Chinese head in Hong Kong invokes emergency powers
Escalation: Carrie Lam, the Chinese-appointed chief executive in Hong Kong, today invoked emergency powers in her effort to stem the anti-Chinese demonstrations that have been on-going now for four months.
[P]rotesters here can now face criminal penalties of up to than $3,000 and a year’s imprisonment simply for wearing the masks they have used to defend themselves against tear gas and the possibility of arrest.
And, having invoked emergency powers, Lam is now in a position to do almost anything. As the New York Times sums it up: “Under the emergency powers, Mrs. Lam has a wide discretion to create new criminal laws and amend existing laws — all without going through the legislative process.” Newspapers can be censored or shuttered, web sites closed down, property seized, searches carried out galore, and so forth.
It appears that China is beginning the process of cracking down, and will likely do it incrementally, in the hope this will defuse the response, both by the Hong Kong population and the international community.
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Escalation: Carrie Lam, the Chinese-appointed chief executive in Hong Kong, today invoked emergency powers in her effort to stem the anti-Chinese demonstrations that have been on-going now for four months.
[P]rotesters here can now face criminal penalties of up to than $3,000 and a year’s imprisonment simply for wearing the masks they have used to defend themselves against tear gas and the possibility of arrest.
And, having invoked emergency powers, Lam is now in a position to do almost anything. As the New York Times sums it up: “Under the emergency powers, Mrs. Lam has a wide discretion to create new criminal laws and amend existing laws — all without going through the legislative process.” Newspapers can be censored or shuttered, web sites closed down, property seized, searches carried out galore, and so forth.
It appears that China is beginning the process of cracking down, and will likely do it incrementally, in the hope this will defuse the response, both by the Hong Kong population and the international community.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I thought that certainly the emergency was that the Hong Kong police were shooting teenagers with live rounds of ammunition. Trust a communist to think that shooting people is an act of calmness.
After three decades, it turns out that China still does not care about the well being of its citizens and is willing to shoot them willy nilly in order for the government to get its own way. There should be calls for the resignation of the government, just as happened recently in Iraq.
From the article: “At a press conference Friday, Lam said she is doing this because violence has been ‘destroying the city.’”
NO. It is the Chinese insistence that freedom be squelched that is destroying the city. Trust a communist to misunderstand any situation.
“Hong Kongers have been demonstrating on a massive scale to save the rights and freedoms that China, in a treaty with Britain, promised they would enjoy for 50 years after the 1997 British handover.”
Trust communists to break the terms of treaties.
They are like three year olds, trying to push the boundaries of what they can get away with in order to get their own way, when what they really need is their diapers changed.
J. Edgar Hoover had it right, although in his case he was talking about America’s lawless communists:
https://www.azquotes.com/quote/1091685
Is anyone here still buying “Made in China”?
Edward, How dare you criticize what China does, when US troops slaughtered innocent, peaceful civilians at Kent State ?
Col Beausabre,
You wrote: “Edward, How dare you criticize what China does, when US troops slaughtered innocent, peaceful civilians at Kent State ?”
1) (If you are serious, and you aren’t) What makes you think I agree with that incident? And is was the Ohio National Guard, not US troops.
2) (If you are being sarcastic, and you are) Of course, anything that the US does is correct. The US is always right, has always been right, and always will be right. It is perfect in all possible ways. And so is the Ohio National Guard. It’s all the other countries that are wrong, always have been wrong, and always will be.
Witness Project:
Anastasia Lin
https://youtu.be/G-IBLFgP2ZE
8:00
Edward, Funny….The US Army thinks the National Guard is part of it (the uniforms the Ohio Guard wore and wears say “US Army” and their weapons and equipment were and are provided from US Army stocks). From the US Army’s official website (https://www.army.mil/info/organization/) “The Army, as one of the three military departments (Army, Navy and Air Force) reporting to the Department of Defense, is composed of two distinct and equally important components: the active component and the reserve components. The reserve components are the United States Army Reserve and the Army National Guard.” So National Guardsmen are US troops
Col Beausabre,
Your conclusion was: “So National Guardsmen are US troops”
Well, maybe we can include a large portion of us as being US troops, since much of the population is under the definition of the militia, as mentioned in the Second Amendment. Including Kent State students.
The status of National Guard troops depends on whose orders they are operating under.
If they’re on title 10 orders (as in Federally activated for national service) then they are US troops.
If they’re on other service, then they are under the complete control of the Governor and the Adjutant General of the state, and are the state militia.
It gets to be a sticky issue, particularly when working across organizations on a single mission.
As to the source of that discussion, they were, in fact, Ohio National Guard acting under the orders of their Governor, so they were state militia, not United States soldiers. They were not on title 10 orders.