#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.

[zvaigzdelasas]

Representative Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House select committee on China, told Reuters he wants the Department of Commerce to "require any American person or company to receive an export license prior to engaging with PRC (People's Republic of China) entities on RISC-V technology." Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the newswire that China "is abusing RISC-V to get around US dominance of the intellectual property needed to design chips" and called for export rules to change as using open source semiconductor designs represents a "tech transfer strategy that serves to degrade US export control laws."

Lololol [8 Oct 23]

[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.

[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

[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/

#5yrsago Billionaire who gave Jeffrey Epstein power of attorney in order to manage his finances says Epstein stole “vast sums of money” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/07/business/wexner-epstein.html

#5yrsago Baking bread from dormant, 4,500-year-old yeast extracted from Egyptian bread-making ceramics https://twitter.com/SeamusBlackley/status/1158264819503419392

#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

[dowhatisaynotwhatido]

1. FBT - Finding Billy and Tommy

Paring: F!Reader x Wanda Context: After Wundagore in Multiverse of Madness, Wanda finds what she has been looking for in a small town – more precisely, in you. ... This one might ring a little (lot) different. Is more of a fluff-comfort-family thing.  Warnings: just comfort, fluff, angst(?), light - grief Word Count: 2.5 Part 1 (this) | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4*

- “Are you there, Ms. Franco?” The voice echoed through your phone. You could hear the nurse loud and clear, you were just too shocked to say anything. Your brother had been on a car crash 5 days ago and were currently fighting for his life on the ICU - he had just lost the battle.

----- A couple weeks after your brother and sister-in-law passing, you were still getting use to not be alone anymore. On your 30’s, you have been living alone since after college, not even a serious relationship to keep you company. Your nephews rarely slept over, and now you had the two 6-year-old living with you. They hadn’t understood their parents’ deaths until 1 week after your brother’s funeral. Billy was the first one to miss them, but Tommy got the worst of it. For 5 days, the little kid did not sleep, crying day in and out, while Billy acted out making pranks and being loud– just as a normal grieving kid. You had to ask a leave from your work to be with them 24/7. Although your mother helped you, she simply didn’t have the energy to do more after losing her own child. You live in a small city and work as a math teacher in the only high school in town. Being a single woman in your 30’s were already hard on a small town where the gossip flew by. Being a lesbian single woman? Even harder. But when you added “mom solo” to being a single lesbian 30yo woman? The pitiful judging eyes of the whole city followed you everywhere. The market gave you priority in line. Your neighbors had the civic sense to feed you and your nephews for almost a month after the tragedy. Your coworkers no longer shoot you casual texts, but always hard and heavy “how are you”, “I know is hard, but if anyone can do it is you”. Gifts? The kids were swamp in clothing and toys. You know they were trying to help, but the intensity of it all, just made you fall even deeper in reclusion.

You opted to let the kids go to school to have some distraction, as their therapist suggested. Weeks passing by, the whole mood was getting better and lighter. Tommy no longer cried to sleep, although he still woke up to go to your bed every night. You got use to them, finally bought extra pillows and a mattress wrap – no longer a problem with the night leakages of Billy’s mind screaming for help. You grew calluses. You never had the proper time to grieve the loss of your brother and best friend, but you shrugged off any kind of fragility or overthinking. Your late nights with some stupid Netflix drama turned into Paw Patrol and some horrific YouTube channels of slimes and sticky gross toys. Your tacos Tuesdays at Amanda's? They turned into toasty bread and cheap butter you could barely afford with your only salary divided per 3. Your wine and crossword Saturday afternoons turned into puzzles, Lego and an exhausting game of chasing around kids. You were extremely pushed to your limits, but you didn't allow any self-pity, convincing yourself that you didn't have the time for it. It was mid-April when it happened. They had been with you for the best part of a year, and you always kept the idea of being their legal guardian and maintaining their parents image awoke on their minds. Tommy had gone to your bed just as usual, but this time he woke you up and asked to be cuddled. Once he was properly comfort in your big spoon, he said “Thank you, mommy”. It was sweet and spontaneous. From that day on, your little family finally found a new meaning, and you became their mom. ------ “Wanda Maximoff” – she said to herself in the mirror “You are Wanda Maximoff”. It was a grounding exercise she had learnt in Hong Kong Sanctum Sanctorum. After Mount Wundagore events, the Scarlet Witch used her last strength to teleport herself out of the mountain collapse – retracting back into Wanda’s to recharge her magic. Once Wang and Strange found Wanda wandering around the snowy mountains, she was brought back to the Sanctum where she trained to keep SW imprisoned inside.

