The Trends Journal closely covered the massive street protests in Hong Kong beginning in March 2019 in reaction to the Fugitive Offenders legislation, which would have allowed China to extradite Hong Kong criminal suspects to the mainland.
Hong Kong’s government could not quell the protests of millions of citizens taking to the streets, despite fierce physical police retaliation.
The extensive protests led to a widespread political victory in November 2019, as pro-democracy candidates won 85 percent of seats up for election, a clear repudiation of the Beijing-backed government led by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam.
Despite this historic victory, during the contentious, months-long struggle, Gerald Celente, who had frequently appeared on Hong Kong media, forecast the protests would be stifled, freedoms would be lost, and Beijing would rule.
That forecast became abundantly accurate last week.
On Wednesday, over 50 pro-democracy citizens, including politicians and campaigners involved in the November 2019 elections, were arrested in early morning raids in what the Guardian newspaper described as a “complete crackdown.” The crime they were arrested for was “subverting state power” by participating in prior political campaigns. Last May, the Beijing government pressured Hong Kong leadership to impose a new national security law, leading to the recent arrests.
COVID Cover
Last Tuesday, just a day before the mass arrests, yet another policy move was made to tighten Beijing’s grip over the citizens of Hong Kong. Chief Executive Carrie Lam said their new “Command Center” was needed to better track the movements of those infected with the virus. Ms. Lam said, “We are doing quite well currently on the testing, quarantine, and isolation front, but the tracing of close contacts of confirmed cases could have been done better.”
Anyone who tests positive is sent to a hospital until they test negative, and people they have been in contact with are sent to quarantine camps.
The implication is Hong Kong is suffering from a major COVID-19 health crisis. But, here are the facts:
As of last Thursday, a total of 154 Hong Kong residents had died from COVID-19 out of a population of over 7.5 million (0.002 percent). Among the entire Hong Kong population, just over 9,000 were even infected.
And even this incredibly small amount of infection and fatality rates have been going down, not up. The South China Morning Post reported that data “show a downward trend in the daily caseload and marked the fewest new infections since 26 were recorded on November 20.”
Despite the very low rates of infection, on 8 January, Dr. Chui Tak-yi, Under Secretary for Food and Health, was quoted in the Hong Kong Free Press saying, “Even though the cases are declining, I appeal to the public not to take part in unnecessary gatherings, to avoid crowded places and to wear a mask at all times.” Otherwise, he claimed, there would be “risk of a rebound.”
According to the Morning Post, regarding the new “command center”:
- “Manpower for the command center, to be housed in a community facility along with hundreds of computers and telephones, would be drawn from the police force, customs, immigration, and other departments.” Some officers from those departments were already carrying out pandemic control work for the Department of Health.
- “Between 200 and 300 extra officers from various departments will be pooled.”
- “Police will continue to use their supercomputer to analyze clusters for the Department of Health, and detectives from regional crime units can carry out any necessary investigations.”
- “Disciplinary officers would be responsible for calling patients confirmed as infected to identify their close contacts, while clerical staff would input data for executive officers to analyze… The results will be passed to the department’s Centre for Health Protection, which would arrange for affected residents to be sent to quarantine camps.”
TRENDPOST: As Gerald Celente forecast when the virus first broke out in China last January, Beijing would use COVID to achieve what they were unable to accomplish before the virus struck Wuhan: lockdown Hong Kong to stop the protests.
Beyond Hong Kong – from India to South Africa, from Chile to Algeria – as noted in the Trends Journal, nations across the globe that were in the grips of social unrest before COVID have been locked down, and the protests that were threatening ruling governments have been prohibited.