Last Thursday saw the implementation of a feature that allows Alipay users to create online communities. But, as has happened with online streaming sites, content revolving around adult themes quickly sprang up and began attracting both attention and criticism.One online group, called “Campus Story”, was filled with photos of young women dressed as provocative schoolgirls, while another group, called “White Collar Diary”, featured many professional-looking women.

In just a few days, these online groups had attracted massive attention for what the Shanghai Daily called their “excessively exposed photos”.

By Sunday, “Campus Diary” had received over 6.7 million views, while “White Collar Diary” had been viewed about 5.87 million times, the Beijing Times reported.What makes the online groups so controversial is a feature unique to the Alipay social platform: if an Alipay user has a good credit rating (usually of around 750), the user is able to donate monetary funds, or “tips”, to another Alipay user of their liking. For this reason, the new social platform has been criticized for becoming an “online brothel”, the People’s Daily reported.

Alipay said in a statement that the service was still in the trial stage, and changes were forthcoming. “As an open platform, Alipay’s social networking feature hopes to facilitate interaction and communication among its users while creating values for our partners in the field,” the statement read in part.

Alipay is China’s third most-popular app after WeChat and QQ.

The post Alipay Social Media Function Criticized For Being “Online Brothel” appeared first on The Nanfang.

Workers at the shopping center on Beijing’s financial street covered up the statue and whisked it away only hours after it first appeared on Monday.

A phrase commonly used in finance circles, a “black swan” is a highly unanticipated event with far reaching consequences – just the kind of thing the CSRC would like to avoid.

Netizens ridiculed the decision to remove the offending statue. One person wrote, “Such a grand country, and yet can’t tolerate a single bird,” while another said, “This dynasty had better offer a sacrifice to the gods.” Yet another person said, “Don’t the firm tenets of Marxism insist on following atheism?”

It’s not the first time art has been removed from Beijing’s financial district.

Last June, characters from the hit animated TV show The Boonie Bears were removed just a day after they appeared at a plaza immediately facing the CSRC (shown below). Though the reasons why the bears were exchanged for monkeys was not made clear, it was thought that the bears were making rude hand gestures towards the CSRC. Additionally, “bear” is a term for falling share prices and widespread selling.

The post Black Swan Causes Jitters Among Beijing Investors appeared first on The Nanfang.

A book not about English teachers, or people struggling to find their way in this world, is definitively more than welcome in the very tight panorama of foreign writers in China. It certainly can offer a different type of insight on how foreigners often perceive China and its costumes and breaks the wall of self-imposed silence that we are courteously invited to build around us when we enter the country. The book is also a ferocious, absurd and wildly entertaining satire (think about a “Kafka meets Vonnegut meets Fellini” take on Chinese politics), definitively worth your precious time, but only if you share the same sensitivity of course: “Party Members” comes with a very sour taste which won’t appeal everybody, certainly not the ones looking for bucolic images of the Chinese countryside and the innocent people who populate it.

Arthur Meursault, long-term expat, author and blogger (find him at arthurmeursault.com) doesn’t hold back when detailing the protagonist’s sexual escapades (which in turn become more and more violent and disgusting as his path to power paces up), his moral decay and ruthless business practices. Language is often as rich and lavish as graphically disturbing, yet always coated by a dense and wicked sense of humor. The fact this book is not for the faint-hearted goes without saying, and by turning away from this upside down morality play readers will deprive themselves of a great deal of liberating fun. The prose is extraordinarily effective and proves to be highly accessible without being too simple or poor.

The very private relationship between your typical Chinese everyman and his penis turns into an unstoppable hunger for power that will bring our anti-hero at the top of the local section of the Party where, thanks to a system that awards ruthless behavior, he will have the chance to indulge in is favorite pastime: destroying people’s lives in order to get ahead. The story follows Yang Wei from his birth to his untimely, but well deserved, end… From being the most average and unassuming Chinese government worker of an imaginary Chinese town, to a shark whose quench for power and destruction looks unstoppable. His life changes all of a sudden after being humiliated by a colleague and former friend flaunting his promotion and newly-gained social status; Wei, beaten and humiliated, has the most surprising and life changing encounter of his life, an event that will lead his life to vertiginous height of uncontrolled debauchery and moral corruption. Wei’s penis starts not only talking to him, acting as an advisor and master, but dictating his agenda and slowly, but steadily, taking control over him. Wei’s penis coming to life changes his life completely and shakes his priorities. Inspired by the motto “The only way to be successful is to be a complete and utter dick”, Wei steam rolls everyone—his family, his parents, his coworkers, his subordinates, anyone representing an obstacle is bound to disappear one way or another.

