative AI tools also give intelligence agencies the ability to create false evidence, like a video of an alleged coconspirator confessing to a crime. Perhaps just as harrowing is that the power to create digital doppelgängers will not be limited to entities with large budgets. The availability of open-sourced generative AI systems that can produce humanlike voices and false videos will increase the circulation of revenge porn, child sexual abuse materials, and more on the dark web.

By 2024 we will have growing numbers of “excoded” communities and people—those whose life opportunities have been negatively altered by AI systems. At the Algorithmic Justice League, we have received hundreds of reports about biometric rights being compromised. In response, we will witness the rise of the faceless, those who are committed to keeping their biometric identities hidden in plain sight.

Because biometric rights will vary across the world, fashion choices will reflect regional biometric regimes. Face coverings, like those used for religious purposes or medical masks to stave off viruses, will be adopted as both fashion statement and anti-surveillance garments where permitted. In 2019, when protesters began destroying surveillance equipment while obscuring their appearance, a Hong Kong government leader banned face masks.

In 2024, we will start to see a bifurcation of mass surveillance and free-face territories, areas where you have laws like the provision in the proposed EU AI Act, which bans the use of live biometrics in public places. In such places, anti-surveillance fashion will flourish. After all, facial recognition can be used retroactively on video feeds. Parents will fight to protect the right for children to be “biometric naive”, which is to have none of their biometrics such as faceprint, voiceprint, or iris pattern scanned and stored by government agencies, schools, or religious institutions. New eyewear companies will offer lenses that distort the ability for cameras to easily capture your ocular biometric information, and pairs of glasses will come with prosthetic extensions to alter your nose and cheek shapes. 3D printing tools will be used to make at-home face prosthetics, though depending on where you are in the world, it may be outlawed. In a world where the face is the final frontier of privacy, glancing upon the unaltered visage of another will be a rare intimacy.

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Hey, FYI, I looked this up because I saw someone saying, "Well, China doesn't OWN tiktok, so no, they don't just share your data with the Chinese government," and I went, "Huh, maybe something changed since I last looked this up. Let me find recent news stories if there are any."

Well, here's a former employee saying the Chinese Communist Party used backdoor access to tiktok to spy on Hong Kong democracy activists.

And here's a piece from USA Today about how Chinese law requires companies to turn data over to the government. TikTok is based in Beijing, so they are beholden to Chinese data laws.

And here's an article detailing TikTok admitting that US creators have their data stored in China. But even without the data being stored in China, we go back to the fact that the company being incorporated there means they have to follow the law of handing over data at any time. Not with a search warrant. Not with probable cause. But because the government wants to see it. Period.

USA Today literally says the best way not to get tracked on TikTok is to buy a burner phone. The trusted electronic of drug dealers, murderers, and mobsters.

I'm not for or against the use of TikTok. I am against people lying about the fact that the Chinese government has a long history of human rights abuses and revisionist history that means a lot of people just assume that any negative thing they hear about China can't be true because they haven't read it with their own eyes.

Use it or don't use it. Just know what you're agreeing to when you use it. And maybe pay attention to the many, many, many stories of censorship and other governmental abuse that happen in China. And any other country, frankly.

[ljones41]

"NOBLE HOUSE" (1988) Review

"NOBLE HOUSE" (1988) Review

Between 1962 and 1993, author James Clavell wrote and published a series of novels centered on Europeans living in Asia. Some of the novels featured a family founded by a Scottish-born sailor named Dirk Struan, who became a trader in early 19th century China. And one of those novels was��"Noble House", published in 1981.

Clavell's novel centered around one of Struan's descendants, Ian Dunross, who struggled to save the family company from a precarious financial position left by the previous CEO or "tai-pan" in the British colony, Hong Kong. Dunross sought a partnership with an American billionaire named Linc Barlett of Par-Con Industries, in the hopes of rescuing Struan's from financial ruin and a possible takeover by his family's long-time rival, Quinlan Gornt of Rothwell-Gornt. However, matters grew worse for Dunross and the company when the oldest son of Struan's comprador, Philip Chen, sold both company secrets and "coin debt" in the form of one of four half-coins that was given to Dirk Struan 146 years ago, to Barlett. This enabled Barlett to seek a partnership with Gornt in the hopes of making a raid on Struan's. When Philip's son, John Chen, ended up kidnapped by a local street gang, the value of the "coin debt", which ended up in the hands of wealthy smuggler named Four Fingers Wu. And this left Dunross and Struan's vulnerable to another threat.