They had tried to kill SW, to get her out of Wanda or to weaken her. Wanda tried and insisted that killing her was the only way – but SW wouldn’t let her pursue that route by herself and the Avenger's refused to go down that road after Natasha self-sacrifice. Soon they found out that Wanda and the SW where the same person, and the only person who could stop SW was exactly Wanda.

She trained day in and out, strengthening her hold on her own mind and body. After a few months, SW was no longer able to fully corrupt and possess Wanda, leaving her just a small part of her previous ability, still able to talk and get into Wanda’s mind in the days Wanda was specially distracted or exhausted. After a full year, SW simply resigned at her inner cell and stopped trying. That was when they concluded Wanda was free to live her own life out of the Sanctum. Of course, she wasn’t doomed responsible for the Westview or Wundagore accident, being obvious she wasn’t the one in control neither of the time. However, she still blamed herself and decided to retire her powers. She refused to use them for any harm or to go back to the compound; she was no longer an Avenger. The year after, she spent trying to find a little corner of the world where she could retire in a resemblance of peace. She decided to stay in the US due to the proximity to the NY Sanctum and Avenger compound in the eventuality SW got to possess her over again. After Thanos, Wanda was a celebrity and the public was fast to recognize her in every single character she tried to hide herself in. She tried to dye her hair brown, blonde, black, short, long, curly, straight, it didn’t work. She was too famous – and as the public didn’t know about Westview and the Darkhold: they saw her as a hero. The first town found out her secret in a week, and the over affection drew Wanda out of there last than a week after. The following ones were slower, they took their time to figure her out, but as soon the secret was gone, she was followed everywhere with hot meals and praises. Every damn grandma on those cities decided to cook her lasagna, cookies, and ever so sweet meat soup. At the last city, she gave up on trying hiding herself, and decided to assume her identity as a former Avenger and current history teacher. That is where she found a home. ------ Farmville, 20.000 habitants, 4 hours away from NY. After six months of your work leave, you were ready to go back to teaching. Leaving Tommy and Billy at school and going to your classes turned out to be a healthy new routine. When you got to the teacher’s lounge on the first day, you noticed something had change. Yes, your coworkers were still the same, kindly welcoming you back, but your gaze followed an imposing presence on the back of the room. There was the most beautiful woman you have ever seen. Wanda noticed the commotion in the room and spared a quick glance to see someone being hugged and kissed by the other teachers. She couldn’t decide if she was annoyed at the loud noise or interested on the new woman. You were on the pretty side of the people spectrum. Soft skin, hair held up, well-put together, nice formal clothing. Apart from the sleepless nights clear on your face, you could put a nice show. Wanda got herself staring at you more than once in that morning. You were the math teacher who had adopted your brothers’ twins. Even Wanda knew the gossip after being the history teacher on the same HS for a couple of months. She haven’t seen you around town, but it wasn’t a surprise: she kept to herself and your domestic life didn’t actually allow you to go out and be seen. You were reserved and introspective. Your lunch breaks spent in your classroom tutoring some students to get extra money. Once you got out work, you went straight to pick up your kids. You weren’t usually on the teacher’s lounge during your breaks or empty calendar, using the lazy time to grade in your classroom, run some errands or just tutor some more. Wanda got herself searching for you in the corridors, going round the square just to pass through your door and spare a quick glance. She was interested in the shy, cute and very busy woman you presented to be. Embarrassingly, she had even allowed herself to search for your thoughts during a special day where you looked more troubled than usual. Of course, you didn’t know any of that.

The gossip about the retired avenger moving into the city reached you as it did to everyone else. However, for you, it didn’t actually matter. You had your own life to sort through, too busy to be worried about some significant celebrity or superhero. At school, you quickly learned that Ms. Maximoff was a great teacher: she could keep even the most troubled student in her class, using her red magic to construct live presentations and scenarios of historic events. Even the teachers and the principal herself – a former history teacher- were caught in the interest of watching to one or two of her classes.

It was a Wednesday evening a couple weeks later, the first time you actually spoke to her. Both of you had a Parents and Teachers meeting that night, and the twins were with you mother. After your last class in the afternoon, you decided to pass the time grading and preparing your next class in the Teachers’ Lounge. When you got there, you noticed the fresh coffee scent and the red-haired sat in the only table of the room, lost in a thousand pages and books. You acknowledged her, but got silence in return.

