We Remember 23 Years Later

A sea of candles in Victoria Park

I just came back from attending my second Tiananmen candlelight vigil at Victoria Park tonight, marking the 23rd anniversary.

Participants inching their way into the park

My friend and I got there a bit later than last year so there was already a massive crowd trying to get into the park. There was no pushing, but very orderly despite the throngs of people.

We were thinking mainland Chinese who came out of the shopping malls in Causeway Bay might be wondering why there were hordes of people and go follow them to see what all the fuss was about.

Along the way we saw some strange performance art and activists trying to make an extra buck with T-shirts and cloth bags; the new one this year was a tic-tac-toe and the numbers "6" and "4" in various squares.

There were also politicians on the democracy band wagon. First we saw Longhair Leung Kwok-hung appealing to people for donations, and after passing him the next loud voice was People Power activist Wong Yeung-tat, who was recently released from jail for three weeks for civil disobedience. He was sentenced in March for gate-crashing a public forum on a government proposal to scrap Legco by-elections.

Watching some curious performance art along the way

Instead of asking for money, Wong incited the crowd saying "F*** off Leung Chun-ying!" and many eagerly followed his chants. It seemed he was keen to create more trouble again.

We finally made it into Victoria Park and got our requisite candle and paper cone holder and set off to find a spot to sit down. The place quickly filled up and we sat to the right of the stage, but way back.

The event was similar to last year with the same songs, and speeches, but a few different things to the program.

Exiled Tiananmen leader Wang Dan gave a video message and widow Guo Liying, who lost her husband in the crackdown, both saying how thrilled they are that Hong Kong was still commemorating the event and that the fight for vindication of June 4 was still not over 23 years later.

Activist Fang Zheng, who lost both his legs when he was run over by a tank came to Hong Kong for the event from San Francisco.

Fang Zheng was able to attend the event this year, his first

He thanked the crowd for coming and admitted he was at a loss for words of what to say and shed some tears after his speech.

Perhaps most moving was seeing the news footage of Tiananmen at the time, watching the tanks rolling in, people running in all directions, doctors with blood-stained lab coats trying to save people and people carrying bodies in sheets. It was a vivid reminder of the time and why we had all gathered together.

Very heartening was seeing so many young people, many of whom were not even born 23 years ago, eagerly taking part in the event.

While we were glad we went, my friend and I wondered why there weren't more stirring speeches to get the crowd whipped up with emotion. It would have been good to have a short, but emotional speech in English, Cantonese and Mandarin so that everyone was covered.

Participants chant demanding for vindication of June 4

Nevertheless, it was amazing to see so many people stop and reflect -- and vow to never forget those who lost their lives 23 years ago today.

A Defector in the Evil Empire

The Asia Society is putting on its summer film series featuring several movies and documentaries from around the region.

I watched on this afternoon called Crossing The Line that was released in 2006.

In 1962, an American soldier, James Dresnok was sent to guard the demilitarized zone or DMZ in South Korea, but then crossed the border and became a North Korean citizen.

He told his story for the first time on film recalling why he defected to one of the United States' biggest enemies.

The documentary is narrated by Christian Slater and we soon meet Dresnok, well into his 70s. He's a large man, round face and very straight forward.

We soon learn that he grew up in a family that fell apart -- his mother wanted out of the marriage and took him with her where they basically slept in the car every night.

He returned home to find his father had remarried and Dresnok was not welcome into his father's new family.

The boy ended up in a series of foster homes and didn't quite fit in.

Having dropped out of high school, he looked for another "home" where he would be looked after and joined the army a day after his 17th birthday.

However Dresnok didn't like it too much -- he felt the rules were even stricter than the ones in the foster homes and found it difficult at first.

Nevertheless he made the best of it and got married at a young age, thinking he would be able to start fresh again with his own "home".

Then he was posted to West Germany for two years but when he came home his wife told him she'd taken a lover and their marriage was over.

