Angry Aussie instant Communist hero

By in China American Cold War, Featured Article

| 98 comments

He’s not fan of freedom if it delays his travels:


But the Chinese Communist Party foghorn, Global Times, made him an instant hero:

Meanwhile, back in the realm of human beings, via Bloomie:

Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Tuesday repeated her defense of the police’s use of tear gas against protesters in residential areas and a train station, saying she wouldn’t question law enforcement tactics. She didn’t answer repeated shouted questions about whether she should step down or formally withdraw the extradition legislation that prompted the sometimes violent protests that have scared away tourists, disrupted commutes and briefly shut down the city’s main airport Monday.

Instead, Lam appeared to choke up when cautioning Hong Kong against the risk of “critical injury.” “I again call on everyone to set aside prejudices, and be calm to look at the city, our home, do we really want to push it into an abyss?” she said.

Perhaps she should resign to bring that about.

Houses and Holes

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the fouding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.

He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.

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Comments

  4. footsore

    It wasn’t about flight delays. He realises the that the instability in Hong Kong may lead to lower house prices in Australia. Having seen his multiple NG IPs lose a bit if value recently he flew over to try to broker a peace. His aim was to have a small but respectable portfolio of twenty. There is no way he’ll ever be able to leverage himself into that position if things keep going the way they are. So yes, he is a hero because he’s having a go to get a go.

  6. SnappedUpSavvyMEMBER

    jeez that’s embarrassing to watch – I’ve met quite a few fat aussies “doing” business in Guangdong, they’re big Australia people too

    on a happier note, whoever was destined to sit next to him on the plane dodged a massively ugly bullet there

  7. BrentonMEMBER

    Unrelated:
    Goldman Sachs warns that global economy at risk of recession.
    Also from Goldman Sachs, expects a 3 month V shaped recovery in iron ore prices back up to $115 on booming China.

    Me thinks that GS commodity traders have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

  8. marked64

    The CCP recognise it have recent struggles with recalcitrant the Mach Horton, but we realise now he was not the true Australian or the true Australian. Brave Aussie, Wayne Thongs is the true embodiment of discipline and Australian spirit.

  11. GavinMEMBER

    I like these Chinese fellas, could have a beer with them. Not the fat kent Aussie however.. 😀

  13. doctorX

    it’s depressing to see these young kids in HK being used as casualties in big global fight between western capitalist imperialists and eastern capitalist dictators
    young generations being scarified for old men ideologies – once again

  14. Mining BoganMEMBER

    I’d like to meet that fat c#nt in a bar. If ever a prick needed glassing it’s him. You just know he’d happily cheer on 10000 of those rather impressive kids being crushed under tanks just so he could earn a few more dollars.

    Those kids though I’d put on a tab until none of us could stand.

      • Davey

        Enough!! I don’t like him at all either, but lets not condone violence of this nature. I realise that the Communist Part of China resorts to violence at times, but they are not the benchmark of decent behaviour.

      • Mining BoganMEMBER

        Back in the days of Occupy I’d occasionally wander down and have a chat with the young and mangy just to see where they were coming from. Even bought them a pizza or two. Not as impressive as these HK kiddies but still, it was interesting. Fat retarded bozos like this one often came down to try and bully them with intellect, then the basic “get a job” when intellect failed, then try to stand over them physically after being laughed at. That’s when a friendly bogan or two comes in handy.

        These fat retarded types is why Straya needs to burn. Then we can have some public glassings. You know, that could be more entertaining than the guillotine.

      • skippy

        MB ….

        They were “killing the public grass” here in Brisbane or so the meme went …. then again it was a rag tag band of feral Raniods and Marxists intermixed with crystal rock and sunbeam worshipers … it was frustrating due to both the Raniods everything is the result of ev’bal totalitarian government screwing with freedoms bring on the 4th turning [waves at Foxnewbs Beck] and conversely the Marxist’s’ [tm] spurning the proletariat revolution … sigh …

        Even had exchanges with Bernie Bernardo [liberal American sort] that took exception at my goes at Krugman being a tool ….

