Birthday Party Political Fallout

170 people from the party now have to undergo quarantine

The 170 guests who attended Witman Hung Wai-man' s 53rd birthday party in a Spanish restaurant in Wan Chai are all considered close contacts and must undergo up to 21 days in quarantine at Penny's Bay after a second preliminary positive case was identified.

This celebration has now evolved into a public health scandal with political fallout too.

Immigration chief Au must go to Penny's Bay

Not only was Secretary for Home Affairs Caspar Tsui Ying-wai there, but also Director of Immigration Au Ka-wang, police chief Raymond Siu Chak-yee, ICAC commissioner Simon Peh Yun-lu, and lawmaker Junius Ho Kwan-yiu -- known for his combative and at times misogynist comments.

Needless to say many Hongkongers were giddy with glee to see these top officials sent to Penny's Bay, a bare bones quarantine centre on Lantau that has barely any wifi, lukewarm food and no air conditioning or heating.

One person on Twitter sarcastically remarked that the after party was now at Penny's Bay.

On Friday, immigration chief Au issued an apology over his conduct.

"Regarding the additional burden to the epidemic prevention work and the disturbance to the public as a result of my personal behaviour, I offer my sincere apology to all people of Hong Kong. I have reflected on this incident and shall be more vigilant in the future," he said.

But the fallout is not over.

The 13 officials who will be sent to quarantine have been temporarily relieved of their duties because they will be investigated, and that their subordinates will take over. 

Police chief Siu also attended Hung's party

This means the deputies from police, the ICAC, and Immigration departments will be acting chiefs, while Secretary of the Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-kuen will take on the additional role of Home Affairs, and Secretary for Commerce Edward Yau Tang-wah will also head the finance and treasury department.

It seems Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor is using this opportunity to assert her power and possibly kick out the incumbent ministers, even though they were handpicked by Beijing. One wonders if this is another sign of Lam gunning for a second term...

Previous Films Could Breach National Security Law

Hong Kong's struggling film industry will be at even more risk

When the national security law was going to be implemented, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said the law would not be retroactive.

But now we are seeing the opposite, looking back past June 30, 2020 to prove a person was actively planning to something that would breach the national security law.

And this now applies to films as well.

Yau says new measures to close up loopholes

Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah made the announcement today, saying the Chief Secretary will have the authority to ban previously approved productions if they are deemed to be threats to national security.

If someone holds an unauthorized screening, the proposed maximum penalty will be three years in jail and a HK$1 million fine. Currently it is one year in jail and a HK$200,000 fine.

The amendment follows up on guidelines for censors in the film industry that was issued in June. At the time censors were to ban movies that were deemed to be supporting or glorifying acts that could endanger national security.

"The amendments this time are simple and straightforward. The aim is to consolidate our legal foundation regarding film censorship to prevent acts against national security," Yau said.

Will Ten Years be banned? Govt says no list yet

When asked by the media if this meant films like the dystopian series of shorts in Ten Years, or Stephen Chow's From Beijing with Love would be banned, Yau replied the government did not have a list of banned films yet. 

"We needed this provision to cater for circumstances where there might be chances that a film, which was graded or approved before, but given the new law enacted and the new guidelines issued, needs to be reconsidered," he said. "We need such legal power to cater for such circumstances."

Having a list or not is not the point -- it creates a chilling effect on the film industry which is already struggling to forge its identity in the shadow of China's colossal movie market.

And yet Yau said there's still room for filmmakers to make good movies as the government continues to communicate with the sector.

Productions need to be pre-approved before shoot

But who will want to make a film in Hong Kong now? Even if the story line may not seem political, a pro-Beijing loyalist may claim it to be otherwise. The risk is not worth it anymore. 

Books have already been banned and now films will be. Art is already on shaky ground, and will music be next?

Hong Kong was once derided as a cultural desert, then flowers managed to bloom fueled by a hot art market, but now it will wither away again, the desert sand too hot to the touch...

 

HongKongers Sign up for Vaccine Jabs

Lam got the Sinovac jab yesterday in front of the media

With a slew of cameras watching, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was among the first to get the Sinovac vaccine yesterday.

Her other senior ministers also got the jab, but interestingly Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, commerce chief Edward Yau Tang-wah, and environment minister Wong Kam-sing were conspicuously absent. Chan's office said he was too busy working on the budget...

Over 60,000 have signed up for the vaccine

Today it was reported over 60,000 people have made appointments online to get the same jab. 

Secretary for Innovation and Technology Alfred Sit Wing-hang said the enthusiastic response overloaded the system for a short period after the bookings opened at midnight, but is now running smoothly.

