dChan
Anonymous ID: 5e9e6d May 25, 2020, 4:22 a.m. No.9308148   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8195 >>8241 >>8356

>>9308137

https://outline.com/SYzgxr

 

China signals plan to take full control of Hong Kong, realigning city's status

 

China’s ruling Communist Party gave its clearest signal yet that it plans to bring Hong Kong under its full control, with a top official saying Thursday that Beijing wants to “improve” the system that has allowed the territory to enjoy a level of autonomy for the past 23 years.

 

After steadily eroding Hong Kong’s freedom of assembly and expression, and independent legal system, the party now appears to be readying to change the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution.

 

“We will ensure the long-term stability of ‘one country, two systems,’” Wang Yang, a top party official and head of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said at the opening of the annual meeting of the country’s top political advisory body. The meeting is the first part of the “Two Sessions,” which will continue Friday with the opening of the National People’s Congress, the rubber-stamp parliament.

 

“We will continue to support the improvement of the implementation of the systems and mechanisms of the constitution and Basic Law,” Wang, the fourth most senior leader in the Communist Party, said in his “Work Report” to the meeting.

 

He did not elaborate on what “improve” meant, and Wang also referred to the Chinese territory of Macao, a gambling hub whose leaders have hewed much more closely to Beijing’s line.

 

Analysts said it was clear that Beijing wanted to gnaw away at Hong Kong’s relative freedoms compared with the mainland.

 

Under the agreement Britain signed with China before it handed back control of Hong Kong in 1997, the territory is supposed to enjoy 50 years of semi-autonomy from Beijing.

 

While being “one country,” they were supposed to enjoy “two systems” until 2047. This arrangement helped Hong Kong to flourish as a global financial center even after returning to Beijing’s overall control.

 

But under Xi Jinping’s leadership, the Communist Party has increasingly encroached on those freedoms. This has worsened in the past year, since protests against Beijing's interference and in favor of greater freedoms and democracy erupted in Hong Kong.

 

In recent months, Beijing has installed a tough new representative in Hong Kong, called for patriotic education to instill more allegiance to China, and promoted a bill that would make it a criminal offense to disrespect China’s national anthem.

 

One Hong Kong delegate to the National People's Congress has proposed that Beijing implement a package of national security laws by issuing a formal reinterpretation of Hong Kong laws, rather than attempting to pass it through the territory’s legislature.

 

Wang said that Beijing supported the Hong Kong deputies’ efforts to “avoid violence in Hong Kong and to restore order.”

 

Citing coronavirus control efforts, Hong Kong authorities have extended prohibitions on public gatherings to continue through June 4, the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and a date that is always marked with a large vigil in Hong Kong.

 

Wang also hit out at Washington for its calls to respect Hong Kong's semiautonomous status and the calls for democratic change. “As to the U.S. Senate and U.S. Congress and their actions, like the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act… we have made solemn statements to refute such lies,” he said.

Anonymous ID: 5e9e6d May 25, 2020, 5:33 a.m. No.9308425   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>9308407

 

Saturn is the last German in Russian captivity: an alligator, 3.50 meters long, with green scales, a wide mouth and sparkling yellow eyes. In July 1946 soldiers of the Red Army brought him from Berlin to the Moscow zoo. He'll be 70 next year - a pretty old age for an alligator. He shares his approximately five by five meter aquarium with a female 30 years younger. He prefers to sleep. There is food twice a week: fish, rabbit, rat.

 

On the thick glass pane through which visitors can marvel at it, nothing points to Saturn's special history. "If people knew what a sensation he was, there would probably be a snake like in the Lenin Mausoleum," said Vladimir Kudriawzew, head of the reptile department. "With us it is much too narrow for the many people anyway." The guards only reveal Saturn's secret only when school classes come. It even happens that they open his house a crack and the children are allowed to piss Saturn with a broom style. Then he sniffs dangerously. "But actually he's a very peaceful character," says Kudriawzew. "Only in 1970 when he almost bit off the arm of a young guard. He was too inexperienced and tried to feed him out of his hand."

What is certain is that Saturn comes from the Mississippi area

 

The details of how Saturn came to Russia are unknown. All documents about it were destroyed when the Moscow zoo administration burned out in the 1950s. It is only written that Saturn was born wild in America in the Mississippi area in 1936. And there is a black and white photo that shows it ready for transport; tied with thick ropes and a wooden beam between the mighty pine trees. In the Berlin Zoo, only 96 out of 16,000 animals survived the war. The aquarium was completely destroyed in the devastating bombing night of November 23, 1943, when 9,000 Berliners died. Officially, it was said that all 20 to 30 crocodiles and alligators were killed. Many lay in the streets with bodies burst open. However, there were also press reports,According to which some of the dangerous reptiles are said to have survived and wandered through the city in search of food.

 

The now retired archivist at the Berlin Zoo, Dietmar Jarofke, believes it is possible that Saturn comes from private ownership. "Back then there were enough crazy people in Berlin who kept such animals at home. It wasn't forbidden. And a Mississippi alligator is not much longer than a meter twenty at the age of seven Belonged to Zoo, which survived the bombing night and was brought to Leipzig like most other animals. From there the Russians took it. "

 

Saturn was a real attraction for Moscow in 1946. Because there were only two crocodiles. And he went through a lot in his new home. The grounds of the zoo, which is over 150 years old, are small, located in the center, divided by a four-lane road. Many a building is dilapidated; in the old aquarium it was almost knocked over by a concrete slab that had come off the ceiling. "Saturn must have sensed the danger," says reptile boss Kudriawzew, "because a few minutes before he crawled into a protective niche." A new aquarium was built 15 years ago, but the move didn't get him. He refused to eat for four months. He was just skin and bones and almost died.

"So he will definitely be over a hundred years old"

 

"But he's healthy today," says one of the guards. "He is a tough guy. Typically German. Makes everything very slow. So he will definitely be over a hundred. That would be a world record." Nothing should be missing from Saturn until the end of its days - this is guaranteed by the company that took over the sponsorship two years ago: the French fashion manufacturer Lacoste, the one with the crocodile logo.