She was concentrated, mumbling to herself while correcting what it seemed to be a particularly bad exam. Avoiding her papers and material, you sat in the far corner of the table and started to grade yourself. A few minutes later, a steamy cup of coffee was magically placed in front of you. “Black, no cream, no sugar” Wanda said with a small smile, still seated across the table, with her red eyes confirming that she was the one behind the floating Harry Pottery mug. “Thank you, Ms. Maximoff” you said shyly blushing. How could she know how you take your coffee? “Wanda, please” “Wanda. That was very thoughtful. You are the one who looks like you need a coffee, though.” You chuckled “How bad was that test?” “Bad. She just doesn’t get it.” She sighed, “I have tried everything, but she just…” “Have difficulties on an area that is not the one she is good at?” You said warmly “Who is she?” “Angela Brinks” She huffed “It is not it, she understands and pays attention- but fails every test.” “Angela? She is failing my class too. She was so good at math a year ago,” You thought going through you notes. “She is just having some trouble back home. “ Wanda slipped. She was not supposed to tell you that. She felt like invading someone’s privacy - is not like Angela told her about it. She couldn’t help: when the thoughts were too loud, too intense, or someone were just too close, sometimes their thoughts just invaded her mind and she couldn’t block it. “I just wished I could help. I am not used to be so powerless.” You smirked “Yeah, welcome to the ordinary” You said as a joke, but Wanda did not laugh or say anything about it for the pass hour. You thought it was a touchy subject so after long minutes of silence you spoke up. “I am sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude” “You weren’t.” She looked at you with a kind grin “You are a nice person, aren’t you?” You smiled shyly at the way Wanda was staring at you “Everyone has their demons, Wanda. I am as nice as anyone else” “Except that isn’t true” She dropped her pen and frowned as she tried to understand you. “See? If it is not true, then I am a liar – so, it is true. ” You winked “Plain old logical proposition” Both of you laughed.

You kept grading and making small talk until the parents meeting. You were clearly their favorite teacher, and the parents welcomed you back warmly, some brought gifts, others asked about the twins, and a few got your phone number for more tutoring lessons to their kids. After the meeting, Wanda stayed behind waiting patiently for you to finish a talk with yet another mother. “Someone is popular” She teased “Is nice to be back. I missed this” You sighed “Being a super mom isn’t enough?” Wanda said with a light tone, but she felt a sting of jealousy in her heart. You chuckled “Is definitely something. However, here I can just be me, you know? I am not their aunt, or mother, or whatever. I am not here for anyone else. Just… Y/N.” You blushed “Sorry, this sound so selfish” “There is nothing wrong with that. Being selfishly you is also part of being a mom. We need to be ourselves too” “Oh. Are you a mom too? I didn’t know” You stared at her. Did you miss that gossip? Wanda gulped. Yes, she had been. For a brief moment, she had her own set of twins and she was complete. After Westview, that feeling of nurture and love was just taken away, leaving a hollow vacuum in her chest that nothing or no one seemed to fill. You notice her eyes tearing up as she zooned out “I am sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.” “It is ok. I might tell you one of these days. Not today though.” She tight lip smiled as you reached the parking lot. “So, I hear you are giving tutoring lessons” “Yes. I need the money” You shrugged searching for your car keys in your purse “I am basically doing anything that brings me one-step farther from crippling debts” You said with a light tone. Wanda made your comfortable. Every time actually paying attention to you. It was refreshing. “I need some help on Saturday. I was just going to hire someone else, but do you want to help me?” Wanda asked. She didn’t really need any help, but she wanted you to say yes just to spend some more time with you. “Really? With what?” You asked interested, finally having found your car keys and opening the door. “Organizing” She said plainly. She had not properly taken her stuff out of the moving boxes since she got here. “I will be there at 8” You smiled getting into your car with a fresh smile and a warm heart.

Part 2 

[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

[watanabes-cum-dump]

Interesting things abt PGR

Things I want to put into a video but I’m really fucking lazy so....

ALSO

Massive spoilers for PGR’s main and extra stories, including hidden. And character interludes. You have been warned

- Remember Bruce from Fostered by Blade and Cyril from Land of the Fallen star? Watanabe’s interludes? We know they’re father and son, but did you know that they’re Scottish? Cyril’s nickname, The Beak of Islay clues us into this, as Islay is an island in Scotland.