      • Mining BoganMEMBER

        I spoke to them near the post office. Not for long though because of the infighting between the People’s Front of Judea and the Judean People’s Front. They were all very earnest and good-hearted until the broken jaw

    • The BurbWatcherMEMBER

      Yes, yet another painfully ignorant, arrogant, Australian toxic stoic…we are full of them, unfortunately…

      We need a good recession…though I don’t particularly want to live through one…

      • skippy

        Oh destroying social capital is always a great way to sort out the immoral …. am I right …

    • skippy

      BTW MB those Kids are just tools and will suffer the same fate that those colour revolutions of recent past have suffered …. increased authoritarianism ….

      • Djenka

        LOL,

        I doubt anyone grasps the truth in this.

        Tools you say… danm right

        https://indianpunchline.com/a-sino-russian-firewall-against-us-interference/

        “China has explicitly accused the United States and Britain for fomenting the “pro-democracy” protests in Hong Kong. Beijing has taken up the matter via the diplomatic channel demanding that the US intelligence should stop inciting and abetting the Hong Kong protestors. Last week photographic evidence appeared in the media showing the political counsellor in the US consulate in Hong Kong Julie Eadeh confabulating in the lobby of a local luxury hotel with the student leaders involved in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
        Washington has taken umbrage that Julie’s cover has been blown. She is apparently an expert who organised “colour revolutions” in other countries and it has been disclosed that she was involved in plotting “subversive acts” in the Middle East region. The Global Times wrote a blistering editorial. It said:

        “The US administration has played a disgraceful role in the Hong Kong riots. Washington publicly supports the protests and never condemns violence that targets police. The US consulate general in Hong Kong is stepping up its direct interference in Hong Kong’s situation. The US administration is instigating turmoil in Hong Kong the way it stoked “colour revolutions” in other places worldwide.”
        … “

      • BrentonMEMBER

        Riiiight, so the omnipotent US government organised 2 million Hong Kongers (quarter of the population) to come out just to further US interests?

        Here’s a different explanation, uncomfortable though it be for CCP apologists at large, the protests are genuine and the US is quietly taking advantage like any geo-political foe would.

      • DelraiserMEMBER

        ‘Murica……….always ‘Murica

        Funny how it can never be a population under the jackboot that cracks it and decides to fight back of their own free will……………they only seem to fire up once the ‘Muricans get in on the act

      • BrentonMEMBER

        I have, they’re the same event. You seem to think revolts are a modern construct of US design? They’re precisely the result of free will, which is why the authority faced with rebellion finds it so difficult to deal with them.

      • skippy

        No I think the west does play a big part unless you forget how Iran or its parallels were established, Iran – Contra, banana republics, going all the way back to colonialism ….

        So the whole bit about HK demonstrations being all about so called “Freedom and Democracy” is the cart before the horse, unless some around here want to reconcile their past opinions on Occupy. You know the 14 City crack down with paramilitary tactics and forces to quell a democratic expression of umbrage at financial elites in ones own back yard.

      • BrentonMEMBER

        I think you’re imprinting your very strong bias on the subject. I don’t blame Russia for the Occupy Movement or the Yellow Vest protests, just like I don’t blame the US for Hong Kong or Ukraine. The common theme between all of them is a population p!ssed off with the status quo and exercising their free will (often formerly oppressed free will) via revolt. Geo-political foes will naturally gravitate to this breakdown and seek to exploit it; not unique to the US, however much yourself and Djenka seek to paint it thus.

      • triageMEMBER

        Djenka – student leaders you say? My understanding is that there is no obvious leadership of the protesters. Events may look organised and preplanned but apparently it is all developing dynamically on social media, a bit like murmuration.

        Of course there would be various players trying to influence how things develop but they would be doing it covertly and through social media, not by being so dumb as having one of their most senior diplomats in HK – she’s a counsellor FFS – talking to “student leaders” in a public place like a five star hotel lobby. If and when the PLA move in the Chinese will have to be willing to close down social media in Honkers.

