Culture Clash

Zhang says Hong Kong's civil servants must be loyal to Beijing...

The mainlandization of Hong Kong continues with Zhang Dejiang, one of the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee now saying that the city's civil servants must be Chinese loyalists in order to do their jobs.

During a speech at the Great Hall of the People Saturday, Zhang said Beijing would invoke a number of "implicit powers" -- which have so far not been paid close attention to during the first 20 years of the city's handover.

"It should be stressed that [Hong Kong's] governing teams... must be made up of patriots who respect the Chinese people, sincerely support [China's] resumption of sovereignty and pose no threat to [Hong Kong's] prosperity and stability,' he said, referring to late leader Deng Xiaoping.

Hong Kong's values are under threat again by Beijing

"The central government is responsible for supervising whether [Hong Kong's] public officers uphold the Basic Law, and whether they pledge allegiance to the country and [Hong Kong]."

This is a blatant desire to encroach upon the city's values and way of life we hold dearly. Our civil servants may be bureaucratically difficult to deal with, but they have always been politically neutral. But now China plans to ensure Hong Kong is made and run in the same way as every other mainland city -- through political loyalty and guanxi.

Leung Chau-ting, head of the Federation of Civil Service Unions, said he was concerned about Zhang's suggestion that understanding of the Basic Law could carry weight when civil servants' jobs are assessed.

"The focus should always be professionalism and the willingness to serve the public," he said. "It is not our daily work to explain the Basic Law to fellow Hongkongers."

Zhang also called for a closer look at other powers that the central government could use to scrutinize the city's affairs, including that of instructing the chief executive and assessing legislation reported by the Legislative Council.

Does this mean Legco will mean nothing anymore? That lawmakers we elected into the Legislative Council will be moot?

How will this affect Hong Kong's rule of law?

Up until now, the power to assess legislation was considered a ceremonial power, as the National People's Congress has never objected to any reported laws.

Zhang also urged academics to spend more time studying the Basic Law and instill the "correct" national views in Hong Kong teens. Sounds like a veiled demand to institute national education of some sort.

Veteran democrat Martin Lee Chu-ming, who helped draft the Basic Law in the late 1980s, said Zhang's remarks regarding the "supervisory" role over Hong Kong officials, were not in the Basic Law, and they could even deter talent from taking on important roles.

"It's a completely different picture to what was depicted by Deng Xiaoping... also the Sino-British Joint Declaration and Basic Law," he said.

"Good lawyers would not dare be judges then... You have to become a puppet [of Beijing] and probably face against the public of Hong Kong," he said.

Is Zhang hinting the days of non-Chinese judges and lawyers are over now? Is this the beginning of the end of rule of law in Hong Kong?

His declarations show impatience on Beijing's part in seeing how reticent Hong Kong is about falling into line with China. It feels that 20 years have passed and attitudes should have changed by now.

But they haven't and now Zhang believes he now needs to crack the whip to make integration even faster.

However most Hong Kong people will not do this without dragging their feet...

Hopefully this will spur more people to come out for the June 4 candlelight vigil and the July 1 march...

The Cultural Revolution: 50 Years of Pain Continues

"Chairman Mao is with us forever" reads the propaganda poster

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Cultural Revolution. And as expected China refuses to acknowledge it.

I remember my mom telling me about the Cultural Revolution when I was a child and I didn't understand what she meant by it. I just remember her just saying how terrible it was, and how people were ruined by it.

Many academics, artists were denounced

It wasn't until many years later that I started doing my own research on it, reading articles and books about it (Red China Blues, Life and Death in Shanghai), that I began to realize the depth of the catastrophe -- a man made political disaster that ruined China for at least 10 years.

To survive, people did the most horrific things to each other -- to what end? Many committed suicide, unable to deal with the upheaval, others were left for dead.

And what came of it? Those who were the youth during that time are now in power. It's so strange how things turn out.

Several years ago when then Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai started reviving revolutionary red songs, it was a frightening prospect that someone who was previously thought as liberal was actually very "red", or was it a ploy to try to get a wider base of support from party elders?

In any event, his corruption scandal brought him and his family down, but that may have inspired the current leader Xi Jinping to get people onto the revolutionary bandwagon by encouraging them to be more nationalistic, meanwhile tightening the internet to make it harder for them to access information abroad.

A recent show in Beijing seemed to glorify Mao 50 years ago

A few weeks ago there was a performance in the Great Hall of the People that was very revolutionary in nature, that seemed to hark back to the Cultural Revolution with young girls singing Maoist songs as well as projecting images of Mao that were reminiscent of propaganda posters.

Afterwards when people began criticizing the show that anyone involved in it denied being the instigator and claimed the group that put on the show was fake. It was too close to the 50th anniversary and reminded people of that time.

It is sad to know that only once a year the graveyard in Chongqing for those who died during the Cultural Revolution is open to the public; otherwise it is locked.

This inability to confront what happened 50 years ago and its lingering effects has paralyzed China from moving forward, righting wrongs and making sure something like this does not happen again.

Mao's lingering effects continue to impact people's lives

In some ways their going through the Cultural Revolution explains why mainlanders act the way they do -- aggressive in buying goods, having very little empathy for others, thinking of ways to cheat others without any sense of morality.

And like the Tiananmen Square massacre, many young people have no idea what the Cultural Revolution is and how it affected their families. It's a deep dark secret that many either choose to be ignorant of, or their parents refuse to tell them.

The pain is still there.

Until the Communist Party decides to make peace with the past, history will not be resolved properly. This event that stretched over 10 years will continue to dog the party, much like June 4, 1989, an itch that refuses to go away.

The Chinese Riddle

Rupert Murdoch with Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People

The Chinese like to talk in riddles, particularly their leaders.

Chinese President Xi Jinping received Rupert Murdoch in the Great Hall of the People today. The News Corp chairman probably wanted to pay his respects in the hopes that he might get a sign that the ban would be lifted on his Wall Street Journal website.

Wen Jiabao's family's wealth was unraveled by the NYT

According to Xinhua Xi said: "[We] welcome foreign media and correspondents to cover China stories, introducing China's development to the world, and helping the world grasp the opportunities (afforded by) China's development."

What did Murdoch say in return?

He apparently said to China Daily: "We are very happy, in my newspapers and different news outlets, to try and foster more understanding between our two countries (the United States and China), I think not just on a formal basis, but also with people themselves."

What Xi and Murdoch said need to be taken with huge grains of salt because Chinese state media aren't the most accurate when reporting what people, particularly foreigners say. Their words can be massaged to fit the agenda, and here it's to give the impression that China is open for reporting.

Wendi Deng on the day her divorce was finalized in New York

But what of blocking not only WSJ, but also The New York Times, Reuters and Bloomberg sites?

And not issuing journalist visas to both The New York Times and Bloomberg apparently in retaliation for them publishing stories about senior leaders' families and their web of wealth?

Meanwhile it's interesting Murdoch is making this pilgrimage after his 14-year divorce from Wendi Deng, who wasn't able to help him crack the China market... or perhaps she had other things in mind?

In any case it's no illusion that Murdoch is keen for global media domination and China is the biggest market he has yet to conquer. Apparently 21st Century Fox is looking for a Chinese partner to build theme parks around popular films and TV shows like The Simpsons.

Will we see a Simpsons' themed park in China soon?

Will China let him in?

Does Xi's statement above give any indication?