For anybody familiar with China and its rather unique way of doing business, descriptions of meetings, parties, KTV and spa sessions will sound disturbingly familiar (and hilariously disgusting): when you’re on top, the sky’s the limit and nobody will dare to say anything to you, let alone stop you. Relationships are shallow and the only agenda is survival: people are judged by what they bring to the table, be that money, connections, face, or sex. Being a dick (and controlled by a dick) saves Wei from relenting his run to power. Only when he begins questioning his own actions, on the light of a very overly reproachable occurrence, his fate will be doomed, thus letting his dick to accomplish his destiny and become the biggest “dick” of the office (a fate that was impossible to escape apparently from the very start of this descend into absurdity).

The book’s main selling point, Wei’s penis as a character, is also one of the weaknesses of the entire story. It doesn’t really emerge as a well-developed character and struggles in finding its own voice. His dialogues are stiff (no pun intended) and explanatory sometimes. It takes several chapters to find some sort of personal voice rather than being the author’s alter ego. Meursault himself seems to struggle in distancing himself from what is the (a)moral angle of the book, but Wei’s dilemma and final retribution, although absurd, sound real from the entire length of the story.

Meursault’s sense of humor is wild and cruel: he describes a society without morals or faith, where everything is allowed. What’s most important is not getting caught. His book is fun and fast to read, yet it still finds the time to involve the reader and seek his or her complicity. Laughing is always relieving, but questioning how far you can stretch your sense of fun without being an insensitive “dick” popped in my mind several times as the protagonist’s actions became more and more extreme.

Another question that may arise while reading is if it’s acceptable for a foreigner to criticize his host country in such a virulent way, a question valid for every foreigner living in any country. The book doesn’t conceal his not-so-subtle sense of frustration and comes with an urgency that may reveal the author’s personal struggles in China (struggles common to many expats, I imagine). It’s a good chance to read a different kind of book about China, something that doesn’t happen too often. Recommended.

Party Members is published by Camphor Press (camphorpress.com) and can be purchased on Amazon or in selected book shops.

The post “Party Members” a Wickedly Funny and Disturbing Look at Power in China appeared first on The Nanfang.

This may come as a surprise to some of you, and for some maybe not. Like many online publications, we haven’t exactly hit our revenue targets for a variety of reasons. I won’t bore you with them all here, but to say that web publishing in 2016 is a tough business (except, for some inexplicable reason, fake news sites from Macedonia). We have built a loyal readership around The Nanfang and have been viewed millions and millions of times over the years. We have a strong community on Facebook and Twitter and have left an indelible mark on web journalism about China. But unfortunately, that’s not enough to keep the lights on…

We certainly didn’t expect to end up this way, and it’s painful, to be sure. Ewan and I started talking about this project way back in 2009, when we were both 30 years old and slowly making our way in the corporate world. We knew there was one last chance; one more shot at building something that might be our own, a job in which we could be our own bosses, and a fulfilling life at the intersection of current events, China, and the internet. It was the dream, and even at the time we knew if we didn’t start it then, “by the time we’re 40 we’ll be too entrenched and won’t want to jump head first into something.” How apropos.

Neither of us are 40, but it’s a lot closer than it used to be. And sure enough, as Nanfang was living on fruits of our day jobs, it became apparent that we had smaller and smaller amounts of time to dedicate to the project. We looked at other business models, we looked at beefing up our investment, and we even spoke with venture capitalists. There are ways out, to be sure; chances, options, Hail Marys. While we can generate the investment necessary, we looked honestly at ourselves and concluded neither of us had the time to dedicate to a fledging startup at this stage of our careers.

The Nanfang has been an amazing ride, and I don’t want to recap all of it again. Suffice to say that, aside from the (small) commercial successes, it has led to new faces and lifelong friendships. I still get regular requests to contribute, to have us sponsor good causes, to review books, consider story ideas, and more (like behind-the-scenes questions: “who really wrote that review of One for the Road?”). It’s going to be very hard to say goodbye to this project, something that has been a pillar in our lives for seven years.

