…in pacifying Hong Kong, it needs to loosen its grip over Hong Kong, just as it did back in the 1990s in China itself. But I am not holding my breath for that to happen. (7/7)

…working levels, China is ensuring the very mismatch between propaganda and reality which leads to propaganda being ineffective and, worse still, being a source of resentment in itself.

As such, if China wants its propaganda to be effective… (6/7)

…the realisation of this mismatch between propaganda and reality merely made those subject to years of propaganda even more angry and discontent.

Which brings us back to this report. By continuing its endless crackdown and persecution even down to the most granular everyday living and… (5/7)

…years of propaganda efforts in places like Tibet and Xinjiang failed. Propaganda about ethnic equality and harmony was not matched by the reality in which Tibetans and Uyghurs were denied equality in everyday life, economic opportunities and fair treatment by the State. If anything, … (4/7)

…all the happy talk propaganda about China were mostly matched in reality, with most 1989 dissenters being eventually forgiven, economic opportunities being plentiful and individuals’ lives mostly being more free.

By contrast, … (3/7)

…some of their Mainland Chinese counterparts.

My answer: much depends on whether the reality that HK people face would at least in part match the propaganda.

For example, post-Tiananmen Square Massacre propaganda in China during the 1990s largely worked. This was because… (2/7)

… are now being extended into business, education, culture, and “soft resistance” (whatever the hell that means).

May all Hongkongers live on as best we can, as we await the day when we shall be free. (3/3)

But I count myself lucky. Many have suffered much worse, ranging from business disruption, work harassment, time in prison, you name it. And for a piece of law that claims only to affect a tiny minority of people, it has turned Hong Kong upside down, and its tentacles … (2/3)

… called for the end of one party rule in China. Expect the Hong Kong Law Society to take further, even more heavy handed action against Ho after he is inevitably convicted of subversion. (4/4)

… languishing in jail both for this conviction as well as being held in prison pending trial for the more serious charge of subverting state power in his role as leader of a group that commemorated the Tiananmen Square Massacre and… (3/4)

… unbecoming of a solicitor, thereby compromising his integrity, his own reputation, and the reputation of the legal profession” after being convicted of inciting an unauthorised protest in 2019.

Ho is currently a Hong Kong political prisoner, … (2/4)