I first read "Noble House" in my early twenties. Looking back on it, I now realize it was a good thing I had read previously read Clavell's 1966 novel, "Tai-Pan" and saw the 1986 movie adaptation. If not, I would have found myself confused over the family feud that served as a backdrop to the Dunross-Gornt feud and the history of the "coin debt". This involved four half-coins given to Dirk Struan by a Chinese trader named Jinqua in "Tai-Pan", as repayment for the loan of silver. Any CEO or "tai-pan" of Struan's must fulfill the request, whether legal or illegal, to anyone who presents one of the half coins that Jinqua originally kept. I ended up enjoying the 1981 novel very much. But I had some issues with it. Issues that had thankfully failed to materialized in "NOBLE HOUSE", the 1988 miniseries.

One of the issues centered around secret intelligence documents that Dunross found himself in possession of, thanks to his MI-6 contact. These documents ended up being sought by various intelligence agencies, including the MI-6, the C.I.A. and the K.G.B. However, this story arc had nothing to do with Dunross's efforts to save Struan's, so screenwriter Eric Bercovici ditched it. He also removed another story arc featuring an entourage of visiting members of Parliament - which included Dunross' Labor brother-in-law. Again, this arc had very little to do with the main one involving Dunross's business situation.

The miniseries had also removed several characters, including K.G.B. agent Captain Suslev, a visiting author and former Royal Air Force veteran named Peter Marlowe (from the 1962 novel, "King Rat"), Dunross's wife and children (he is a childless widower in the miniseries), Dunross's brother-in-law Robin Grey (also from "King Rat") and especially Dunross's wife Penelope and their three children. In the miniseries, Dunross is a childless widower, enabling him to have a romance with Par-Con executive Casey Tcholok. The biggest change proved to be the story's timeline. Bercovici updated the story's setting from August 1963 to November 1987, allowing it to be a modern tale. This enabled several characters like Linc Barlett and Casey Tcholok to mention Great Britain's future 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China.

I do have some minor complaints regarding "NOBLE HOUSE". One, I found Paul Chihara's score for the miniseries unmemorable and almost pedantic. And speaking of the score, I really disliked the cheesy aspect of the theme Chihara had created for the Orlanda Ramos character. It almost sounded like something for a soft-porn movie. Very insulting for a character like Orlanda, who proved to be more complicated. I also had a problem with some of the dialogue featured in "NOBLE HOUSE". This especially seemed to be the case in scenes featuring dialogue between European and Chinese characters or simply between Chinese characters. I found the dialogue rather awkward, exaggerated and very stylized. I realize the screenwriter was simply copying some of James Clavell's dialogue from the novel. But I really wish he had not.

Despite my complaints, I really enjoyed "NOBLE HOUSE". Every time I watch it, I am always surprised at how epic it seemed by the end of the last episode. And mind you, this story had very little to do with history. It was simply a mixture of the usual melodrama involving sex, romance, financial dealings and family conflicts. Even one of the story arcs, which featured Cold War espionage, managed to have an impact on the narrative's main arc regarding Ian Dunross's financial situation. Most people would be disappointed that this television adaptation was not completely faithful to Clavell's novel. Frankly, I am relieved. Bercovici managed to cut some of the superfluous story arcs and prevent the miniseries from becoming bloated. Yet, he still managed to retain Clavell's epic feel for the narrative. And he achieved this with the help of director Gary Nelson, who provided an overall steady pace in scenes that range from dramatic and action moments. Nelson's handling of the floating restaurant fire and the landslide that destroyed an apartment complex in the final episode really impressed me.

"NOBLE HOUSE" proved to be one of those productions that featured an international cast. Aside from a handful of performances, most struck me as being pretty solid. I must admit that I found those from the likes of Burt Kwok, Lim Kay Tong, Gordon Jackson, Denholm Elliott, Lisa Lu, Michael Siberry, Tia Carrere, John Houseman, Brian Fong, Ric Young, John van Dreelen, Nancy Kwan, Damien Thomas, Galen Yuen, George Innes and Dudley Sutton rather memorable. But there were certain performances that I truly enjoyed.

One of those performances came from the always memorable Khigh Dhiegh, who struck me as very colorful as one of Hong Kong's premiere smugglers, Four Fingers Wu. Ben Masters' take on the Lincoln "Linc" Bartlett characters seemed less boyish and more mature that Clavell's literary version. And to be honest, Masters' interpretation struck me as a lot more plausible as the witty and ruthless corporate CEO. I am more familiar with actor Ping Wu, thanks to his frequent appearances on NBC's "SEINFELD". But I really enjoyed his performance as Four Fingers Wu's youngest son, the intelligent and frustrated Paul Choy, who seemed incapable of impressing his father with his more modern outlook on how to profit outside of smuggling. Julia Nickson gave a very poignant performance as Orlanda Ramos, a local Eurasian television journalist and former mistress of Quillan Gornt. Thanks to Nickson's skillful performance, Orlanda evaded the superficial trope of a one-dimensional, walking sex toy; who became an intelligent, yet emotional woman who desired to be more than someone's bed warmer.

