Hong Kong Press Freedom Threatened

Financial Times' Asia news editor Victor Mallet's visa was not renewed

If you need further proof of Hong Kong's mainlandization, you can count today. The local government has refused to renew British journalist Victor Mallet's visa after he chaired the talk of an independence activist at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in August.

The announcement was made by Mallet's employer, the Financial Times of which he is has been the Asia news editor since 2016.

"This is the first time we have encountered this situation in Hong Kong, and we have not been given a reason for the rejection," said a spokeswoman in the London office.

As expected the media industry was outraged by this latest development, starting with the FCC urging the government to let Mallet stay in the city.

He defended the FCC's right to have Andy Chan speak

"The FCC is expecting a full explanation from the Hong Kong authorities for this extraordinary move, which is extremely rare, if not unprecedented," the statement read.

"Hong Kong rightly prides itself on its reputation as a place where the rule of law applies and where freedom of speech is protected by law. The FCC has been proud to represent and champion that reputation since it moved here in 1949.

"In the absence of any reasonable explanation, the FCC calls on the Hong Kong authorities to rescind their decision."

The FCC took a lot of heat for having Hong Kong National Party's Andy Chan Ho-tin speak. Only last week the party was officially, making it illegal for anyone to financially support or aid the party that promoted the city's independence -- at any cost.

Just before the August event at the FCC, Mallet defended the talk as upholding freedom of expression, and that everyone should be allowed to voice their opinions. Days before the talk, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked the FCC to call off the lunchtime talk, while the Hong Kong government objected to it.

There was heavy police presence during Chan's talk

Speaking in a personal capacity, Chan condemned the move as a reprisal for the club's decision to host him.

"It has dealt a severe blow to the city's press freedom, and will greatly affect Hong Kong's image," he said. "It is really a big deal. How could the government refuse to renew the visa of a journalist without even offering any reason?"

As expected politicians followed party lines, where pro-Beijing lawmakers said the ban was expected as the FCC had breached the constitution and the law, while pan-Democrats condemned the move as retaliation against the club for inviting Chan to speak.

Legislator Claudia Mo Man-ching said the decision was "very political" and a "bad precedent".

"We are telling the international press that Hong Kong can only accept people who will 'good-mouth' Hong Kong," she said.

Meanwhile Chris Yeung Kin-hing, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association said the government should come clean and explain its decision, as only on mainland China are journalists' visa applications were rejected on political grounds.

Hong Kong's reputation is being threatened by this incident

"Has Beijing exerted any pressure on Hong Kong? If yes, that has already eroded the high degree of autonomy which Hong Kong enjoys," he said. "It would be worse if it was only a second-guess by Hong Kong officials."

Exactly. So which one is it?

Yeung also believes Mallet's case is not an isolated one and that it could result in self-censorship.

Maya Wang, senior researcher on China for Human Rights Watch says, "The Hong Kong authorities' visa renewal rejection -- without explanation -- of a journalist who's done nothing more than his job smacks of Beijing-style persecution of critics.

"Together with the recent and also unprecedented banning of the Hong Kong National Party, the visa rejection indicates a quickening downward spiral for human rights in Hong Kong; that the Hong Kong government is now following Beijing's lead in acting aggressively towards those whose views the authorities dislike."

Mallet applied for his visa renewal last month, but it was not clear when his application was rejected. He is currently outside of Hong Kong and was unavailable for comment.

The only other time another journalist was denied a visa was in 2011 with liberal mainland Chinese commentator Chang Ping.

Is Beijing putting pressure on the Hong Kong government? Or are local authorities wishing to please Beijing?

Either way the optics are bad for Hong Kong and China. The faster they speak up to clear the air, the better.

Hong Kong cannot afford to see its rights and freedoms slowly withering away -- without them the city is not what it stands for anymore.

Walking Around Houhai

Gorgeous views of Houhai that show a very serene-looking lake

New York has Central Park, Vancouver has Stanley Park, and Beijing has Houhai, 后海, or literally the "back lakes".

After a giant meal of Peking duck and other delicious dishes, we walked it off by heading to the Drum and Bell Towers, but got there minutes before they closed so we couldn't go up the towers. We lingered a bit to watch a middle-aged woman perform a ribbon dance before we walked west along Gulou Road to find a way into Houhai.

One bride getting ready for her close-up

It took a while to finally find an alleyway in and then we wandered along a side street before finally getting into Houhai. We had a pleasant stroll around as it was relatively quiet and we did lots of people watching.

One couple was taking pre-wedding pictures and the groom had trouble hoisting his slightly overweight bride up onto the railing. We also came across a mother and daughter feeding ducks some bread, and an older woman who had a large cylindrical trap that she caught some really small fish in.

