📡Guardians of Hong Kong aka BeWater HK
597 subscribers
804 photos
16 videos
602 links
We provide translation of news in English from local media and other sources, for academic use.
Facebook: http://bit.ly/BeWaterHongKong
Instagram: @guardiansofhk
Download Telegram
Famed Hong Kong Author Ni Kuang Passed Away at 87; Novel Warned of Doom if Hong Kong Lost Its Freedom

Hong Kong author Ni Kuang passed away at home on July 3, 2022 at 87 years of age. A prolific Chinese-language novelist and screenwriter, he was the author of numerous celebrated science fiction novels, including the long-running Wisely series and Dr. Yuen series.

His death was widely mourned by Hong Kong's netizens as well as fellow writers. Author Sai Shing Sun, who is a friend of Ni and had long considered him to be his godbrother, posted on Facebook: "Big Brother Ni had left this afternoon." Columnist and writer Chip Tsao posted a photo of him and Ni together, and remembered him as "the most clear-minded individual in the Chinese-speaking world these past 70 years".

Ni appeared on an #RTHK talk show three years ago, where he and veteran lawyer Paul Shieh discussed his novel "Chasing the Dragon" (追龍). The story revolved around a great city in the east, and it was prophesied that it would lose its great qualities, and the city would thus perish.

An excerpt from "Chasing the Dragon" reads:

"To destroy a great city, the cause doesn't have to be a natural catastrophe; it could also be a man-made disaster. And it is not necessarily a war; but a few words of a few people, the foolish and ignorant acts of a few people - it is enough make a great city completely die. You don't have to destroy its buildings. You don't have to kill a single inhabitant. You can even make it appear the same as before on the outside. You only need to make its great qualities disappear, and city would then perish and die."

Ni, who fled China after the Communist Party came to power, said on the program that the novel was a political allegory for Hong Kong.

"Hong Kong was liberated, just like Shanghai was liberated, by the Communists. They came to power with their own principles. People talk about 'One Country Two Systems' this and that, and I only laughed at them for being so easily duped. They asked me why; I said I don't even believe that One Country Two Systems exists. What do you mean it's damaged? The question is moot.

"Communists do whatever they want. Communists promised One Country Two Systems; since when were Communists trustworthy? They never followed through a single promise all these years."

If Hong Kong were to lose its freedom, he said on the 2019 show, then Hong Kong's great quality would be destroyed. "[They would] be unreasonable, and restrict people's freedoms ... mainly the freedom of speech. It's the mother of all freedoms. Without freedom of speech, you have no other freedoms."

source: In-MediaHK.net #Jul4
https://bit.ly/3a9pWHA

#NiKuang #HongKongLiterature #FreedomOfSpeech #OneCountryTwoSystems #CCP
Today's Hong Kong, Tomorrow's Taiwan? #Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council: Refuse "One Country Two Systems"

[Editor note: July 1st is the Establishment Day of the Hong Kong SAR, noting the change in Hong Kong's sovereignty from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC since the 1997 handover.]

2022 marks 25 years since the sovereignty over Hong Kong was trasferred from Britain to the #PRC.

The Taiwan government reiterates their refusal of "#OneCountryTwoSystems". Since the #AntiELAB movement in Hong Kong in 2019, Taiwanese people has become more concerned about the happenings in Hong Kong.

How do Taiwanese people see the current situation in Hong Kong? How would they comment on the so-called "unchanging state" promised by the PRC to Hong Kong for 50 years? Are they worried?

#RFA interviewed a few Taiwanese on the 25th anniversary of the change of Hong Kong's sovereignty.

Many people analogise "Today's Hong Kong, Tomorrow's Taiwan" in recent years. One of the interviewees mentioned the change in Hong Kong in these 25 years -- Hong Kong was very vigorous in the media and the publishing industries. She mentioned that Taiwanese sought Hong Kong publishers to produce their "blacklisted books" during the white terror era, but now it is the opposite. She said the so-called unchsnging state is a lie for the regime to deceive people.

Source: RFA #July01
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/htm/tw-71reax-07012022062344.html

#EstablishmentDay #Taiwan #TransferralofSovereignty #Handover #censorship
US Terminates HKETO to Get Rid of China's Propaganda in the US

With the implementation of #NationalSecueityLaw (#NSL) in 2020, the US has announced that they no longer recognise Hong Kong's autonomy; One-Country-Two-Systems is also dead.

On 15 Dec, Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Chris Smith requested the US to re-assess the privilege and status of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (#HKETO) under the HKETO Certification Acts. They believe HKETO has become Hong Kong's propaganda and urge the US to completely remove them from the country.

Chris Smith described that China's dictator, #XiJinping, suppressed civil and political rights in Hong Kong with NSL, destroying the #BasicLaw and #SinoBritishJointDeclaration. He pointed out that the #USCongress had once published Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in 2020 to decline Hong Kong's autonomy. Therefore, US Law should reflect the fact. At the moment, HKETO is only China's propaganda with no reason for its existence inside the US border.

The HKETO Certificate Act requests the US President to prove whether their Offices can continue having the current privilege within 30 days after it has been passed. If the President opposes their existence, the government must revoke the offices' benefits, and they must cease operation in 6 months. Even if the President agrees on the privilege, Congress can still disapprove.

Executive Director of Hong Kong Democracy Council (#HKDC), Anna Kwok, mentioned the 3 locations of the HKETO offices in the US in Washington, New York and San Francisco on her Facebook Page. HKDC and other HongKonger organisations in the US found out the HKETO promoting "Hong Kong is back" earlier. They present a false picture of peace and prosperity, claiming Hong Kong as a free and democratic place.

#China #US #OneCountryTwoSystems #MarcoRubio #ChrisSmith #AnnaKwok

Source: Commons #Dec16

http://cmmns.co/ejN8w