I might as well confess. Despite James Clavell's efforts, the character of Quillan Gornt never became a favorite of mine. His role as Dunross's main rival had nothing to do with my attitude. But I cannot deny that John Rhys-Davies gave one hell of a performance as the ruthless CEO who seemed to radiate wit, presence and a penchant for petty behavior. Casey Tcholok seemed like a difficult character to portray. Actress Deborah Raffin could have easily portray her as this ideal, "Mary Sue" type. Fortunately, James Clavell never portrayed Casey in that manner and neither did Raffin. Although the latter's take on the character seemed a bit more mature than her literary counterpart, Raffin expertly conveyed many of Casey's nuances - her razor-sharp intelligence, impatience, her talent for observation, her fears of being overlooked as a more than competent business person and her wit. However, Raffin's Casey struck me as a bit more sardonic than Clavell's literary version. Pierce Brosnan looked nothing like the literary Ian Dunross. Although both are tall, the latter possessed slightly wavy blond hair and the actor is definitely a brunette. The literary Dunross was in his early 40s, whereas Brosnan was only 34 years-old when he shot "NOBLE HOUSE". And yet . . . the Irish-born actor more than lived up to the role of Struan's CEO with a commanding performance without trying to hard. Brosnan wore the role very well - tight on the inside and relaxed on the outside. He not only portrayed Dunross's intelligence and ruthlessness with great skill, but also conveyed the CEO's growing concerns over losing the company and desperate attempts to save it without resorting to any kind of histrionic acting. By the time the miniseries ended, Brosnan had embedded into the role so well that I had completely forgotten that he was the wrong age to portray Dunross and possessed the wrong hair color.

"NOBLE HOUSE" never really acquired the acclaim that both television versions of James Clavell's 1975 novel, Shōgun or the movie version of the author's 1962 novel, "King Rat" had. But thankfully, it was no "TAI-PAN". Not that I care. I am not claiming that "NOBLE HOUSE" was mediocre. On the contrary, I thought it was a skillful and excellent adaptation of the 1981 novel. The latter is my favorite Clavell novel and I was more than happy that NBC had did more than simply justice to it, thanks to Gary Nelson's well-paced direction, Eric Bercovici's tight screenplay and performances from a first-rate cast led by Pierce Brosnan and Deborah Raffin. It has been years since I first saw it and to this day, I have yet to grown tired of it.

[bloghrexach]

🇨🇩 … there is so much to learn!! So much is happening in this world!!

By: LaillaB, founder of ‘Reclaim the Narrative’, from LinkedIn …

“Western imperialism continues to leave a dark and enduring legacy across the globe, from The Congo to Palestine.

The devastating effects of exploitative inequality persist in these regions, corrupting communities and wreaking havoc on generations of natives.

Through the theft of land, exploitation of resources, and imposition of foreign rule, Western powers have left a trail of devastation in their wake.

The state of Israel was created on land that was illigitamelty taken from the Palestinian people, leading to decades of human rights violations and displacement against the natives.

The ongoing colonisation of Palestine continues to fuel violence and instability in the region, with devastating consequences for the Palestinian people … Genocide.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has long been a victim of Western exploitation, with its vast mineral wealth being plundered by foreign powers for centuries.

During “The Butcher of Congo”, Belgium’s King Leopold II's brutal colonisation of the Congo Free State, estimates suggest that up to 10 million Congolese lost their lives and their rights are still being sacrificed as the wealth around them is stripped away.

Growing demand for so-called clean energy technologies has created a corresponding demand for certain metals, including copper, and cobalt, which is essential for making most lithium-ion batteries. The DRC has the world’s largest reserves of cobalt, and the seventh largest reserves of copper.

… Israel’s the worlds leader in exporting diamonds.

The intrusion by israel in 1997 marked a turning point as the DRC spiralled into chaos, highlighting the perilous consequences of external economic interests in politically fragile regions.

“Israel turns over about $28 billion in diamonds a year,” the Jerusalem Post pointed out, solidifying the industry's position as a cornerstone of the nation's economic power.

Israeli companies import rough diamonds for cutting and polishing, adding significantly to their value, and export them globally via distribution hubs in Antwerp, London, Hong Kong, New York and Mumbai.

Despite the introduction of the Kimberley Process in 2003 to regulate the trade of conflict diamonds, the narrow definition excludes cut and polished diamonds, allowing the flow of revenue to fund contentious activities.

