Greater Divisions in Hong Kong

The reverberations of last Monday's violence can still be felt

After Beijing issued its statement branding the "rioters" in Mongkok as "separatists", several people in Hong Kong have come out denouncing the protesters using similar language.

Former Hong Kong security chief Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong said the young people involved in last Monday's violence were not rational, saying "they will be very easily instigated. It's like being drugged".

Speaking on a radio interview, Lee added, "You have to wonder why the future stewards of our society, our young people seem to have... lost their sense of reason."

Ambrose Lee likens the protesters to "beasts"

He referred to scenes of some protesters throwing objects at wounded policeman, saying attacking "a dog lying on the ground" would be unconscionable to many, much less attacking a person. To do so, he said, was "like you have lost your conscience and become like a beast".

"What has turned them from young people with aspirations into beasts? We should think about this," he said.

Hmmm interesting question, Mr Lee. When people feel like the odds are against them, that they have no hope of ever achieving social mobility, or financial security then maybe their frustrations turn to what they think is the only route of violence? Not that I condone what they did, but for them, this was perhaps their act of desperation.

However Lee didn't fan the flames as much as outspoken lawyer and district councillor Junius Ho Kwan-yiu.

On a Radio Television Hong Kong's televised City Forum debate, he said the officers were "too restrained".

Junius Ho says police would be justified in killing rioters

"Police used shotguns [during the 1967 riots]... To maintain public order and for self-protection, [police officers] have to take any necessary actions," Ho said.

When asked whether he believed police would have been justified in killing city residents, Ho replied: "It would not be killing Hong Kong people. It would be killing rioters."

Whoa.

What are people like Lee and Ho trying to prove? Are they also interested in earning Beijing's favour? In the case of Lee, he is one of Hong Kong's 36 local deputies to the National People's Congress.

And the latest is that the policeman in charge of handling the Mongkok riot operations will likely chair the review of what happened on February 8, which one can already imagine will hardly be impartial. Even some police unions do not agree with the apparent choice of Alan Lau Yip-shing, director of operations.

Do we really need to further fan the flames of division in the city? Can nothing be looked at objectively anymore?

Creating greater rifts is the last thing we need now...

Roses bring Overwhelming Response

Tamar Park is covered in white roses -- 25,000 of them -- until February 22

Yesterday was the start of Light Rose Garden, a public art installation at Tamar Park. It features 25,000 white roses (not real) that are lit up with LED lights and will be showing there every night from 6pm until February 22.

The white roses are lit with LED lights

Thinking today many couples would be busy indulging in their Valentine's Day dinner, I thought I'd take a look after my workout at the gym in Central.

However I was so wrong -- everyone else had the same idea as me and there was a massive crowd converging on the escalator at United Centre to get up to the overpass to Tamar Park.

There were so many people that the escalator going up was shut down, forcing people to walk up. But that was not the end of it -- we had to bypass Tamar Park and walk all the way to Citic Tower, down three flights of stairs to get to the ground floor, walk across the street to the Legislative Council and then encounter another backlog of people before entering the park.

It's pretty neat to see them if you squeeze past the crowds

While it was neat to see so many people "occupy" the area since the Umbrella Movement, the detour to get back to Tamar Park was insane, but I could see why. There must have been tens of thousands of people there and the maze we had to go through was an attempt at crowd control.

When I finally managed to get close to the edge where the roses were, people whipped out their smartphones above my head to get pictures.

Seeing so many people there of all ages, it made me wonder why they were so drawn to something like this, and not say, the other public art show going on now, Antony Gormley's Event Horizon, where his 31 life size bronze statues are placed on the roofs of public buildings in the city, save for one on Queen's Road Central at D'Aguilar Street.

There were tens of thousands of people there tonight

While Gormley's statues encourage viewers to examine the relationship between man and buildings, man and cities, as well as looking at new perspective, what is Light Rose Garden about?

Are Hong Kong people unable or unwilling to be reflective and understand how art enhances our lives? Or are they only interested in straight-forward ideas that are easy to grasp?

I really wondered about this while I was at Tamar Park, the hordes of people jostling around trying to take photographs.

While I thought the installation was pretty, the crowds were overwhelming, making it difficult to appreciate the beauty and expansiveness of it.

The view of nearby Central was a neat sight to behold

Or am I looking way too deeply into this Light Rose Garden, and it's like the massive Rubber Duck @ Harbour City by Florentijn Hofman, where we should just enjoy it for what it is?