- Nikola isn’t actually part of Kurono. Idk why but my dumb of ass (and a other people from what I’ve seen) thought that he was with Kurono in some way. But, he actually left it long before the main story.

- Speaking of Nikola, despite how cold he seems, he is scared of one person: Collins, the leader of Kurono. It’s not explicitly stated, and we don’t know why, but Collins was his superior and even after leaving Kurono, he has leverage over Nikola. Spicy.

- While we’re still on the topic of command, despite how Nikola and Hassen seem at odds with each other in earlier chapters, they actually work pretty well together and seem to go back pretty far. I will do a whole other analysis post of command/pgr npcs bc they’re so interesting. (And I’m also filling the void where the Dominik’s orphan’s comic is supposed to be, idk if it ever got updated ueehh) 

- Idk if anyone else noticed but in Inscription of Labyrinth but when you first walk up to Luna and Lucia’s old home, you see a shadow dash away. That’s Roland, as you later find out in the Hidden Story.

- Pfaff, Rosetta’s grandfather, shares a name with a name with a sewing machine manufacturing company. Idk, it was interesting to me since they have Pfaff sewing machines at my school. Pfaff is also a German name, so Pfaff and Rosetta (if she’s related by blood which idk if that’s been confirmed) are possibly of German origin

- Kowloong as we all know is inspired by East Asia, mostly China. The description supports this and says that Kowloong is made up of mostly coastal east Asian cities. So there are three possible candidates for Kowloong’s location: Shanghai, as it’s one of China’s most prominent cities Hong Kong is also a strong candidate, as it is also a port city And Hong Kong Island, you know, and island surrounded by water.

- Watanabe wields two kukri knives, a type of machete originally from India but heavily associated with Nepal.

- Asimov is named after the sci fi author Isaac Asimov. It’s pretty fitting, since Asimov is responsible for designing construct frames. Double fitting since constructs fit nicely with Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics: 1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2) A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. Someone on the PGR writing team really loved sci fi lol

- The second agent, Vonnegut is also named after an author. Kurt Vonnegut, known for his dark humor in his novels. Interesting, since I believe that Vonnegut says only to call him Vonnegut, meaning it is not his real name. I wonder what prompted him to choose it, but trying to answer that means actually researching Kurt Vonnegut which is... uh... not something I want to do on a weekend. Since I would probably have to read the synopsis of every single one of his works which he has well over 27 of since more were published after he died, and they’re not all novels. Someday, perhaps. 

- Nanami says yeet. I think it’s in chapter 7 or 8 hidden story but she says yeet. I don’t know how to feel about this. It has been haunting me for the past year. 

- In Roland’s interlude, he is an actor on the Mansdati show (I think glbl renamed it but I forgor) in which the main character, Mansdati doesn’t know he’s actually in a show and is just living his regular everyday life while everyone around him are actors. It’s basically the Truman Show, an old movie with the same premise. Except without robots and depressed clowns. (maybe? idk I haven’t seen that movie in a while. It’s pretty good tho, watch it) 

And that’s it, that’s all I got. Let me know if I got anything wrong. 

[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.

[chocolateandsilver]

The Restrict Act 2023

About the Restrict Act

There’s a lot of information/misinformation I’ve been seeing about the Restrict Act. I’ve stared at the damn bill for around thirty hours at this point, so I thought I’d give people a summary of what it’s actually doing as well as what it isn’t doing, to help you avoid misinformation.

Buckle in, folks, because this is going to be a long post. I know Tumblr is allergic to nuance, but hopefully you’ll be able to see both the good and the bad in this bill by the time I’m done, and be able to understand what’s actually going on. If you just want to see problems with the act, the last section is devoted to that.

tl;dr good in spirit because of the rising rate of infrastructure cyberattacks, but the letter of the law could use a little work to make sure that the government can't overstep

Why the Restrict Act?

Let’s start with the why. Why does the US government feel like this Act is necessary? The stated purpose is: “To authorize the Secretary of Commerce to review and prohibit certain transactions between persons in the United States and foreign adversaries, and for other purposes.” Which is a bunch of legalese, so I’ll give you some examples of things that are happening in the real world which the government wants more authority to look into.

The author of the bill, Sen. Warner, specifically cited Huawei and Kapersky as companies that were doing Suspicious Things, so we’ll look at those first.

