July 02, 2003

So much for Two Systems

HK March Hong Kong is about as apolitical a place as there is on Earth, so it's surprising to see hundreds of thousands of people turn out for a protest. Or maybe not, once one realizes that Article 23 allows China to turn Hong Kong into a police state. Heck, most of them probably wouldn't even mind that, if it weren't for the 8% unemployment and the shoddy containment of SARS. The legislature only passed the law in the first place because the body was arbitrarily stacked with pro-China members, not to mention Tung Chee-Hwa, the hand-picked head stooge of the government. The government actually tried to stem the protests by distributing 10,000 free tickets for movies showing at theaters during the demonstration, and declared that all public swimming pools and museums were free for the day. How pathetically cynical is that?

Anyway, this should give the Taiwan-independence folks plenty of ammunition to last a while.

Posted by mikewang on 11:38 PM