"Hong Kong’s police warned Tuesday that they will clear the last major protest camp in the city beginning Thursday, potentially ending a pro-democracy movement that has challenged the government for more than 10 weeks. The notice of the latest clearance comes as protest leaders and participants are divided over whether to go home, stay, or even resist any removal attempt. A Tuesday night rally at the protest camp indicated that some of the movement’s most prominent leaders were not ready to throw in the towel."
"Police disband protest camp in Hong Kong" by Chris Buckley and Keith Bradsher, New York Times December 12, 2014
HONG KONG — For the Hong Kong authorities and their superiors in Beijing, the peaceful end to the protest is likely to be viewed as a major victory, yet even in their defeat, the protesters, most of them college students, left with a new sense of political identity, a willingness to challenge the almighty power holders in Beijing, and a slogan from a science-fiction film that many of them repeated as they cleared out of the encampment in Hong Kong’s Admiralty district: “We’ll be back.”
I won't be, not for this.
*******
The protests had no tangible success, but neither did China have any clear success in persuading the rising new generation in its wealthiest and most Westernized enclave that they should passively accept China’s vision of what is best, as many of their elders have done.
At the same time, the street protests may have had the unintended effect of increasing the job security of the very person whose resignation the demonstrators called for repeatedly: Hong Kong’s chief executive, Leung Chun-ying.
Some in Hong Kong worry that the protests have harmed the long-term cause of achieving greater democracy.
They fret that Beijing has permanently transferred large numbers of security and intelligence specialists to Hong Kong to keep a much closer eye on the Chinese Communist Party’s many critics. Beijing, they say, could end up even more resistant to further democratization in Hong Kong for fear that an intransigently hostile government might be elected.
“This movement has done more damage to the pro-democracy camp than anything in the last 17 years,” said Steve Vickers, who was a senior Hong Kong police official before Britain handed over Hong Kong to China in 1997, and who said he favored the introduction of greater democracy.
Wait until you see who is behind it.
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Also see: Workers dismantle Hong Kong protest site
Related:
"Hong Kong, China: The so-called "Occupy Central" movement or "Umbrella Revolution" in Hong Kong, China featured multiple groups openly funded by USAID and NED. Other groups, including student organizations meshed into these US-backed fronts so seamlessly and possessed such organizational abilities and clout across the Western media it is difficult to believe USAID was not also covertly involved with them. Joshua Wong's "Scholarism" for example was accused by Beijing of being a US creation. The Wall Street Journal in its article, "Pro-Beijing Media Accuses Hong Kong Student Leader of U.S. Government Ties," would state:
Evidence for Mr. Wong’s close ties to the U.S. that the paper cited included what the report described as frequent meetings with U.S. consulate personnel in Hong Kong and covert donations from Americans to Mr. Wong. As evidence, the paper cited photographs leaked by “netizens.” The story also said Mr. Wong’s family visited Macau in 2011 at the invitation of the American Chamber of Commerce, where they stayed at the “U.S.-owned” Venetian Macao, which is owned by Las Vegas Sands Corp.Other "Occupy Central" leaders including Martin Lee and Anson Chan literally were in Washington D.C. earlier this year lobbying for US support in front of the very organizations funding the political activity of other co-leaders including Benny Tai and even Hong Kong University which was implicated in "dirty money" used to qualify an ad hoc referendum carried out by "Occupy Central" ahead of the recent protests.
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Unleash the Chinese, the Globe tells me!
Also see: China arrests US aid worker in N. Korean border town
It was a Slow Saturday Special, and have seen nothing since.
This next item didn't get as much attention from my agenda-pushing pre$$, and it was a Slow Saturday Special to boot:
"Former official, property tycoon convicted in Hong Kong graft trial
HONG KONG — The highest-level corruption trial in Hong Kong’s history ended Friday with the convictions of a man who was once the city’s second-highest official and a billionaire property tycoon charged with bribing him.
First I've seen of it.
A jury found the former official, Rafael Hui, 66, guilty of five charges, including misconduct in public office. One of two brothers accused of bribing him, Thomas Kwok, the co-chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties, was found guilty in a conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.
The months-long trial suggested in vivid detail the cozy relationship between the city’s business elite and career officials who rose through the ranks of the British colonial government.
It's the same everywhere, no matter what name they give government.
Hui said he longed to maintain a lavish lifestyle — complete with a luxury apartment, a mistress from Shanghai, and sumptuous French meals — while a public servant in what is one of the world’s most expensive cities.
Sun Hung Kai Properties, one of the world’s biggest companies of its kind, was said to be happy to oblige as it sought his favors, showering Hui with millions of dollars in payments, which prosecutors said was an effort to make him their “eyes and ears” in the government.
Kwok’s brother, Raymond Kwok, who is also a co-chairman of the company, was found not guilty on all counts, according to a summary of the verdict posted on the website of The South China Morning Post. The two brothers have a combined net worth of more than $20 billion, according to Bloomberg.
The trial took an unexpected turn in September when Hui said that in addition to his relationship with the property company, he also took a secret payment of $1.42 million from “someone from Beijing” in late 2007, The South China Morning Post reported.
Hui, besides holding his post in the government of Hong Kong, was at the time a member of the elite standing committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body to China’s legislature.
