24 Years Later, Found at Last

Guo was reunited with his son 24 years after searching for him

Guo Gangtang finally found his son after searching for him for 24 years. They along with Guo's wife had a tearful reunion in Liaocheng, Shandong province on Sunday after DNA samples confirmed the 26-year-old man was Guo Xinzhen. 

The child was only two years and five months old when he was abducted outside his home in a village in Liaocheng on September 21, 1997.

Guo distributed flyers with photos of his son

The shock of losing the boy resulted in Guo Gangtang losing weight from 80kg to 60kg and his hair turned white in the first month of the abduction.

He then went on a mission to find his son, printing pictures of him and basic information about the boy on leaflets he distributed, hoping to find clues of his whereabouts.

Guo also made banners of the boy's photo and information and put them on his motorcycle that he rode all over the mainland -- some 500,000km -- and wearing out 10 motorcycles -- in the hopes of finding his son.

"Only on the road, I felt I am a father," he told a Shandong-based newspaper in 2015. "I have no reason to stop [searching]. And it's impossible for me to stop."

Andy Lau played Guo in Lost and Love

His plight inspired the movie Lost and Love starring Andy Lau Tak-wah that year, and Lau waived his fees to play the part of Guo.

The film featured many incidents he faced, from road accidents, battling highway robbers, and sleeping near bridge pillars when he ran out of money for accommodation.

"Many people say I am a great father. But I am not great at all," said Guo. "I am helpless. I just lack the courage to restart life after experiencing tremendous hardship. Therefore I kept on searching."

A few years ago he set up a website to help other parents find their missing children. This led to the police finding over 100 abducted children. 

Apparently the couple that abducted Guo Xinzhen have been arrested.

The family is reunited but what are the next steps?

While this story is heartwarming, it is interesting to note this story came out today -- the fourth anniversary of Nobel Peace Laureate Liu Xiaobo's death. 

He died in 2017 of complications from liver cancer in a Shenyang hospital in Liaoning province and was carefully by state security.

The last time a Nobel Peace laureate died in state custody was in 1938, when pacifist Carl von Ossietzky died of tuberculosis under guard in a hospital in Nazi Germany.

Government's Mixed Messages on Coronavirus Battle

Lam clarifies 290,000 are trips into Hong Kong, not people

In a rare admission, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor actually apologized about the trouble caused to those who were forced to eat outside due to the dining-in ban that was implemented on July 29 and then abruptly U-turned two days later.

"I admit we haven't balanced well in considering public health tolerance of the business sectors and pubic needs," Lam said in a radio program this morning. "That led to the scenes that happened on July 29, the first day [the ban] came into effect. We are very sorry about that."

She said the government decided to change the restriction the day after after realizing the problem and how it affected the grass roots community, such as construction workers.

But how will the reversal in the decision help keep the virus numbers down?

Many were forced to eat meals outside for 2 days

Also interesting to note how defensive she was on Friday evening about the number of 290,000 that we all had assumed to the point to be the number of people who were exempted from quarantine.

Lam explained that actually it was 290,000 trips into Hong Kong. She claimed for example a truck driver would come in and out of Hong Kong several times a day, which would contribute to the 290,000 number.

Is this true? Someone needs to fact check this.

Nevertheless, Lam's apology to the grass roots wasn't enough to keep the number of new coronavirus cases down, with 125 reported today for a total of 3,396, and four deaths to a total of 31.

Today Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection's communicable disease branch advised people not to gather with loved ones for the time being.

"We also observed some extended family clusters, for example, the grandparents, children or the aunties, because they have had some family gatherings during weekends as usual," she said.

"So we think we may have to stop this practice for one or two weeks, to maintain the social distancing... especially if we want to protect the elderly."

Dr Chuang says family gatherings need to stop

How about telling that to others having house parties, birthday parties and the like? Many think these restrictions don't pertain to them, but fighting the virus is a city-wide effort. We can't let our guard down now especially during this third wave.

Apparently Lam has asked Beijing for help in conducting mass coronavirus testing, and 60 clinical technicians will come here, with seven arriving tomorrow.

When she was asked for more details, CHP's Chuang had no more information, as she herself had read it in the media! A reporter asked if these technicians would be quarantined for two weeks before beginning their work, and again Chuang could not answer.

Some people are concerned these technicians here are actually going to collect people's DNA, much like what is being done on Uighurs in Xinjiang.

Lam leaves a radio station after her interview

It's a terrifying thought and the media will be watching this closely.

Meanwhile, Lam continues her repression of Hong Kong's next generation. In a radio interview, she said many young people have got it wrong when they think being anti-government or anti-Beijing is a way out. She warned if they step across the bottom line of "One Country, Two Systems", their future will be doomed.

How encouraging.

As for the six activists who fled Hong Kong and are now on the Hong Kong Police's wanted list, their threats might be empty ones -- for now.