Dresnok was devastated -- he said he never once cheated on his wife during his posting but she couldn't handle his absence at all.

Private James Dresnok

He reenlisted again and this time was posted to South Korea.

The DMZ was a very dangerous place -- the border was marked by flimsy tape and the Americans claimed the North Koreans would create trouble by moving the tape and then start shooting at the US soldiers, claiming they had wandered into North Korean territory.

Being there was literally a war zone and there were casualties.

For Dresnok, he felt his life had no meaning and that there was no way out -- he could live or die and he wouldn't care.

One day he disobeyed orders and visited a Korean woman he was in a relationship with and his superior was ready to court marshall him.

This propelled Dresnok to walk away from his post and enter the DMZ armed with only a shotgun. The area was apparently littered with mines and it was then that the young soldier wondered if he would make it out alive let alone be captured.

When he made it to the other side he was surrounded by North Korean soldiers and was almost killed by them when their superior ordered Dresnok arrested as a prisoner of war.

It turns out not only Dresnok had defected, but three others as well in quick succession. This was a major coup for North Korea and the government used them as propaganda to prove that communism was something Americans thought was good.

They even acted in movies directed by the then young Kim Jong-il. He got them to portray evil American characters who had to be destroyed by the North Koreans.

In the end Dresnok worked hard to fit in, learning Korean and was invited to lecture students periodically in English.

Did he feel used by the government? He doesn't seem to think so. Or was he saying this because he was being filmed in North Korea?

Then there is the interesting topic of marriage. Three of the four men married non-Korean women because North Koreans wanted their race to remain pure. Some of the non-Korean women were allegedly kidnapped and sent to North Korea to mate with these Americans. The fourth man did marry a Korean.

Dresnok today in Pyongyang

As a result Dresnok's two children by his second marriage are blond and brunette. Watching his eldest son James speak English is strange, as he talks with an accent because he was born and raised in North Korea and speaks more Korean than English.

After his wife died from an illness, Dresnok took a third -- a half Korean, half Togolese woman and they have a very young son.

Talk about a Bennetton family in North Korea of all places.

Throughout the documentary, Dresnok is seen smoking and drinking often, which leads to the the final scenes of him visiting his doctor who tells him many times to cut his smoking and drinking as his health is failing, but he continues these habits anyway.

Crossing The Line was a fantastic documentary, not just in the way it was told, but also the various subplots and how the film crew was able to have pretty much free access to make the film in North Korea.

After we viewed the film, one of the researchers present at our screening suggested that because this film would not be shown in North Korea the government didn't seem to care so much and this was the third film the group had done there and had a pretty good track record.

Nonetheless, with such powerful political undertones in the documentary, one would think the government would have completely shut down any possibility of making this film.

But we're glad it was and executed well, revealing complex characters and motivations, historical context and meaning.

Crossing The Line
UK, 2006, 90 minutes
Director: Daniel Gordon
www.

Where's the Money?

The Venetian in Macau is bigger than the one in Sin City

A good indication China's economy is slowing down is to look at Macau's casino tables.

The gambling capital's revenues only rose 7.3 percent to 26.08 billion patacas last month, the slowest growth since July 2009.

This has led to Macau gaming stocks falling slightly on Friday.

"One of the main reasons is the slowdown in VIP revenue. I do not rule out the possibility of a slowdown in the China economy as a factor," said a Hong Kong stock analyst.

It could also be that the casinos haven't collected all the debts from their VIP customers, at least two of them come from mainland Chinese banks.

Yang Kun, an executive vice-president of Agricultural Bank of China, was detained a few days ago in Beijing by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China.

It was because the commission received complaints about illegal gambling activities in Macau that were linked to Yang, as well as the misuse of a bank client's account.

The amount of money he allegedly misused is unclear, but one source said: "It must be a big case involving big money, given the high level of Yang's position and the quick action taken by the government. He was internally advised not to travel abroad, even just a trip to Hong Kong."