      • Djenka

        @ Brenton


        Riiiight, so the omnipotent US government organised 2 million Hong Kongers (quarter of the population) to come out just to further US interests?

        Nope, they just need to cash up and organise a few chosen ring leaders to exploit the sentiment and maintain the 2 degrees of separation.
        Tell tale is non proportionate violence to provoke the police reaction.

        Here’s a different explanation, uncomfortable though it be for CCP apologists at large, the protests are genuine and the US is quietly taking advantage like any geo-political foe would.

        CCP Apologist… LOL.
        The mother of all the arguments.
        Funny how spontaneous protest are short lived or choked at birth in few remaining countries that are not “foe” as yet…

      • skippy

        Brenton as noted your comparing apples and oranges, yellow vests is the result of post GFC neoliberal austerity measures, sorta like a self inflicted post WWI pernicious debt repayment aka austerity is the poor paying for the mistakes of the wealthy.

        The events in HK are more about propaganda and would not be folly if some intel sorts saw fit to use it as bargaining leverage in the so called trade talks with the U.S.

        If history does not serve you the U.S. likes to dominate trade arrangements or are Hudson’s observations not clear enough …

        You might also have a gander at the bottom of the comment thread.

  16. skippy

    The punch line is HK was always part of China, it was only the actions of the English Empire and EIC that established HK, and if some want to wax romantic it should be remembered the allied forces abandoned Chiang Kai-shek which then lead to the establishment of Taiwan.

    History echos ….

    • steve99

      Except all those historical characters are dead now. Whats real is what China wants to do with Hong Kong people, ie rope them into total controlled obedience with their social capital machinery which this side of a massvie revolution in China is only going to get worse.. end game would be on par with N.Korea. Mr Hockey lookalike, talkalike will have no business in China then.

      • skippy

        Dead or not its the events which dictate perception and set the path.

        I seriously can’t find the outrage considering the U.S. actions leading up to the first gulf war and proceeding events, not to mention Cuba, Philippians, or South Central America as depicted by Smedley D. Butler, and then project moral outrage at the CCP.

        This is not indicative of a bias one way or the other, America could return to a more Eisenhower or FDR administration towards its citizens and lead by example, but, as many know the oligarchs are more interested in say looting the U.K. post Brexit or holding down the fort in HK to service their needs.

        Again neoliberalism is not something that China promoted globally … it responded too it … that does not make them the better choice …. and being anti neoliberal is not being anti American … its being anti the dominate policy agenda …

  17. Hanno Son of Bomilcar

    the HK protests arent just about “muh freedoms”, theyre resulting from the fact that hong kong just isnt all that in china anymore, young hong kongers cant afford a home and are pissed off theres no opportunities for them anymore. they blame the CCP for it but its not entirely fair, hong kongs land market has been choked by the very liberal democracy that these guys are supposed to be defending:

    “If it weren’t for multiparty democracy, Hongkongers would all have homes. In 1997, Former Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa wanted to build 85,000 flats per year but popular opinion–especially in the Legislative Council–made it impossible. “It was the same over the past few years: we tried to increase the land supply, but we could not get it passed because the opposition parties control whether the budget gets approved,” says Author Chris Wat Wing-yin. “Society generally believed the policy of supplying 85,000 flats per year made the property market plummet, and therefore the government cancelled the target under the pressure of public opinion, especially the opposition bloc in the Legislative Council, we couldn’t continue our push.”

    thats the strength of authoritarian governments – they don’t have to bend to the nimbys, and the chinese have proven that there’s one thing they’re good at its BUILDING BUILDING BUILDING. hong kong is finished anyway – when was the last time anything even remotely cool came out of there. might as well just let the ccp take over at this point since the city is going to increasingly fade into irrelevance in china.