Huawei: Huawei is a telecommunications company. The US, Australia, Canada, Sweden, UK, Lithuania, and Estonia have all taken various actions against Huawei over the last decade or so. In 2012, a malicious software update was installed on Huawei devices in Australia, attacking Australia’s telecommunications network. In 2021, a Washington Post review suggested that Huawei was involved in mass surveillance programs. In 2014, a Huawei engineer was caught hacking a cell phone tower in India

Kapersky: The UK, Lithuania, the Netherlands, the EU, Germany, and Italy have all taken action against Kapersky. This company produces antivirus software, and was accused of working on secret projects with Russia’s Federal Security Service, especially in the wake of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Allegedly, the company used the popular antivirus software to secretly scan for classified documents and other information, and allegedly stole NSA information.

In addition to these two companies, there have been tons of cyberattacks worldwide.

Half of the United States’ fuel supply was compromised due to a hack on Colonial Pipeline, shutting down fuel for some areas in the American southeast for days

A hacking group disrupted Iranian steel factories and even started a fire

Costa Rica had to declare a national emergency after government systems were hit, including systems for exports, pensions, taxes, welfare, and even Covid-19 testing.

A ransomware attack caused a major outage to emergency health services in the UK

The stated purpose of this act is to give the USA some kind of formal process to make decisions when something like this is suspected of happening, and when it’s caused by a “foreign adversary.”

What’s a foreign adversary?

A foreign adversary is a country that has engaged in a “long-term pattern or serious instances of conduct significantly adverse to the national security of the United States or security and safety of United States persons.”

The bill kindly provides us with a list of six countries that fit this description: China(including Hong Kong), Cuba, Iran, Korea, Russia, and Venezuela

The Secretary of Commerce can add/remove countries to this list at any time, as long as Congress is informed within 15 days of the reasoning behind that decision.

Once Congress is informed, Congress can disagree via joint resolution (So both Houses have to vote to disagree with the Secretary of Commerce’s decision). If Congress disagrees, there’s a whole complicated process for getting the label added/removed.

We’ll get into the ethics later, in the Genuine Problems section.

For the rest of this post, I’ll be saying Scary Countries instead of foreign adversaries, so that it’s easier for people to understand.

What is the United States allowed to investigate using this Act?

So first we’re going to define some things, because the Act is very specific about what the United States can investigate.

The bill defines something called a “covered transaction,” which is basically a financial or technological action taken by a Scary Country or on behalf of a Scary Country. For the rest of this post, I’ll be saying Scary Action instead of covered transaction.

The bill also defines something called a “covered holding,” which is essentially any group that is partially or fully owned by a Scary Country, on behalf of a Scary Country, or that falls under a Scary Country’s jurisdiction, even with degrees of separation. The group has to affect either 1+ million Americans or has to have sold 1+ million units of a tech product to Americans. This group is usually a company, but it can be other things, too. For the rest of this post, I’ll be saying Scary & Important Group instead of covered holding.

The Secretary of Commerce is allowed to find/investigate/stop any Scary Action or Scary & Important Group that wants to do one of the following:

sabotage information and communications tech in the US

damage critical infrastructure or the digital economy of the US

interfere with a Federal election

undermine democratic processes

Pose any other unacceptable risk to the USA.

This is a list of Really Bad Things, so from now on I’m going to call it the List of Really Bad Things.

If it’s a Scary & Important Group instead of a Scary Action, the Secretary will refer the information to the President, who will then decide what to do to stop the threat. Otherwise, if it’s just a Scary Action, the Secretary has the authority to stop it.

If the Secretary finds out that something Scary is going on and that it falls under the List of Really Bad Things, the Secretary is REQUIRED to publish information in a DECLASSIFIED form about why they thought there was a threat and what was done to stop it, as long as none of the information is already classified. (This is a good thing!)

Process

First, the Secretary is given authority to find and investigate Scary Actions and Scary & Important Groups. The Secretary is also allowed to delegate this to Federal officials. Something key here is that the bill says that Federal officials can only have investigative powers that are “conferred upon them by any other Federal law.” They don’t get any extra powers. Anyone who tells you otherwise is panicking too hard to properly read the bill.

