China = CCP?

Wang Zhenmin gives his best legal reasons why China and the CCP are one

China continues to drag Hong Kong kicking and screaming closer to the motherland.

This time it's Wang Zhenmin, the legal head of Beijing's liaison office in Hong Kong. He said yesterday that Hongkongers cannot say the city is a part of China and yet reject the Chinese Communist Party.

"From the angle of the world's political map, Hong Kong's political colour had been undoubtedly changed to red since its return to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997. That meant it had become part of red China."

He says since '97 Hong Kong must accept the CCP and China

He said some Hongkongers had asked if they could accept the city was part of the country, but reject the leadership of the CCP.

"I think there is no way to separate China from the Chinese Communist Party, as the nation was led and established by the Chinese Communist Party," he said.

Therefore, the fate of Hong Kong is closely linked with that of the CCP, just as relations between Hong Kong and China are inextricably linked.

Is he insinuating that China was only established since 1949? What happened to the country's purported 5,000 years of history? Where did they go?

Sounds like US President Donald Trump isn't the only one engaged in revisionist history.

Chinese refugees settling into Tiu King Leng in the 1940s

Wang seems to be completely tone deaf to Hongkongers' opinions about China -- and he doesn't seem to understand that a good chunk of the population escaped the mainland to get away from the communists.

He also seems to think (or wants us to think) China and the CCP are one. The leadership believes the more they say it the more we'll believe it.

Sorry to say we're a cynical bunch, Mr Wang. China and the CCP are two different things to Hongkongers. Taiwan would also agree...

Black Protest of 1997

Bright and early local activists drape the Golden Bauhinia sculpture in black

Yesterday just days ahead of the 20th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong back to China, three local activist groups covered the Golden Bauhinia sculpture next to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre where celebrations will be held with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Protesters included Demosisto secretary-general Joshua Wong Chi-fung, People Power's Tam Tak-chi and representatives from the League of Social Democrats.

The black cloth represents the authoritarianism of China

At around 6am, the activists, dressed in black, covered the golden statue -- a gift from the central government to mark the 1997 handover -- in black fabric.

Security guards tried to stop them but failed.

"The black-cloaked statue symbolizes the hard-line rule of the authoritarian regime over the past 20 years, meaning that the Chinese government failed to honour the promises made in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, depriving Hong Kong people of civil and political rights to free elections and democracy," the groups said in a statement.

They said their move was meant to express anger and disappointment at the administration for political blunders since 1997.

"The grip on civil society has been tightened since the 'umbrella movement'. China also interferes with the internal affairs of Hong Kong through various means. Our confidence in 'one country, two systems' has waned and has been replaced by the fear of it becoming 'one country, one system'." the statement said.

Police were called in to remove the black cloth afterwards

Police were called after 6pm and they removed the cloth from the sculpture. The authorities classified the incident as a "nuisance complaint".

Pro-establishment lawmakers condemned the protest. Luk Chung-hung of the Federation of Trade Unions said it was not an appropriate way to express discontent.

"It did not respect 'one country, two systems' and national sovereignty," Luk said.

The activist groups probably did the stunt now fearing their chances of trying to get anywhere near the venue on July 1 would be impossible.

They really know how to rile up pro-Beijing groups!

Spare Change could Make you Rich

Check your spare change to see if you have any old coins of value

Do you still have Hong Kong coins that bear Queen Elizabeth II's head on them? If you do, they could be worth more than face value.

Coins with the queen's head were phased out in 1993

An interesting fact to know is that coins with the queen's head were phased out before 1997 -- four years earlier to be exact.

Another intriguing piece of trivia is that by 2015, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority had collected 880 million pieces of queen's head coins worth HK$1 billion.

But there are still some in circulation, which the HKMA estimates is about 10 percent.

Coins with Queen Victoria could be worth a lot at auction

If you do have some old coins, pay attention!

A 5-cent coin bearing the queen's head recently sold at auction for HK$5,000 -- about 100,000 times its value.

Cheng Po-hung, a coin and stamp collector with his own shop, says some coins bearing the queen's head could be worth five to 10 times their face value, depending on how rare they are.

