Hong Kong's bounty offers - the real story

Hong Kong's bounty offers - the real story

Fridayeveryday


HONG KONG’S BOUNTY CASH OFFERS: THE REAL STORY 

This is a shocker. Hong Kong is offering BOUNTIES for innocent pro-democracy activists overseas. The Chinese city, we read, is using its outrageous laws in a transnational way. How awful! That’s the story that the world is being told. As usual, the full story tells a different truth. 

Yes, Hong Kong is offering cash rewards for people evading justice – it is a technique this community learned -- from the UK. And every step of the process in Hong Kong has been kept carefully in line with international law by British-trained lawyers. And here’s the really interesting bit: The UK, which is criticizing us over this issue, was for a long time, the world capital of offering transnational bounties, and dominated that activity until another country (not China) took over. 

STORY TIME Way back in 1696, the government of England offered one thousand pounds for the capture of a pirate named Henry Every. This was a massive sum in those days, and triggered the first global manhunt in history. There were no rules, just grab the guy if you see him. 

In the 1700s, the British offered bounties of up to £140 for each murderer or highway robber you could catch. In those days, a laborer earned £14 a year, an artisan earned £20 a year, so this was a huge sum, equivalent to many years salary. 

In the 1800s, Australia, which was under direct rule of the British, offered a mind-boggling £8,000 for a troublemaker called Ned Kelly, dead or alive. 

Today, British bounties are offered through a TV show called Crimestoppers, and range from a few £100 to £50,000 – that’s about US$70,000. . 

MEANWHILE IN THE U.S. The US government offers bounties of multimillion dollar sums. For example, they offered $15 million US dollars for information enabling them to locate and kill two of Saddam Hussein's children. One informant provided their address – Saddam’s children were duly killed – and the informant received $30 million US dollars. (Judas only got 30 pieces of silver.) 

Just a few weeks ago, in August, the US offered US$50 million for the scalp of Nicolás Maduro, the leader of Venezuela. 

IGNORING INTERNATIONAL LAW And there’s a key difference. Unlike Hong Kong, which rigidly follows international law, the US simply ignores international law and grabs or kills whoever it wants to kill, anywhere on the planet – [Video shows relevant headlines]. 

And remember most of the (detained without trial) prisoners in the nightmarish Guantanamo Bay prison were grabbed by bounty hunters given generous sums of cash by the US government. 

TARGETTING INNOCENTS? But wait, you say. The important difference is that Hong Kong is targeting innocent people. The UK and the US are targeting baddies. Actually, no. But I don’t blame anyone for thinking that, because that’s what gets reported in the media. The so called “pro-democracy” movement was financed by the USA to promote independence AGAINST the wishes of the Hong Kong people – surveys, whether taken by eastern or western researchers, show that 80 to 93% of people here oppose independence and want a positive relationship with mainland China. 

In Hong Kong, even among peaceful protesters, including my own social group, these individuals are seen as traitors, taking cash from hostile nations to harm our community. Here’s a clip of a Hong Kong overseas protest complaining bitterly about a cut in the funding they are getting from the US. [clip]

TRUTH ABOUT HK PROTESTERS Picture this. A group of shockingly violent criminals manufacture or distribute pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails and other illegal weapons. One had gathered the same explosives used in the 7/7 London bombing to create a terrorist level “mass casualty event” in the Hong Kong district of Mongkok, with the intention of killing a large number of people one of the world’s most densely populated areas. 

By any measure, several of these individuals would definitely qualify for the term “terrorist”. They jump bail and get on a smugglers’ boat. One of them revealed the full plan that had been arranged for him by someone. He would go to Taiwan first—but then he was to be taken on a diplomatic flight to Europe, and eventually to London, with his final destination being to go back to the United States, which he had visited recently. Those are the facts. 

But how were the arrests of these terrorist bombmakers reported? All western mainstream media portrayed them as heroes.

• The Wall Street journal said the “daring” group were “a small group of dissidents”.

• The Times of London said they were “Hong Kong boat people”.

• The New York Times delivered a truly McCarthyist report about desperate “activists” escaping “the Communist Party's tightening grip” in Hong Kong.

• The Guardian described them as “Hong Kongers” as if all Hong Kong residents gathered enough explosives to bring down buildings.

Read widely. Think for yourself. Peace.