Russia isn’t high on my list of places to visit, but this is certainly welcoming news. Being so close, it even sounds mildly tempting…

Edit – Noting that many people get here searching ‘visa free access China’ in Google, note the following:

2) Visa-free access to Russia granted to the following countries as of 28/08/2009 : Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, Cuba, Moldova, Tajikistan, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Israel, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Venezuela, Argentina – and Hong Kong.

Amongst other features, Jipingmi currently aggregates job listings from over 20 sites and separates agent listings from direct postings.

Now, if only our site was ready before we had to find ourselves a new office!

Then last but not least of course, Happy SAR day to those in Hong Kong – though I often wonder what it is we’re celebrating.

Yet again another article appears in the SCMP, part of a long string of articles debating the future of Hong Kong’s democratic reform: this time the DAB suggesting that there should be no universal sufferage on chief executive elections earlier than 2017, with full legco elections coming even later. This only a couple of months after DAB chairman Ma Lik ignorantly played down the events of the 1989 Tiannanmen Square ‘incident’.

The article laughably suggests that each “candidate must obtain 50 votes from a nomination board of 800 members before being put in a ‘one man, one vote’ election by the public or legco – with a similar 800 member nomination committee for chief executive. In another words – universal sufferage, but you can only pick from pre-approved candidates (by Beijing, no doubt).

It is of course times like this when you feel like practicing voodoo is a good idea – or to find a punching bag effigy of the said idiot and whack the living daylights out of it.

How one can be a complete stooge, a mouthpiece of a one party state with total disrespect for freedom of speech, a man who claims to be patriotic but not giving the slightest damn about people’s general aspirations, a spinless coward who has profited personally from being friendly to Beijing… it’s amazing what can come out of some people’s mouthes.

Watching shows in Beijing celebrating the 10th anniversary since the ‘Great Hong Kong Takeaway’, all the fanfare here is praising the central government support for Hong Kong, Hong Kong’s economic development – they of course all paint a rosey picture. It’s no surprise there are no mentions of the real struggles back at home. In watching the BBC’s reminiscing of the final few years of colonial rule under Chris Patten you get a very different picture – Patten’s efforts for last minute government reform; moves appreciated now by most but having enraged many at the time, mostly tycoons who have profited from befriending the Communist party. Gordon Wu (chairman of Hopewell Holdings) was even quoted to suggest self censorship would not be a problem and would not bother him.

China is by and large a very different place now to fifteen years ago – but deep down the same core problems exist. Pathetic would be a good phrase to describe the leadership here. Much has been achieved in concrete terms, economically and politically, but the tit for tat childish behaviour of key figures continues.

And yet, with 40 years to go till 2049, it’s happening in Hong Kong too.

The central government ought to speed up their brainwashing – at least by then 40 years later, we’d all be too ignorant to complain.

From the SCMP:

“Beijing has expressed concern that a plan to launch a community referendum to gauge the public’s view on who should be the next chief executive would undermine Donald Tsang Yam-kuen’s credibility”

In other words, if someone else gets “elected”, which is possible, then the presumed lack of support for Donald Tsang would undermine his role as chief executive when someone else should be there instead. Well gosh – isn’t that the point of elections? In a democratic society you pick the leader and they lead with the mandate of the people. That Hong Kong people should be denied the right to pick their leader is insulting enough – that Beijing should then complain about a non-binding poll taking place is just ludicrous.

Cyd Ho Sau-lan, organiser of the project, was quoted to comment that:

“…the best way for them to get an acceptable result would be to convince the public that the person Beijing supports is good”

- I couldn’t agree more. It would be far more constructive for Beijing to try and gain support for the candidate they’re fielding than to waste time complaining about opposition figures. Granted some may see the poll as a pointless exercise that would achieve nothing except create discontent, but I believe instability won’t be easy to come by in Hong Kong and that on the contrary such a poll would send a strong signal to the government.

Of course some may fear that the poll would give a mandate to Donald Tsang, should he win. But, if this is the case then I say congratulations to him – and likewise to the democrats, they should try harder next time to win the support of the people.

Having spent most of my life in Hong Kong, I have grown to love the city skyline. Although I have admired many others on my travels, I still believe that nothing compares to that at home – the hills in particular. It’s nice to see i’m not the only one who thinks this.

The bottom of Luigi’s page also has a link to a more impirical ranking of the world’s skylines.

I myself am not much of a tea connoisseur, but i’m not sure i’d want to order a drink associated with pantyhose. In any case though, I certainly hope it’s not used pantyhose!

“This is a major issue. You cannot say, `oh it’s game over, let’s do it again’. This is not on.”

Mr Tsang believed the olive branches extended by Beijing in recent months – such as inviting all lawmakers to visit the mainland – would not be forthcoming again in the near future.