    • skippy

      I think the term de’ art liberal democracy [tm] is better stated as “democracy of money” … aka the Market sets the agenda … where aggregate capital sets the social agenda due to concerns about income and rights ….

      Mainstream economics is just a cover for these machinations E.g. liberal democracy is also another term for Laissez-faire corporatism in another guise after a hostile takeover of social democracy by money aka pay to play and skin in the game memes.

    • chrisr

      This first point is important. Talking to an HK friend a few days ago he described the extradition bill as the straw that broke the camel’s back. Underlying tensions where young can’t find stable well paying work, are locked out of the housing market etc are taking their toll. This was my sense too (having been to HK several times and witnessed Yellow Vests protests in France in person). We agreed that tactic of telling the young they are lazy and entitled can only work for so long.

      It makes we wonder what will the last straw be for Australian youth?

      • skippy

        Yellow vests is about austerity post GFC, extradition in HK is more about financial corruption and not some totalitarian narrative as told by Hayek, which should be squared with events post GFC in the U.S. wrt whistle blowers and the treatment of protestors …. you can’t have it both ways …

      • chrisr

        Nice job missing the point there Skippy. And invoking Hayek around people reporting first hand experience must be the definition of armchair w*nkery.

      • skippy

        Please chrisr …

        The cold war is over, this is just simple propaganda to cover up the misdeeds of corporatist in the U.S. after decades of neoliberalism hollowing out the joint, Hayek laid the foundations and then Milton threw the barn doors wide open, not to mention Rubinomics pouring petrol on it …. boom GFC and the largest transfer of wealth upward in modernity … but hay … the ev’bal totalitarian anti freedom CCP … sigh …

  18. Clive

    Fat Bogan’s work ethic and advice to the kids in Hong Kong is along the lines of “work sets you free” or “Arbeit macht frei” as another regime once advertised over the doors of the work camps.

    But maybe this is the face of today’s Australia – relaxed, comfortable and not giving a sh*t about anyone as long as the money keeps rolling in.

  19. robMEMBER

    As an Australian, that was like being a staunch democrat resting you life on Mueller’s testimony, then watching it!!!!…..fck sake those kids who speak multiple languages made mince meat of that fool… he must either have an IQ of a thong, or has some business deal about to be signed of by a CCP official, which means after that, he has just been approved.

    • SnappedUpSavvyMEMBER

      plenty of this type spreading their flab out across couches in the hotel lobbies of Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Ningbo etc etc …all the same, talking loudly so everyone can hear them and usually its about how Australia needs to have a population of 100 million and how good is Chyna! Because they’ve just done a deal for some trivial amount of money and now think they’re warren fcking buffet

      • reynmonMEMBER

        200% agree with u Savvy, I saw it myself over 10 years ago and I’m surprised that there are still fat tards like him doing whatever the hell they do over in China.
        For him ignorance is bliss as he enjoys his limited time in China because after all the new regime are quietly drawing up plans to piss off as many foreigners from Living and “working” there, China is only for the Chinese who tow the line

    • skippy

      “that was like being a staunch democrat resting you life on Mueller’s testimony, then watching it!!!!”

      You mean Thirdway – Washington Consensus DINO corporatist with delusions of exceptionalism … only matched by their opposite number the far right wing natural born self awarded administrators of humanity … what a choice … eh …

      • skippy

        I think you should aquatint yourself with the relevant historical back drop to events and how that squares with our currant reality.

        But then again popular memes like the boomers [anglophones] – did it – would seem to conflict with the whole Russia – China memes … I mean how much of the currant China thingy be traced back to events over hundreds of years driven by anglophone investor expectations …

        This is compounded by China acting as a Sovereign Nation in dealing with fraud and corruption through capital controls et al whilst say America is going in the opposite direction wrt FinReg and other regulatory forbearance [environmental, workers rights, health and education] not to mention its Capex expenditures with environmental issues vs the U.S.