The backbone of The Nanfang has always been our writers. We launched with a few volunteers and eager students before hiring John Kennedy as our first full-time writer. He was followed by Kevin McGeary as our senior editor and Natalie Wang as part-time contributor, and then Charles Liu, who has been populating these pages with stories for the last 2.5 years. Along the way, Sebastian Roth and Larry Salibra kept everything running behind the scenes (or rescued us from hacker attacks), and a number of contributors and bloggers have published their content on our pages. I want to honor everyone who has helped make The Nanfang better. Thank you.

So, what’s next? We really don’t know. The one topic that remains fascinating is where journalism is heading, in terms of being a sustainable business. The profound changes in the industry are having far-reaching impacts, as traditional purveyors of journalism lose readers, ad revenue, and credibility; replaced by splintered groups of (primarily) websites catering to very specific audiences. The funding of these (not always truthful) websites is unclear, while those trying to stand on their own struggle with balancing quality with the need for sponsored content to the pay the bills, raising money from eager investors, or crowd-funding. But without deep-pocketed investors or a side business to subsidize it, a general interest news website that produces high-quality content and earns enough via subscriptions or advertising is extremely rare. As newspapers have discovered, online ad revenue isn’t that great.

Despite all this, the fragmentation of the news business, and the “filter bubble”, Ewan and I are both extremely optimistic about the future of journalism online. With the continued importance of China to the rest of the world, there is a hunger for news about how the country is evolving and what that means for its neighbors. This matters to all of us. We believe there is a way to do news right, and there is a way to make money from it. We just haven’t figured out how. But we’ll keep searching.

Before we go, we thought we’d dig through The Nanfang’s archives for our top 10 most read stories of all time. We have listed them below. Can you spot any similarities among them?! We have also included a few select editors’ picks, primarily because they generated a substantial amount of debate on The Nanfang.

I want to thank everyone again for stopping by over the years, whether it was to find a particular bar or restaurant back in our listings days, or to read about the latest internet memes or insight into Hong Kong politics. We hope you got what you were looking for.

’Til next time…

Cam and Ewan

The Nanfang’s All Time Top 10

1. No Liquid Allowed in Carry On, Women Drinks Entire Bottle of Cognac at Beijing Airport
2. Vacant Bathrooms “Too Small” so Parents Let Kid Poo in the Airplane Aisle
3. Foreigner Yells at Person Cutting in Line in Three Chinese Dialects
4. Woman Caught Pinching a Loaf in Broad Daylight on California Lawn
5. Woman Beaten to Death at McDonald’s for Refusing to Give Her Phone Number
6. Cute Girl Kills, Dismembers Cat Because She’s Angry at her Parents
7. Now the Japanese are Mad at Chinese Tourists
8. Chinese Couple, Throwing Hot Water and Threatening to Blow Up Plane, Force Return to Bangkok
9. Even 99 iPhones Not Enough to Win One Woman’s Heart
10. Impatient Passenger Deploys Emergency Slide to “Get Off the Plane Quicker”

The Nanfang’s Editor’s Picks

• Answering the Age Old Question: Why do Foreigners Marry Ugly Chinese Girls?
• Love an Unattainable Luxury, Chinese Marry for Practical Reasons Instead
• Africans Block Traffic in Guangzhou After Foreigner Dies in Police Custody
• Exclusive Interview with the Nigerian Protestor, More Details on What Went Down
• Banker Writes Heartfelt Letter on Why its Time to Leave “Hedonistic” Hong Kong
• The West’s Silence on Hong Kong is Deafening
• Dog Beaten to Death in Beijing in Front of Foreign Owner
• Shenzhen Bar Throws 9/11 Party with Terrorists Shooting Americans
• Video of English Teacher Singing in Chinese Goes Viral on Weibo

The post The Nanfang Throws In The Towel, Just Shy Of Its 7th Birthday appeared first on The Nanfang.

The three Crown Resorts Ltd employees were charged with “suspicion of gambling” last Friday, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang. Geng did not elaborate on the charges.

15 other employees, thought to all be mainland Chinese citizens, have also been detained, but their fate remains unknown.

Gambling and gambling advertising are not legal in mainland China. Any person who “runs a gambling house or makes gambling his or her profession” can face up to three years in prison. However, gaming houses have attempted to circumvent this law by offering “destination packages” to entice mainland gamblers that have stayed away from Macao casinos during the ongoing corruption crackdown.