Some 2.4 million people are deemed to have priority to get the vaccine first, including those over 60 years of age, residents in care homes, healthcare workers, essential staff, pilots, flight attendants and cross-border workers.

There are skeptics who wonder if the government will be able to vaccinate at least 6 million Hongkongers within six months.

For those doing the math, if every one of the 6 million people gets two shots each, then that means 67,000 jabs will have to be administered daily. How will that be achieved? There are 29 Community Vaccination Centres across the city, and then 18 general out patient clinics of the Hospital Authority, as well as 1,200 private doctors and 1,500 medical clinics that will offer the vaccines.

Pilots are among those to have priority to get jab

Looks like administering the jab will be like a factory, where perhaps people walk in with their arms exposed ready to be jabbed and come out with a band-aid one minute later.

Meanwhile the BioNTech vaccine arrives at the end of this week, and then AstraZeneca later.

At least it's finally happening. Hong Kong is playing catch up to places like the UK and the United States where they are vaccinating tens of thousands of people everyday.

And by the way the LeaveHomeSafe app? While 97 percent of the 2.8 million downloads are local, apparently people in Fiji and Niger are even downloading the app! Technology chief Sit says perhaps there are people working or studying overseas there who may need to use the app later. 

Right...

 

 

 

 

RTHK's New Head Signals New Direction

RTHK's incoming chief has no editorial experience

 

Radio Television Hong Kong is entering a new era, led by a career bureaucrat who has no journalism experience.

Veteran journalist Leung Ka-wing who has been at the helm of RTHK for over five years abruptly stepped down today, months before his contract was to expire in August.

He will be replaced by Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Li Pak-chuen on March 1. The government claimed after a long search it could not find a suitable successor.

This is not the first time the broadcaster has been led by a bureaucrat -- back in 2015, RTHK was led by Roy Tang Yun-kwong.

Patrick Li is at the Home Affairs dept

After the announcement of the change of leadership, the government released a 157-page report, accusing RTHK, an outlet that has often been critical of officials, of lacking transparency and objectivity.

RTHK is considered similar to the BBC in that it is funded by taxpayer dollars, and its charter states it should have editorial independence.

However the six-month investigation found "serious inadequacies", including poor management and lack of editorial accountability at RTHK.

During and after the anti-government protests in 2019, the broadcaster bore the brunt of a lot of criticism, including that it was biased towards the protesters.

Earlier this month, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor slammed RTHK's performance as "unacceptable" and demanded reform to "set things right".

The report was most critical of the editorial operations, saying it lacked well-defined and properly documented process or any clear allocation of roles and responsibilities among staff.

It said that editorial accountability was weak, decisions rested on the judgment of individual production units or officers working in silos, and the editor-in-chief and other senior management took a passive role in program production.

Leung Ka-wing waves goodbye to well wishers

"There are some issues with the governance and management of RTHK, and improvement is needed in the system, execution and monitoring," said Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah in a press conference today.

"While the [RTHK governing] charter, producers' guidelines and Communications Authority codes of practice have been put in place, the management failed to explain them to staff and ensure they were applied on all programs."

It sounds like there will be much more oversight in how RTHK operates, particularly in editorial decisions. This will definitely slow down how things are done at the public broadcaster, where speed is of the essence.

There seems to be also a lack of trust in how the news is gathered and disseminated.

The report came after several complaints about RTHK's satirical show Headliner for making fun of the police force, and a hard-hitting investigation into the July 21, 2019 mob attack on people in the Yuen Long MTR station that led to the arrest of one of its producers for misrepresenting herself when she requested information about some vehicles related to the attack.

Meanwhile RTHK Programme Staff Union chairwoman Gladys Chiu Sin-yan criticized the report's findings as "contradictory" and "poorly justified", saying the government had failed to grasp how the editorial department operated.

Gladys Chiu worries about editorial independence

"Since 2000s, manpower has been tight following a hiring freeze, but there are still new television services coming into the steam," she said, quoting the traditional Chinese saying, "You can't expect the horse to run fast when you don't let it graze."

She added RTHK had produced many award-winning programs and its credibility was widely recognized, none of which was mentioned in the report.

"It's an affront to our dignity," she said.

People who work at RTHK will probably soldier on the best they can -- they feel a duty to their audience to give them the latest news without bias. 

But when a bureaucrat comes in whose portfolio included overseeing such areas as national education, gambling policy, entertainment licensing, religious matters, and legislation on divorce, maintenance and wills, one has to wonder if he really is the best person for the job...