Lawyer Michael Vidler, who specializes in criminal and human rights cases said that just being on a wanted list in Hong Kong doesn't mean much unless that person in question is in the city, but if they've been put on an Interpol wanted list, then "that is a different matter", because that will affect their possibility of traveling elsewhere.

Vidler says wanted list on Interpol more serious

"Firstly, if they've already been granted asylum, and they've got refugee status in wherever they are, then they won't be returned to Hong Kong," said Vidler.

"If they're in a location where there is an existing extradition treaty, then the local courts will have to determine whether it is appropriate under the existing terms of the extradition treaty for those individuals to be returned."

And since some countries like the UK, Australia and Canada have suspended extradition treaties with Hong Kong, then these individuals would not be returned to Hong Kong anytime soon.

Government Bureaucracy that Helps No One

Waiting 30 years for government housing! Most people will be retired by then

My hairdresser is a no-nonsense woman in her mid thirties, lives in Yuen Long with her parents, works in a small hair salon in Central, but obviously would prefer to live on her own.

She can't begin to afford buying her own flat, so she applied for government housing. At first she and her older sister were going to apply together, but her older sister was born across the border and in a small village, where no birth certificate was issued and so they couldn't prove they were sisters.

A typical government-housing flat... quite cosy, no?

They asked the housing office if they could do a DNA test and the Housing Department said no. The government won't even let them prove through DNA that they are sisters. Strange bureaucratic reply. No birth certificate, no talk.

As a result they have had to apply separately and I asked my hairdresser how long she would have to wait. "Probably 30 years," she said, not really joking.

Thirty years? She'll be retired by the time she gets government housing!

It's extraordinary how the Hong Kong government doesn't make housing a much bigger priority. Which also explains why young people feel they have no hope in this city when the government doesn't care to help them when housing costs are one of the most expensive in the world.

Meanwhile earlier today the government is bemoaning the fact that income tax paid by 1.9 million residents will be paid late because of the protests. Doesn't the government have a trillion dollars in reserves?

It's not like the government will cease to function without that tax income coming in.

Paul Chan wondering how he can get tax income faster...

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po also bemoaned the fact that the government has made many concessions which will mean a few billion dollars less in the public coffers. 

We should have received our tax bill in September or October, but now it won't be until January or even April till we get those dreaded green envelopes.

But also the government is giving people more time to settle their tax bills too -- up to a year.

Once again may we remind the government why this crisis -- which is far from over by the way -- was started by its leader? If Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor hadn't proposed the extradition bill in the first place, the government would right now be busy counting its tax income and gleefully wondering what to do with it all...

China's Evolving Definition of Human Rights

Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia suffered human rights violations

With the year ending in just over two weeks, China has already hailed 2017 as one of "remarkable" progress in human rights, including its achievements in anti-corruption and legal reform, which don't have much, if anything to do with human rights.

The latest State Council white paper listed international cooperation on counterterrorism and climate change, as well as the "Sky Net" program to hunt down and repatriate fugitives accused of corruption as human rights achievements.

So forcibly bringing back people to stand for corruption charges is a good thing for human rights?

In the past China has included the right to peace, and the right to economic development.

Migrant workers are being forced out of Beijing

How random and irrelevant to consider these under the meaning of human rights (everywhere else).

Many international critics focused on the detention and death in custody of Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Liu Xiaobo and how he was only briefly reunited with his wife Liu Xia before he died of cancer in July. Afterwards his body was hastily cremated and the ashes dumped at sea to avoid some kind of memorial for democracy activists.

His widow is still closely watched by the authorities and her whereabouts are still unknown. Doesn't she have human rights?

There are also human rights violations in pushing migrant workers out of Beijing on the pretense of a fire in Daxing District on November 18 that killed 19 people. Following the fire, the authorities immediately launched a 40-day campaign to get rid of the "low-end population", a word that has since been banned from China's cyberspace.

Migrant workers who provide essential services or do jobs that no one else wants to do are being pushed out of the Chinese capital with very little notice and the experience has been so harsh and violent that they don't feel welcome anymore and have no choice but to go back to their hometowns.

Uyghurs' DNA are now being collected by the police

Did the authorities realize what effect this vicious campaign will have on how the city will function from now on?

But another shocking human rights violation is a recent report from The Guardian that says DNA, fingerprints and other biometric data are being collected from Uyghurs in a "health check", called "Physicals for All". It is unclear if patients are aware this data is being collected and shared with the police.

"The mandatory databanking of a whole population's biodata, including DNA, is a gross violation of international human rights norms," said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. It is even more disturbing if it is done surreptitiously, under the guise of a free healthcare program.

"Xinjiang authorities should rename their physical exams project 'Privacy Violations for All', as informed consent and real choice does not seem to be part of these programs," she added.

However, China is ignoring its critics and continuing this terrifying project -- even if someone hasn't committed a crime.

So when China says it's had a "remarkable" year in human rights, it really is living in a parallel universe where its definition is so far removed from everyone else's.