G Sagt

Chinesisch, Englisch und Deutsch sprechend, nur ein bisschen

[CBS News @CBSNews]

The U.K. government has approved plans for what would become China's largest embassy in Europe, despite fierce opposition from activists and local residents who are now mounting a legal challenge which will be heard on July 14.

Dissidents from Hong Kong, who fled China’s clampdown on the territory, tell CBS News' @InayaFolarin they fear China's proposed "super embassy" in London could increase surveillance and intimidation against exiles already living under threat.

A U.K. government spokesperson told CBS News: “National security is our first duty, and at the forefront of our decision-making for the Chinese Embassy, with intelligence agencies involved throughout the process. Any attempts by a foreign state to coerce, intimidate, harass, or harm individuals on U.K. soil will never be tolerated.” The Chinese embassy in the U.K. did not respond to our request for comment.

[G Sagt @g_sagt]

Hong Kong is now a place cannot tolerate an existence of an independent book store... And HKTDC became CCPHKG's executioner

[Hong Kong Democracy Council @hkdc_us]

elmbook (榆林書店) independent bookstore has announced it's closing after 29 years. It's 1 of 2 bookstores barred from the official HK Book Fair this year tho it's had a stall there every year since it opened. In 2023 a pro-CCP outlet accused it of selling books violating the NSL

[G Sagt @g_sagt]

Beautiful New HK...

[Hong Kong Democracy Council @hkdc_us]

Today's the 6th anniversary of the CCP's imposition of the #HongKong national security law. At least 403 people have been arrested for "endangering national security" & 212 charged. 70 were arrested in the past year but, worryingly, identities & charges of >30 weren't made public

[G Sagt @g_sagt]

The Furious https://t.co/2okzk7xETz

A no none-sense pure speed and actions, filled with range movie. I grew up watching #HK #martialarts movies and haven't watched anything near that kind of actions design for decades. It is a very strict forward story with zero slow motion.

[Luke de Pulford @lukedepulford]

#BREAKING 🇬🇧 Govt *confirms* that a hidden camera was found in a government building, pursuant to @cazjwheeler scoop.

[Matthew Lesh @matthewlesh]

Keir Starmer has threatened Apple and Google with legislation and jail time if they fail to install AI nudity-scanning software at the operating system level on every device in Britain.

In practice, this means constantly scanning your camera viewfinder, screen output, livestreams, and stored files and blocking or blurring content in real time.

To turn off this system, you would be required to hand over biometrics or ID to a third party. We've already seen what happens to that data. Last October, hackers stole over 70,000 government ID images, including passports and driving licences for age verification, from a Discord vendor.

And it won't even work: most Aussie kids under 16 still have active social media accounts despite the ban. A good wig, VPN, an older phone, or a parent's account, and you're outside the system entirely.

But here's the stat that really matters. The government claims 91% of online CSAM is self-generated. That's true, but it only refers to material removed, not how abuse starts. Over 90% of contact child sexual abuse is perpetrated by someone known to the child. Device-level scanning addresses a narrow slice of sextortion by remote predators. It does nothing for the actual scale of the problem.

All this policy does is normalise government control over which images you're allowed to take and view on your own device. The Online Safety Act already inspired authoritarian copycats worldwide. It's not too difficult to imagine this technology repurposed for hate speech or disinformation.

Check out my full piece in today's @CityAM:

[Signal @signalapp]

Our statement on the UK government’s demand that all content on all devices sold or used in the country be scanned, on the presumption of nudity, using a dystopian combination of age verification and content scanning. This proposal will not safeguard children. It endangers us all.

https://t.co/VdWe9uhi8p

[G Sagt @g_sagt]

Today's HK...

[vawongsir @vawongsir]

🇭🇰｜人治 Hong Kong leader to have power to certify any criminal case as national security

[G Sagt @g_sagt]

I first read a related news on this new demand, I thought it's fake news. I can't believe UK gov is that Chinese now.

[Signal @signalapp]

Our statement on the UK government’s demand that all content on all devices sold or used in the country be scanned, on the presumption of nudity, using a dystopian combination of age verification and content scanning. This proposal will not safeguard children. It endangers us all.

https://t.co/VdWe9uhi8p

[G Sagt @g_sagt]

Why am I not surprised... 😒

[Hong Kong Democracy Council @hkdc_us]

One day after the HK gov't formally introduced a "national security" amendment granting the Chief Executive authority to certify any crime as "endangering national security," the CE today approved it & it was immediately gazetted, thus entering into force.
https://t.co/lstjuOEG0p

[euronews @euronews]

Hong Kong has proposed legislation allowing its leader to designate certain criminal acts as national security offences.

Critics say the move further weakens civil liberties following years of tightening security laws.

[Hong Kong Free Press HKFP @hkfp]

The British embassy in Beijing has confirmed to HKFP that it did not remove a tribute to the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown dead from Weibo on Thursday. Rather, it was quickly removed by the Chinese social media platform. "This also happened to other posts by other foreign missions," a spokesperson said.

[G Sagt @g_sagt]

This is the only thing the government will do...

