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Video from when riot police fired tear gas in CWB, a major shopping district. Captures for the first time in months a hallmark of policing in HK - tear gas being fired, creating chaos & achieving nothing. It doesn't make crowds disperse, it just drives them back. Vid: Telegram
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Today a referendum will be held in HK to determine whether HKers should launch a general strike in opposition to the draconian new national security law.
It’s organised by ‘HK on Strike’, a labour coalition comprising of over 30 trade unions & a school students organisation.
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Breaking: The UK’s TV regulator Ofcom has revoked CGTN’s license to broadcast as it was wrongly held. States it could not transfer the license to the CGTN corporation as “it is ultimately controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, which is not permitted under UK broadcasting law” twitter.com/Ofcom/status/1…
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SCMP reporting the HK Police's Director of National Security Frederic Choi was found in an 'unlicensed massage parlour' during a raid - now on leave pending investigation. Choi is so senior he appears on the 'senior officers' section of the HKPF website...
scmp.com/news/hong-kong…
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Breaking: The Civil Human Rights Front (民間人權陣線) received a letter of objection from the HK Police re the Oct 1st (national day) march supporting the #save12hkyouths campaign. CHRF say they’ll appeal but it effectively makes the march illegal & attendees liable for arrest.
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Footage of the crowd discovering the identity of undercover HK Police officers in TKO has emerged. In a signature move, the officers threatened passersby, journalists & protestors with pepper spray. The contempt the police have for everyone on-scene is vile. Vid: HSUSU/編委恒大
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Turnout looking extremely strong in the pan-democratic primary in HK - almost 60,000 have voted in the first 3 hours - despite the co-organisers being raided by police last night, an explosion in coronavirus cases & the national security law. Voting continues thru tomorrow too.
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Me & @BenGartside reveal the UK Government bought over £150m of PPE from Chinese firms linked to Uighur human rights abuses. Two of the firms are linked to an organisation (the XPCC) sanctioned by the US in connection with egregious human rights violations.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/…
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After reports new national security legislation is set to bar foreign judges from nat sec cases, ExCo member Ip Kwok-him has called for special courts to rule on nat sec cases with judges hand-picked by the NPCSC in Beijing. Would crucify HK's rule of law.
hk.appledaily.com/local/20200608…
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Did an @AppleDaily_HK piece on how the HK Police’s decision to ban the 6.4 Tiananmen vigil is the latest in a catalogue of tactical errors by them. Tldr: They’ll look terrible if it’s all peaceful & even worse if they instigate violence on 6.4 of all days. s.nextmedia.com/realtime/a.php…
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This would be nice & all but can we please not forget all non-BNOs born after 1997 (~70% of frontline protestors) are still in limbo. Focus must be on pushing the UK govt to go further as the situation continues to deteriorate & offer *all* HKers the right to settle in the UK. twitter.com/tomhfh/status/…
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The VC of Demosisto @IsaacChengCKL has become the second person arrested on suspicion of violating the Trade Descriptions Ordinance for making face masks labelled as ‘not made in China’.
Another case of blatant political persecution by the HK government.
hk.appledaily.com/local/20200525…
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So the presser to announce the national security legislation in HK at 19:45 Beijing time didn't materialise. Either Ming Pao (明報) got the time wrong or something is up. But 2 hours late, it's starting in 10 mins. Hope your mandarin is up to scratch... hk01.com/%E6%94%BF%E6%8…
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Powerful statement & discussion on LIHKG by a Mother who’s 12 year-old daughter was arrested by the HK police for no reason in Mong Kok. She used to see the police as protectors but now sees them indiscriminately arresting kids & supports the 5 demands
-> lih.kg/2014353
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Chinese state media pushing an email claiming to be from Peng Shuai to the WTA after it raised concerns about her whereabouts. Says her allegations against a fmr top CCP official are not true & “I’ve just been resting at home and everything is fine”
This reeks. #WhereIsPengShuai twitter.com/CGTNOfficial/s…
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Update: The all-new @AppleDaily_HK (蘋果日報) English edition can now be downloaded worldwide! Now you can get HK’s biggest newspaper & staunch supporter of the pro-democracy movement in English anywhere!
Nice swift fix @JimmyLaiApple, @HKMarkSimon!
App:
onelink.to/appledailyapp twitter.com/JackHHazlewood…
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Carrie Lam has slammed former Democratic Party chair Emily Lau for ‘not understanding democracy’.
That’d be the same Carrie Lam who in 2018 donated HK$30,000 to the Democratic Party - who’s candidates were all arrested under the National Security Law in January. Riddle me that.
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HSBC is holding shares worth millions in a subsidiary of the XPCC, a US-sanctioned Chinese paramilitary org responsible for atrocities against the Uyghurs. The subsidiary has also been implicated in the atrocities. With @Gabriel_Pogrund for @TheSundayTimes.thetimes.co.uk/article/cb5162…
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Stand News (立場) reporting that a man in white threw a beer can on the road in the direction of riot police, who chased him. A SN reporter filming the incident was then threatened by police & told to move, & was peppersprayed a few seconds later with other reporters. Pic: SN.
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HK social media users & bloggers are getting increasingly adept at spotting undercover police; pictures swirl all over FB within minutes afterwards. These are from TKO. You can kind of just tell from their vacant expressions & how they look out of place. Pics: 丘品新聞/Cupid News twitter.com/JackHHazlewood…
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Full statement here. The video is from brave HKUST student reporters.
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The level of sarc in the Eye on HSBC’s CEO:
“On connections to the CCP, Quinn knew nothing. Ten times (thought to be a record for a parliamentary witness), the top banker was “not aware”. Then there were umpteen “not to my knowledge”, “do not know”, “not that I’m aware of...”
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Breaking: Following the closure of Apple Daily, HK’s largest remaining pro-democracy news outlet @StandNewsHK has announced it will remove all op-eds & comment pieces from its website & suspend subscriptions. It will only publish news pieces from now on.
beta.thestandnews.com/media/%E7%AB%8…
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June 2020: Ed. Sec. Kevin Yeung says schools should be prepared to call the police if kids show serious disrespect to the 🇨🇳 national anthem
April 2021: Yeung rejects compulsory reporting of suspected child abuse cases in skls bc kids are "after all only at skls for a few hours"
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So the justification for the Hong Kong Police brutally assaulting peaceful demonstrators tonight, including an elderly man is they “blocked roads”. The Police’s FB also described them as “rioters”
You heard it here first: peacefully commemorating the Tiananmen Massacre = rioting twitter.com/hkpoliceforce/…
前蘋果日報專欄作家. Words/investigations @TheSundayTimes @Telegraph @TheEconomist @ForeignPolicy @Australian etc, docs @PopularFront_