This loophole enables the trade of de facto blood diamonds from Israel to persist in the global market, perpetuating a cycle of deceit and destruction.

Candy Ofime and Jean-Mobert Senga, Amnesty International researchers said: “We found repeated breaches of legal safeguards prescribed in international human rights law and standards, and national legislation, as well as blatant disregard for the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.”

From The Congo 🇨🇩 to Palestine 🇵🇸 …

“The greatest menace to the world today is the growing, exploiting, irresponsible imperialism”

Mahatma Gandhi.

#reclaimthenarrative — 🍉🕊 — #FreePalestine … #FreeCongo … @hrexach

[zendoe]

While the Western press exists to serve the bourgeois establishment and is therefore notoriously unreliable, it can usually be counted on to properly identify their enemies. In 2007 the Economist reported that in spite of the mass migration of workers to China’s eastern urban centers, pay for factory workers was rising at double digit rates in the Pearl River delta near Hong Kong. “Everyone should be aware that China has changed,” said a member of the Hong Kong legislature. “Reform has stopped,” complained a paper published in 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations and the Heritage Foundation, citing new laws in the PRC that enhanced workers’ rights and restricted private firms from buying or selling goods and services at unreasonable prices. It reserved particular ire for the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, calling it a “xenophobic organ” of the Communist Party that “[assailed] foreign firms” for “minor violations.” During Hu’s tenure, universal healthcare was readopted. Privatization was halted, then reversed. Bourgeois Western economists, who at first had happily believed their own propaganda and convinced themselves that private capital would ultimately destroy socialism in China on its own, no matter what Deng said, finally noticed an extremely worrying—to them—aspect to the PRC’s entire reform program: the vast majority of state-owned companies that had been “privatized” actually hadn’t been. Despite being publicly traded on domestic and foreign stock exchanges, China’s new private enterprises were quite often still controlled by the government through byzantine ownership structures involving state-run holding companies or domestic financial institutions (which are also state-owned). In 2009, two-thirds of state-owned enterprises had been officially privatized, yet three-quarters of these remained indirectly state-owned—meaning that only about 15% of the public sector had truly entered private control. Between 1998 and 2007, closures and privatizations of state-owned firms were limited to smaller entities while more new large state-owned firms had been created. China’s actual private sector did continue to grow and prosper, but not at the expense of the state-run economy. Of the 98 Chinese companies listed on the Fortune Global 500 list in 2015, only 22 were private, and the largest 12 were state-owned; by 2021, the number of Chinese companies on the list had increased to 130—the most of any country in the world—yet over two-thirds of this increase had come from the public sector, which added 22 companies to the list, while the private sector added only ten.

Why the World Needs China by Kyle Ferrana

[consultingsister]

Holmes International Consultants (HIC)

Founded in 1919 by Cecelia’s great-grandfather, Holmes International Consultants (HIC) began as a small, family-run advisory firm in the wake of the First World War. Officially registered as Holmes Consultancy, it marked the Holmes family’s transition from discreet advisors to European royalty and political elites into a formidable global enterprise. The aim was clear: to turn influence into industry, converting generations of whispered counsel into a lucrative network of powerbrokers. Over the decades, HIC evolved into an intricate web of both legal and covert operations. Its public-facing persona projects an image of a high-level consultancy firm specialising in strategic partnerships, conflict mediation, and international relations. Behind closed doors, however, HIC operates as a shadow organisation, a global nexus where governments, corporations, and clandestine networks negotiate deals that shape the world. Whether brokering arms agreements, influencing elections, or managing sensitive intelligence exchanges, HIC thrives in the spaces where law meets expedience.

Historical Growth and Evolution

HIC’s success was built on its reliance on backchannels, a tradition of favours, personal connections, and discreet agreements. This ethos of influence and discretion catapulted the company to new heights during the mid-20th century. By the 1940s, HIC began diversifying its operations, leveraging its network to establish footholds in emerging industries. This expansion laid the groundwork for the creation of the Holmes Group in 1981, a conglomerate that spun off to handle the family’s more overt business interests. While the Holmes Group manages global ventures in sectors ranging from telecommunications and defence to luxury goods and technology, HIC remains firmly under the family’s control, operating with a distinct separation. Its independence ensures the freedom to handle matters that transcend legality, morality, and jurisdiction—where influence can dictate outcomes more effectively than law.