So what happens if, in the course of investigation, the Secretary finds out that a Scary Action or Scary & Important Group is trying to do a Really Bad Thing? Simple. The Attorney General will bring the case to an “appropriate district court.” The max fine for a civil penalty for an individual here is $250,000. For a criminal penalty for an individual, the max fine is $1 million and/or 20 years in prison, as well as giving up any of the things they used to do Really Bad Stuff with.

If someone is found guilty, they can appeal that decision, but only to the District of Columbia Circuit. Note that this is only for appeals! Otherwise, everything will be through the normal federal district courts.

If the appeal fails, too, the US will file all of the information that they used to make any big decisions with the court, and will give the defendant all of the information that is not classified, so that the defendant can ask for a full review.

Once the United States has stopped a Scary Action or a Scary & Important Group from doing Really Bad Things, it’s illegal to go around/against any of the actions that US has taken to do that.

Specifically, the bill says that “no person may cause or aid, abet, counsel, command, induce, procure, permit, or approve the doing of any act prohibited by, or the omission of any act required by any regulation, order, direction, mitigation measure, prohibition, or other authorization or directive issued under, this Act.”

Yes, this is legitimately scary. We’ll get into the ethics later, in the Genuine Problems section.

Myths

The bill gives the USA power to ban VPNs!

No. Unless the VPN company is trying to do one of the Really Bad Things under the instruction of a Scary Country or is suspected of doing one of the Really Bad Things, the VPN company will be fine.

The bill gives the USA power to investigate way more than they could before!

No. “In conducting investigations described in paragraph (1), designated officers or employees of Federal agencies described that paragraph may, to the extent necessary or appropriate to enforce this Act, exercise such authority as is conferred upon them by any other Federal law, subject to policies and procedures approved by the Attorney General” (emphasis mine).

Important here is “exercise such authority as is conferred upon them by any other Federal law” — this act is not giving them additional leeway. Really, the USA is making use of the lack of privacy that’s already baked into law in order to investigate.

If TikTok is banned and I use a VPN to access it, I could go to jail for 20 years!

Possible but severely unlikely, at least according to this law. Let’s go through some scenarios:

Scenario 1: The USA takes TikTok to court. In the decision, the USA says the TikTok app is no longer allowed to be on any app store. In this case, using a VPN to access TikTok would still be allowed, since the ban is for TikTok’s actions, not US citizens’ actions.

Scenario 2: The USA takes TikTok to court. In the decision, the USA says that TikTok is required to have some kind of filter banning US IP addresses. In this case, using a VPN to access TikTok would still be allowed, since the ban is for TikTok’s actions, not US citizens’ actions.

Scenario 3: The USA enacts a law forbidding citizens from accessing TikTok. This is unlikely, since the USA would have to have an entirely separate non-court procedure to do this, which is only kind of in the scope of the law. I guess it’s possible, but it’s skating on thin ice. In this case, using a VPN to access TikTok would be a crime. 4. If you’re charged, you have to go to the DC Circuit Court and not any of the other courts!

Actually, you’d first be charged under an ordinary district court in your state. If you decide to appeal, however, then you have to appeal to DC.

Genuine Problems

Adding a Scary Country to the list seems really easy. There’s nothing to stop the government from adding every single country to the list and then investigating every single action. Granted, it’s highly unlikely that this would happen, simply because then the amount of information would be difficult to go through, but it’s possible.

In the list of Really Bad Things, there’s an additional list item saying “otherwise poses an undue or unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the safety of United States persons.” Who determines that?

The definition of a Scary Action is ridiculously broad. It covers any financial or technology-related action. That could refer to a lot of different things.

While the bill is clearly intended only to prosecute people doing Really Bad Things, the wording is kind of vague in some places, and could be used to prosecute others, too.

Specifically, I’m thinking about this clause:

“no person may cause or aid, abet, counsel, command, induce, procure, permit, or approve the doing of any act prohibited by, or the omission of any act required by any regulation, order, direction, mitigation measure, prohibition, or other authorization or directive issued under, this Act”

Yeah this could definitely be used for overreach. It’s far too broad. If there was an infrastructure attack on the USA that affected the police dept, and an ACAB armchair activist tweeted “haha karma” would that count as grounds for prosecution? I have a genuine problem with this clause. The loopholes here are ridiculously large.

Overall, it seems as though this bill is aimed at large companies rather than citizens, but there are definitely loopholes for the government to exploit.

[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

[paradoxcase]

@wibreth:

he's a previous netdragon employee who saw neopets and convinced them the neopets metaverse would be a good idea.

