Schedium

Since September 28 at least 34 people have been detained and 60 people have been questioned by the police in mainland China for sharing images and news of Hong Kong's Occupy Central or showing support for it. As the " Umbrella Revolution " unfolded in Hong Kong, the Communist government and its media apparatus have been trying to insulate the mainland from the outside world, leading to a sharp increase of censorship activities. According to Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch (民生观察), the Hunanese activist Ou Biaofeng (欧彪峰) was arrested on October 1. A squad of Zhuzhou Internal Security Bureau broke open the door of his house while he was still in bed. They questioned him about some pictures he had posted online in which he was seen as shaving his head in support of Occupy Central (the initiators of Occupy Central had shaven their heads at the beginning of September to show their "determination to fight for true democracy"). " Because I shave

After anti-Occupy groups attacked pro-democracy protesters on Friday and Saturday, injuring several demonstrators, many wondered whether these assaults, which appeared well-organised and planned in advance, were the work of triad members . Yesterday at a press conference the Secretary for Security of Hong Kong  Lai Tung-kwok (黎棟國) confirmed that triad members were involved in the clashes.  TIME: Hong Kong Government Accused of Using Triads to Attack Student Protesters: The deputy chairman of the Ho... http://t.co/YhHViEK39S — Hong Kong Stream (@hkstream) October 4, 2014 Kwok said that the government severely condemns the violent behaviour of some individuals, and confirmed that the police had arrested 19 suspects, 8 of whom have triad links. They allegedly assaulted demonstrators during clashes in Mong Kok, a popular shopping district. According to the 'China Times', some of the thugs may have been taxi or minibus drivers with triad affiliation. 

Hong Kong protesters beaten and bloodied as thugs attack sit-in http://t.co/2XzsWnvAk6 pic.twitter.com/RKcvBSnIhV — Guardian World (@guardianworld) October 3, 2014 Yesterday was a sad day for Hong Kong. I really love this city. Every time I go there, its atmosphere and beauty, its energy and uniqueness mesmerize me. But the contradictions of the post-1997 settlement are coming to the surface now and threaten to change the ex-colony forever.   The images we have seen yesterday are shocking, and to a certain extent unexpected. I was there on the first day of Occupy Central. The tension was palpable. People seemed optimistic, but how to forget what happened in 1989? Who could know whether the leadership in Beijing would react the same way and the soldiers of the PLA would storm out of their barracks to put down the demonstrations?  However, no one expected that thugs would do the dirty job of scaring off the protesters. Yesterday, men who oppose Occupy Central attacked

Clashes have erupted between Occupy Central demonstrators and pro-Beijing groups. A woman speaking Mandarin was seen giving orders to men who attacked protesters. Are pro-Communist forces in Hong Kong using thugs to scare Occupy Central supporters? PICTURED: Disorder in Mong Kok as anti-protesters confront protesters http://t.co/RmZuwQm3I2 pic.twitter.com/PLhTJGWp8l — SCMP News (@SCMP_News) October 3, 2014 This is difficult to say and impossible to prove (that's where the cleverness of this strategy lies). However, it can be proved that Beijing has been using this kind of tactics in Taiwan, where the so-called ' White Wolf ', a former leader of a criminal syndicate, meddled in this year's Sunflower Movement protests to intimidate opponents of China-Taiwan reunification.

Wang Long, a 26-year-old Chinese activist, was arrested in Shenzhen because he posted pictures of Hong  Kong's Occupy Central on Chinese media. He was detained for " picking quarrels and provoking trouble ”. At least 3 people have been so far detained on the mainland because they posted photos of the protests in Hong Kong. Wang Long had already hit the headlines earlier this month when he sued China Unicom , a state-owned telecom provider, for denying access to Google websites and services. After the Occupy Central campaign was launched by Benny Tai on September 28, thousands of people have joined the demonstrations. The images of the protests have been shared by millions of people all over the world, but not in mainland China, where censorship has been at work to prevent the Chinese people from seeing what is really happening in Hong Kong. 