Structure and Operations

As of 2023, HIC is valued at an estimated $133 billion, with an unparalleled reach into the political, corporate, and criminal underworlds. The organisation’s operations are intentionally opaque, making it impossible to discern its full influence or the true scope of its activities. Officially, HIC employs a global network of legal consultants, political strategists, and intelligence experts. Unofficially, it is known to have ties to espionage networks, arms dealers, and organised crime syndicates. The company operates through a decentralised model, with regional hubs in London, New York, Dubai, and Hong Kong. These hubs are staffed with individuals capable of navigating high-stakes negotiations, discreetly resolving conflicts, and manipulating markets. While its inner workings remain largely secret, HIC is known to use shell corporations, offshore accounts, and an extensive network of intermediaries to mask its less savoury activities.

Leadership

HIC has always been a family enterprise, with its leadership firmly in the hands of the Holmes lineage. Until 2022, the company was helmed by Morland Holmes, whose tenure saw both consolidation and expansion of HIC’s influence. In 2023, Cecelia Holmes assumed the role of CEO, marking a new chapter in the company’s history. Known for her charisma and cunning, Cecelia has already begun to reshape HIC’s strategies, modernising its operations while maintaining the core principles of discretion and power that define its legacy.

Influence and Power

Holmes International Consultants exists in a grey space—neither wholly legitimate nor entirely illicit. It functions as both puppet master and fixer, resolving disputes between rival governments, facilitating clandestine arms deals, and ensuring the survival of fragile regimes. Its reach is bolstered by its close ties to the Holmes Group, a publicly listed conglomerate with a combined market capitalisation of $212 billion across 22 companies as of March 2022. While the Holmes Group and HIC are officially separate, the former’s resources often serve as a front or cover for the latter’s operations, creating a seamless flow between legitimate industry and covert activity. This duality ensures that the Holmes family remains untouchable, their power rooted not just in wealth but in their ability to pull the strings of the world’s most influential players.

Reputation

To the outside world, Holmes International Consultants is a prestigious consultancy firm, sought after by governments and multinational corporations alike. To those in the know, it is a dangerous force—an organisation that operates beyond borders, beyond morality, and beyond reproach. HIC doesn’t merely react to global events; it orchestrates them.

[panchitacarmensita]

Aligning Corporate Strategy with Legal and Regulatory Standards in Hong Kong

When establishing and growing a company in Hong Kong, it is vital that business leaders factor in the region's complex legal and regulatory environment into strategic planning. Failure to adhere to employment ordinances, tax codes, intellectual property laws and other standards can undermine your entire China/HK growth agenda. This article provides best practices on aligning organizational strategy with key compliance benchmarks.

Start by Building a Legal/Regulatory Risk Profile

Gather input from your Hong Kong legal advisors on the primary laws and regulations that will impact core business functions based on your growth roadmap. Recruit specialists for insights across domains – an employment lawyer to advise on ordinances around pay, working conditions and termination requirements; a corporate attorney familiar with documentation needs as outlined under the Hong Kong Companies Ordinance and Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO); and a team with nuanced understandings around taxation in Hong Kong/Mainland China.

Emphasize Governance and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

With your risk map complete detailing major compliance pressure points around formation, sales, trading, hiring, operations and more, use this framework to drive governance moves that harden the organization against illegal or unethical actions. Expand procedures around everything from acquiring entities in China to information sharing standards that prevent insider trading incidents that might imperil your HK stock listing. Appoint board oversight committees on ethics and regulatory policy.

Monitor Regulatory Trends Proactively

Laws and policies do not remain static – from 2023 increases to statutory severance pay to tightening rules against monopolistic practices among Mainland businesses by the State Administration for Market Regulation, regulations shift frequently. Continuously follow key policy proposals and moves by agencies like InvestHK, while participating in trade associations that can help represent your interests in government discourses.

Align Business Objectives with Compliance Mandates

Finally, let mandatory requirements guide corporate strategy itself by identifying opportunities. With crackdowns on corruption and tax evasion, build competitive advantage via best practices in transparency and disclosure around transactions, modeling anti-bribery across China operations. Where competitors resist minimum wage increases or workplace improvements, embrace these to attract top talent across Hong Kong and Shenzhen centers tapping young professional desire for purpose-driven leadership.

By viewing ongoing legal and regulatory reform as intrinsic to strategy rather than counterweights to growth, foreign companies can sustainably thrive across Hong Kong and mainland China's vast ecosystem, while accelerating competitive edge, financial performance and positive societal impact.

