Beijing Dangles an Olive Branch

How did Robert Chow score meetings with officials like Wang Guangya?

It's all relative isn't it.

Now that the Hong Kong pan-democrats seem completely tame next to the localists, the Chinese government has decided to grant the pan-dems mainland travel documents from now on.

But the pan-democrats aren't buying it. Leung Yiu-chung of the Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre says it is a two-pronged strategy by Beijing to break the ice with opposition lawmakers, while cracking down hard on independence advocacy.

Leung Yiu-chung isn't convinced by Beijing's olive branch

"If officials would like to talk about relaunching the city's political reform process, I would go anytime, even this afternoon, but there is no need for another sightseeing trip," To said.

What was also bizarre about the announcement was that it came not from Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, but from the pan-democrats' fiercest critic, Robert Chow Yung, who runs the pro-establishment group Silent Majority for Hong Kong.

He has managed to score meetings with Wang Guangya, director of the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the National People's Congress, and Chen Zuoer, chairman of the semi-official Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies.

The fact that Chow got these meetings -- one purportedly lasting as long as two hours -- shows that even Leung Chun-ying doesn't quite have the guanxi touch anymore.

Nevertheless, at least three pan-democrats who have been unable to renew their mainland travel documents for more than a decade -- Democrat James To Kun-sun, "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung from the League of Social Democrats, and Leung Yiu-chung -- have said they will not apply for permits.

Leung Kwok-hung isn't applying for a permit anytime soon

"I also found it very strange that Chow was informed before the local government. It seems Beijing has downgraded the local government," Leung Yiu-chung said.

When asked if he knew about the announcement from Beijing, Leung Chun-ying declined to confirm, only saying he had been "working hard to advocate that the central government promptly allow our pan-democrat friends [to visit the mainland]".

Hmmm... since when were the pan-democrats his "friends"?

Even Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, Hong Kong's sole representative on the National People's Congress Standing Committee didn't know about the latest development. She saw it as a gesture to the pan-democrats that "if you are not [advocating independence] there is no reason why there should be no communication [between us]".

Very interesting development, but also good on the pan-democrats for sticking to their guns. Democracy is worth much more than a travel permit to the mainland...

(Muddled) Quote of the Day: Leung Chun-ying

CY Leung and Zhang Xiaoming two weeks ago at the start of this muddle

After the former deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office Chen Zuo'er spoke about how Hong Kong was not properly "de-colonized", and that it was still conducting "de-sinofication", Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying added his two cents' worth.

"Hong Kong, as a special administrative region, has a high degree of autonomy but, at the same time, it also has responsibilities to the country as a whole," he said.

"Similarly, Hong Kong people have basic rights and duties. So, it is a question of following the Basic Law and striking a balance between rights and duties, and also our high degree of autonomy and our responsibilities to the country."

What is Leung talking about?

Chen Zuo'er accuses Hong Kong people of "de-sinofication"

First of all what are our "duties"? We have to pay taxes, obey laws, be civilized human beings to each other, and so on. Why should we have to balance our rights and duties with our high degree of autonomy? We are given all these things in the Basic Law. There is no need to give and take.

When he says "our responsibilities to the country", what does that mean? Do we have to attend the flag raising ceremony every morning? Do we have to sign up for PLA duty? Do we have to know the Chinese anthem by heart? Adopt Chinese babies?

Leung is stepping up the rhetoric and yet he makes no sense at all!

Is Justice Secretary Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung going to speak out and interpret what Leung said, or is Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor going to do that? Speaking of which, we haven't heard from her in ages. Maybe she has demanded a sabbatical after the disastrous campaign to push for political reform fell on its face a few months ago.

In any event, can Leung please clarify what he means? We're all waiting with baited breath to know what our duties are to the country...

Beijing's Misunderstanding of Hong Kong

Chen Zuo'er claims Hong Kong wasn't "de-colonized" after the handover

Beijing still doesn't understand why Hong Kong isn't becoming "mainlandized" as fast and as well as it think it should be.

The latest to make this comment is Chen Zuo'er, former deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office.

He claimed that Hong Kong did not "implement de-colonization" after the 1997 handover.

Referring to activists who wave British colonial flags, Chen said: "Because de-colonization wasn't implemented in accordance with the law, things that should be put in the history museum ran into the streets... [At the same time], de-Sinofication, created by colonialists in the 1980s, has revived."

Uh what is de-colonization and what does that entail?

Hong Kong was handed over to the Chinese at midnight

I was here when Hong Kong was handed over to China at midnight on July 1, 1997. There was no program to "de-colonize" the city -- overnight the police changed the insignias on their police caps, mail boxes were painted green, and some royal post boxes were even removed ahead of time. The general sentiment was that many people were happy to be rid of the Brits with hopes things would be better under China.

So what is Chen talking about?

It is the central government that hasn't done a good job in presenting itself as a leadership with integrity, that listens to its people and follows the rule of law. It hasn't done a good public relations exercise nor proper accountability in proving that it is better than the Brits in administering Hong Kong.