[Hong Kong Free Press HKFP @hkfp]

Hong Kong police are maintaining a heavy presence at and around Victoria Park, where Tiananmen vigils were once held, on Thursday, the 37th anniversary of the bloody crackdown.

Plainclothes police set up a roadblock at the intersection of East Point Road and Great George Road on Thursday afternoon. Police officers, both plainclothes and uniformed, can be seen patrolling Causeway Bay and the entrance to the park.

For the fourth consecutive year, a patriotic food carnival is being held in Victoria Park.

Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

[U.S. Consulate General Hong Kong & Macau @USAinHKMacau]

Statement by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the 37th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square: https://t.co/8Y65Tl32eA

[李老师不是你老师 @whyyoutouzhele]

6月4日，英国驻华使馆发布微博，纪念六四37周年
随后该条微博被封禁。

[G Sagt @g_sagt]

當李老師在講香港事，就知呢度有幾worse

[李老师不是你老师 @whyyoutouzhele]

4月17日早上9时许，大约30名工人聚集在香港 启德沐缙街2号 一地盘出入口拉横幅讨薪，声称遭到「恶意拖欠工程款」，导致「有汗出，无粮出」。

期间，多名工人走入地盘，站在5楼平台的边缘位置；救援人员闻讯到场，立即张开救生气垫及进行游说，劳工处亦派专员协助斡旋。

下午3时许，所有工人均返回安全位置，其中一名60多岁男子情绪激动，需要送医检查。据悉，受影响的工人涉及泥水等工种，大部分人被拖欠3个月工资，涉款共约数百万港元。

[G Sagt @g_sagt]

@sanzhao41 我上次航空公司個app 做唔到online check in. 要係櫃檯搞，個地勤要行好遠返入office 打呢個電話，再等左廿幾分鐘先可以繼續Check in。辛苦哂個地勤要因為呢啲PK嘢兩頭走。好L煩

[G Sagt @g_sagt]

Why do I feel that Trump is trying to let Rubio to be next president instead is Vance?! He never interrupt Rubio and mortly appears agreeing with him. It's different from the interviews with Vance.

[ABC News @ABC]

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said other countries "complaining" about the U.S.-Israel war in Iran "should actually be grateful that the United States has a president that's willing to confront a threat like this." https://t.co/hqgxawWYFt

[Samuel Chu 朱牧民 @samuelmchu]

Two courageous people are on trial in Hong Kong.

Lee Cheuk-yan - a labor organizer and union leader.
Chow Hang-tung - a human rights lawyer.

Their crime: refusing to let history disappear.

[Kevin Yam 任建峰 @kevinkfyam]

THE IDEOLOGICAL HOMELESSNESS OF EAST AND SOUTH-EAST ASIAN PROGRESSIVES IN THE WEST

Both personally and in cases of a fair number of East and South-East Asians both in Australia and other Western countries that I have spoken with, there is a bunch of us who are considered progressives back “home”. In broad terms, we are:

- anti-authoritarian

- critical of Western excesses, which often include being highly critical of the Trumps of this world

- pro-labour rights

- pro-income redistribution measures in market economies

- pro-free or cheap provision of things like housing, health and education, with taxation systems that would fund such measures

- pro-measures to ameliorate the impact of climate change

- pro-gender equality

- pro-LGBTQ civil rights

- pro-ethnic, linguistic religious diversity

- pro-indigenous people’s rights (eg I was a volunteer in Melbourne Chinese speaking communities to campaign for a “Yes” vote during the “Voice to Parliament” referendum back in 2023)

But then we moved to the West. Suddenly, we find that, as one East Asian activist said to me, “you know, Kevin, we wouldn’t be recognised as progressives in the West”. In broad terms, our beliefs don’t qualify us as “progressives” in the West nowadays, because, for example, we are not/do not:

- reflexively anti-Western

- turn blind eyes to or support non-Western authoritarians to the point of backing those who stand against values such as women’s rights, LGBTQ rights and ethnic minority rights

- agree with non-Western authoritarian states trying to create discourse environments in which any criticism of non-Western authoritarians gets branded as “racist”

- loath white people per se

- anti-Zionist (with or without large doses of anti-Semitism), and in this regard being critical or even condemnatory of Israel’s conduct is not considered anywhere near sufficient

- view everything through narrow white colonialism lens as if (i) white people are the only colonialists; and/or (ii) colonialism is the only or even the main problem afflicting the world

- anti-market economy to the point of making it highly difficult if not impossible for businesses to operate (in East and South East Asia we have seen how entrepreneurialism can often be a path out of poverty)

- necessarily believe that there are potentially multitudes of, if not even infinite numbers of genders

- view indigenous rights discourse as needing to be exclusively by reference to and/or against white people/white colonialism, ignoring the existence and reality of Western societies now having lots of more recent non-white migrants

As a result, we are left ideologically homeless in the West, alienated from “progressives”, but also dismissed by conservatives as woke and even naïve.

What can we do about it? I don’t know. But whatever happens, we need to be true to ourselves, right?