[aeinova]

NPC profiles!

ooc note: i'm setting this page up for all of the npc muses i have linked to nova. i realized that she talks a lot about all of these characters in her life, so this is me in an attempt to give them that life. discretion advised – anything listed is all FALSE and only used to ROLEPLAY.

name: kim myungsoo "L"

occupation: former member of idol boy group "infinite"; current ceo of unnamed company; head of underworld.

species: hellhound

age: ??? (31 years old to humans)

affiliation to nova: toxic ex-boyfriend.

fame level: international

weaknesses: unknown

k-netz know him as the pretty boy of the century. his visuals ooze with refreshing appeal, even now that he has aged from teenagehood. he started to pursue nova in 2012, when nova was just 18. both of them were pretty popular on the k-idol scene by that time. his true essence did not come to the surface until a tragic moment in his life; the passing of his father in 2014. when that happened, his father's devilish essence took ahold of him, making him the man he is today. in a few years, myungsoo has managed to become not only one of the richest men in south korea, but the head of all illegal underground trade. his obsession with nova is evident and very public, mentioning her in almost every interview as the "one who got away". in reality, he would abuse her every chance he got, in all ways. he will forever haunt her, both physically and mentally. that is, until someone is able to put him out for good. to the public, he is constantly mentioned in the news both negatively and positively, so many people should know him either by visuals or by the articles written about him. surprisingly enough though, he's willing to abide by nova's pleas in the times that he becomes conscious of his cruelty, meaning that nova might still have the upper hand in certain situations.

name: jessica jung

occupation: former k-pop idol of girl group SNSD; idol in china; wife to a rich hotelier; ceo of her own entertainment company.

species: human

age: 34

affiliation to nova: sister

fame level: international

jessica is considered a legendary idol who was banned from the korean entertainment scene. not much is known about what she does day to day, but she is constantly flying between seoul, san francisco, and hong kong to visit her family. she plays a big role in supporting nova through all her hardships. she disapproves greatly of myungsoo, and voices her opinion when she can if asked. besides that, she's a sweet soul, taking care of anyone who is dear to both her and her sister.

name: david kwon

occupation: husband to jessica; international hotelier

species: human

age: 36

affiliation to nova: brother-in-law

fame level: very minimal

husband to jessica. not mentioned too often. if anything, nova only stays at his hotels when she travels.

name: ????

occupation: ???

age: ????

species: satyr

affiliation to nova: head satyr of their fae society

not much is known. he only appears when something major happens to a fae or satyr (i.e injury, death, etc.) he has to approve all marriages and has to appear at the birth of each satyr/fae child.

[girlactionfigure]

LEICA AND THE JEWS

The Leica is the pioneer 35mm camera. It is a German product - precise, minimalist, and utterly efficient.

Behind its worldwide acceptance as a creative tool was a family-owned, socially oriented firm that, during the Nazi era, acted with uncommon grace, generosity and modesty. E. Leitz Inc., designer and manufacturer of Germany's most famous photographic product, saved its Jews.

And Ernst Leitz II, the steely-eyed Protestant patriarch who headed the closely held firm as the Holocaust loomed across Europe , acted in such a way as to earn the title, "the photography industry's Schindler."

As soon as Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany in 1933, Ernst Leitz II began receiving frantic calls from Jewish associates, asking for his help in getting them and their families out of the country. As Christians, Leitz and his family were immune to Nazi Germany's Nuremberg laws, which restricted the movement of Jews and limited their professional activities.

To help his Jewish workers and colleagues, Leitz quietly established what has become known among historians of the Holocaust as "the Leica Freedom Train," a covert means of allowing Jews to leave Germany in the guise of Leitz employees being assigned overseas.

Employees, retailers, family members, even friends of family members were "assigned" to Leitz sales offices in France, Britain, Hong Kong and the United States, Leitz's activities intensified after the Kristallnacht of November 1938, during which synagogues and Jewish shops were burned across Germany.

Before long, German "employees" were disembarking from the ocean liner Bremen at a New York pier and making their way to the Manhattan office of Leitz Inc., where executives quickly found them jobs in the photographic industry.

Each new arrival had around his or her neck the symbol of freedom - a new Leica camera.

The refugees were paid a stipend until they could find work. Out of this migration came designers, repair technicians, salespeople, marketers and writers for the photographic press.

Keeping the story quiet The "Leica Freedom Train" was at its height in 1938 and early 1939, delivering groups of refugees to New York every few weeks. Then, with the invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany closed its borders.

By that time, hundreds of endangered Jews had escaped to America, thanks to the Leitzes' efforts. How did Ernst Leitz II and his staff get away with it?

Leitz, Inc. was an internationally recognized brand that reflected

credit on the newly resurgent Reich. The company produced cameras, range-finders and other optical systems for the German military. Also, the Nazi government desperately needed hard currency from abroad, and Leitz's single biggest market for optical goods was the United States.

Even so, members of the Leitz family and firm suffered for their good works. A top executive, Alfred Turk, was jailed for working to help Jews and freed only after the payment of a large bribe.