In October, Crown said “less than half” of its international VIP revenue, or about 12 percent of its total, came from Chinese high-rollers.

Although it may be difficult to reach them, mainland gamblers spend a lot of money at casinos abroad. According to Casino.com, Chinese gamblers represent 90 to 95 percent of Australia’s VIP casino demographic.

Although Macau is a special administrative zone of China, the former Portuguese colony is considered an offshore financial tax haven and free port, making its way for wealthy Chinese mainlanders to move their money out of the country.

The post Three Australian Employees At A Macao Casino Arrested For “Gambling” appeared first on The Nanfang.

In what is thought to be the largest bust of its kind, the Chinese detainees are believed to have been running online gambling operations out of a former American air base, which is now a call center.

It remains unclear what the Chinese nationals are being charged with, but 900 of them were brought to the immigration detention centre in Manila.

Foreign Ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang, said Beijing requested that Manila “make appropriate arrangements” for those who had been detained and quickly release individuals who had “legal identification.”

Diplomatic relations between China and the Philippines have warmed recently with banana exports once again opening up and visa-free access to Chinese tourists being considered.

In response to Geng’s statement, Global Times wrote in an op-ed: “We believe that the timely intervention does not put a strain on bilateral ties, but instead contributes to the prevention of further escalation of the events.”

Earlier this month, China formally arrested three Australian nationals employees of a Macau casino on “suspicion of gambling” charges after being detained for a month.

The post Over 1,000 Chinese Arrested In Philippines Gambling Crackdown appeared first on The Nanfang.

According to The Independent, a tourist on vacation in Shanghai noticed the resemblance, and notified Taylor who was furious her work had been so blatantly copied.

“I know it happens and I have had works copied before – they always say it’s a coincidence but in this case it’s absolutely blatant,” said Taylor.

Taylor said her original work (shown below) was specifically created for London with elements evoking the docks, such as its cobblestones and highly-stylized dockyard nail.

Taylor attempted to contact the “artist” who created the Chinese copy, but was unsuccessful.

Located at Dongcheng Riverside Parkland beside the Huangpu River, the replica is not attributed to anyone. According to a reporter at the China Daily, there is no explanation as to why the piece was constructed at the site.

Shanghai municipal sculpture committee member Zheng Jiashi told China Daily that Shanghai highly respects intellectual property rights. Zheng said that if it is confirmed to be a copy, then “it must be taken down”.

Fellow UK artist Anish Kapoor has complained that her 2006 Chicago-based work, Cloud Gate, was plagiarized and exhibited in the Chinese city of Karamay. In 2013, copies of Florentijn Hofman’s Yellow Duck toured Chinese cities after becoming immensely popular with the Chinese public.

The post Copycat Of London Landmark Appears In Shanghai appeared first on The Nanfang.

Lin Shuping said she first realized she was pregnant when she was about to give birth. Lin gave birth to a healthy two kilogram baby girl after she fainted and was rushed to the No. 2 People’s Hospital.

Lin says she has no boyfriend, and has never been touched by a man. When asked where the baby came from, Lin said, “I don’t know.” She said her last period was in December of last year.

Lin has not yet applied for a birth certificate for her baby, and has admitted she doesn’t want the baby because she is unable to care for it.

The hospital is trying to reach Lin’s family in Pingle, Guangxi because she is unable to pay for her hospital bills. A fund has been created in her name.

The post Shenzhen Mother Gives Birth to Baby, Claims to Have Never Had Sex appeared first on The Nanfang.

An armed forces team from Singapore was due in Hong Kong last night on a mission to establish why nine of their brand new military vehicles were seized and impounded by customs during their return from Taiwan.

Singapore’s top diplomat in Hong Kong has also become involved in what one military expert said could be a “strategic calculation’’ by Beijing which yesterday reaffirmed its opposition to any sovereign state having official or military ties what it regards as a renegade province.

Indeed, the intertubes are rife with speculation that this is aimed at SE Asia states that might be thinking of upgrading their bilateral or multilateral relations with Taipei. Recall that under the Ma Administration little was done about SE Asia, while the Tsai Administration has made the new Southbound Policy a cornerstone of the Administration’s foreign policy. China is also said to be unhappy with Singapore over recent political disagreements.

A posting to a discussion group I am added something further (reposted with permission of author):

China sure killed a lot of birds with this one stone….

The post China Seizes Singapore Military Equipment On The Way Home From Taiwan appeared first on The Nanfang.

