Antony Dapiran

Writer/Lawyer/Photographer. Author of Walkley-nominated book “City on Fire: The Fight for Hong Kong” (@scribepub).

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

Follow me from the bird to the butterfly! I’m @ https://t.co/M48rPrUUfR

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

@brianluidog Or just respond to everything with: “I know you are but what am I?”

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

Saying “without any further ado” is, in itself, further ado.

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

@brianluidog What about the bit where Chan Tai Man became alarmed at seeing his HKID and credit card details publicly displayed everywhere?

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

@RohitBanawlikar Thank you, very kind! I’m glad it resonated for you.

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

Meanwhile renowned Chinese artist Gao Zhen has been jailed since August 2024 & his wife + US-citizen son placed under exit bans, purely for the content of his art which authorities alleged “slandered heroes and martyrs”. https://t.co/YWI73GBlX1

[@mhar4 @mhar4]

Forthcoming contemporary art exhibition in Hobart, Tasmania. Sponsoring organisations include Australia China Friendship Society and printing company Shanghai Helong Industrial Co., Ltd. and Shanghai govt.'s Shanghai International Cultural Association 上海市对外文化交流协会.

[Xianyang City Bureaucrat @XianyangCB]

"A man from Chu who sold shields and spears boasted, 'My shield is so strong that nothing can pierce it. My spear is so sharp that there is no object it cannot pierce.'
Someone asked him, 'Would you like to be in Forbes?'"

- Han Feizi (c. 240 BC)

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

@Urban_Immerser It’s an ad.

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

@vitasoystan The Chinese is even better: 眼屎 “eye shit”.

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

In response to bolted horse, gates have been closed.

[Hong Kong SAR Government News @newsgovhk]

In response to an order from the Buildings Department, as of December 9, scaffold nets had been removed from the external walls of all 230 private buildings #WangFukCourt
https://t.co/DPxKPyHhiH

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

14 years after their merger, law firm King & Wood Mallesons “will separate into a China-focused King & Wood, which would absorb the large & profitable HK operation, & Australia-based Mallesons…”
https://t.co/2jAhe8b6lr

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

@kevinkfyam Thank you my friend. Although being in a place where I can do this again is, of course, bittersweet.

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

My piece on the Tai Po fires for the @guardian // “The cauterisation of HK’s civil society has meant that the grassroots activism that would traditionally have occurred in response to such a tragedy is no longer possible.”
https://t.co/cOdQzBCODT

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

Indeed “Voter turnout % increased solely because total voting population fell” is probably not the winning message HK’s leaders think it is…

[Kevin Yam 任建峰 @kevinkfyam]

TO WESTERN MEDIA: don’t just report that the voter turnout rate in yesterday’s “patriots only” Hong Kong LegCo elections was “better” than that of 2021:

1. Fewer votes were cast yesterday than in 2021 so the higher turnout rate is a result of there being fewer registered voters since 2021; and

2. This turnout rate is still a lot lower than back when LegCo elections were semi-competitive.

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

Always a great sign you’re having a free and fair election when you’re arresting multiple people on polling day for the crime of posting comments on social media.

[Hong Kong Free Press HKFP @hkfp]

‘Patriots only’ poll: 4 arrests over social media comments allegedly urging election boycott or invalid ballots. In full: https://t.co/po9CCn3orB

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

Next step? People being asked to provide their thank you card to their employer (or other group exerting coercion on voters) as “proof” they have voted. (Hence the secondary market in cards as noted in the second post in HKFP’s thread.) Deeply troubling.

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

In an environment where voter turnout is highly politicized — authorities using turnout as a proxy for legitimacy; people exhorted by “patriotic” employers to vote — anything that provides “evidence” of having voted fundamentally compromises this right & the election.

[Hong Kong Free Press HKFP @hkfp]

Voters were handed a "thank you" card after casting their ballot in the "patriots only" election on Sunday.

As of 1.30pm, 15.18 per cent of registered geographical constituency voters had cast a ballot. By this time in 2021, 14.39 per cent had turned out, but polls opened an hour later.

In full: https://t.co/XL8T5DPQDf Photo: Tom Grundy/HKFP.

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

This is a step change. In last 5 yrs HK NatSec police have targeted local media but left intl media alone. Now they are flagging intl media are not immune. Expect arrests of (probably local) employees of intl media in near future. (But make sure you tell good HK stories folks!)

[Hong Kong Free Press HKFP @hkfp]

‘Don’t say we didn’t warn you’: China’s nat. sec office in Hong Kong summons international media. In full: https://t.co/EZrzNV3tDm

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

Critical public comment as tame as “Central government support for the fires are just putting on a show” results in arrest on national security crime of sedition.

[Hong Kong Democracy Council @hkdc_us]

Political commentator Wong On-yin has also been arrested for #sedition, police quoting him as saying the Chinese gov't's disaster relief efforts re the fire are just a show. He's the 4th person arrested for sedition in relation to the crackdown in HK on speech about the fire.

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

Setting aside that what he allegedly wrote was asinine and offensive, think this is the first time HK NatSec laws have been used for Mainland-style moral (as opposed to political) policing of online content.

[Hong Kong Free Press HKFP @hkfp]

Hong Kong YouTuber arrested for sedition over ‘depraved’ Tai Po fire remarks – reports. In full: https://t.co/IJbxMUomza

[Antony Dapiran @antd]

Oof! @holmeschan_ goes hard!

[Aaron Busch @tripperhead]

AFP question to Chief Executive John Lee:

"Over the past few years, you have spoken about leading Hong Kong from chaos to order and from order to prosperity. And yet this prosperous society allowed 151 people to burn to death. Can you tell us why you deserve to keep your job?"