Sad, sad, sad ... and stupid!

It's on again!  Mainland China is again showing Hong Kong its Heinous Scary face and we really do need the rest of the world to know and watch and pretty much shame China into backing off again!

As you know, I adore HK and also love China, which has the most to-die-for material culture, the most kindly people and the most sublime scenic beauty so let's give the Mainland its due ... before we turn on them and "van Helsing" this latest attack right back across their border.

And they so deserve it because China is currently in the wrong. In fact, deep inside the WRONGEST WRONG ever!!!

You know, don't you, that, back in mid 1989, after The Event that Must Not Be Named, over 3,000,000 Hong Kongers marched on Government House to plead with the British "Please don't give us back to that Heinous Scary Country!!!" so the British had China sign the "One Country: Two Systems" law as a condition of The Handover which meant that China had to leave us alone for 50 years. 

And, sad to say, China hasn't kept their side of the deal. During the years I've been here, we've personally seen several Waves of Heinous Scary, which have usually and thankfully ended with feisty Hong Kong coming out in tens of thousands to exercise our Right to Protest which has sent China packing, although with each retreating wave something good is taken and something very nasty is left behind.

One wave took all our independent judges, another wave took our crusading and fearless newspaper editors, another tainted the independence of our police force, another tainted our Immigration so "dangerous enemies of state" - dangerous terrorists like Mia Farrow - are now forbidden entry, while, on orders from Our Northern Brethren, truly vile people like the Mugabe's are free to come and go as they please.

And then, after the last wave and subsequent wave of protest, China said it now realised it had to win our hearts and minds before it tried again, meaning, of course, that the end plan is to totally ignore "One Country: Two Systems" and jackboot us into submission ... only have us so we're ever so weak-kneed and grateful to them for doing it!

Thus, in light of the fact that we're being "honeymooned" by China at the moment, this latest Heinous Scary can't be seen as anything other than Downright Stupid!

What's happened?

Well, for nearly a minute last week, some smarty-pants projected a photo ...

 (Hey, just because I have one,

doesn't mean it was me!)

... onto the wall of PLA's building down at the harbour front: the image of a certain currently-sino-imprisoned artist, with the caption "Who's Afraid of Ai Wai Wai?"

Small, trivial and kinda laugh-worthy, right?

NO! Not so! 

China is furious! In fact, China has suffered a complete failure of humour and went into Instant Melt-down Mode and, well, the nicest thing to say is that it isn't pretty!

The THREATS!  The promise to do harm!

What will now happen, according to Beijing, is that China will investigate This Heinous Crime with the seriousness it deserves. They say they will track down the culprit and s/he will be charged, put through trial and punished "as if this were China-Proper!"

I mean, huh????  Say what????

Aren't there ever so many International Laws that mean they CAN'T do this?  Laws saying that people must be charged according to the laws of the country where the crime was committed?  That even threatening to do this is a complete violation of our sovereignty?

This cannot be permitted. China must be stopped. Someone needs to explain the rules to Beijing in a way they understand, so they know exactly what they're violating here; that this ISN'T China and we have ever so many documents they signed saying this is so; that they are breaking rules they agreed to; that, by breaking these rules, they are richly deserving to be condemned; that they're earning the rightful approbation of the world with what can only be described as a childish and heinous hissy-fit temper tantrum!; that, truly, we're all not children anymore, and that they too should behave like a proper adult nation; that people here have the fundamental right to harmless protest; that, since this is Hong Kong and we're allowed to do stuff like this, they should lighten up and simply let it go!

I mean, how harmless is a simple projection onto a wall?   People are thinking this stuff anyway, and putting protest out there with good humour and a sense of fun is a simple release of pressure so it doesn't build up into something truly dangerous!

Honestly, China needs a history lesson, doesn't it. Don't they know that banning all lighthearted protest, including lampooning and cartooning, lead directly and almost immediately - it took only six months - to the French Revolution and that horrible wave of death and destruction that brought the entire nation of France to its knees!

Honestly, China, it was a harmless prank. No one got hurt. We here in HK are allowed to do stuff like this!  It's one of our fundamental freedoms that you agreed to when you signed The Basic Law.

Besides, the projection has gone leaving no trace so you'll have the worst time proving it was ever even there.

So instead of using this as an excuse to jackboot all over us, laugh, you guys, LAUGH.

Honestly, China, it was funny and, although you think you LOST FACE over this frankly childish prank, you're losing a great deal more face with your current response ...  so, please, to really save face ... just laugh at it and let it go!