Their rationale: We’ve been waiting for decades. Beijing evidently has no intention of ever allowing Hong Kong the autonomous space and safe democratic government we thought we had been promised when the British left in 1997. So we might as well try and strike out on our own.

The verdict so far: it’s not going very well. Still way too soon for any conclusions about long-term costs, benefits, unintended consequences, and whether such a cause will ultimately prove worth the risk adherents are taking. But for now that particular response to Hong Kong’s political stalemate has suffered a setback.

Beijing has used the independence idea as an excuse for further meddling in what was generally regarded to be a local matter. As a further result, the guardians of Hong Kong’s much-prized judicial independence are doing their best to keep up appearances but a blow has been administered nonetheless.

In addition, all democracy activists have been placed on the defensive and many more than just two recently-elected legislators may lose the seats they won to so much acclaim in the September 4 Legislative Council election (Sept. 8 post).

The latest crisis is, of course, the one precipitated by Youngspiration ex-legislators-elect Baggio Leung Chung hang and Yau Wai-ching during the Legislative Council swearing-in ceremony on October 12.     It’s difficult to decide what provoked more indignation: the derogatory language they wove into the standard oath of allegiance, or the banners they displayed proclaiming “Hong Kong Is Not China” (Nov. 3 post)

The combination was sure to bring down Beijing’s wrath upon their heads and so it has … on many heads.

As far as the immediate present is concerned, Hong Kong’s democracy movement would have been better off if this episode had not happened … for reasons both legal and political.

LEGAL CONCERNS

The details are still evolving as the appeals process winds its way through Hong Kong courts. The first appeal, announced today, upholds the initial November 15 judgement against Leung and Yau.

Hovering above all, however, is a fast-track emergency decree proclaimed by Beijing in the form of a Basic Law interpretation (Nov. 14 post).  Only five interpretations have been issued since the Basic Law came into effect on July 1, 1997. This one interprets Hong Kong’s Basic Law, article 104 on oath-taking.

Legal details are best left to the professionals and a good place to begin is the series by Civic Party barrister Gladys Li.*   But Beijing’s decree … as an imprimatur from on high … was also meant to impress the general public and at this level the consequences are serious enough whatever the legal niceties.

A story is told about “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung’s introduction to the Legislative Council. He was first elected in 2004 and as a mark heralding his arrival he wanted to compose his own swearing-in oath. But he received and took some legal advice beforehand. He was told by a judicial authority that if he read out the words he had in mind, he would not be sworn in.

Leung therefore took the standard oath and then added some flourishes afterward to say what he had to say. He called for the vindication of those killed in Beijing on June 4, 1989 and an end to one party-rule in China. He finished off by shouting a couple of slogans for democracy. And that was the end of that. He was sworn in and took his seat along with everyone els

Fast forward a dozen years and thanks to the sequence of events set in motion by Leung and Yau on October 12, no councilor will have the freedom to improvise the swearing-in ceremony ever again.

Leung Kwok-hung’s story contains some useful points of reference for the legal drama now playing itself out.   The lessons his experience might have conveyed is that the Hong Kong judicial authorities do not take lightly the matter of oath-taking. They could therefore have been relied upon to sanction Leung and Yau for their disrespect.

Leung Kwok-hung’s experience thus also suggests that the matter could have been adequately resolved here in Hong Kong, without Beijing’s intervention.

In fact, the task of sanctioning the Youngspiration pair might have been handled within the Legislative Council itself. Its current president had decided their oaths were not valid and must be retaken. Or the case might at least have remained in Hong Kong after Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying hastened to lodge his judicial review request asking a local judge to decide what should be done.

But if the matter had ended there and Beijing allowed what had happened in Hong Kong to remain in Hong Kong, as a mark of respect for its principle of judicial independence, then the precedent “Long Hair” set in 2004 by shouting subversive slogans in the Legislative Council chamber after taking a proper oath would have been allowed to stand.

Leung and Yau would probably have been allowed to retake their vows. If not, at least the slogans added by several others that day, on October 12, would have been allowed to remain unpunished, and on the record as well (Nov. 14 post).

A dozen years later, Beijing decision-makers think they have reason not to be so tolerant.   They were unwilling to let the matter rest and the implications of Beijing’s fast-track November 7 interpretation … proclaimed before the Hong Kong judge‘s November 15 decision … are far reaching.