        Look I don’t have an ideological dog in this hunt outside concrete material benefits for humanity, with an eye to the future, but yeah, some seem Bernays’ed into a made to order Scott’s box of fear and loathing because its the easiest button in the tool box of manipulation. Its on par with Monetarist saying everything is grounded in QTM and completely ignore the demise of most of this planets societies due to environmental factors w/a side of elites clinging to power regardless of the aforementioned.

  20. michael francis

    I bet that fat bogan lives in a 1000 square Metricon with a Holden SSV Ute parked in the driveway and a jet ski on the front lawn.

    • Djenka

      I bet too!

      but how does that makes him wrong, or right, or somewhere in between?

      e.g. is he right to say that HK is part of China?
      or that protesters throwing molotov coctails at the police should be labelled as terrorists?

      • skippy

        Delraiser …

        Pointing out the narrative PR machinations is not being pro West or East, sure both play that game, but, the question is the culpability of those pushing it and for what reasons, sans the beautification of it for public consumption.

        I would reference Victoria Nuland and how things rolled in the Ukraine after 9B large was invested and Biden’s son is a executive at an energy company in the Ukraine E.g. using fascists to promote democracy and freedom – ?????

      • DelraiserMEMBER

        How’s about we just accept he is a fat bogan d*ckhead who doesn’t know his nuts from his nose?

      • skippy

        How about we accept that the bloke is just a tool for memes and their individual actions is gamed for popular consumption in forwarding a meme …. obviously he’s never had to go though customs in the U.S. and get red flagged for a body cavity search after being profiled as a terrorist or drug mule … those big boys do have prodigious intestinal tracks … wink …

      • Djenka

        @ Delraiser

        By my count, you’ve clocked up $1……..well done
        I would not know the going rate mate, I’ll trust your experience on that.
        How much did you make

        How’s about we just accept he is a fat bogan d*ckhead who doesn’t know his nuts from his nose?

        Why?
        Gimme a non-ideology non appeal-to-authority reason and we may have a debate.
        Moot point, you did not even knew this guy existed until you read this blog entry.

  21. John Howards Bowling Coach

    He is just some fat greedy importer trying to get back to the factories in the Pearl River Delta I’d guess. Thinks he’s globally business ‘woke’, and a clever businessman, but just another no one, couldn’t make it in Australia so headed to China where greed is enough.

  27. skippy

    I would only add to this inglorious thread …. watching libertarians eat their own is a sight to behold ….

    • OlafMEMBER

      I really can’t work out 95% of what you are on about. I know that makes you a genius and me a benighted fool but it really isn’t effective as communication to the great unwashed and apparently brainwashed such as myself.

      • skippy

        Olaf ….

        The guy is grumbling about his freedoms being diminished due to money spent and then takes out the old saw that people with jobs in the market place don’t have time to protest – which are core libertarian axioms.

        This is in retrospect mirrored by the protestors concerns about China diminishing notions of individual freedoms without reference to workers rights or basic social goods like health and education, clean air and water et al.

        Not that I have forgotten all the libertarian sorts on the interwebs during the Occupy event lambasting them for their socialist commie tendencies based out of HK or anything …

  28. Thallus

    At first look seeing this video posted elsewhere I though that individual was former Australian Treasurer/US ambassador Joe Hockey.
    But I’m sure Mr Hockey doesn’t carry his bag anymore thru the airport or mix with the riff-raff in the public areas – VIP entrance/exit thru tho the VIP lounge.

    Wonder who he is? I suspect there’s a further news story when his “business” is revealed.

  29. Seanm

    Give it an FN skippy. HK had its final moment as Chris Patten left in 1997.It has served its purpose as a gateway to the West with strong trade ties to the West being now tested by Beijing. I remember being pissed off by all the English promises before hand over both by Sovereignty and British Passport Quality of the Hong Kong peoples.

