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  • Walter's Blog.
  • Home
  • Introduction
  • About Walter
    • 1980 Joining Up - Grafton Street >
      • Arrival and First Impressions
      • First Week
      • Training
      • Passing Out
    • Yaumati Cowboy >
      • Getting on the Streets
      • Tempo of the City
      • Jumpers, pill poppers and the indoor BBQ
      • Into a Minefield.
    • Why Tango in Paris, when you can Foxtrot in Kowloon? >
      • Baptism By Fire
      • Kai Tak with Mrs Thatcher.
      • Home; The Boy Returns
  • 1984 - 1986
    • PTU Instructor & Getting Hitched
    • Having a go: SDU
    • Starting a Chernobyl family
    • EOD - Don't touch anything
    • Semen Stains and the rules
  • 1987 to 1992 - Should I Stay or Go?
    • Blue Lights, Sirens & Grenades
    • Drugs, Broken Kids & A Plane Crash
    • 600 Happy Meals Please!
    • Hong Kong's Best Insurance
  • Crime in Hong Kong
    • Falling Crime Rates - Why?
    • Triads
  • History of Hong Kong Policing
    • History 1841 to 1941
    • History 1945 to 1967
    • Anatomy of the 50 cent Riot - 1966
    • The Fall of a Commissioner.
    • History 1967 to 1980
    • Three Wise Men from the West
    • The Blue Berets.
    • The African Korps and other tribes.
    • Getting About - Transport.
    • A Pub in every station
    • Bullshit Bingo & Meetings
  • Top 20 Films
    • 2001 - A Space Odyssey.
    • The Godfather.
    • Blade Runner
    • Kes
    • Star Wars
    • Aliens
    • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
    • The Life of Brian
    • Dr Strangelove.
    • Infernal Affairs
    • Bridge on the River Kwai.
    • This Is Spinal Tap.
    • Chung King Express
    • An Officer and a Gentleman
    • PTU
    • Contact
    • Saving Private Ryan
    • Family Guy Star Wars
    • Zulu
    • Hard Day's Night
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Walter's Blog

Reflections on recent events, plus the occasional fact
free rant unfiltered by rational argument.
 
"If you want to read a blog to get a sense of what is going on in Hong Kong these days or a blog that would tell you what life was like living in colonial Hong Kong, this blog, WALTER'S BLOG, fits the bill."  Hong Kong Blog Review
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31/8/2020 4 Comments

A Rough Passage

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"Trusting anyone to illicitly convey you that distance, in safety, takes a significant leap of faith. One loose tongue or someone spotting untoward activity, and the game is up."
The capture of Hong Kong bail jumpers and wanted persons by Chinese maritime authorities, had my WhatsApp light up with wild conjecture. Was this a failed operation by an ‘agency’ from the West seeking to get its people out of Hong Kong? I doubt it. 

For starters, whoever planned the trip is not too savvy. You don’t ‘put all your eggs in one basket’. Why? Because, if captured, you’ve given the other side an intelligence bonanza. And that’s what’s happened. 

Plus, everyone in the local maritime community knows the Mainland stepped up vigilance in 2019. Sailors and fisher folk noted seeing more patrols on the Hong Kong boundary. Everything moving in or out of Hong Kong waters comes under scrutiny. 

The detained 11 men and one female are all either on bail or wanted. These include four allegedly linked to a bomb case and another pending a firearms charge. Others are on bail for rioting and arson. Prominent in the group is activist Andy Li, who worked with several British and Australian politicians. These include the former leader of the Conservative party, Iain Duncan-Smith. 

Li was arrested earlier under the new National Security Law. The Daily Mail portrays Li as a British citizen, which is incorrect. He holds a British National Overseas passport (BNO), which does not grant citizenship.  If the Daily Mail report is accurate, the UK Consulate in Hong Kong declined to assist Li. That’s a whole different story.

Media reports further claim that triads provided the escape boat, which was to ferry the group to a coastal vessel for the onward trip to Taiwan. That seems possible. It’s known that organised crime has such capabilities, as it runs illegal operations that meet a variety of needs. The recent discovery of pet smuggling activity illustrates the point. 

Plus, don't forget in 1989, with the help of triads, under the codename ‘Operation Yellowbird’ dissidents came out of China. Hong Kong’s many islands, it’s proximity to the Mainland, and the use of high-speed boats made quick crossings possible. Yet, these transits were not without risk. In one recorded instance, three people sadly perished when their speedboat crashed.

But, seeking to flee to Taiwan from Hong Kong by boat has a margin of risk that is much greater. The distance to the southern tip of Taiwan is some 600 km. The vast majority of the journey by sea would go through waters controlled by the Mainland, unless you opt to adopt a much longer southern route. Further, given the ongoing tension between China, Taiwan and the USA, these waters are subject to close monitoring.

Trusting anyone to illicitly convey you that distance, in safety, takes a significant leap of faith. One loose tongue or someone spotting untoward activity, and the game is up. No doubt in time, more details will emerge of this incident and how it unfolded. 

In another reported case, the Taiwanese caught a group of five Hong Kongers, when their boat ran out of fuel. Despite offering words of encouragement to Hong Kong protesters, Taiwan has shown a less than welcoming face. Announcements by officials suggest further arrivals face classification as illegal immigrants.

Among the many consequences of this incident, is giving extra ammunition for prosecutors to object to bail. Hong Kong courts have until now shown a willingness to grant bail even in significant cases. That may change.

In the meantime, the 12 individuals are in the hands of the Mainland authorities. What action they face remains unclear, although they’ve broken the law by entering Mainland waters without clearance. That can attract a one-year jail term. Eventually, I anticipate the 12 will be back in Hong Kong to have their day in court. Let’s wait and see.
4 Comments
Chris Emmeyy
31/8/2020 07:46:25 pm

A thorough account of the event and the possible consequences. It also shows that these miltants are stronger in the violence department than they are in the brains department.

Reply
Luko Willms
1/9/2020 03:37:10 pm

I'm glad to see your Blog again. In the past weeks it was first mostly "not found" (http-error 404), completely vanished from DNS, and then accessible only after entering a user-id and password.

I was worried that this might have been a consequence of the national security law.

Reply
Walter
2/9/2020 03:35:57 pm

Dear Luko, no the NSL is not an issue. I was housekeeping and editing, so I took the site offline. Then got distracted by other commitments.

Reply
Jed
8/9/2020 01:44:01 pm

Section 55 of the NSL permits offences under that legislation to be tried in mainland Courts.

Reply

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    Walter De Havilland was one of the last of the colonial coppers. He served 35 years in the Royal Hong Kong Police and Hong Kong Police Force. He's long retired. 

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