Yet again, as with the Basic Law’s promises of universal suffrage, the public sees that Hong Kong’s Basic Law loopholes are for Beijing, not Hong Kong, to fill in. Judge Thomas Au did his best to keep up appearances, adding a disclaimer to his judgement that he would have reached the same conclusion about disqualifying Leung and Yau without Beijing’s intervention.   The Leung Kwok-hung story lends weight to his claim.

But Judge Au’s defense seems not to count for much since Beijing’s interpretation goes well beyond his decision to disqualify the Youngspiration pair for not taking their oaths properly.

Added to Beijing’s version, for example, is the proviso that invalidated oaths cannot be retaken. Judge Au’s explanation as to why he, too, would not allow them to be retaken … based on his ex post facto re-reading of Hong Kong’s own oaths ordinance that says an office must be vacated if the oath is not properly taken … reads like a hastily-drafted play on words. Actually, there is no particular reason not to do more with those words and allow a retake … except for Beijing’s say so. **

More important in Beijing’s version: the form and content of the oath cannot be altered, the manner in which it is taken must be sincere and solemn. Additionally, the oath-taker must pledge allegiance to the People’s Republic of China AND its Hong Kong Special Administrative Region … NOT as the Basic Law’s Article 104 reads: to the HKSAR of the PRC.

Most difficult of all, however, is the final proviso in Beijing’s November 7 interpretation: “The oath-taker must sincerely believe in and strictly abide by the relevant oath prescribed by law. An oath-taker who makes a false oath, or, who, after taking the oath, engages in conduct in breach of the oath, shall bear legal responsibility in accordance with law.” ***

POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS

That final proviso opens a Pandora’s Box of possibilities, all negative. Commenting on the interpretation, Wang Zhenmin who is in charge of legal affairs at Beijing’s liaison office here, said that by his calculation a total of 15 legislators did not take their oaths properly.

And sure enough, ordinary citizen electors, pro-Beijing loyalists all, have now followed the example of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. As electors it is their right and they have invoked it to lodge requests for judicial reviews aimed at disqualifying many of those 15.

For its part, the government is now zeroing in on one in particular. It’s asking for a judicial review on Teacher Lau Siu-lai from Kowloon West. But she had been allowed to retake her oath, which she did, properly, so her case will allow the judges somewhat more leeway … if they dare to defy Beijing and use it.

Still, the prospect of losing more seats is not the greatest concern. There is one greater, namely, how to frame the next phase of Hong Kong’s political struggle. The current ramped-up rhetoric from Beijing suggests that task is becoming more difficult not less.

Beijing’s top Basic Law authority, Li Fei, commenting on the November 7 interpretation, made a point of equating the new Hong Kong independence idea with self-determination (Nov. 14 post).  This alternative is also new and it too grew from the upsurge of dissent that produced the 2014 Occupy protest. There is no space between the two, said Li Fei and so say all of Beijing’s commentaries on the question.

This is going to make political life and political speech very difficult for all of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy political parties since all have now declared themselves for self-determination. The more moderate, like the Democratic Party, make a point of distinguishing clearly: independence, no, they say; self-determination, yes.

So that if the final proviso in Beijing’s November 7 interpretation is taken word for word, as judges do, then all of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Legislative Councilors are at risk. All can be accused of : “after taking the oath,” engaging in conduct in breach thereof, and they can be charged according to the law.

What is conduct unbecoming? What will take precedence in deciding: the principle of free speech and the Basic Law’s Article 77 … granting immunity to Legislative Councilors for whatever they say in the chamber and safe passage to and from its precincts … or Beijing’s November 7 interpretation?

Another case to consider is that of Hong Kong’s most famous democracy activist, Joshua Wong Chi-fung. He and fellow activist Jeffrey Ngo, currently a student in the United States, recently wrote an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal (Nov. 9/10).

In it they went out of their way to distance themselves from advocates of independence. “Some radicals in Hong Kong,” they wrote, “have been quick to instigate xenophobic and nationalistic sentiments. But this is unnecessary. Neither sovereignty nor nationalism are prerequisites to self-determination. That right, according to the U.N., applies to all non-self-governing peoples. It is a fundamental right, based on history, that Hong Kongers deserve to exercise.”

Yet all they received in return for their discriminating use of words was an immediate blast from Beijing. “The writers of the article are openly advocating ‘Hong Kong independence’,” declared a protest letter to the paper from the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s office here (Nov. 16).