For the most part we hardly saw many people at the back of the back lakes, and once in a while there were exercise areas with grannies to young people working out. One man in his early 50s was really buff and showed off by walking around shirtless and doing some tricks on the handlebars. We also saw a stray tabby cat hanging out and didn't care for humans.

Another woman catching small fish in the lake!

Finally after walking for what seemed like ages, but apparently Houhai is only 6km long, we managed to walk to the entrance of the back lakes. It used to be bustling with lots of restaurants and bars blaring music, and even a Starbucks at the front. But these shop spaces were all boarded up and looked very sad.

The area around the lake isn't as boisterous as it used to be -- which is a good thing -- but its local flavour is not so edgy anymore. Or is it me just being nostalgic?

Fan Bingbing's Big Fine

Actress Fan Bingbing must pay a hefty fine for tax evasion

The big news today is that finally after months of no word from actress Fan Bingbing, it has now been revealed that she has been fined nearly 884 million yuan (US$129 million) for tax evasion.

In the office we were speculating if she could even pay that amount.

According to Forbes she made 300 million yuan from July 2016-July 2017, and 1.4 billion yuan between 2003 and 2016. But surely she spent a chunk of that money. She will probably be cleaned out after paying the fine and will have to lay low for a while before re-starting her career again.

She was an ambassador for Louis Vuitton

It's unfortunate she was singled out as an example of what happens if you evade paying your taxes.

It was found that she had two contracts, one at a lower amount to pay less taxes, and another that was her actual income. Her production companies were also fined 117 million yuan for also omitting income and not paying tax on it.

Apparently Fan will escape criminal charges if she pays the hefty bill by December 31.

While she was invited by several luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, De Beers, Montblanc, and Guerlain to be an ambassador, probably no money or not much changed hands, but now it'll make fashion, jewellery and cosmetic brands think twice about using Chinese artists as brand ambassadors.

It puts these companies in a tough position because they want to target mainland Chinese consumers, but don't want to be caught using the wrong celebrity for promotional purposes.

The whole fiasco started in May, when outspoken state television presenter, Cui Yongyuan posted pictures on Weibo of two contracts that appeared to be for Fan's upcoming film. One showed a salary of US$1.6 million to be reported to the tax authorities, and another with US$7.8 million.

This is a common practice called yin-yang contracts. It is also not unusual for companies to have two books, one for the tax department to look at, the other containing actual figures.

Fan also promoted De Beers

After there was public outcry about his whistle-blowing, Cui later apologized to Fan and in June he withdrew his claims altogether. But that didn't stop the State Administration of Taxation from launching an investigation, which led to her disappearance the same month.

Fan was held under "residential surveillance at a designated location", where the police can detain anyone suspected of endangering state security, terrorism, or significant corruption at an undisclosed location for up to six months. It is a practice widely condemned by human rights groups.

Today Fan released a letter apologizing to fans and the Communist Party for her transgressions, saying she would "overcome all difficulties" to pay what she owed.

"One could say that every bit of the achievement I have made cannot be separated from the support of the state and the people," she wrote. "Without the good policies of the Communist Party and the state, without the people's love and care, there would be no Fan Bingbing."

Who knows what she went through when she was in detention for several months. Regardless of what people think of her, we can only hope she will get through this terrible period and eventually move on.

Visiting the Egg

The National Center for Performing Arts in its glittering glory

One of our stops in Beijing was the National Center for Performing Arts, otherwise known as "The Egg", more specifically the duck egg because of its oval shape.

On the day we went it seemed to have a cloud directly above it and a blue sky.

Four men were cleaning the back of the building

We first walked all the way around it, and it seems to be rising from a giant pond. At the back we were surprised to see four men, two on the roof -- with no visible harnesses -- cleaning the windows, while two others below were in harnesses and power washing the metal shell.

Then we tried to get inside from the back, but a security guard told us to go to the front. Turns out for 30 kuai (US$4.37) you can go into the NPCA and take a closer look, though not go into the actual venues, the concert hall, opera house or theatre.

Nevertheless it was still nice to roam around to see what was in there. And inside there were basically several strange sculptures with not much artistic value, along with a series of escalators that kept going higher and higher. They even had signs instructing people to stand on the right of the escalator!

We saw some mannequins wearing costumes, and pictures documenting the construction of the NPCA, a giant list of names of every guest artist who had performed here, and of course all the senior officials who have visited, with Chinese President Xi Jinping getting the biggest exposure.

The interiors are too cool not to photograph!

It was relatively quiet in there, and there was even a press conference going on that we were tempted to sneak into, but our T-shirts and shorts would have given us away.

The coffee shop looked sad -- two young men quickly stood to attention when they saw us approach, but we were tempted by the pastries or coffee on offer. It's so surprising that such a massive place would have such a small refreshments area.

Oh but there were many washrooms (but not many stalls), though they were very clean. 

In fact our report overall of the state of washrooms in Beijing has improved significantly again; however we did not venture into the public washrooms!