Will Candles Still Be Lit in Hong Kong on June 4 ? More Internet Financial Giants Targeted by the CCP
Hello, everyone, welcome to “Inconvenient Truths”. I am your host Jennifer Zeng.
Today I will talk about two topics: Will candles still be lit in Hong Kong this year on June 4, the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre? Why is the CCP tightening control over Internet Financial Giants such as Alibaba and Tencent?
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Now, let’s move to our first topic.
June 4 Vigil Organizer Says Candles Will Be Lit in Hong Kong's Victoria Park
June 4 this year will mark the 32nd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and it will be the first year since the Chinese regime implemented the national security law in Hong Kong. While a number of democratic activists were given jail terms for participating in last year’s peaceful Tiananmen memorial rally, will this year’s event still be on like in the past 31 years?
The organizer of each year’s event vowed that candlelight would still be lit in Victoria Park next month, despite pressure from Beijing authorities.
You know, the organizer of each year’s event is Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (let’s call it the “Alliance" from now on).
Hang Tung Chow (鄒幸彤), a Hong Kong barrister and vice-president of the Alliance said that candles in Victoria Park will be lit as usual regardless of whether or not they get permission from the authorities.
Chow said that the Alliance has notified the police of the June 4 activities, but has yet to receive a reply.
Richard Tsoi, secretary of the Alliance, said that the organization will meet with the police tomorrow (on May 20) to try to get permission. Due to the current political situation, the Alliance says they have to be careful and "work more cautiously within the legal framework."
On May 4, the Alliance received a notification from the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, which states that the department has suspended the processing of venue bookings in response to the pandemic. This means that the Victoria Park venue will not be approved.
Despite that, Chow (鄒幸彤) said, the Alliance still plans to enter Victoria Park, as the rally will be legal since the police have not opposed it.
She said, “We have our own bottom line, which is not to be crushed by their red line.”
Even if the police object to the rally, she said, “They cannot oppose me going out with a candle, they cannot oppose me going anywhere with a candle. We insist on having a candlelight vigil in Victoria Park.”
Chow said that in the coming days, the Alliance will work with different organizations to put up street stalls and distribute candles to the public.
She hopes that more people can be motivated to help organizations set up street stalls, so that on June 4, many people can take the candles with them to places they can go. The Alliance will also launch an online campaign so that people from different places can participate.
Participants of Last Year’s June 4 Rally Sentenced
On June 4 last year, although the Hong Kong government banned the rally in Victoria Park on the pretext of the pandemic, tens of thousands of people still entered the park to light candles. The police did not stop the public from entering, and participants left peacefully after the memorial ceremony.
However, 26 pro-democracy activists, who participated in the rally, were charged with “taking part in an unauthorized assembly.” Among them, Joshua Wong, Lester Shum, Tiffany Yuen and Jannelle Rosalynne Leung were sentenced to 4 to 10 months in prison on May 6.
Although the rally was peaceful, Judge Stanley Chan said in his ruling that those people were sentenced because “the event was held on a special day. This is a potential risk factor that cannot be underestimated or ignored.”
This is to say that people can be sentenced for attending a peaceful event only because that event was held on a “special day.” How ridiculous is that, right?
Among the 26 activists charged, 20 have pleaded not guilty, two have escaped from Hong Long, and live in the UK now. They are Nathan Law and Sunny Cheung(張崑陽).
The case will be brought back to court on June 11. All the 20 people may also face imprisonment.
From this we can see how things are rapidly getting worse in Hong Kong since the so called national security law was implemented by Beijing in June last year, following the withdrawal of an extradition bill in October 2019, which once triggered nearly 2 million people to take to the streets on June 16 that year.
The national security law was drafted behind closed doors by members of China's rubber-stamp legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC), bypassing Hong Kong's Legislative Council. Many people feared the harsh measures could be used to override existing legal processes and erode the city's civil and political freedoms.