The letter referred readers to an opinion piece published in the same paper on October 19 by Song Zhe, who heads the Foreign Ministry office.  Regardless of whether it means independence or secession, Song had written, self-determination is “completely irrelevant to Hong Kong.”

Hong Kong’s last British governor Christopher Patten paid a return visit over the weekend evidently for the express purpose of addressing Hong Kong’s mounting political tensions. After his controversial tenure in the 1990s, when he infuriated Beijing with his last-ditch political reform agenda, he has mostly avoided commenting directly on sensitive Hong Kong political matters.

Not this time. Patten, who is now chancellor of Oxford University in Britain, addressed the Hong Kong independence idea and the oath-taking saga at every stop. But he also cast the difficulty of framing Hong Kong’s current political struggle in sharper focus, although that probably wasn’t his intention.

During his November 25 speech at the Foreign Correspondents Club (http://www.fcchk.org/chris-pattens-fcc-speech-in-full/), he chastised the Younspiration pair for their swearing-in performance. The idea of Hong Kong independence was a non-starter, he said   … so “it would be dishonest, dishonorable and reckless” to mix up an argument for Hong Kong independence with the demand for democracy.

But he also said he was saddened to see the “moral high ground” achieved during Hong Kong’s 2014 Occupy protest being squandered in such a manner. He did admit that progress in the direction of democratic political reform was proceeding too slowly for his taste. He had expected it to move faster.

Nevertheless, in response to a question, he said he would rather see Hong Kong hone its debating skills for use in arguments with Beijing about democratic reform than dissipate good will with futile demands and juvenile antics (SCMP, Nov. 26).

That was on Friday. On Saturday he spoke in more general terms about a government’s need to listen to young people with all their frustrations and aspirations. Otherwise they would tend toward extremism and resort to insensible pursuits (SCMP, Nov. 27).

But then on Sunday, he told an RTHK interviewer he didn’t really understand why Beijing had rushed out its interpretation of Article 104, when Hong Kong’s own courts were obviously able to manage the situation on their own (Standard, Nov. 28).

Finally, on Monday at the University of Hong Kong, he repeated his warning about squandering good will at home and abroad by mixing up demands for independence with those for democracy (SCMP, Nov. 29).

He also dismissed the self-determination idea as being “pretty much” the same thing as independence … just a play on words actually (Standard, Nov. 29).

Yet through it all he offered no suggestions as to how Hong Kong’s case for democratic reform could be phrased to better effect.

Nor did he acknowledge that the Occupy moral high ground he seemed to admire so much was achieved by saying “no” to Beijing’s mandate for mainland-style party-vetted elections.

Local democrats of all kinds had proposed many other variations, honing their skills in a community-wide debate that continued for well over a year. Yet Beijing had rejected all such compromise proposals including even the most moderate and obviously well-intentioned.

It followed that after Occupy, some of its young leaders tried to sharpen their arguments further, which is what led them to the idea of self-determination and beyond.

In many respects the Oxford University chancellor sounded like Governor Chris Patten frozen in 1997 time. He seemed genuinely perplexed as to why Beijing had stepped in with its November 7 interpretation.

And if he couldn’t understand the reasons for Beijing’s intervention, then he also hasn’t yet forced himself to recognize just how far down the road toward cross-border political integration Hong Kong has been obliged to travel since he sailed away at midnight on July 1, 1997.

The nuanced distinction campaigners are trying to make between independence and self-determination … in response to those pressures toward integration … seem to have escaped him entirely.

During the RTHK interview he recalled nostalgically  how everyone had said “one-country, two-systems” couldn’t work. All things considered, he thinks it has worked rather well. But he didn’t help out by suggesting some debating points that might address the democracy movement’s current dilemma.

If self-determination is the same as independence, and Legislative Councilors are going to be punished for violating the terms of their oaths of allegiance to the People Republic of China because they are exploring the possibilities for self-determination, then in the words of one moderate pro-democracy Legislative Councilor, the current oath-taking saga marks the beginning of the end of Hong Kong as we know it.

*   https://www.hongkongfp.com/2016/11/22/objective-look-oaths-declarations-ordinance-part-i/

**   http://legalref.judiciary.gov.hk/lrs/common/ju/ju_frame.jsp?DIS=106802&currpage=T

***     http://www.chinadailyasia.com/chinafocus/2016-11/07/content_15522280.html

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