People's Daily Blasts Jimmy Lai's Bail

Lai (centre) was released late Wednesday night on bail

 

It took four days for Beijing to respond to Jimmy Lai Chee-ying's release on bail and as expected, it criticized the Hong Kong courts for allowing the "extremely dangerous" Apple Daily founder to go under house arrest.

An editorial in the People's Daily today with the headline: "Bail granted to Lai Chee-ying severely hurt Hong Kong's rule of law", warned the mainland had "sufficient legal grounds" to take over jurisdiction of the 73-year-old's national security law case.

Lai is the first person to be charged under the national security law for colluding with foreign forces, and the first to be granted bail.

People's Daily editorial today

On Wednesday, he was granted bail for HK$10 million in cash by a High Court judge, and is now under house arrested under strict restrictions, including not being allowed to be interviewed or interview others, publish articles, meet with foreign government representatives, or publish social media posts.

The strongly worded online commentary urged the judiciary to "make the right decisions", and punish "insurgents" like him.

"If the judiciary fails to handle the case impartially and in accordance with the law, it will have severely hurt Hong Kong's rule of law and placed the country's security in an extremely dangerous situation, in turn bringing incalculable negative effects," it said.

The unsigned editorial pointed out Article 55 of the security law allows the central government to assert jurisdiction over certain cases and move defendants to the mainland for trial, saying there were valid grounds for invoking this provision in Lai's case.

It went on to accuse Lai of continuing through "words and deeds", to call on foreign governments to sanction Hong Kong, despite the security law being enacted on June 30. It also maintained demands to release Lai made by foreign politicians, including US Vice-President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, had "confirmed" the allegations of collusion with foreign forces.

"Under these circumstances, many Hong Kong citizens have called on the Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong to intervene in this case decisively in accordance with the law," it added. "There is sufficient legal basis."

Tsang faces charges but has gone into exile

Who are these "citizens" the People's Daily is referring to? In Hong Kong there has been no media reports of residents, nor pro-Beijing politicians, clamoring for Lai to be extradited to the mainland to face trial. 

People in Hong Kong appreciate the city's rule of law and are patient enough to let the case wind through the courts.   

The People's Daily editorial described Lai as "notorious and extremely dangerous", and that the bail conditions set by the court were "unbelievable" and "completely out of proportion to the possible harm Lai might cause to national security".

It said cases like Lai's should not even entertain the prospect of bail, as it was necessary to prevent suspects from continuing to endanger national security. It also urged local courts to learn a "bitter lesson" from the case of Tsang Chi-kin, the 19-year-old student who was shot during last year's protests and was facing charges of rioting and assaulting police, and who has since reportedly fled into exile.

"Lai has been an important pawn of some external forces, and has great value on anti-China campaigns. External forces have the motive to facilitate his escape from Hong Kong," the commentary said. "Who would shoulder responsibility if Lai absconds or continues to wreck Hong Kong while on bail?"

Law (left) and Hui meet up in the UK

This shows just how much Lai means to Beijing -- it is desperate to put the man behind bars to use him as an example. So far Lai has done nothing to violate his agreed terms of house arrest. He has even deleted his Twitter account and has not spoken to any reporter since Wednesday. So how can he continue to "wreck Hong Kong" while on bail?

There is also a news report that Hong Kong police have a list of 30 people who are overseas on suspicion of having violated the national security law. They include: former lawmakers Ted Hui Chi-fung, and Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang, and Brian Leung Ka-ping, who is currently in the United States after he and other protesters stormed the Legislative Council on July 1 last year.

Others are Nathan Law Kwun-chung, former British consulate worker Simon Cheng Man-kit, and activist Ray Wong Toi-yeung.

The police insider said these people had fled overseas to Europe, the US and Taiwan, and added if they returned to Hong Kong they would be arrested upon arrival. 

The crackdown is relentless. Life in exile is already hard, but for the Chinese authorities that isn't enough; justice must be done.

Li Ka-shing's Cryptic Message

Li Ka-shing spent a lot of money on advertising in newspapers today

Everyday there are so many things happening it can be hard to keep track. Today was no exception.