Two high-profile figures of the Alliance have already been sentenced. Lee Cheuk-yan 李卓人, the chairman of the organization, was sentenced to 14 months in prison for his role in a peaceful anti-extradition bill protest in August 2019 and is currently serving his sentence.
The vice-chairman of the Alliance, Albert Ho, was sentenced to 12 months in prison and two years probation for his involvement in the August 2019 protest.
Be 'More Flexible' or 'Uphold Promises?'
Richard Tsoi, secretary of the Alliance, told The Epoch Times that in the face of severe legal and political risks, a flexible approach to commemorate the June 4 Incident should be considered.
He said, compared to one year ago, the national security law has come into effect. The political environment is worse, and legal risks are higher.
He said, “I think we have to think about how to be more flexible and preserve our strength while sticking to our principles".
However, Chow disagrees with him.
She said, “Right now, it is not a question of how much strength we want to preserve for ourselves, it is how much strength the government wants to eliminate. Unless you don't fight for democracy, unless you give up this fight, some things cannot be avoided.”
Chow added that people in mainland China were sentenced to three, four, or even 10 years for commemorating the Tiananmen Square massacre, and the people of Hong Kong should uphold their promises to the victims, the Tiananmen Mothers, the exiled and imprisoned brothers, sisters, and friends who have fought for democracy.
The photos you just saw were all taken on June 4 last year in Victoria Park in Hong Kong.
The Tiananmen Square protests, a youth-led movement advocating for democratic reforms, have become a taboo subject in China. The Chinese regime won’t disclose the number or names of those killed in the clampdown. Death toll estimates from human rights groups and witnesses range from several hundred to several thousand, some even say at least ten thousand.
From 1989 to 2019: Hong Kong’s Involvement in China's Pro-democracy Movement
Although the 1989 pro-democracy movement was centered in Beijing, the people of Hong Kong were also deeply involved.
After the CCP declared martial law in Beijing on May 19, 1989, more than 40,000 Hongkongers took to the streets on the following day, despite the typhoon, to oppose the crackdown.
On May 21, over 1 million Hongkongers held a protest, accounting for about one-fifth of Hong Kong's population.
The Alliance we mentioned earlier was founded in May 1989, during the protests in Beijing, with Szeto Wah (司徒華), one of the founding fathers of Hong Kong's democratic movement, as its first chairman.
On June 4 that year, Hongkongers were horrified by the CCP’s massacre in Beijing. Soon after, the Alliance launched "Operation Yellowbird" and has helped a large number of student leaders and participants in the movement to flee from China.
Since then, for 31 consecutive years, the Alliance has held a candlelight memorial service at Victoria Park on June 4. The maximum number of participants was 180,000 in 2012, 2014, and 2019 respectively.
So, after 31 years of undisrupted memorial services, if this year’s event cannot be held as usual, I think many people will feel very sad.
Of course the situation in Hong Kong is already bad enough. But how worse will it become? People still want to wait and see.
Now, let’s move to our next topic.
China’s Regulators Warn 13 Chinese Internet Firms Amidst Internal Power Struggle
The CCP’s regulators recently interviewed 13 Chinese internet firms following a third interview of Jack Ma’s Ant Group. It is obvious that power struggles inside the CCP are behind these interviews.
Among other issues, supervision of the shareholding structure and capital was reportedly emphasized in the interviews.
The interviewed giants include well known companies such as Tencent, JD.com, ByteDance, and Trip.com Group Finance, etc.
Similar to Ant Group, these 13 companies all have integrated operations, large business volume, and strong industry influence.
In the interview meeting, Pan Gongsheng(潘功勝), Vice Governor of the Chinese Central Bank put forward seven requirements:
(1) All financial activities must be supervised;
(2) Payments should be done in their “original form,” while “inappropriate connections” between payment tools and other financial products should be severed, non-bank accounts should be strictly controlled and prevented from expanding to the public sector;
(3) Monopoly of information on financial platforms should be ended;
(4) Management of key aspects such as shareholder qualifications, shareholding structure, capital, risk isolation, and connected transactions payments, etc, should be strengthened;
(5) Improve corporate governance;
(6) Regulate the issuance and trading of asset securitization products and overseas listing;
(7) Strengthen the consumer protection mechanism.
