26
Breaking: Document reveals Chinese military scientists discussed weaponising SARS coronaviruses five years before the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. @StateDept sources confirmed docs were obtained by them in May 2020.
Now in The @australian with @SharriMarkson. theaustralian.com.au/nation/politic…
27
Apple Daily reporting that the website of Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party, the party of Taiwanese President @iingwen, has now been censored in HK. Clear the authorities are plotting an extension of a version of China’s Great Firewall to include HK.
hk.appledaily.com/local/20210425…
28
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"
29
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.
30
Breaking: HK pro-democracy activist Andy Li, missing after returning from mainland China, has been held at a psychiatric hospital in secret according to @AppleDaily_HK sources - who claim it’s to prevent him speaking about details of his detention in China.hk.appledaily.com/news/20210329/…
31
Beijing's plans to overhaul HK's electoral system have just been revealed by the very-well-sourced HK01. Only 20 of the 90 seats in the reconstituted LegCo will be elected, with all anti-government candidates certain to be preventing from standing anyway. Democracy in tatters.
32
Breaking: @hkcnews_com reporting 47 of the 53 pro-democracy activists arrested in January under the National Security Law will be charged with subversion tomorrow. They are likely to be served with indefinite detention orders, meaning they will be locked up until their trial. twitter.com/hkcnews_com/st…
33
A whistleblower from the Chinese arm of Big Four accountant EY has alleged the firm looked the other way when presented with details of a risky stock purchase while performing an audit of a major client. Me with @BenGartside. telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/…
34
China's National Radio & Television Administration has announced BBC World News is now barred from airing in China following Ofcom's banning of CGTN. Another largely symbolic tit-for-tat response from Beijing - pretty toothless as BBC reporters won't e.g. have their visas revoked
35
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...”
36
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…
37
A year & a half ago, I had a reporting gig & was standing outside the British Consulate in HK as people demonstrated for expanded BNO rights. If you’d asked me then what are the chances of it happening, I’d have told you, emphatically, 0%.
Today, the UK’s BNO visa scheme opens.
38
In a contested field, @RhonddaBryant was among the best at grilling HSBC execs today - CEO doesn’t know the Chinese state owns their largest shareholder, doesn’t know HSBC lobbied against the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act, doesn’t know if he likes what’s happening in HK...
39
After years of controversy over HSBC’s relationship with Beijing & the bank playing an active role in the crackdown in HK (+ a @Telegraph investigation by @BenGartside, @CitySamuel & yours truly), the HSBC Group CEO is now facing the members of @CommonsForeign. This will be good.
40
Breaking: The US Department of the Treasury has confirmed the identity of the 6 sanctioned officials. Includes HK’s sole delegate to the NPCSC Tam Yiu-chung, the deputy head of the Office for Safeguarding National Security Sun Qingye and several senior officers in the HK Police. twitter.com/JackHHazlewood…
41
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/…
42
LegCo chamber, July 1st 2019
U.S. House chamber, January 6th 2021
One was a demonstration in support of democracy. One is a demonstration against.
43
Many of HK’s remaining democrats that were not arrested today under the National Security Law are now holding a press conf.
@HKDemocrats chair @lokinhei urged HKers not to give in & look out for each other; questioning why the govt felt the need to arrest the primary organisers.
44
Struggling to find words for this.
Overnight, most of HK’s most prominent pro-democracy politicians are now in jail under the National Security Law, along with an 🇺🇸 human rights lawyer, pollsters, @HongKongCTU chair & over 40 others.
This is why so many fled while they could.
45
As the 12 HK youths appear in a Shenzhen court in a sham trial, the EU is to sign a huge investment deal with China following assurances from Beijing over - get this - workers’ rights & forced labour (!)
History will judge this savagely. A nauseating juxtaposition in today’s @FT
46
HK01 reporting the NPC will announce on Saturday the disqualification of around 100 pro-democracy district councillors over breaching their oaths of office. The vacant seats will be filled by appointment, ensuring the councils return to pro-Beijing control.hk01.com/%E6%94%BF%E6%8…
47
SCMP reports Beijing is mulling scrapping all 117 seats set to be filled by overwhelmingly pro-democracy district councillors in the election committee that selects Hong Kong’s chief executive, in an effort to crush their influence on the 2022 CE election. scmp.com/news/hong-kong…
48
Me, @BenGartside & @CitySamuel reveal the CCP membership of senior execs in major 🇬🇧 & international financial institutions for the @Telegraph. One StanChart exec encouraged party branch involvement in company affairs & was personally praised by Xi Jinping telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/…
49
Looked at the formation of the ‘Bauhinia Party’ by super-rich mainland financiers for Apple Daily. Is HK’s pro-Beijing establishment & the likes of Regina Ip on the way out? Probably not - but expect to see mainlanders serving in LegCo & the HK govt soon. hk.appledaily.com/opinion/202012…
50
Due to U.S. sanctions, Carrie Lam no longer has access to banking services, claiming “I have piles of cash at home - the govt is paying me cash for my salary because I don’t have a bank account”
Earning $5 million HKD p.a., her house must look like it’s inhabited by a drug lord.
前蘋果日報專欄作家. Words/investigations @TheSundayTimes @Telegraph @TheEconomist @ForeignPolicy @Australian etc, docs @PopularFront_