How Much did He Know?

Ling Wancheng (left) is the youngest brother of Ling Jihua (right)

There are conflicting reports on Ling Wancheng, younger brother of Ling Jihua, who was the former top aide to then Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Ling Jihua was expelled from the Communist Party of China last year and is expected to be tried for corruption and illegally obtaining state secrets. His career unraveled after his son was killed in a Ferrari crash in March 2012.

At the time it was strange that the crash was covered up almost immediately after it was initially reported because Ling Jihua reportedly mobilized staff from the Central Security Bureau to suppress reports of it and words like "Ferrari", "Little Ling" and "Prince Ling" were blocked.

Ling Jihua's son died in this fiery Ferrari crash in 2012

However eventually it was revealed that the 23-year-old man who died in the crash was Ling's son and questions arose as to how he was able to acquire such an expensive sports car. Even though Ling sough assistance from then powerful security czar Zhou Yongkang, both have lost politically, and the latter is now languishing in prison for the rest of his life.

Because Ling Jihua was so close to Hu, there were allegations that businessman Ling Wencheng defected to the United States and revealed state secrets to American intelligence officials. It is unclear how much information he would have known, but it is believed he profited handsomely from his family connections.

However, Ling Wancheng's lawyer has come out to deny revealing secrets like nuclear weapons codes and details about the Chinese leadership.

Ling Wancheng reportedly lives in this home in Sacramento

"My client frankly would like to be left alone so he can play more golf," said Washington lawyer Gregory Smith. "He is presently working on writing a book about golfing, and he hopes to share with others his golf secrets that literally can add 10-15 yards to anyone's drive off the tee."

Smith did not answer questions about whether Ling Wancheng was seeking asylum in the US.

There are also reports that top security official Meng Jianzhu had tried to negotiate Ling's return to China when he visited the US last September.

A book about golf, huh? We expect this upcoming tome to be a best seller...

Beijing's Delayed Reaction

"Rioters" in Mongkok have been branded "separatists" by Beijing

Four days after the Mongkok "riots", Beijing has finally spoken out, and the language it used isn't pretty.

"On the early morning of February 9, a riot plotted mainly by local radical separatist organization rocked Mongkok, Hong Kong," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei in an official statement, that did not specify whether one or more such organizations were involved.

For China to call the Mongkok protesters "separatists" puts them in the same league as the supposed separatists from Tibet and Xinjiang, that are seen as a serious threat to national security.

China-watcher Johnny Lau Yui-siu said it was unprecedented for the Chinese government to use the word separatists for Hong Kong. He called it a "wrong" categorization that would lead to unnecessary escalation of anti-mainland sentiment, as Beijing previously described Taiwan-independence advocates as "separatists".

The police felt they we unprepared for Monday night

The Chinese government defines separatist as "one level less serious" than "secessionist", and so if the situation gets worse, says Lau, Beijing could "conclude secessionist elements exist in the city".

China's Communist Party sees secession, terrorism and extreme religious forces as three core threats that must be eradicated.

Hong reiterated how some of the rioters had set up roadblocks, set objects on fire, damaged police vehicles, hurled bricks at police officers and assaulted injured officers lying on the ground.

The foreign ministry spokesman expressed "strong condemnation" of the violence, while giving firm support to Hong Kong police in acting "professionally and with self-restraint", adding the "riot" was "swiftly" ended.

Meanwhile some front line police officers who endured the glass bottles, garbage cans and bricks hurled at them were disappointed with senior management as over 90 officers were injured.

They felt they were completely unprepared for what happened on Monday night.

"Traffic officers had the least gear and they were at the very front to handle the armed rioters," one unnamed officer said. "What a joke!"

"That night was 10 times worse than any of the scenes during the Occupy movement. Why couldn't we use tear gas?"

He wondered if there was a political decision for not using tear gas -- possibly because they got so much flak for unleashing some 79 canisters when the Occupy movement erupted in September 2014.

The officer even suggested the police should have used rubber bullets in Mongkok. "The top management just can't feel the pain we suffered and the danger we faced. After all, they were sitting in their offices."

Ouch.

Seems like all is not well with the force...

With Beijing using dangerous language, this is definitely going to make localists puff up their chests with pride to get such attention.

But this is only going to create more tensions in the city and that's the last thing we need...