Leitz's daughter, Elsie Kuhn-Leitz, was imprisoned by the Gestapo after she was caught at the border, helping Jewish women cross into Switzerland . She eventually was freed but endured rough treatment in the course of questioning. She also fell under suspicion when she attempted to improve the living conditions of 700 to 800 Ukrainian slave laborers, all of them women, who had been assigned to work in the plant during the 1940s.

(After the war, Kuhn-Leitz received numerous honors for her humanitarian efforts, among them the Officier d'honneur des Palms Academic from France in 1965 and the Aristide Briand Medal from the European Academy in the 1970s.)

Why has no one told this story until now? According to the late Norman Lipton, a freelance writer and editor, the Leitz family wanted no publicity for its heroic efforts. Only after the last member of the Leitz family was dead did the "Leica Freedom Train" finally come to light.

It is now the subject of a book, "The Greatest Invention of the Leitz Family: The Leica Freedom Train," by Frank Dabba Smith, a California-born Rabbi currently living in England.

Thank you for reading the above, and if you feel inclined as I did to pass it along to others, please do so. It only takes a few minutes.

Memories of the righteous should live on.

Rabbi Yisroel Bernath

[egle0702]

The Hardship Era When JYP Ent Almost Went Bankrupt

Original source: The Qoo 

Kor-Eng: @Egle0702

Note: The post is written from the Korean perspective of a JYPN fan. The OP’s language is kept as authentic as possible.

------------------------------------

Back then, around 2010

Rain-JYP, Win the Appeal in the “World Tour” Lawsuit

2010-09-09

Singer Rain and Rain's former agency, JYP Entertainment, won a lawsuit claiming compensation for damages related to a performance in North America.

On the 9th, the Seoul High Court judged, "Wellmade StarM is the one responsible for the cancellation of the concert in North America," and "JYP Entertainment and Rain do not have to return the 10 billion won paid in advance."

Rain’s World Tour lawsuit (won after 4 years of trial)...

The American obsession…

And because of many other things JYP Ent had been having a rough time.

For reference, their sales (at the time were:

2009 sales KRW 10.1 billion (down 7% compared to the previous year) Net profit -4.6 billion

2010 sales 21.6 billion net profit 900 million

2011 sales 9.9 billion net profit -2.1 billion

2012 sales 15 billion net profit -9.8 billion

Fuck this shit lol

At that time, Loen invested in JYP, and got JYP’s shares in return.

With the 25.4% of the company’s stock, it immediately became the 2nd largest shareholder.

Back then (around 2013), Loen was owned by SK, but when the laws got revised, Loen was sold to a Hong Kong-based private equity fund.

(Loen was a music distribution company that monopolised the online music distribution market and paid very little to entertainment companies for it, so entertainment companies united and moved their online music rights distribution to KMP Holdings.

Although Loen was the 2nd biggest shareholder in JYP Ent, JYP Ent. also participated into the movement. It was okay when Loen was under SK, because Park Jinyoung is acquainted with the SK Group family, but when it was sold to the Hong Kong-based private equity fund, the confrontation intensified.)

→ Tbh, this is some complicated stuff, so if you’re having a hard time grasping it, might as well skip the part above.

Either way, at the time Loen, which wanted to grow as an entertainment company, opposed JYP Ent’s listing on the stock market and proposed a take over.

Loen: take over, let’s go

JYP Ent: don’t wanna

Loen: take over, let’s go

JYP Ent: don’t wanna

Loen: take over, let’s go

JYP Ent: don’t wanna

After going through it several times, JYP Ent finally succeeded in listing through backdoor listing.

While Loen, as an alternative, acquired Starship Ent (2013 November)

Oh yeah, you’re gonna croak tomorrow~

[Market Insight] Loen sells all JYP Entertainment shares

2014.01.16

They sold all the stocks in their possessions and made a run for it.

However, on the exact same day…

GOT7 debuted.

Just debuted, but the company is on the verge of bankruptcy and they were pretty much poised to end up sitting outside in a street (fuck this shit).

GOT7, to hold a showcase in Japan in collaboration with Sony Music

2014.03.10

At the time when GOT7 (as newcomers) were supposed to get as much push from the company as possible, the company was literally in ruins, and GOT7 got shipped off to Japan within 3 months after their debut. Their first concert was also held in Japan.

Suzy was shooting commercials like crazy. (The vid above is 6 min long, but it’s only the commercials from the first half of the year, you can pretty much tell she filmed every single CF suggestion they received.)

As for 2PM… they just didn’t come back from Japan at all. They were on tour in Japan for 2 years straight (no exaggeration here)

In 2014-2015, they released 2 albums in Korea, while in Japan they had 5 releases during the same period of time.

If it hadn’t been for 2PM, JYP Ent would’ve just evaporated back then. 2PM was the holding pillar that prevented JYP Ent from collapsing.

