The abrupt fizzling-out of the Occupy Hong Kong a.k.a. Umbrella Movement is still something of a mystery. Everything was going so well.  Burgeoning street demonstrations, the  concentrated and largely favorable attention of the Hong Kong citizenry, increasingly vocal support by educational and liberal elites, breathless coverage by the international press, achievement of direct dialogue between... Read More

Chronicle of a Leak Foretold [I was preparing to post this on October 24.  If I had, I would have gained major Nostradamus cred, since I predicted the next shoe to drop from the pro-Beijing oppo research caterpillar would probably drop on Benny Tai’s head.  That’s because the leaks seem to track the Occupy strategy... Read More

FAQ 5 for the aborted Occupy Central poll: Not as silly as it sounds, IMO. Actually, to quote Admiral Akhbar, It’s A Trap! Specifically, if blues wanted to “freep” the poll en masse in an attempt to vote down the proposals, it would be at the cost of swelling the ranks of putative Umbrella Movement... Read More

[Corrected some mis-stated names of various organizations and added reference to Alliance for True Democracy declining to comment on authenticity of documents--CH 10/23/14] [On the self-censorship front, while discussing the issue of whether the Alliance for True Democracy document dump is forged or authentic, I compare the leaked audio file--which would seem almost impossible to... Read More

I was rather bemused by the fizzling of the student ultimatum calling for C.Y. Leung’s resignation by midnight Thursday, October 2. Leung said he wasn’t resigning but was designating a senior government official, Carrie Lam, to engage in dialogue with the students. And the students were, like, whatever. So, despite the fact that Leung didn’t... Read More

It’s becoming easier to understand why the PRC landed on Ilham Tohti, the Uyghur “public intellectual” like a ton of bricks. Judging from the admittedly selective excerpts used at the kangaroo court to damn him to “indefinite detention”, reported perhaps not inaccurately in the West as a “life sentence”, Ilham hoped to use his bully... Read More