Activist historian of/from/outside #HongKong. Ph.D. candidate & Instructor at @Georgetown. Senior policy and research fellow with @hkdc_us.
Aug 6 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
1. I’m encouraged by @KamalaHarris’s selection of @Tim_Walz as her running mate. While his record as an educator, a National Guard officer, and Minnesota’s governor is acclaimed, I want to reflect on how I met this amazing guy: his dedication to human rights and #China.
2. In the spring of 1989, fresh out of college, Walz volunteered to teach English in Foshan for a year. It was an idealistic time to be abroad. Cracks were beginning to appear in Eastern European communist regimes. Chinese students and workers rose up to demand political change.
Mar 13, 2023 • 22 tweets • 8 min read
1. There are two fundamentally divergent ways to interpret the triumph of Asians and Asian-Americans at the #Oscars in 2023, not in terms of racial relations in this country, on which I’m sure many people will comment, but in terms of #HongKong’s fight for democracy and autonomy.
2. On one hand, you have a vision promoted by the likes of @janetyang1. Educated at elite institutions here — Phillips Exeter Academy, followed by Brown and Columbia Universities — she climbed every step of Hollywood’s ladder by profiting from authoritarianism abroad.
2. Beyond my political activism — as many of you know — my Ph.D. research is on the international history of the Vietnamese boat people, with #HongKong at the center. One of the most important characters in my narrative just passed away: Walter Mondale. cnn.com/2021/04/19/pol…
Feb 1, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
1. Cross-strait tensions are on the rise again lately — given the increasing Chinese and U.S. naval presence in the region — so as usual, the discussion around #Taiwan is framed in military terms. “Will there be war?” seems to be the most common question everyone asks.
2. It’s a real concern, but this tendency to see the island as no more than a geopolitical bargaining chip rather than a vibrant democracy of 23.5 million people is dangerous and insulting. That’s also why I often find it dreadful to engage with strategically-minded “realists.”
Dec 5, 2020 • 17 tweets • 6 min read
1. Over the years, I’ve gotten to know personally and work with many opposition figures in #HongKong. I can say that one of the bravest, most genuine among them is @tedhuichifung. That he’s now in exile reflects the impossibility for even moderates to survive in the city.
2. His dramatic escape to Copenhagen this week was everything but assured. Thanks to helpful Danish friends — including @ThomasRohden, @Storgaaard, and @uffeelbaek — who invited him to discuss climate change and secured the necessary official documents, the court let him loose.
Sep 18, 2020 • 25 tweets • 5 min read
1. I’ve been reflecting a lot since the publication of @wilfredchan’s interview with me. His efforts deserve my utmost appreciation as he presents my positions faithfully and gives me an opportunity to reach new readers. Speaking with him never ceases to be stimulating.
2. On that early January morning of 2016 we met, we watched a new film, Ten Years, together in Taikoo Shing. He gave me a tour of his then-C.N.N. office in Quarry Bay. Not even half of that time — Five Years — has elapsed. Alas, Hong Kong already is beyond our recognition.
Sep 14, 2020 • 7 tweets • 5 min read
1. Plenty of people put in plenty of effort to help these #HongKong-related laws — which you may or may not like — materialize. Since you asked, let me answer. Congress first introduced the #HKHRDA amid the Umbrella Movement, when it received zero attention from @BarackObama.
2. Never from 2014 to 2018 had it even moved out of committee in either chamber. Yes, it passed the Senate last fall when no one denied @marcorubio’s request for unanimous consent, but he took a while to defeat closed-door special interests before he could bring it to the floor.
Jul 4, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
1. This new documentary of @hoccgoomusic — opened in American virtual cinemas on July 1 — charts her entertainment career and political activism, contextualizing her present journey as a world-renowned independent artist boycotted by Beijing and virtually all big-name sponsors.
2. It begins with her formative years in Montréal, return to Hong Kong for a singing competition just before the 1997 handover, early days in the Cantopop industry as a mentee of the legendary Anita Mui, and subsequent local breakthrough.
Jun 7, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
These blatant lies from the far left who depicts #China as a socialist utopia aim to drive a wedge between oppressed peoples fighting, respectively, against U.S. and Chinese police brutality. Don’t fall for it; don’t diminish the pain and struggle of others.
1. The past week hasn’t been easy. “The fires of frustration and discord,” once again, “are burning in every city, North and South.” As a Hong Konger deeply disturbed by the death of #GeorgeFloyd in #Minnesota, I stand with those who march for #BlackLivesMatter.
2. Systematic racism in the U.S. is real. The present moment has deep historical roots stretching back to before the country’s founding. I can only try my best to empathize with the pain this has inflicted on so many, even as I’ll never fully understand the plight.
May 25, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
1. Half a world away, my heart is heavy. Two @demosisto colleagues — Standing Committee Member Tobias Leung and Vice Chairman @IsaacChengCKL — have been arrested (and now released on bail) in the last few days alone, since Beijing announced the #HongKong national-security law.
2. What happened? In light of Carrie Lam‘s politically-motivated inaction early on in the pandemic, we imported 1.3 million masks for Hong Kongers from the Americas. We soon also started selling our own, branded as “Not Made in China“ on the package to obscure their origin.
Mar 2, 2020 • 25 tweets • 20 min read
1. What a journey it’s been, @PeteButtigieg: a 38-year-old, gay, former mayor of a midsized, Midwestern city in #Indiana who rose from obscurity to presidential frontrunner in less than one year, before winning the Iowa caucuses.
@PeteButtigieg 2. He’s personified the optimism of youth politics, the urgency of defending democracy, the possibility of unity. Thank you for championing the kind of progressivism that recognizes the nuances of issues without resorting to populism and for trying to restore U.S. leadership.
Nov 23, 2019 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
1. THREAD: Today is #HongKong’s Election Day. The polls will open momentarily through 10:30 p.m. local time. Across 18 districts, 452 seats are contested under the first-past-the-post system. (27 ex officio members represent rural areas.) The opposition needs 240 for a majority.
2. The 18 District Councils focus on local issues, so traditionally, these elections are far less politicized than the territory-wide Legislative Council, which makes laws and is much more powerful. However, against the backdrop of the ongoing protests, the mood is different.
Oct 17, 2019 • 12 tweets • 27 min read
1. THREAD: The Senate Minority Leader just publicly urged his Republican counterpart to give the landmark Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which passed the House unanimously yesterday, a vote. Minority Whip @SenatorDurbin also did the same earlier today.
@SenatorDurbin 2. As of now, the bill, introduced by @marcorubio, has 25 co-sponsors: 12 Republicans, 12 Democrats, and an Independent. The support for Hong Kong in the Senate is decidedly bipartisan, just as it has been in the House. congress.gov/bill/116th-con…