The People's Liberation Army  (PLA) is closely monitoring Hong Kong's Occupy Central (讓愛與和平佔領中環) - literally. The PLA headquarters are located on Lung Wui Road, close to Admiralty and the government offices in Tamar.    Today the South China Morning Post published a picture showing staff inside the  Chinese People's Liberation Army Forces Hong Kong Building  watching the protesters with binoculars.  Occupy Central poses the biggest challenge to Communist rule since the 1989 student protests. The democracy movement on the mainland was suppressed by the very PLA whose garrisons entered Hong Kong after British forces left the city in 1997. I had never noticed that building until last Sunday. While I was walking from Central towards Tamar, trying to return to Admiralty, I stumbled upon a group of protesters gathered in front of the PLA headquarters. The road was blocked by the police, so I couldn't walk any further. I turned around and saw the military pr

Two weeks ago, a 27-year-old Taiwanese woman surnamed Wu (吳)  travelled to Hong Kong, but during her stay in the city she spent all of her money, that is HK$2000 (approximately 200 Euros, or 7800 NT$).  Yesterday (September 10) her friends took her to  Kwai Hing , near Kwai Chung Road , where she basically "settled down" in the middle of the street. She took off her jeans, sitting and walking around in her panties; she washed her hair in public; she began selling what she had in her suitcase, mostly beauty products; and she offered "beauty treatment" to passers-by, charging HK$50.  Her behaviour and looks astonished the passers-by, some of whom called the police. 

On August 31, 2014, the Tenth Session of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress (NPC) adopted a decision  on " Issues Relating to the Selection of the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region [HKSAR]  by Universal Suffrage and on the Method for Forming the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the Year 2016 ".  #454428966 / gettyimages.com According to Paragraph 2 of Article 45 of the Hong Kong Basic Law , the NPC has the right to reform Hong Kong's electoral system " in the light of the actual situation " and " in accordance with the principle of gradual and orderly progress. " As specified in the Basic Law, the " ultimate aim is the selection of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee ". 

Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Issues Relating to the Selection of the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region by Universal Suffrage and on the Method for Forming the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the Year 2016 Adopted at the Tenth Session of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress on 31 August 2014 The Standing Committee of the Twelfth National People's Congress considered at its Tenth Session the Report on whether there is a need to amend the methods for selecting the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 2017 and for forming the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in 2016 submitted by Leung Chun-ying, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, on 15 July 2014. In the course of deliberation, the relevant views and suggestions of the Hong Kong community w

Yesterday the Beijing police confirmed that Jaycee Chan ( 房祖名 ; Fang Zuming), the son of martial arts film star Jackie Chan , and Taiwanese Actor Ke Zhendong (柯震東, also spelt Ko Chen-tung in Taiwan's Wade-Giles system) were arrested on August 14 in the Chinese capital on charges of drug use.  The 23-year-old Ke Zhendong had achieved notoriety on both sides of the Taiwan Strait with the 2011 romantic film You Are the Apple of My Eye (那些年，我們一起追的女孩, literally "Those Years, The Girl We Chased Together"). Ke is accused of drug consumption and faces 14 days in prison.  Jaycee Chan, however, is accused of a much more serious crime. The police found in his Beijing residence 100 grams of marijuana which was probably destined for other people's consumption. He faces a prison sentence of up to 4 years.  

On July 1997, the former British colony of Hong Kong officially became part of the People's Republic of China. But while the Communist leaders in Beijing would like to remember this day as a glorious moment in the history of the whole nation, today at 3pm thousands of Hong Kongers rallied to demand more democracy , in an open act of defiance against the central government. A large crowd gathered at Victoria Park, in front of Hong Kong Central Library . The protesters are now marching towards Central , the city's business and financial district. Half a million people are expected to take part in the rally . The demonstration was organised by Occupy Central with Love and Peace , a movement launched by Hong Kong professor Benny Tai Yiu-ting . The movement demands direct elections of Hong Kong's Chief Executive in 2017.  At the end of last month, the Occupy Central movement organised an unofficial referendum . As the polls closed on Sunday, 787,767 Hong Kongers had cas

On Wednesday 18  Next Media , Hong Kong's largest media company, was the target of an unprecedented hacking attack that paralysed some of its most prominent websites, such as that of the popular newspaper Apple Daily . Tim Yiu, Next Media 's chief operating officer, said that he received the first reports of massive attacks at around 2 am. According to Eric Chen, the president of Apple Daily Taiwan , the company had reinforced its web defences against hacking following attacks in February, but the last attacks were so strong that the system was overwhelmed. The Hong Kong website of Apple Daily  was able to resume operations only after 12 hours, while its Taiwan edition was affected less severely. Apple Daily head office in Taipei ( source ) It is not clear who is behind the attacks, but many suspect that they were launched on Beijing's initiative or by pro-Beijing groups. Jimmy Lai, the founder of Next Media, stated that he didn't want to speculate, but tha

