China Shuts Down LGBTQ Online Community

Cartoon by @badiucao of Xi destroying the pride rainbow...

 

The space for LGBTQ groups in China is shrinking rapidly with now Tencent deleting the accounts of LGBTQ student groups on WeChat, claiming they had broken rules on information on the internet, making it harder for them to connect virtually.

Several LGBTQ groups were blocked from accessing their accounts on Tuesday and now they have found the accounts have been deleted.

Tencent shut down LGBTQ accounts in China

"They censored us without any warning. All of us have been wiped out," said the account manager of one group who asked not to be identified. 

When attempting to access some of the groups, a message says the group "had violated regulations on the management of accounts offering public information service on the Chinese internet", while others didn't show up in search results.

This latest development is part of a series of actions to shut down LGBTQ groups and events.

In past years Pride Month was celebrated openly in China in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

But last August China's biggest and longest-running LGBTQ festival, Shanghai Pride, was cancelled due to pressure from local authorities. This year even fewer events were held, some underground.

"Every year it becomes more and more challenging," one Chinese LGBTQ artist was quoted by CNN. "Events are fewer and advocates are finding it more and more difficult to raise acceptance."

Pride in Shanghai used to be openly celebrated

There were hopes that there would be greater acceptance of LGBTQ in society and the government after homosexuality was decriminalized in 1997 and in 2001 was removed from the official list of mental disorders.

However it looks like there is a crackdown from above to prevent the numbers of LGBTQ increasing since Beijing is desperate for more heterosexuals to get married and have three children. That can't happen if there's a growing LGBTQ population.

With it now being increasingly a taboo subject, it will be harder for those who have just accepted their sexuality or to find a community to reach out to for advice and support.

More Reasons to get BioNTech Jab

More evidence shows BioNTech more effective than Sinovac

 

If there was more reason to get inoculated, a new study shows that those who had taken the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine had 10 times more antibodies than those who got the Sinovac jab, who generated "similar or lower" than naturally occurring ones seen in recovered patients.

The study by the University of Hong Kong and published in Lancet Microbe, suggested perhaps those who received the Sinovac vaccine could get a BioNTech booster shot to protect against Covid-19.

Cowling is one of the authors of the HKU study

Experts say higher levels of antibodies detected seem to correspond with long-lasting and stronger protection against infection.

One of the authors of the paper, Professor Ben Cowling, said that if BioNTech booster shots are offered, those who took Sinovac should be first in line to get the vaccine. He added they may need to get the shots sooner as he was concerned antibodies may not be detectable in those people after three to six months.

He dismissed suggestions that the Hong Kong government should not have purchased the Sinovac vaccines, saying having a vaccine was better than none, and that vaccines like Sinovac had saved many lives around the world.

"If there's a choice between not getting vaccinated and getting Sinovac, it's definitely much, much better to get Sinovac because there is protection against infection and there's a high level of protection against severe disease," he said.

Cowling says Sinovac is better than no vaccine

"In Hong Kong, when we're thinking about the alternatives, I would advise if you can get the BioNTech vaccine, get the BioNTech vaccine. I've said that all along, because it's a more effective vaccine, gives a higher protection of vaccine tat will likely last much longer.

"But if for some reason you can't receive the BioNTech vaccine, or there's another reason you don't want to get the BioNTech vaccine, still it's better to get the Sinovac vaccine than to not get vaccinated."

Hope that scientific reasoning will inspire more people to get vaccinated -- preferably with BioNTech.

So far over 36.9 percent of the population has had at least one jab, and just over 26 percent are fully vaccinated.

 

Lam says Wave of Departures a "Negative Image"

Lam says people are driven away from HK. Wonder why...

 

Today Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor complained that people were being driven away from the city and that it needs to fix its "negative image".

You don't say, Carrie!

"In the past few years, there have been people in Hong Kong who are actually driving away visitors from Hong Kong. There were people who wanted to come to Hong Kong for travel or business, but then they had very poor impression of Hong Kong when they came here," Lam said.

Daily scenes at airport departures area

"So if we want to strive for more policy support from the Central People's Government in helping our tourism and retail sector, we must first improve our own image. We want to change the negative perception mainland people have about Hong Kong."

Lam said this during a question and answer session in the Legislative Council, and lawmakers kept asking Lam when the border between China and Hong Kong will be lifted. But she replied that the conditions weren't right yet and that more people needed to be vaccinated first.

But how is she going to fix Hong Kong's "negative image" when she and then security chief, now Chief Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu were the ones who started it in the first place by using the case of a man who allegedly killed his pregnant girlfriend in Taiwan as the reason to pass the extradition bill?

And that man, Chan Tong-kai, who has finished serving his sentence for laundering money in Hong Kong is now free and living under police protection (paid by taxpayers) in a safe house, but has yet to give himself up to Taiwan to face murder charges there and still hasn't done so two years later?

The extradition bill was hinged on the Chan case

The Hong Kong government is not pushing him to do so, and neither is the Taiwanese side because of political differences.

Imagine -- if Chan had not allegedly killed his girlfriend in Taiwan, where would Hong Kong be today?

Jackie Chan Wants CCP Membership

Jackie Chan is a member of the CPPCC but not the CCP

 

This may be shocking to discover, but action superstar Jackie Chan is not a card-carrying Communist Party member.

He revealed his interest in joining the Party during a symposium organized by the China Film Association last Thursday in Beijing. Chan, 67, told the attendees that when he's abroad, he often says that he's "proud of being Chinese".

Chan sang in the Bird's Nest on July 1

"I also envy that you are Communist Party members, I think the Communist Party is just great, what the Communist Party says, what they promised, will always be delivered within a few decades," he said.

"I want to be a Communist Party member, thank you," he added, to thunderous applause.

However, many people online mocked Chan's wish, saying he was unworthy of party membership.

They referred to his extramarital affair with Hong Kong actress Elaine Ng in 1999, with whom he had a daughter, Etta Ng Chok-lam. Ng raised the daughter on her own in China, but then disowned her when Etta came out as lesbian when she was 17 years old. She married her partner in 2018 in Canada.

Jaycee Chan was jailed in 2014 for marijuana

And then Chan's son, Jaycee was arrested and jailed in 2014 for possession and distribution of marijuana during a drug bust in his apartment in Beijing.

He was sentenced to six months in jail and served the full sentence.

Jackie Chan has definitely demonstrated his patriotism over the years, and for it he has been a member of the Chinese People's Consultative Conference, largely made up of Communist Party members.

On July 1, he took part in the Communist Party's centennial celebrations at the National Stadium nicknamed "the Bird's Nest", singing a rendition of the patriotic classic, Defending the Yellow River, composed during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Chan can no longer count on Hongkongers to be his fans anymore either after he gave an interview with state media in 2019. He spoke out about the anti-government protests, calling them "sad and depressing", and said he hoped Hong Kong "can return to peace soon".

Etta Ng (left) married her partner in 2018

He was also criticized in 2009 for his comments about the pro-democracy movement. "I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not," he said at the time. "I'm really confused now. If you're too free, you're like the way Hong Kong is now. It's very chaotic. Taiwan is also very chaotic."

Poor Jackie. No one wants to have anything to do with him...