Mainly what I'm getting from this article is that the actual split-off happened two years ago, but is still basically exactly what they said happened in their post, that an internal team broke off as an independent company and bought out Neopets. Also, that article is from March, and seems to be reporting on all the Metaverse stuff that TNT has now specifically said is not happening anymore. It also has Law quoted as comparing play-to-earn crypto games to Ponzi schemes and saying that the currency was meant to be in-game only, so it's not at all clear to me what kind of game this Metaverse was even supposed to be in the first place, or if it was even going to involve crypto.

Since this article is very out of date and seemingly contradictory on some points, I checked Wikipedia:

So, basically, what I said in my original post appears to in fact be correct. Neopets Meta, or Neopets Metaverse, appears to be old news and doesn't actually own the site anymore (and Wikipedia doesn't even seem to think it was ever a separate company, but rather some kind of subsidiary of NetDragon, since Neopets was purchased from NetDragon five days ago, more or less just as TNT said), and Dominic Law is no longer its head. It looks like the full extent of the crypto/NFT adventure was that NetDragon created a Neopets cryptocurrency (which is no doubt defunct now) and sold 4000 Neopets NFTs, and it doesn't seem like the cryptocurrency or NFTs ever actually became part of any Neopets game. The new company is actually called World of Neopia and does in fact include the internal Neopets teams from JumpStart/NetDragon and Neopets Metaverse. It's a bit weird to get up in arms about misinformation and then pull out an article from four months ago and claim that it's actually about an event that happened a week ago.

Also, lmao at NetDragon generating NFTs with DTI

[fayewonglibrary]

Faye Wong gives birth to baby girl in Beijing (1997)

After months of speculation and vehement denials that she was pregnant, Queen of Pop Faye Wong finally gave birth to a baby girl in Beijing on Friday morning after she disappeared from the music scene for several months.

Accompanied by China rocker-hubby Dou Wei, parents and in-laws, she checked into a top hospital in Beijing and gave birth to a bouncy baby girl after a caesarean operation.

The icy cool queen had spent the past months completely out of the limelight and holed up in Beijing with Dou after the Hong Kong media first broke news of her pregnancy some four months back.

She was originally due to give birth tomorrow but had decided on an earlier more auspicious date after consulting the Chinese almanac.

Both mother and baby are in excellent condition and will be discharged today.

According to Dou's sister, the baby girl inherited features from both mum and dad.

First-time daddy is reportedly so captivated that he refused to leave her alone and took turns with Wong to hold the baby. The only thing that irked the beaming father were the hordes of reporters clamoring outside the hospital for a photograph of the newborn.

Apparently, Wong had checked into the hospital that offers tight security specially to foreign diplomats. Her $278 -per-night room was locked 24 hours a day and the Hong Kong reporters could only keep watch outside the hospital.

There are guesses that the proud parents may want to give their girl a two-word name just like their own but close friends revealed that they preferred to have a three-word name.

The Hong Kong media first reported the pregnancy some time in late August. Wong started seeing Dou in 1993, after she broke up with Shu Wei, a member of Dou's rock band Black Panther.

True to her image, the elusive star virtually vanished from the public eye amidst rumors. But the tell-tale signs were unmistakable.

First, the now famous Beijing apartment where Wong was photographed outside the house in shorts and slippers was given to her brother and Dou was seen hunting for a bigger house in Beijing for his wife and baby-to-be.

She also failed to show up at the Singapore Hit Awards some three months ago where she won three major awards, including Most Popular Female Artiste.

A representative from her recording company, Polygram, who received the awards on her behalf, had cited "personal reasons" for her absence then.

Her Hong Kong manager had dismissed the news as rumor. She sad: "Faye Wong cannot be pregnant. She tells me everything about herself. I believe she has just put on weight."

In July, the grapevine buzzed with news of a hush-hush marriage between the pop queen and her beau. According to Hong Kong reports, Wong contacted her lawyer on July 16 to draw up a document declaring her single status.

The Chinese law stipulates that its nationals must declare their unmarried status before they can register for marriage.

Further reports revealed that she had also appointed a witness in China to register her marriage with the Chinese government. Apple Daily even published an application for their marriage.

But the application process was stopped abruptly for no apparent reason, fueling speculation that the couple did not want their marriage to rouse the media's suspicions of a baby on the way.

But Wong, have you forgotten that time will tell?

——————————————————————

SOURCE: THE STRAITS TIMES