Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
The Apple Daily Is No More
Today’s edition will be the last for Hong Kong’s Apple Daily. Police raids, the arrest of top executives, and the harassment of many other employees have brought the paper to the point where, for the safety of hundreds of employees, they felt they could no longer continue. The pressure to toe the Xi line or fold has been ratcheting since China imposed a draconian security law on Hong Kong, abrogating Beijing’s treaty with London when London ceded sovereignty of the island. The fragility of Xi’s rule is underscored by his terror of an honest and free press. More from the Epoch Time.
Bless the management and staff of the Apple Daily, and their leader Jimmy Lai. Their paper is gone, but the fight continues.
Published in Journalism
To support the history and freedoms of the old Hong Kong and deplore what China has done smacks of an endorsement of colonialism. Better to let it go and look away. Admitting that British rule, and the society is built, is superior to CCP rule, would imply a hierarchy, and such things are not to be discussed.
From my own blog, back in March.
https://rushbabe49.com/2021/03/05/hong-kong-is-fading-away-as-a-bastion-of-liberty/
Next stop: Taiwan. One country, one system.
The collapse of Hong Kong’s financial services sector will not serve Beijing well.
I always felt Hong Kong was a blot on Margaret Thatcher’s record.
She was shocked when Mao refused to extend the lease on generous terms. I am not sure how she could have brought him around even arm and arm with the other allied powers.
Those guys – Mao, Xi.. – always seem to think they can take over and it will stay just the same, producing lots of money for the regime, etc.
The 99-year lease was for the so-called New Territories, not Hong Kong proper, which had been ceded to the U.K. in perpetuity.
One ingenious suggestion was to turn over the New Territories to the Republic of China (i.e., Taiwan) but I think the Western powers had already made the stupid and dishonorable decision to transfer recognition from the ROC to Red China.
I had forgotten that bit. Thank you for the correction.