First was seeing Li Ka-shing buy full-page ads in several newspapers -- but not Apple Daily -- and wrote a cryptic message that readers were keen to solve.

In each paper he bought two full page ads facing each other. On one side was the word "violence" with a red circle and line through it, and it was flanked with slogans about loving China and Hong Kong. At the bottom it reads: "stop anger and violence in the name of love".

The left one refers to melons, the right against violence

The other page was more curious. The header reads: "the best of intentions can lead to the worst outcome" but he did not clarify what he meant or who he was referring to.

Then below were eight characters that literally translate as: "The melon of Huangtai cannot bear the picking again", referring to a Tang dynasty poem. It basically means something that has suffered so much, that any further attack would ruin it.

The poem was written by Li Xian, the crown prince of the Tang dynasty who lived between 654AD to 684AD. The sixth son of emperor Gaozong and the second son of empress Wu Zetian, Li Xian was an intelligent and capable prince.

His brothers were killed one by one by his ambitious mother until Li Xian was installed as the crown prince and heir apparent. She became suspicious of him and put Li Xian under house arrest. In desperation he wrote the poem to his mother as a subtle protest.

It basically translates as:

Growing melons beneath Huangtai,

Hanging heavily, many grow ripe,

Pick one, the others will be fine,

Pick two, fewer are left on the vine,

If you want to get yet another one,

That’s where we must draw the line,

For if there is any more reaping,

You will end up with an empty vine.

However, the poem did not move his mother and she sent him to exile, and in 684, forced him to commit suicide.

Alain Robert with his strange banner on Cheung Kong

As a result, melons have become a metaphor for suffering in the face of persecution.

On Friday Li issued a statement through his spokesman, saying Hong Kong's prosperity hinges on "one country, two systems", and the most important priorities now were to stop the violence and maintain rule of law.

"We need to cherish ourselves, our identity as Chinese and a Hong Kong citizen, just as we treasure freedom, empathy and rule of law," the statement said.

And then we also got a visit from "French Spider Man" Alain Robert climbed up Cheung Kong building -- Li's office -- to unfurl a banner that had the Chinese and Hong Kong flags along with a handshake below and a smiling sun.

Robert said he hoped the protests could be resolved with peace.

He seems to have a simplistic understanding of what's going on... but we're glad he didn't fall or injure himself as he doesn't climb with a harness. Please just stick to climbing buildings....

Former Cathay CEO Rupert Hogg resigned today

Then finally in a shock announcement in the late afternoon, Rupert Hogg resigned as CEO of Cathay Pacific, along with Paul Loo, the chief customer and commercial officer. Even more surprising was that it was first reported by Chinese state media CCTV and the airline hadn't yet issued a formal statement.

It appears they were taking the responsibility for the pressures China has imposed on the airline in the last week or so, from supplying lists of the crew flying over Chinese airspace, to state-owned companies ordered not to fly on Cathay, and the shut down of the airport on Monday and Tuesday that caused the cancellations of hundreds of flights on each day.

But it also seems they were forced to resign by Beijing, as Cathay chairman John Slosar said in a statement: "This is regrettable as we have always made safety and security our highest priority... We therefore think it is time to put a new management team in place who can reset confidence and lead the airline to new heights."

Did Cathay compromise its safety and security? Seems like that was a self-criticism there meant to appease the powers that be. At first the airline flip-flopped on its employees supporting the protests and now is "harmonized" to say they can't do any of that without the risk of being fired...

Hope that's enough to keep Beijing happy for now.

Thousands gathered at Chater Garden to Stand with HK

Tonight there was a rally at Chater Garden organized by the Hong Kong Higher Institutions International Affairs Delegation, made up of students from 12 local universities and colleges. Some of the speakers via video message included democracy academic Larry Diamond and Brian Leung Kai-ping, the only protester on July 1 who removed his mask in the Legislative Council after the protesters stormed the building.

Several thousand people attended the event that spilled out onto Chater Road and the cenotaph a few blocks away.

This weekend brings another round of protest marches and rallies. So much going on...