Posted on 06/27/2021 6:46:07 PM PDT by MtnClimber
For 26 years, the pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily was a thorn in Beijing’s side. This week, the paper closed for good. What its death means for Hong Kong — and for us all.
By my lights, the most important news event of this past week was not the New York mayoral primary (my condolences to Andrew Yang). It wasn’t Bitcoin dropping below $30,000. And it certainly wasn’t the new bipartisan infrastructure deal announced by President Biden.
It was the forced closure of Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong.
You may not have heard of Apple Daily. I knew of it, but only vaguely. It is — or rather, it was — Hong Kong’s version of the New York Post combined with William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator. A tabloid, yes. But also: a voice for freedom.
Ever since it began publishing in 1995, Apple Daily has been a thorn in the side of the Chinese Communist Party. Its commitment to democracy and freedom had everything to do with its founder, Jimmy Lai.
It’s not possible to do Lai’s whole story justice in a column — someone should make a blockbuster — but here is the cliffsnotes version: Lai fled mainland China at 12 years old as a stowaway on a fishing boat. He found a job in a Hong Kong sweatshop and eventually worked his way up in the garment trade (or, as we in the Jewish community call it, the shmata business.)
Along the way, he encountered fellow garment workers in New York who introduced him to free-market theorists like Frederick Hayek, Karl Popper and Milton Friedman, with whom he later developed a close relationship. “This is a guy who didn't have any formal schooling past the age of maybe eight,” Mark Simon, who has been Lai’s right hand for the past two decades, told me in an interview this week. “Those books started his real political awakening.”
By the ’80s, Lai had built out his retail empire in Hong Kong; his company, called Giordano after a New York pizza spot, became a wild success.
But becoming rich wasn’t what changed the course of Lai’s life. The massacre at Tiananmen Square did.
“That's when he went from his economic and intellectual awakening to his political awakening,” said Simon. “I don't want to be too crude, but [Lai] said, ‘I hated the bastards. I knew evil when I saw it. And they are evil.’”
Lai, a devout Catholic, shifted his focus from t-shirts to tabloids and began to build his media empire. The first edition of Apple Daily made its purpose plain: “We are convinced that Hongkongers who are accustomed to freedom will not stay silent in the face of unreasonable restrictions and unfair treatments, for Hongkongers are born with a passion for freedom.”
AARGH!!
The same signs that reveal Red China’s takeover of Hong Kong are showing up in the US re the use of the media by the Left/Democrats to spread “disinformation” about Trump and his businesses, family, etc.
To arrest demonstrators, mainly peaceful one from Jan. 6th instead of going after those in Antifa/BLM riots, arson, looting and killings in Portland, Seattle, Phila, NYC, DC (St. John’s Church arson), Baltimore, Chicago, etc.
Refusing to us the IRS against leftist money launderers to the riot organizations as well as grants/laundered money by Soros and similar groups to BLM, Antifa, etc, and bail funds for criminals.
Having ethically corrupt judges release dangerous criminals into society where many have killed again and for having “bought” leftist DAs and State Attorney Generals refuse to take action against Marxist and black extremist terrorist groups (Name one group that has been investigated, brought before a grand jury, had their bank accounts subpoenaed and seized, had their homes invaded by militarily armed FBI and ATF agents at 6 in the morning, kids threatened, and fake charges brought against them).
Having been involved in internal security and law enforcement endeavors for a very long time, I can honestly say that this is the most corrupt FBI leadership including those who were forced to leave - Yates, Strzok (he might even still be around), Page, Ohrs, Comey; Mueller; the most corrupt CIA leadership; the most corrupt and dangerous ODNI - Brennan the traitor; the most corrupt State Dept.’s intelligence units; the most corrupt US Attorney Generals/DOJ leadership (Holder, Lynch, Garland, and Rosenstein) and many corrupt regional officials of DOJ, in American history.
The same applies to the leadership and many members of the House and/Senate committees on Intelligence, Homeland Security, Immigration, and even Foreign Affairs/Armed Services. I worked for Congress/men and have never seen such cowardice and treason in my life. Several of us were able, back then, to get communist agents dismissed from both House and Senate members’ staff and committee staffs. Today, instead, these same committees hire them.
“Just Posing on FR likely makes one a Yuge Target”
Probably.
I thought it was about the USA too. Just shows that there is now little difference.
It is a state of affairs that I would have never believed if I had not witnessed it happening.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.