“You cannot bully people and not expect them to get angry.”

Wait… who’s bullying who here?

“The outcome cannot be swept aside as if it has never happened. It’s not child’s play”.

I can say for sure that the outcome will not be swept aside – the democrats certainly have no desire to do that. They will, of course, continue to fight for a fair solution to electoral reform. And why Donald would even hint at the suggestion elections are child’s play is beyond me – the problem in Hong Kong is that the government thinks the electorate are children.

Granted, a certain portion of the people do act childish at times – but sometimes I question whether the real toddlers are the electorate or the government.

Amongst her comments, she notes that:
In Beijing, the Hong Kong demonstration received the usual “media blackout” treatment. This is as much a reflection of the Chinese government’s kneejerk paranoia, as the march ostensibly has no bearing on the ordinary Chinese person’s life today. It would seem a long stretch to regard the Hong Kong demonstration as a precursor to any kind of social unrest in the mainland.

True enough, there was certainly no media coverage at all here in Beijing regarding movements in Hong Kong. But to think that a mention of protests in China would directly lead to unrest in China is somewhat misleading. Indeed, protests are already occuring in China: 20 are alleged to have been killed in Guangdong (廣東) last week in village protests. As China continues to prosper and education improves, such continued unrest is inevitable.

If anything is to be learned from Hong Kong, it is that peaceful protest and freedom of speech are not detrimental to social and economic development. China should learn from this, not shun it.

According to the SCMP an estimated 70,000 participated in the rally – including ex-chief secretary Anson Chan. This is a higher than expected turnout, and only goes to show that the will for change in Hong Kong is still strong. And though change has been promised, a promise with no accompanying timetable is about as trustworthy as a written a testimony from a gorilla.

Joseph Zen was quoted in the SCMP commenting that “Tsang says his proposal is a big step towards full democracy: this is the biggest lie I have heard” – harsh words from a bishop accusing one of his subjects of sinning. He continues to say “We are going sideways. We will go in circles with no direction and a dead end.” At the current rate, we’ll sooner break down than reach our destination.

What was amusing to hear was Donald Tsang, speaking whilst the rally was taking place, saying that he also aspires for universal sufferage and would like to see it implemented within his lifetime. To me, it sounds like he has to try a bit harder: for sure the mainland authorities are not going to be easy opposition to defeat, but if compromise is the name of the game, Hong Kong is definitely drawing the short straw. Tsang has the option now to press ahead with Beijing for more constructive political reform for the territory; the alternative, easy way out, is to just let Beijing pull the strings.

Sadly, when it comes to elections, Donald Tsang seems to have no more finesse than Tung did.

For those who don’t know, the HK government have released their proposals for constitutional reform of the 2007-2008 Chief Executive & Legislative Council elections some two weeks ago. These proposals, briefly, will double the election committee for the chief executive (from 800 to 1600) and will add 10 legislative seats: 5 to be directly elected, and the other 5 chosen by district councillors (who are elected by the people). Although this is undoubtedly an improvement over previous years, the actual difference this makes to the public is minor: we will still have virtually no say in the running of government. The changes to legco will still result in a 50/50 split of directly elected vs. less-than-directly elected councillors, and the doubling of election committee numbers to 1600 still amounts to some 0.023% of the population only. That’s the number of people who get to pick the chief executive!

A recent article in the SCMP (actually 9th November – not that recent, but i’ve been busy!) cites Central Policy Unit head Lau Siu-kai as saying that “if such major reform could not get through, his [Donald Tsang's] authority, political reputation, and even governance would be called into question” . Lau has hopes that the proposals would pass in legco, to risk further jeopardisation of the ‘reform’ process. I would say that for starters, the current government proposals are far from ‘major reforms’. Secondly, in the fight for any cause, one cannot just accept any olive branch handed to them to avoid risk of jeopardising the wider cause – doing so would give one party the upper hand always and reduce any motivation for reaching a proper compromise.

I accept that universal sufferage is for sure ruled out of the 2007/8 elections, and even believe that the pro-democracy parties are somewhat stubborn in their continual pursuit of this (though they have mellowed down somewhat recently) when they can be more productive concentrating on the next opportunity after – but it shocks me to see that an increasing fragment of Hong Kong society fail to see the importance of having open and accountable government.

Nearly everyone wants to see success from the ‘one country, two systems’ policy – many it seems, by turning this gradually into ‘one country, one system’. The irony is that this would only show the opposite. I believe that ‘economic prosperity’ can be achieved alongside political reforms – many others, it would appear, see the latter as hindering the former. If anything, transparency and representative government help ensure economic stability – providing the population are mature enough for that of course… and I like to believe in Hong Kong that we are.