Govt Wants Real Name Registration for SIM Cards

The government wants to know who is using SIM cards

In a bid to supposedly cut down on crime in the city, the government is proposing every SIM card is registered under a real name along with other personal details.

The proposal was made yesterday to kick off a one-month public consultation, where users of prepaid SIM cards need to provide their full name, a copy of their ID and date of birth.

Many people buy prepaid SIM cards when visiting Hong Kong for a few days, or people with no fixed address prefer to use them, or even those who would rather pay as they use the phone than be obligated to sign a contract for a package with a telecom company.

Pre-paid SIM cards are cheaper than contracts

However, the government seems to think the anonymous pay-as-you-go SIM cards allow criminals to evade detection when committing offenses such as phone scams. The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau added the cards were used in serious and violent crimes that affected public security.

Sounds very dramatic.

Nevertheless this proposal is yet another step in mainlandizing Hong Kong. Back in 2017 when my parents and I traveled the Silk Road tour, our fellow travelers and I tried to buy SIM cards in Lanzhou and were immediately denied because we did not have Chinese ID cards. It was virtually impossible for us to get them so we had to rely on wifi in our hotels.

Maybe the government is uneasy about the numbers, as there are currently 11.7 million prepaid SIM cards being used in Hong Kong, though 9.2 million are connected to service plans. That means the total number of mobile subscriptions is 20.9 million, or almost three SIM cards per person.

Apparently many domestic helpers buy stacks of these pre-paid cards as they are on a budget, while travelers (when we had them) would buy them to use in Hong Kong.

Yau says phone scams use prepaid SIM cards

To add ammunition to getting all SIM card users registered, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah said 90 percent of con artists used prepaid cards for deceptions, while 70 percent of offenders involved in serious crimes such as murder, robbery, burglary and drugs also relied on the cards.

"If we can eliminate these difficulties in detecting crime, actually the new measures do not affect law-abiding citizens but better protect their safety," he said, adding 155 countries had adopted similar regulations.

Does what he said sound familiar when the national security law came out, that it would only affect a small number of people?

However, what is amusing is that the consultation paper suggests each person can have a maximum of three SIM cards per telecom company, and with about 30 in the city, that means someone could have up to 90 SIM cards registered under their name...

Domestic helpers buy stacks of pre-paid cards

While it is understandable the authorities want to crack down on phone scams, with 615 reported in 2018 to 1,108 from January to November in 2020, victims have lost more than HK$563 million.

"The card has become a tool of the criminal," said security undersecretary Sonny Au Chi-kwong. "After committing crimes, they can keep getting a new one to avoid our detection. Without the culprits' identity, investigations became more difficult."

Will find out what happens after the one-month consultation is over, but it's pretty much expected this new regulation will be implemented...

RTHK Reprimanded for WHO Interview

Dr Bruce Alyward during his interview with RTHK on The Pulse

If anyone cares about the fast eroding rights and freedoms of Hong Kong, they deteriorated further today when the government criticized public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong for asking a question about Taiwan to a World Health Organization official.

On March 28, RTHK reporter Yvonne Tong asked Dr Bruce Alyward if the WHO would consider including Taiwan into the organization, as the island had critical information that would have saved more lives in the coronavirus pandemic.

The reporter asks about including Taiwan in the WHO

At first Alyward claimed he could not hear Tong's question and when she repeated it, he immediately shut down the interview.

By the way the Canadian epidemiologist is no longer listed in the WHO website.

For many this exchange proved the cozy relationship between China and the WHO.

When asked to comment on the interview, the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, which oversees RTHK, issued a statement this afternoon.

It started off by saying Commerce and Economic Development Secretary Edward Yau Tang-wah had told RTHK it must uphold and abide by its charter, including its mission to foster a sense of citizenship and national identity.

 Yau says RTHK breached "One Country, Two Systems"

"The secretary holds the view that the presentation in that episode of aforesaid programme has breached the One-China Principle and the purposes and mission of RTHK as a public service broadcaster as specified in the charter," the statement goes on to say.

"It is common knowledge that the WHO membership is based on sovereign states. RTHK, as a public government department and a public service broadcaster, should have proper understanding of the above without any deviation. As the Editor-in-Chief of RTHK, the Director of Broadcasting should be responsible for this."

The statement said Yau had once again urged Director of Broadcasting Leung Ka-wing and RTHK to fully abide by the charter and that "they must handle all programmes in a professional and vigilant manner as required of them."