The revelation of payments from the mainland came at a delicate time, days before thousands of people took to the streets in Hong Kong protesting a move by Beijing, which resumed sovereignty over the city in 1997, to impose restrictive guidelines on how Hong Kong could conduct elections.
The corruption didn't bother them, huh?
Hui began his career in government in 1970. It included a stint on Hong Kong’s anticorruption commission before he enrolled at Harvard to earn a master’s degree in public administration. He then rose to become secretary for financial services in the last colonial administration and served as chief secretary, the city’s number two public official, from 2005 to 2007.
Prosecutors said his relationship with Sun Hung Kai Properties began in 2000, when he took a loan from one of its subsidiaries after leaving government. He received millions of dollars in consulting fees and lived in a luxury apartment in one of the company’s developments.
Dodd and others got $weetheart mortgage deals for being friends of Angelo, and the revolving door in Wa$hington is also pre$ent in China.
He was found guilty of taking $1.1 million in bribes from Thomas Kwok as he was preparing to take the chief secretary post in 2005, The South China Morning Post reported.
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Hey, at least the Chinese are trying to clean things up:
"China to investigate ex-President Hu’s top aide" by Didi Tang, Associated Press December 23, 2014
BEIJING — The top aide to former Chinese president Hu Jintao has been placed under investigation for unspecified disciplinary violations, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday, in a sign that President Xi Jinping is removing his predecessor’s influences while consolidating his power.
The evening announcement came two years after the former aide, Ling Jihua, fell out of political favor when a lurid scandal involving his alleged cover-up of his son’s death in a speeding Ferrari disrupted his political ascent.
See: Playboy death new wrinkle in China’s power shuffle
Playing sex games in a speeding car?
But Ling returned to the public eye this year when authorities put his two brothers — one a politician in the coal-rich northern province of Shanxi and the other a businessman — under investigation, triggering speculation that Ling, too, would be implicated under Xi’s widening anticorruption campaign.
The campaign is seen by many as a means to not only restore public confidence in the ruling Communist Party but also to root out threats to Xi’s political dominance.
Actually, I'm tired of pot-hollering-kettle media when it comes to China.
Already, Xi has removed Bo Xilai, a former Politburo member, after imprisoning him for life on corruption charges.
See: The Trial of Bo Xilai
Drink it down to the bottom and then get another glass.
In early December, authorities arrested Zhou Yongkang, a former member of the Politburo’s powerful Standing Committee, on charges ranging from adultery and bribery to leaking state secrets. Both Bo and Zhou were seen as challengers to Xi’s power.
Now, the latest to fall is Ling, Hu’s former right-hand man.
Although it is unclear whether Ling, 58, will be put on trial, the announcement of the investigation appears to end his political career, because the top leadership has likely already determined his fate....
That's where I ended reading this.
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Time to get out of China:
"Xi warns Macau of external forces
BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday urged the semiautonomous former Portuguese colony of Macau to guard against interference by what he called hostile external forces, after the prolonged prodemocracy protests in nearby Hong Kong. Xi was visiting Macau, a major gambling center, to mark the 15th anniversary of its return to Beijing and to host the swearing-in of Macau’s newest chief, Chui Sai On. Chui was the only nominee for the position and was elected by a 400-person panel believed to be pro-Beijing (AP)."
Also see: Gay man wins lawsuit against clinic in China
China’s ethnic region’s capital to ban veiled robes
That may get China's Muslims angry, but I guess it's okay in Europe.
China sentences 8 to death
Former key Chinese official gets life term for corruption
Maybe AmeriKa could learn $omething from the Chine$e.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Hong Kong sentences 22 in graft case" New York Times December 24, 2014
HONG KONG — The former second-highest ranking official in the Hong Kong government and a property tycoon were sentenced Tuesday to 7½ years and five years in prison after their convictions in a high-profile corruption case.
The former official, Rafael Hui, served as chief secretary, the city’s top civil service job, from 2005 to 2007. He became involved in illicit dealings that led to a jury finding him guilty Friday of five charges, including misconduct in public office. Thomas Kwok, one of two brothers who were cochairmen of Sun Hung Kai Properties, was also found guilty in a conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.
“You were highly regarded, articulate, diplomatic, and obviously able,” Andrew Macrae, the judge who announced the sentence, said of Hui. “You were blinded by the desire to sustain the high life to which you’ve become accustomed.”
Raymond Kwok, who is now the sole chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties, was found not guilty. Two additional defendants, found guilty of helping to pass on the illegal payments, were sentenced to five years and six years in prison.
Lawrence Lok, Thomas Kwok’s lawyer, said outside the court he would consider filing an appeal in the next few days, but he conceded that the sentence was proper and “quite lenient.”
Edwin Choy, Hui’s lawyer, said as he left the court that he did not yet know whether his client would file an appeal.
The trial and sentencing of Hui and Kwok came at a turbulent political time for Hong Kong. Beginning in late September, tens of thousands of demonstrators occupied the streets of the city to voice concern over a lack of accountability in the government and to demand democratic elections for the city’s leadership. The protesters said election rules proposed by the Chinese government would give voters only a cosmetic role in choosing their leader.
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