Another source said Yang went to Macau several times with business friends and the group lost money during at least one gambling trip there. Because Yang and his friends owed large sums to the casinos, complaints emerged and later came to the attention of the anti-corruption commission.

Yang had worked at Agricultural Bank of China for more than 20 years and was considered a rising star...

Meanwhile another banker was also caught for similar allegations.

Brand manager He Juxin of China Minsheng Bank was detained by police in Beijing as he is linked to Yang's case.

Both He and Yang are believed to have close ties to a businessman named Wang Yaohui, chairman of conglomerate Zhonghui Guohua Industry Group.

In addition to being Minsheng Bank's top executive in charge of brand and marketing, he is also the director of the Minsheng Art Museum, which was established and funded by the bank to collect and exhibit valuable artwork.

Apparently He and Wang share an interest in art; sources also said Wang, with Yang's help, obtained loans from Agricultural Bank of China to shore-up money-losing property projects in Beijing and finance the chairman's personal hobbies, including gambling and buying art.

Now that the three are being investigated, how many others have fallen into similar situations?

It's only a matter of time before more debts will be revealed and increasing indications that Beijing must really clean house and rid itself of corruption and graft for good.

It can't keep functioning as it is right now forever... can it?

15 Years Later, New Rules for the CE

The Chief Executive of Hong Kong should regard himself as "the chief servant of the people".

That's the finding of an independent committee that spent three months looking into the scandals Chief Executive Donald Tsang was embroiled in earlier this year, caught hanging out with tycoons on a yacht in Macau, to a cheap deal to rent a penthouse in Shenzhen.

The committee, led by former chief justice Andrew Li Kwok-nang, said Tsang would have been open to prosecution for accepting favours from tycoons under a new law it is proposing, as for the past 15 years there have been no guidelines for the chief executive to follow.

Chief Executive-elect Leung Chun-ying welcomed the recommendations and pledged to implement them as soon as possible.

The committee is proposing it be a criminal offense for the chief executive to solicit or accept any advantage without the permission of a statutory independent committee. In turn, offering an advantage to the chief executive without lawful authority or a reasonable excuse would also be considered an offense.

It added the chief executive must follow the rules at least as strict as those for political appointees and top civil servants.

"It would be a criminal offense for the chief executive to accept any advantage, including any gift, hotel accommodation, any purchase or rental of premises at an undervalued price, any passage, whether on a commercial airplane, private jet or private yacht without the permission of the committee," Li said. "We advise the chief executive to follow the maxim, 'if in doubt,' don't."

The maximum penalty would be one year's imprisonment and a fine of HK$100,000.

It seems the description covers practically all the wrong doings Tsang did in his years as CE.

And it's pretty amazing he and former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa were able to get away with having no rules apply to them at all for the past 15 years until now, when a news photographer happened to catch Tsang on a luxury yacht in Macau.

"The present system is totally inappropriate and has a fundamental defect that it exempts the chief executive from the strict regime applied to politically appointed officials and civil servants," Li said, adding Hong Kong's leader should not be above the law.

The former chief justice refused to comment on whether Tsang set a bad example, and instead said improving the system was the key.

Earlier Tsang had said he followed his own "internal rule" when accepting benefits.

"The absence of documentation on such a matter is not consistent with the proper conduct of public administration," Li said. If the new rules are implemented, all gifts would be recorded in a register and made available to the public.

Tsang is a career civil servant and still he did not feel he had to follow the rules or establish them formally as chief executive. Being a church boy didn't deter him from taking advantage of his standing at all either.

While all these new regulations are great, Tsang will not be subject to them.

What is hard to understand is that before 1997 no one went over the rules and regulations of the chief executive and realized there was a major loophole in terms of accountability?

There are less than 30 days left to go before Tsang leaves office and he leaves behind a legacy of free-spending ways and cozying up to tycoon buddies for a good here and there.

Makes Grandpa Tung look like a saint.

Ah the perks of being a CE.