Open letter to Carrie Lam
Paris, July 25, 2019
Madam chief executive,
Reporters Without Borders, an international organization defending freedom of information, is extremely alarmed by the current climate of violence against journalists in Hong Kong.
During the mass demonstrations over the past two months, police and pro-Beijing demonstrators have attacked journalists on numerous occasions. Violence culminated on Sunday last week at the Yuen Long MTR station when mobsters viciously attacked civilians, including journalists, while law enforcement looked the other way.
In a report published on July 7, the Hong Kong Journalists Association deplored “one of the worst years” for journalists since the handover and denounced “a deliberate policy” to restrict journalistic freedoms.
In the RSF World Press Freedom Index, Hong Kong’s ranking has plummeted from 18th in 2002 to 73rd this year.
We urge you to take immediate and proactive action in order to reverse this decline and ensure the full enforcement of freedom of the press, a right that is spelled out in the Basic Law and of which it is your duty as the chief executive to uphold.
We suggest focusing on five key points:
1. Unequivocally withdraw the extradition bill, which is widely feared to pose a major threat to journalists and their sources in Hong Kong.
2. Ensure that law enforcement refrain from any violence or coercion against journalists and protect them anytime their safety is threatened.
3. Ensure that those who call for, order, perpetrate or glorify violent acts against journalists are being prosecuted and punished; establish an independent commission to investigate brutality acts.
4. Enforce the highest level of transparency on public affairs for the media.
5. Give clear instructions to all members of the Hong Kong administration to support freedom of the press and facilitate the work of journalists by all means.
We are convinced that these five measures, if set up under your mandate, would contribute to reinforcing the trust between Hong Kong residents and the administration and strengthening the international prestige of Hong Kong.
Our association would be happy to put its expertise at your service so that your administration can get the quickest and most effective results implementing our proposals.
Please accept, Madam Chief Executive, the assurances of my highest consideration,
Christophe Deloire
Secretary-general,
Reporters Without Borders
Fake news and free speech
The article “Most say ‘fake news’ not free speech, poll shows” (July 20, page 3 ), serves to focus attention on one important aspect of a democratic society: citizens’ right to information. And it also emphasizes the absolute importance of the individual’s responsibility to verify where the information that they receive comes from.
Ours is a complicated world today. Anyone, anywhere, can present what they wish others to believe on multiple platforms that have the ability to reach and inform (or misinform) literally thousands.
The responsibility now falls on the shoulders of each and every one of us to verify the truthfulness of what we see or hear.
As a semi-retired college professor, I have cautioned my students for decades to not take what they read or hear in the media at face value: “If what you read or hear doesn’t ‘feel’ right, double-check it. Use other sources — other news media outlets, for example — to verify the truthfulness or accuracy of the information.”
I truly hope that citizens of all countries will ultimately take this advice to heart. Don’t just blissfully accept what your “favorite” broadcast or print medium says. Check it out!
Kirk Hazlett
Tampa, Florida
Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Forward Forum in Taipei, former Singaporean minister for foreign affairs George Yeo (楊榮文) proposed a “Chinese commonwealth” as a potential framework for political integration between Taiwan and China. Yeo said the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait is unsustainable and that Taiwan should not be “a piece on the chessboard” in a geopolitical game between China and the US. Yeo’s remark is nothing but an ill-intentioned political maneuver that is made by all pro-China politicians in Singapore. Since when does a Southeast Asian nation have the right to stick its nose in where it is not wanted
As China’s economy was meant to drive global economic growth this year, its dramatic slowdown is sounding alarm bells across the world, with economists and experts criticizing Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for his unwillingness or inability to respond to the nation’s myriad mounting crises. The Wall Street Journal reported that investors have been calling on Beijing to take bolder steps to boost output — especially by promoting consumer spending — but Xi has deep-rooted philosophical objections to Western-style consumption-driven growth, seeing it as wasteful and at odds with his goal of making China a world-leading industrial and technological powerhouse, and
More Taiwanese semiconductor companies, from chip designers to suppliers of equipment and raw materials, are feeling the pinch due to increasing competition from their Chinese peers, who are betting all their resources on developing mature chipmaking technologies in a push for self-sufficiency, as their access to advanced nodes has been affected by US tech curbs. A lack of chip manufacturing technology such as extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) would ensure that Chinese companies — Huawei Technology Co in particular — lag behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co by five to six years, some analysts have said.
For Xi Jinping (習近平) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the military conquest of Taiwan is an absolute requirement for the CCP’s much more fantastic ambition: control over our solar system. Controlling Taiwan will allow the CCP to dominate the First Island Chain and to better neutralize the Philippines, decreasing the threat to the most important People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Strategic Support Force (SSF) space base, the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan Island. Satellite and manned space launches from the Jiuquan and Xichang Satellite Launch Centers regularly pass close to Taiwan, which is also a very serious threat to the PLA,
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