Hong Kong Elections: Umbrella Protest Parties Win

In late 2014, despite the 1997 promise of local autonomy (“One Country, Two Systems”), China’s ruling party proposed new restrictive measures for Hong Kong elections. Hong Kong responded with 80 days of street demonstrations. Young protesters carried umbrellas to shield themselves from police pepper spray, and the movement became known as the Umbrella Revolution.

While authorities suppressed the pro-democracy street protests, the movement for local self-government continued. Last week, a record voter turnout elected six leaders of the Umbrella Movement to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and Macau. The next Hong Kong Chief Executive election is scheduled for March 26, 2017.

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Ai Weiwei Got His Passport Back

Artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei got his passport back from Chinese authorities this week and is free to leave his homeland. His papers were seized in April 2011 when he was taken into custody by the Chinese government, detained and questioned for 81 days then put under virtual house arrest for a year, and his passport was withheld until now. Without his passport, Mr. Ai was unable to attend openings of major exhibitions of his work in the US and Europe, and could not visit his son, who lives in Germany.

More:

“Ai Weiwei free to travel overseas again after China returns his passport,” Tom Phillips, The Guardian

“After 4 years, Chinese authorities return passport to artist Ai Weiwei,”Jonathan Kaiman and Juli Makinen, Los Angeles Times

“Ai Weiwei’s Freedom by Fiat,” Evan Osnos, The New Yorker

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Scalia Dissent

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia drew upon his rigorous Jesuit education in rendering his closely-reasoned dissenting opinion in King vs Burwell. His considered judgement:

“interpretive jiggery-pokery“

“somersaults of statutory interpretation”

“Pure applesauce.“

Scalia, always le mot juste.

More:

“Just How Angry Is Justice Scalia Over the Obamacare Ruling?” Elspeth Reeve, The New Republic

“The Wit and Wisdom of Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court’s Lovable Curmudgeon,” Kevin Drum, Mother Jones

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The Umbrella Revolution

Student protesters in Hong Kong’s Central District have been protecting themselves with umbrellas and plastic sheets. It’s raining tear gas and pepper spray.

Hong Kong was returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 with the promise of “One Country, Two Systems,” a pledge that HK citizens could choose their own leaders by 2017. Beijing has reneged on this, hence the pro-democracy protests and the umbrellas. But don’t try to email, text, post, or tweet the word “umbrella” in the city today or you’ll get in trouble with Chinese authorities.

Some Hong Kong protesters put down their umbrellas to meet police with the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” gesture they learned from Ferguson’s protesters, but they wear surgical masks and goggles because it doesn’t stop the pepper spray.

Turkey Tries to Turn Off Twitter

In a frantic effort to keep a lid on dissent, Turkey’s political leaders are blaming an outside agitator — Twitter — and they’re desperately trying to shut it down. The real problem seems to be insider information on corruption in those tweets, though, and not the micro-blogging platform itself. And work-arounds make a shut-off attempt futile. Twitter can be accessed through other sites and even by SMS text messaging.

More:

“Turkey: Twitter allows ‘character assassination, ‘” Suzan Fraser, AP via Fort Worth Star‑Telegram

“Twitter May Have Exposed Government Corruption, So Turkey Is Banning Twitter,” Sara Morrison, The Wire

“Turkey blocks use of Twitter after prime minister attacks social media site,” Kevin Rawlinson, The Guardian

What It Was About

The 2013 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

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Good Politics, Bad Art?

“The political causes that Ai embraces are noble. This cannot be said often enough. But when he takes his place inside the Hirshhorn Museum, with its Matisses and Brancusis and Mondrians, I cannot help but feel that he poses a threat to the artistic universe he dreams of inhabiting. This is not a question of left versus right, or of communist versus capitalist, or of political art versus art for art’s sake. It is a question of what an artist is actually doing when he makes a work of art.”

“Ai may be a hero when it comes to speaking out for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake, but when he talks about his art he is jeeringly manipulative. It is hard to have patience for an artist who justifies his work with references to Mickey Mouse.”

— “Ai Weiwei: Wonderful dissident, terrible artist,” Jed Perl, The New Republic

“Today we need all the great art and all the political agitation we can get. But it may be too much to expect that both will emanate with any frequency from the same person.”

— “The Message Over the Medium,”  Roberta Smith, New York Times

Related:

“Ai Weiwei: According to What? October 7, 2012 to February 24, 2013,” Hirshhorn Museum

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Ai Weiwei: Jailhouse Bound

China’s Chaoyang District Court upheld a $2.38 million tax evasion penalty imposed on dissent artist Ai Weiwei on Thursday. In the old days, Chinese authorities used psychiatric commitments to isolate dissents; now they use tax law.

Ai Weiwei says he won’t pay. A major show of the Chinese artist’s work opens at Washington’s Hirshhorn Museum next week, but the authorities are holding his passport. Looks like Mr. Ai is going to jail instead of DC.

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Putin Lights the Fires of Revolution

Three members of the feminist Russian punk band Pussy Riot were found guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” and sentenced to two years in prison. The criminal incident in question: On February 21st, the band performed a “punk prayer” protest in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral as part of the demonstrations following the disputed re-election of Vladimir Putin. Some feel the Church is too politically tied to the Putin regime.

The prison-bound band members are philosophy student and mother Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, mother and Greenpeace activist Maria Alekhina, and artist and computer programmer Yekaterina Samutsevich. To mark the occasion, the band released a new recording (above), and it’s not a statement of remorse. The song is called “Putin Lights Up the Fires”(путин зажигает костры).

More:

“Russian band’s sentencing shows punk’s power,”  Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times

“Is Vladimir Putin Richer Than Carlos Slim?” Worldcrunch

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Chen Guangcheng Leaves China for USA

Self-taught legal activist Chen Guangcheng, accompanied by his wife and two children, left China on United Airlines Flight 88 to Newark. The blind lawyer describes his departure as a “leave of absence.” This follows his dramatic escape after seven years of imprisonment and torture and a month of diplomatic wrangling.

“Blind Chinese activist leaves for U.S.,” Didi Tang and Gillian Wong, AP via USA Today

Related:

“In China, Where ‘Attorney-At-Law’ Is An Ever More Dangerous Occupation,” B. Pe, Le Monde via Worldcrunch

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