Those bearing the head of the Queen's father, King George VI, or earlier ones including that of King George V, Edward VII or Queen Victoria could also crop up and could fetch some handsome prices, he says.

Same also goes for coins with King George V and VI

I definitely don't have those much older coins from over a century ago, but maybe I'll have to wait a few more decades before selling my stash of queen's head coins... nevertheless it would be fun to look out for the older ones!

June 4 Time to Reflect on Us

A public service announcement to remember June 4 at Victoria Park

We're pleased there was a reminder this morning for people to remember what happened 27 years ago in Tiananmen Square.

On a giant long white banner, appropriately hung on Lion Rock had the Chinese characters: "Never Forget June 4. See you at Victoria Park". It was apparently unfurled there at 9.10am and promptly removed by firefighters by 10am.

What's wrong with leaving a banner like that there? Seems like a good old school public service announcement for everyone to see.

Beijing's White Paper was issued in June 2014

People who remember watching the events unfold on CNN are pretty adamant about commemorating the victims every year in Victoria Park with a candlelight vigil.

But those born in Hong Kong who were too young or not even born yet have no connection to this horrific incident and feel it's time to focus on democracy in Hong Kong and not in China, as they feel that's a lost cause, and also don't have a connection the with the mainland.

They are tired of kowtowing to Beijing and feel fighting for independence is the solution.

But they are not thinking rationally. Whether they like it or not, Hong Kong is legally a part of China as of 1997, and it's quite obvious Beijing is trying to drag the city (which is kicking and screaming) to be integrated into the mainland as quickly as possible.

However independence and remembering the victims of 1989 are two different things. Twenty-seven years ago the students were protesting government corruption and called for freedom of speech, freedom of the press and restoring workers' rights.

While they may have demanded democracy, they didn't know what it was at the time, an idealistic concept they saw in the West.

Protesters took over Admiralty on September 28, 2014

In Hong Kong, our bid for democracy ended in June 2014 when Beijing issued a  white paper reiterating it had full control over the city, and said we could vote for the chief executive, but only from the two or three candidates pre-approved by Beijing.

The anger that erupted in Hong Kong resulted in the 79-day Occupy protests, which many still look back on it wistfully, when thousands of people were united for the most part peacefully for a cause.

But many think Occupy was a failure, and hence the emergence of localist groups and their more radical and violent actions, thinking provocative acts and statements will get China's attention.

And now here we are at the 27th anniversary, more fractured than ever, with the Federation of Students withdrawing participation from the annual candlelight vigil.

Division in Hong Kong is exactly what Beijing wants, bickering among ourselves so that we are too distracted to see what's really going on.

We need to be united in our cause because Occupy really freaked Beijing out. To them it was mayhem; to us it was utopia.

Radicalism only gives Beijing reasons to further clamp down on us and is that what we really want?

Patten's Foe Passes Away

Those were the days: Chris Patten and Lu Ping, verbal sparring partners

Lu Ping, Beijing's top official who oversaw the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, died on Sunday night of cancer. He was 87 years old.

He jointed the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in the late 1970s and became director of the office in 1990. Lu also served as deputy secretary general of the Basic Law Drafting Committee from 1985 to 1990, which is now Hong Kong's mini constitution.

Lu was best known for calling former governor Chris Patten in 1993 a "sinner for 1,000 years" for tweaking the electoral system to allow more Hong Kong people to elect lawmakers.

However, 15 years later, he reversed his judgment on Patten, by praising him on Phoenix TV, calling the former governor a brilliant and resolute politician.

He retired as HKMAO director days after July 1, 1997, but still closely watched what was happening in Hong Kong.

Many locals were annoyed with his pro-China comments, saying things like, "Those who do not recognize they are Chinese should look at what is written on their passports, or they should renounce their Chinese nationality", criticizing those fighting for Hong Kong independence.

Nevertheless in a 2009 interview, he said Hong Kong should stop relying on Beijing and improve its competitiveness.

Six years later he is still correct.

Did no one in the Hong Kong government heed his advice?