On June 10 the Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China issued a white paper aimed at clarifying the concept and implementation of the "one country, two systems" model in Hong Kong.  The document shocked many Hong Kongers, who believe that Beijing is trying to restrict their freedom and autonomy and bring the former British colony in line with the policies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The white paper in fact bluntly reaffirms that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is subordinate to the central government. According to the white paper , " the central government exercises overall jurisdiction over the HKSAR, including the powers directly exercised by the central government, and the powers delegated to the HKSAR by the central government to enable it to exercise a high degree of autonomy in accordance with the law. The central government has the power of oversight over the exercise of a high degree of auto

If you are a fan of Wong Kar-wai 's film In the Mood for Love , you may remember the famous 'restaurant scene', in which the two protagonists find out that their spouses are having an affair. I watched that film for the first time when I was a student in Italy, and I immediately loved it. That was still the 'Blockbuster' era, when people used to borrow DVDs and then watch them at home with friends. I was preparing an exam, and I used to relax watching some films in the cold winter evenings. I was particularly interested in Asian films. I hadn't started studying Chinese, yet, and I had no plans to go to Asia, but my fascination for that part of the world was growing. Wong Kar-wai's film impressed me for its masterful style: the mysterious and delicate atmosphere, the dialogues, brief and full of allusions, and the way in which emotions were conveyed more through musical and visual techniques than through words.  Although I had watched the 'restau

How free are media in Hong Kong? This is a question I couldn't help asking myself these days. In a previous post I wrote about Alpais Lam Wai-Sze , a primary school teacher who swore at police officers because they allegedly did not prevent a Communist association from harassing members of Falun Gong, a religious group that is illegal in mainland China. The media response to this event in Hong Kong was very critical. Not critical of the police, but of the teacher and of Falun Gong. I would go as far as to say that the teacher has been the victim of a slander campaign. How deep Hong Kong media's self-censorship is, has become clear to me by reading the South China Morning Post (SCMP). The SCMP, which was once considered one of the best English language newspapers in Asia, constantly features pro-establishment, pro-Beijing, and anti-democracy articles. One example of this I could see yesterday, on Monday 19.   On page A2 appeared the usual column by Alex Lo. I have

One thing that every tourist should do before leaving Hong Kong is to cross Victoria Harbour by ferry . Ferries go regularly from Central Pier to Tsim Sha Tsui, in Kowloon peninsula. Tsim Sha Tsui (often called TST by locals) is one of the most densely populated commercial districts in Hong Kong, a major traffic hub and a popular tourist destination thanks to its shopping boulevards - whose luxury boutiques are mostly frequented by mainland Chinese nowadays -  old colonial buildings, high-class hotels, museums and exhibition centres. However, the landmark of Tsim Sha Tsui and Kowloon is without doubt its characteristic waterfront promenade, which not only features an old clock tower - the last remnant of a demolished railway station - and the Avenue of Stars , but also boasts a wonderful view of the impressive skyline of Hong Kong Island , the city's financial and business centre.   View Larger Map Tsim Sha Tsui Tsim Sha Tsui can be reached both

I have already spent almost two months in Hong Kong, and the day of my departure draws nearer and nearer. I had already come to Hong Kong twice before, once in April and once in October last year. I had really had a great time back then, meeting nice people and having a lot of things to do every day.  After spending more than a year in Taiwan, I made up my mind to explore the life in another place, and I chose Hong Kong, which is both a wonderful world city and a gateway to mainland China. I will write a post about my experience in Hong Kong some day; now I would like to make a comparison between Hong Kong and Taipei and list off some differences between them. 1) Thousands of Skyscrapers vs Two Skyscrapers Hong Kong is a skyscraper city. Not only does it have one of the most stunning, beautiful and distinctive skylines in the world; but the majority of the population actually live in the thousands of skyscrapers that can be found on every corner of Hong Kong Island, Kowloo