In fact quite the opposite.

Hong Kong officials seem to have no idea how to govern the city, seemingly waiting for Beijing to tell them what to do. There is no interest in preserving Hong Kong's unique culture but more importantly there is no vision for the city's future.

Almost a year later what has changed for the better?

For example, the lead tainted water scandal has dragged on for so long and yet we don't even know where the source is. And I checked with the Consumer Council to see which water filters it recommended, only to find it has done no such research. It claims to be an independent body from the government, and yet such information would be useful at a time like now.

The government, both Beijing and Hong Kong, have done nothing to address social tensions between mainlanders and locals, nor critical issues like the wealth gap, poverty and housing.

Chen claimed that Hong Kong's economic development lagged behind Macau's -- though the former Portuguese colony is seeing a 180-degree turn on its fortunes as casino revenues plunge because the big gamblers have disappeared. What kind of comparison is that?

Hong Kong is far more developed than Macau already -- what more can Hong Kong do to bring in more revenue?

The former official is blowing a lot of hot air. These people waving colonial flags are literally a handful of people, and yet the sight of them freaks him out. Chen seems to have no idea what happened almost a year ago and why people occupied various parts of Hong Kong for 79 days.

Beijing doesn't really get it, does it?

Quote of the Day: So-called Colour Revolution

Beijing continues to brand the Umbrella Movement as a colour revolution

Even over two months after the protests ended, we are surprised to hear Beijing condemn the Umbrella Movement again, branding it as an attempt at a colour revolution.

General Sun Jianguo, a deputy chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army, made the comment in an interview with Oriental Outlook, a magazine affiliated with Xinhua.

It's not the first time a senior official has pronounced this, as former deputy director of Beijing's Hong Kong ad Macau Affairs Office Chen Zuoer also said something similar back in October, but Sun is the first from the military to say something disparaging about the protests.

When he was talking about subversion campaigns by foreign forces, Sun said:

Hostile forces have always attempted to make Hong Kong the bridgehead for subverting and infiltrating mainland China. The illegal Occupy Central activities in 2014 came as minority radical groups in Hong Kong, under the instigation and support of external forces... orchestrated a Hong Kong version of a colour revolution.

His words are so predictable that it's no wonder that Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying kept on his refrain about external forces interfering in the city. He obviously got those key words from someone in Beijing.

Except that "external forces" could not be farther from the truth.

The peaceful protests were about social problems in the city that the Hong Kong government (and Chinese government) have not resolved properly, especially since the handover. It's about skyrocketing housing prices, freedom of speech and press, about one person, one vote that was promised by China, and the ever-widening wealth gap.

Trying to deflect the root cause of the problems makes Beijing look even more cowardly and in denial of the real situation. However, for the most part that's what it's been doing for decades, and has gotten away with it for this long...

Blaming the Past

Chen Zuo'er blames a former Hong Kong Governor for the colony's fall

On Christmas Day, 1941, Hong Kong fell to the Japanese.

Technically the attack violated international law because the Japanese did not declare war on the British empire.

And then the Hong Kong garrison was made up of local troops, as well as those from Britain, Canada and India.

The Canadian soldiers were ill-equipped and unfamiliar with the lay of the land, but did the best they could in resisting the Japanese.

HK Governor Sir Mark Aitchison Young

In the end the allied forces were outnumbered (52,000 Japanese versus 14,000 allied) and then Hong Kong Governor Sir Mark Aitchison Young surrendered in person to the Japanese headquarters which was at the Peninsula Hotel at the time.

He was initially held in the hotel, and later became a prisoner of war in Stanley. He was subsequently transferred to POW camps in Shanghai, Taiwan, Japan and one near the Chinese-Mongolian border.

But now over 70 years later, Chen Zuo'er, a former deputy director of the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office says Aitchison was responsible for the fall of Hong Kong to the Japanese.

"The British army lost Kowloon and the New Territories in only 16 days. Governor Mark Aitchison Young hid on Hong Kong Island because he was afraid to die," Chen said.

How does Chen know what Aitchison Young was thinking at the time?

It's his petty way of getting back at the UK for trying to hold China accountable for its part of the bargain in the Sino-British Joint Declaration during the Umbrella Movement protests.

China says Britain has no rights over Hong Kong after 1997

Last month a group of British lawmakers were barred from entering Hong Kong on a fact-finding mission related to the joint declaration.

And so Chen twisted wartime history to hit back at the UK by saying, "How then could the British claim they have the right to monitor Hong Kong?"

He said that after Britain handed back Hong Kong to China, it has completed its historic mission, though the agreement retains its "important meaning and vitality".

However the allied forces were outnumbered four to one -- how could it even beat the Japanese? And in fact, the Japanese aggression enabled the Communists led by Mao Zedong to attack the Kuomintang.

So should Chen really be blaming Aitchison Young for this moment of history?

Perhaps he should read up on his history first before blaming others... Needlessly complaining about the past doesn't necessarily repair things in the future...