Hong Kong government ramps up violence vs pro-democracy protesters

As I write, in the wee hours of the morning, Hong Kong time, the city is relatively quiet. Pro-democracy protesters, the majority of them high school and college students yesterday, are licking their wounds -- literally -- after a day filled with violence and terrorism, perpetrated by the Hong Kong police to quell yet another day of anti-government protests.

For over thirteen weeks now -- a quarter of a year -- the Hong Kong "Special Administrative Region of China" has been convulsed by sometimes violent protests and mass demonstrations, in response to a proposed law by the Communist-backed administration of CEO Carrie Lam that would allow people suspected of crimes on the mainland to be extradited to face trial in Chinese courts.

Today was supposed to be back-to-school day in Hong Kong, but yesterday over 100,000 students chose to go on strike to force the puppet government not just to withdraw completely the extradition bill, but guarantee the people of Hong Kong the democratic freedoms they were promised under the "one country two systems" provisions of the agreement between Britain and China when the Brits handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997.

The student demonstrators tried to make their point peacefully -- chanting and holding up signs -- while at the same time obstructing the flow of traffic in the city-state's streets and around the airport, one of the world's busiest. Hong Kong police responded by using pepper spray against travellers on the city's Mass Transit Railway (MTR), beating them with batons regardless of whether or not they were involved in the pro-democracy demonstrations.

Radio Free Asia reported that police began beating individuals indiscriminately at the Prince Edward MTR station, attacking them with pepper spray which they were sitting quietly on trains. RFA cited video which showed that "the police, who wore the black, armored uniforms of the 'raptor' special forces, appeared to be in pursuit of protesters, but instead attacked passengers indiscriminately, the footage showed. One was a small boy who was left with head injuries." Footage appeared to show individuals, including protesters, trying to stop police from beating innocent bystanders but largely failing to prevent the violence.

Just a few minutes ago, Reuters reported that Ms Lam, speaking in last week to a group of businesspeople, said she has caused "unforgivable havoc" by igniting the political crisis engulfing the city and would quit if she had a choice. But she doesn't. Under Hong Kong's current political set-up, the Chief Executive is chosen indirectly, by a group of electors (not unlike the American Electoral College!) chosen in elections rigged to favour pro-Beijing candidates.

At the closed-door meeting, Ms Lam told the group that she now has "very limited" room to resolve the crisis because the unrest has become a national security and sovereignty issue for China amid rising tensions with the United States. "If I have a choice," she said, speaking in English, "the first thing is to quit, having made a deep apology."

She suggested that Beijing had not yet reached a turning point, and had not imposed any deadline for ending the crisis ahead of China's National Day celebrations scheduled for October 1. And, she said, China had "absolutely no plan" to deploy People's Liberation Army troops on Hong Kong streets. World leaders have been closely watching whether China will send in the military to quell the protests, as it did a generation ago in the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.

Ms Lam noted, however, that she had few options once an issue had been elevated "to the national level" -- meaning the Communist Party Pollitburo in Beijing -- "to a sort of sovereignty and security level, let alone in the midst of this sort of unprecedented tension between the two big economies in the world."

Walt, spent the better (?) party of two years in Hong Kong and its twin across the bay, Shenzhen, is watching too, and is in complete sympathy with the protesters. Will our leaders, who preach democracy and freedom (except of course in their own countries) do anything to help the people of Hong Kong in their struggle to avoid total domination by the Chinese Communists? I'm sad to say I think the chances are slim and none. But stay tuned.

Why I believe Chen Guangwen

Yesterday afternoon, in "What happened to MH370: a Chinese theory", Walt shared a narrative developed by a Chinese blogger, Chen Guangwen, as to the fate of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared on 8 March 2014. Only 5 pieces of wreckage have been found in the 2+ years since then, all far from the supposed crash site.

Mr Chen theorizes that, using drone technology, the American military seized control of the aircraft, diverted it to their base on Diego Garcia, and then flew it into the western Indian Ocean. They did this, he thinks, to keep the Chinese from getting their hands on the remote control devices, which fell into the hands of the Taliban when the Americans decamped from Afghanistan.

Not 12 hours later, I have already received questions. Who in hell is Chen Guangwen? Is his supposed blog real? And how did an article accusing the Chinese government of buying stolen military secrets get through the Great Firewall of China?

I had some doubts myself, but slept on it, and in the cold light of dawn am still inclined to accept that Mr Chen's post is real. Here's why. Suppose his story about the Chinese government making a deal with the Taliban to buy American military secrets is true. Suppose the Chinese put up the money and arranged for the "black boxes" to get as far as Malaysia. Then the Americans intervened and the plane, the black boxes, and Chinese avionics experts wound up in the briny deep.

The Chinese can't say anything officially, see, because to admit they were using the Taliban to steal American military technology isn't helpful for China-US relations, already strained over Chinese claims to larger and larger parts of the South China Sea. But they're really pissed off, and want to get the story out there. So they leak it to Chen Guangwen who puts it in his blog.

Walt reminds the doubters that there is no freedom of speech in China. All, all Internet activity is monitored and censored the 10s of 1000s of assiduous Communists whose sole function is to make sure that nothing is said that the Party doesn't want to be said. Yet Mr Chen's article was all over the Chinese Internet like a rash, to the point where Agent 78's dear old mother saw it and brought it to our Agent's attention. I rest my case.