Monday 29 July 2019

State Council’s rare presser on Hong Kong

Yang Guang, spokesman for State Council HK Office
We just watched the State Council presser.  One off, we believe, never done before on the subject of Hong Kong, though I’m not fully sure about that.
We were a touch concerned, though J had predicted it would be about supporting the HK government and the police, and so it turned out to be.
Yang made three points:
1.  Oppose violence
2.  Uphold the rule of law
3.  Focus on development and livelihood issues.  i.e. get back to making money.

Not much to be too worried about, though the violent protesters won’t like being called “criminals”. (Even if that’s what, to be precise, they were and are).  But at least no talk of the PLA being brought out of their barracks. The one question on what conditions would be needed for them to be put on the streets, Yang parried by saying “it’s in the Basic Law”.

Yang is young. And steely, behind the bland smiley face. We can just imagine the amount of time the went into crafting the message, and Yang has been given a high responsibility of delivering it to the world. J notes Yang has some grey in his hair.  A new trend amongst the leadership, who till now have been sternly blackly black-haired.  But Xi Jinping started the trend to letting it go natural....

Other reports 

Trivia: Yang Guang is also a Sui dynasty emperor, b. 569 CE.