However RTHK rejected the government's allegations, and defended the show called "The Pulse", saying the episode looked at various responses across the world on the coronavirus pandemic, with Taiwan being just part of the program. Also, the island was not described as a "country", but a "place".

RTHK stands by the interview that was aired March 28

"RTHK reviewed the content of the episode and found that it did not violate the "One Country, Two Systems principle, nor did it violate the Radio Television Hong Kong Charter," a spokeswoman said.

Meanwhile, a member of RTHK's program advisory panel, Fermi Wong, said she was furious about the government's statement, which she suspected had been issued following pressure from Beijing.

She said the warning had damaged the public broadcaster's editorial autonomy.

"When you look at the interview done by the Pulse reporter, it is about the coronavirus issue, it is about health. I don't really understand why when a reporter is asking something relating to health, she or he has to remember there is 'One Country, Two Systems'... in line with the government or China," she said.

"I believe the government statement may come after some kind of pressure from the Foreign Ministry or the Chinese Communist Party, I don't know why. But I think the statement is the biggest nonsense."

Indeed. Why after five days a statement like this comes out? Someone behind the scenes was furious about the interview and wanted to punish someone for it.

But this warning will only make RTHK journalists and the rest of the media in Hong Kong more determined to defend press freedom in "One Country, Two Systems"...

 

Hong Kong Government Further Infuriates Citizens

Carrie Lam and her administration file in for this afternoon's press conference

Hongkongers are fed up with their government. Today's press conference infuriated the people even more.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor had a late afternoon press conference flanked by several ministers, including Secretary for Security John Lee Ka-chiu, Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah.

WHO chief declares coronavirus a global health emergency

But Lam had nothing to say about closing all border points between Hong Kong and the mainland, and instead replied the government was following World Health Organization recommendations. Meanwhile we all know the WHO was under a lot of pressure from China not to declare the Wuhan coronavirus a global health emergency, but since the mystery virus has spread to 18 countries, it technically fits the bill.

However what was even more infuriating was the government's lack of compassion for Hongkongers desperately trying to buy masks, and the Lam administration had absolutely no plans in place to resolve the situation quickly and in an orderly manner.

Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Yau just replied that the government was talking to various stakeholders and some companies wanted to donate supplies to hospitals and charities... that's all good and well, but what about the rest of us? When can the government secure an ongoing supply of masks at decent prices for us to afford?

Lam seemed to hint that since school and universities would be shut now until March 2 that fewer people would be needing masks. This is absolutely ludicrous. So everyone's going to stay at home... and do what? If she thinks kids are going to stay home and study all day she's got to be from Mars.

Hongkongers continue their desperate search for masks

Meanwhile today was one of my colleague's last day at work and she had planned to travel to Rome with her mother before starting her new job. But this evening, the Italian authorities announced they were canceling all flights from China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taipei to Italy (basically Rome and Milan), effective immediately.

People who were supposed to get on a Cathay Pacific flight after midnight tonight, I'm sorry to say their flight is cancelled. Talk about last-minute cancellation.

Despite Italy desperate for business from mostly mainland Chinese tourists, the government has decided to be safe than sorry in protecting its citizens potentially exposed to the Wuhan coronavirus. That said, there may be some mainlanders already there, but now stranded in Italy... how are they getting home now that the Chinese New Year holiday is over?

It's upsetting that Hong Kong is being lumped in with China, but not surprising at the same time. Are other countries going to follow suit? So far Russia has closed its border with China, and Singapore will refuse to admit any Chinese nationals into the Lion City.

Meanwhile our spineless leader is adamant about keeping most of the border points open between Hong Kong and China. Was she instructed to do this, or she assumes this is what Beijing wants her to do?

Some 15,000 healthcare workers are threatening to strike

So many professional groups are clamouring for Lam to shut the border, and tens of thousands of medical staff are threatening to strike if this demand is not met. These doctors and nurses feel the healthcare system in Hong Kong is stretched as it is, and keeping the border open is inviting an outbreak too happen here.

Lam's response? She said she was dismayed to hear these frontline medical workers want to strike, but that it was the patients who suffered the most, as well as the city of Hong Kong, and that they should think clearly about what they are doing.

Again no empathy nor interest in trying to help the medical sector tackle the Wuhan coronavirus as effectively as possible.

We may have a strike any day now and everyone will know why patients are suffering -- because our government has lost its integrity

So basically don't get sick in the next few days and stay at home. There aren't any places to go to anyway since the public swimming pools, libraries, concert halls are shut. That'll save you from having to wear a few masks...