    So with no way out to Britain personally but certainly by financial means to offshore money the UK was wide open.
    Chris Patten had passed them the ultimate Anglo Baton.
    By then the UK had joined the EU.. Passport invalid by Brits for residence for HK holders.
    Since then HK has been a legacy issue and a media propaganda pawn.Why any fat fuckwit Australian should draw attention to himself or HK is beyond me. Ill have fat fuckwits with HK fries thank you

    • skippy

      Some seem to forget it was a lease arrangement without sovereignty and then an agreed transitional period to unification, but the Hayekians scream totalitarianism and yet on the other hand dismiss contractual obligations – ????? – errrr ….

      • Thallus

        The Poms did not have to give Hong Kong Island back, for that was given to them by the Chinese Emperor for ‘perpetuity’
        It was only the New Territories (NT) that had the 99 yr lease, though it would have been a bit hard to retain the island while all the critical infrastructure that the island relies on is over in the NT.
        The Communist leaders like Mao and Deng Xiaoping saw themselves as the natural successor of the old Emperors, both are remembered for being Chinese history buffs reading books on how past Emperors ruled China. I’m sure the CCP party sees its self as a evolved righteous imperial court with socialist trimmings, they honor prior international made agreements made because they want to continue on the tradition because they want their OWN legacy to endure after they have gone. The Brits used the ‘perpetuity’ clause as leverage for the transition of the whole shebang, which Deng Xiaoping agreed too, with the one country two systems. (actually Deng did not want it back, but that’s another story)
        The new kid on the block XJP wants to undo a lot of things, including Deng’s agreements, only problem with that is he sets an completely new precedent, future Chinese leaders might just want to wipe out XJP’s edicts.

      • skippy

        A simple wiki page should clear that up for you –

        The transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong,[1][2][3] commonly known as the handover of Hong Kong (or simply the Handover, also the Return in Communist China and Communist Hong Kong governments), occurred at midnight on 1 July 1997, when the United Kingdom ended administration for the colony of Hong Kong and passed control of the territory to China. Hong Kong became a special administrative region and continues to maintain governing and economic systems separate from those of mainland China.

        This event ended 156 years of British colonial rule in Hong Kong. The territory was Britain’s last substantial overseas possession. With a population of about 6.5 million in 1997, Hong Kong constituted 97 per cent of the total population of all British Dependent Territories at the time. The handover is considered by some to definitively mark the end of the British Empire.

        I would only add that Britain’s signing of the Atlantic Treaty was conditional on it handing sovereignty back to its colonies over good course, otherwise the U.S. would not enter the war. So whether or not some decree by a dead Emperor was made in perpetuity, Britain sign another contract which supersedes the aforementioned Emperor in Deity dicta.

        Your insinuation that the CCP is some thin veneer over a totalitarian construct underpinned by deity on earth is a joke right, the whole CCP view of the past were not very friendly to that esoteric proposition, something about the opiates of the masses thingy. I think considering the last 100 years of anglophone nations suppressing any whiff of rebellion against elites makes the proposition ludicrous. I mean have all forgotten the WWI Bonus Army revolt, actions undertaken in the civil rights movement, 14 city crack down of Occupy, Kent State, using Hells Angels against anti Vietnam protestors, et al.

        Sorry but fat fingering others without taking ones own past into account is some very thing gruel to pass out for consumption. Hay why don’t we just except that the worlds finite resources, with the currant market structure, has everyone seeking to lock in their ownership and smaller country’s have to be very careful about putting all their eggs in one basket or getting bent over.

        But then again some thought Australia being a parochial back water was missing out on the progressive market train and we need to become a first world economic county only to get embroiled in first world dramas, especially considering once Australian diplomats could be seen as fairly ambivalent negotiators in international scraps – behind closed doors …. now its off to the WH lickity split … and them some still bang on about Sovereignty … chortle …

      • skippy

        I would only add that Britain’s signing of the Atlantic Treaty was conditional on it handing sovereignty back to its colonies over good course, otherwise the U.S. would not enter the war. So whether or not some decree by a dead Emperor was made in perpetuity, Britain sign another contract which supersedes the aforementioned Emperor in Deity dicta.