Park Jinyoung was also trying to do something, so he sold the JYP Ent building that belonged personally to him.

And with that he bought the JYP Ent stocks (currently, Park Jinyoung is the largest shareholder).

FNC Entertainment’s Han Sungho, comparing with the Big 3 entertainment companies… “We’re better off than JYP Ent.”

2015-02-05

That was exactly when FNC was indulging in all that media play going “JYP Ent, get out of my way, I’m in the big 3 now.”

JYP Ent official position: “YG takeover claims are false, looking into the potential to take legal action”

In the midst of all this, Yang Hyunsuk sprinkled this kind of crap trying to raise his stock prices. It’s like, the house was already on fire, and he just fried some popcorn next to it, absolutely infuriating.

Either way, spring comes to those who wait.

In 2015, GOT7 received a good response abroad with Just Right.

Originally, although JYP Ent is a big company, it wasn’t that big on the overseas market.

The company was mostly focused on popularity among the general public, but as they grew step by step with GOT7, Twice and Stray Kids, they reached overseas, too.

What’s more, they also began paying more attention to group fandoms starting with Twice.

These days, they’re quite decent with self-created content, and they squeeze out the fandom money through goods, too… They’ve become a fandom-oriented company.

When Twice hit the Korean jackpot with their legendary Ooh-Aah-Cheer-Up-TT line, and then did insanely well in Japan, the hardships era came to an end.

2015 JYP Ent stock price 3000 won

2023 JYP Ent stock price 73,000 won

Even the man himself must feel like it’s worth living these days. He’s dancing to Hype Boy.

+

Btw, one of 2PM’s comebacks in 2014-2015

Is My House: the legendary male-idol case of climbing back the charts.

Originally back then, they were supposed to have promos for a month. After a relatively long promo, they were planning to go back to Japan, but an MV director called Han Samin flaked on them with the intention to film a Big Bang MV.

Naive Production went “oh poor you” and shot the MV in a hurry.

Eventually, My House had just one week of promos, but it climbed back the charts way later, so there’s a happy ending in that.

That was when the JYP Ent ❤ Naive relationship started.

Right now the fandom attitude [to Naive] is not good, and they’ve also had quite a few mishaps over time, so they don’t have such an all encompassing reach as before but they’re still filming MVs on the Japanese side (mostly for NiziU).

Now I’m really done talking about the times when the world was chewing on JYP Ent.

You might say, isn’t this an omniscient JYP Ent stan perspective?

Well, I have nothing to say for myself because that’s true. At the end of the day, who else would remember all this if not a JYP Ent stan T.T

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

I'm at DEFCON! TODAY (Aug 9), I'm emceeing the EFF POKER TOURNAMENT (noon at the Horseshoe Poker Room), and appearing on the BRICKED AND ABANDONED panel (5PM, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01). TOMORROW (Aug 10), I'm giving a keynote called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE! How hackers can seize the means of computation and build a new, good internet that is hardened against our asshole bosses' insatiable horniness for enshittification" (noon, LVCC - L1 - HW1–11–01).

#5yrsago Bernie Sanders killed it on Joe Rogan https://jacobin.com/2019/08/bernie-sanders-joe-rogan-experience-podcast/

#5yrsago Whatsapp, Slack, Skype and apps based on popular Electron framework vulnerable to backdoor attacks https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/08/skype-slack-other-electron-based-apps-can-be-easily-backdoored/

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#5yrsago Monsanto ran a psy-ops war-room to discredit journalists and spy on Neil Young https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/07/monsanto-fusion-center-journalists-roundup-neil-young

#5yrsago Wisconsin commissioned an independent report on how to fix the Foxconn deal. Result: it can’t be done. https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/6/20747166/wisconsin-foxconn-deal-state-report-lcd-factory-innovation-centers

#5yrsago As New York State’s shareholder suit against Big Oil for climate denial proceeds, Exxonmobil caught intimidating witnesses https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09082019/exxon-climate-fraud-investigation-witness-pressure-investors-new-york-attorney-general/

#5yrsago After student arrested for carrying laser-pointers, Hong Kong protesters stage “stargazing” laser-protest https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-49280030

#5yrsago Warshipping: attack a target network by shipping a cellular-enabled wifi cracker to a company’s mail-room https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/06/warshipping-hackers-ship-exploits-mail-room/

#5yrsago Billions on the line as Facebook loses appeal over violating Illinois facial recognition law https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/8/20792326/facebook-facial-recognition-appeals-decision-damages-payment-court

#1yrago Private equity plunderers want to buy Simon & Schuster https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/08/vampire-capitalism/#kkr