Pan Gongsheng also chaired the third interview meeting with Ant Group, raising five rectification requirements, which were similar to the 7 requirements.
Up to now there is no news or reports about whether the 13 companies have shareholding structures or capital problems. However, Xi Jinping has long been investigating the shareholding structure background of Ant Group, and found that former CCP leader Jiang Zemin’s faction was behind it.
Ant’s Complex Ownership Structure
According to the Wall Street Journal, growing unease in Beijing over Ant Group’s complex ownership structure was another reason why the CCP blocked Ant Group’s IPO.
The Wall Street Journal report said the CCP found that Boyu Capital, which is effectively controlled by Jiang Zemin’s grandson Jiang Zhicheng, holds a stake in Ant in a roundabout way through a private equity fund, Beijing Jingguan; while Li Botan, the son-in-law of former Politburo Standing Committee member Jia Qinglin, who has close ties to Jiang Zemin, holds a stake in Ant through Beijing Zhaode Investment Group.
The report mentioned that many of Jiang’s men have been purged in Xi Jinping’s corruption crackdown, but Jiang still has a certain degree of influence behind the scenes.
As early as 2014, the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times exclusively broke the story that after Zhou Yongkang, former Secretary of the CCP’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission and important member of the Jiang faction, inspected Tencent in 2011, Jiang’s niece Jiang Jin was appointed as the person in charge of the government affairs of Tencent QQ.
Under Jiang Jin’s leadership, Tencent began deep cooperation with the CCP’s Ministry of National Security and Ministry of Public Security. Both of them are two of the CCP’s important tools to control and persecute Chinese people.
Internet Financial Giants Required to Study ‘The Spirit’ of Xi Jinping’s Speech
Immediately after Ant Group was interviewed for the third time, on April 13, Zhejiang Province, where Ant Group is headquartered, held a special meeting on the Internet platform at which local officials stressed the need to further study and implement the spirit of Xi Jinping’s speech.
When the 13 companies were later interviewed, the financial regulators emphasized the same requirement.
Among the interviewed companies, some are regarded as having a Jiang faction background, such as Tencent and Meituan Financial, in which Tencent has a stake.
Why is the CCP so upset about these Internet financial giants?
Because, once Internet financial platforms become big enough, they can greatly influence the flow of capital and market confidence, and control the consumer data. If the authorities cannot control these financial platforms, the consequences could be disastrous.
For example, in 2015, during the turbulence of the Chinese stock market, a third of the value of A-shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange was lost in one month.
Many people believed that the market crash was a result of “collusion” between anti-Xi forces within the CCP and foreign capital.
That’s why the authorities now feel they must guard against similar risks and know who exactly is behind those big financial platforms.
Also, by controlling the information and data, the authorities not only can monitor the people, but also can control the big data of people’s life and consumption. That’s why the authorities must take tight control over these platforms.
So that’s the reality of the CCP’s China. Even if you say that you will follow and obey the party, the party still feels uneasy if you become too big. Everything must be under 100% control.
I know many people in the West were charmed by Jack Ma. He speaks good English. His talks are interesting, he is rich and he is smart, etc.
But recently when he made his first public appearance after disappearing for a long time, people found him looking a lot older and more pitiful. The University he owns, Hupan University, was also targeted. This video shows the big sign of Hupan University being destroyed, with the words plastered over.
So that’s the tragedy of living in CCP’s China. No one is safe, regardless of whether you are rich or poor.
That’s all for today’s Inconvenient Truths. Thank you so much for watching. Please spread this video so that more people become aware.
Thank you. See you next time.
5/19/2021 *
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