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In Taikoo Shing mall, people are circling around the ice skating rink chanting #antiELAB protest slogans. Similar scenes are currently unfolding in malls in all 18 of Hong Kong’s districts today.
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Members of the recently formed Hospital Authority employees’ union have voted to go on strike Monday over the government’s lack of action to curb the spread of #CoronaVirus. The motion passed by 3,123 versus 10.
The vote was broadcast live at street stations throughout the city.
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Like a lot of Hongkongers, my family escaped here from China in the hold of a “snake boat” that chugged across the Pearl River estuary to what was then a beacon of hope.
That people are now doing essentially the same to escape this place is unimaginable—or at least it should be.
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Seeing this clip from Lam’s “dialogue” shared everywhere. The speaker declares he “loves life” & wouldn’t kill himself. The belief that protesters are being “suicided”—killed by police then found in staged suicides—has truly gone mainstream, and many are saying this preemptively.
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Add pro-democracy business owners to the growing list of those targeted today.
Along with rice and snacks from Thailand, Aboutthai sold copies of the popular pro-democracy paper @appledaily_hk when other stores in cartel-dominated HK were pressured to take it off the shelves. twitter.com/TMclaughlin3/s…
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Speech being policed on the streets of Hong Kong as officers tell LegCo hopeful @wongjiyuet not to utter unspecified “sensitive words” and then to keep her voice down—this on the same day “sensitive” books began disappearing from public library shelves (news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/compon…). twitter.com/wongjiyuet/sta…
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Article 60 stipulates that part or all of the Regulations may be scrapped if Hong Kong’s situation materially changes (e.g. if the NPC bypasses LegCo to pen a National security law for HK, invalidating 1C2S).
This could open the way for offering refuge to protesters fleeing HK.
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The people versus Beijing has become the people versus the police newstatesman.com/world/asia/201…
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Periodic reminder that there are well over half a million non-Han and mixed Hongkongers, and although many of us trace our roots back to the colony’s early days when ethnic Han comprised less than half of the permanent population, pedigree is meaningless.
statistics.gov.hk/pub/B112010020… twitter.com/dancohen3000/s…
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What’s happened in the past five hours?
Rick Hui, Sha Tin District Councillor: arrested
Althea Suen, former HKUSU president: arrested
Cheng Chung-tai, New Territories West Legislative Councillor: arrested
When will it end? twitter.com/rhokilpatrick/…
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Hitting a water barricade with a hiking pole: 4 years in prison.
Stabbing people with a meat cleaver: 3 years, 9 months (bbc.com/news/world-asi…). twitter.com/rthk_enews/sta…
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HK’s Basic Law guarantees both freedom of the press and “full autonomy on immigration matters.”
This is why millions of HKers took to to the streets, and partly why @iingwen won by landslide. They could see the death of One Country, Two Systems. Now, surely, the whole world can. twitter.com/BethanyAllenEb…
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This on the same day as dozens of armed police were sweeping through nearby IFC mall, pepper spraying people to prevent small groups of would-be protesters from gathering.
One Country, Two Systems may be dying but One City, Two Systems is alive and well.
hk.appledaily.com/local/20200509… twitter.com/iainmarlow/sta…
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Hundreds of people, many in black, wearing masks, and carrying white flowers of mourning, are streaming through the Tseung Kwan O car park where Chow Tsz-lok suffered a fatal fall last Sunday. It’s deathly quiet.
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HKU Council, mostly appointed by the Chief Executive and not representative of the University, have decided to fire Occupy organiser and law prof Benny Tai. Yet another sad day for HKU and academic freedom in Hong Kong.
消息：港大校委會決定即時解僱戴耀廷 news.mingpao.com/ins/%e6%b8%af%…
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Meanwhile, just around the corner on Chatham Road South, riot police close in on protesters from both directions and an armoured vehicle storms through the barricades, tear gas and various intermediate weapons fired throughout.
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HKers are gathering in Central tonight to mark half a year since the 12 June rally to stop the extradition bill passing in LegCo. It wasn’t the first protest or the largest, but it was the moment this stopped being just about the bill and the five demands began to be articulated.
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Almost at the stroke of midnight, a raptor charge followed by tear gas grenades lobbed at the people assembled around a single arrested protester. It’s Christmas Day now.
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Tomorrow night, local football fans will form a #HongKongWay human chain up Caroline Hill, home of the Hong Kong Football Association. These #antiELAB demonstrations just keep getting more niche!
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Int’l coverage of Taiwan has come leaps and bounds as more correspondents have moved here in recent years; but, as I listen to a 40-minute podcast on Pelosi’s trip in which Taiwan’s people and their elected leaders are not mentioned once, I’m reminded how far we still have to go.
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They went to the trouble of annexing Taiwan for the PRC yet Tasmania isn't Australian, Northern Ireland has left the UK, and Newfoundland, Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii, and the entire Arctic Archipelago have all succeeded from Canada.
I'm just fascinated by how bad this map is. twitter.com/NFL345/status/…
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Just voted in the local primary for pro-democracy candidates for the September LegCo elections, along with many other neighbours similarly undeterred by government warnings that participating might violate the new state Security Law, and last night’s police raid of pollster PORI.
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Details of the law that promises to “restore stability” to Hong Kong must not be disclosed because it would destabilise Hong Kong. t.co/R3RwYdj4hX
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At one point last night I had to climb on top of a nearby building and film the reflections of detainees off Hysan Place because police blocked off Lee Garden Road. They could say they created the additional space for officers’ comfort and supporters would get behind it. Why lie? twitter.com/XinqiSu/status…
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Another, third attempt was also made —this time called back when riot police began approaching them from the rear. Several times today I’ve witnessed protesters charge headlong into danger after reminding each other this is their last chance to rescue the students at PolyU.
Managing Editor @cnmediaproject 中國傳媒研究計劃主編