Alan Wong
@alanwongw
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China economy & government editor @business . Past lives @VICEWorldNews , @SCMPNews , @nytimes
Joined February 2012
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Do you ever get text messages meant for someone else? Maybe sth like "Are you Linda from the pet store?" And because you're nice, you reply and say they got the wrong number.
Cindy Tsai, a lawyer, did just that. By the end of it all, she would lose about $2.5 million.
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In 2022, an old Honda was found wrapped around a lamppost in Hong Kong, with a young man behind the wheel. Little was known about him or what led to the crash.
Days later, I got a pitch. A journalist had been following the driver for a year before he died. This is the story
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BREAKING: Explosion in the Tianjin metropolis in northern China, according to Chinese media.
http://t.co/DBEOqzXzYT
http://t.co/djvpSthrxZ
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I’m in Central, Hong Kong, near the site of the recent protests against the China extradition bill. I want to show you a few things that might give us hints about where the protests are coming from. Follow this thread for a quick walking tour!
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We translated the warning letter Chinese doctor Li Wenliang got from the police for telling others about the coronavirus outbreak before it killed hundreds, including himself
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NEW: China told the US that the anal COVID-19 testing given to American diplomats was "an error" and will exempt them from the practice after Washington complained
@VICEWorldNews
@violazhouyi
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@VICEWorldNews
@AlMcCready1
@hellokoyu
@gav_butler
P.S. One of my favorite parts of the story:
“There is no un-scammable person,” a pig butchering handbook reads. “Only scripts that don’t fit.”
As someone who recently parted ways with $30 for a used kitchen trolley that never arrived, this rings true...🥲
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I was researching a story about Hong Kong and found this great graphic by
@adolfux
from 2014, when people were occupying roads to demand freer elections. The protester may look familiar at first. But there's something off about his look if you compare him to protesters today.
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This is not just any phone scam, and the scammers aren't the villains you may think they are. We followed the thread and found massive scam centers in Southeast Asia that use forced labor and trafficking victims to carry out fraud of breathtaking scale and sophistication.
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Read this chilling
@VICEWorldNews
investigation by
@AlMcCready1
, with additional reporting by
@hellokoyu
and
@gav_butler
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Who is supplying Hong Kong's protesters and keeping them fed?
@iamarman88
and I tried to find out yesterday in Sham Shui Po and other protest sites. Wherever we turned, the question answered itself, starting from a lady who handed out McDonald’s burgers.
These strangers are quietly keeping Hong Kong’s protests going with donated supplies
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China has promised to put all coronavirus patients in quarantine centers. And then what? A food delivery worker told us that he sent his father to such a site. A few days later, the older man stopped picking up his calls.
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But when Tony crashed into the lamppost and died that morning last year, he was alone. He wasn't racing anyone.
@MihirMelwani
spoke with people who knew Tony and found out the series of extraordinary events that led to his final drive. Read the story:
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P.P.S. Unrelated to pig butchering, but if you think you’re too smart to be scammed, this article is a great read:
I'm a Scam Prevention Expert, and I Got Scammed
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Headline: US surpasses China in coronavirus cases
What it means:
● The US' official tally of confirmed cases exceeds China's
What it doesn't mean:
● More people have got the virus in the US than in China
● China has done a better job at stopping the coronavirus than the US
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It involves criminal syndicates who spent years honing an intricate romance-meets-investment fraud. The pandemic created the perfect conditions for such scams to flourish since early 2020.
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If you thought tear gas was enough to disperse Hong Kong's protesters. They came back only angrier.
http://t.co/64QCDSsbxj
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Here's the complete questions a reporter asked that caused another to roll her eyes so hard that she became an internet hero
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Some personal news: I started a new job today as managing editor for VICE World News in APAC. I'm excited to be joining a team dedicated to covering some of the world's most amazing places, including my home city – Hong Kong. Please say hello and send tips!
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How do you organize a massive occupation and keep it all together? Look no further than Hong Kong. Here’s a quick look the logistics of the
#HongKongProtests
on Wednesday.
Photo: SCMP/Martin Chan
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Another massive demonstration is taking place right now outside Hong Kong's government HQ, blocking traffic as protesters did in the 2014 Umbrella Revolution where protesters called for freer elections. Here's (probably more than) what you need to know about the protests:
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The Chinese MMA fighter Xu Xiaodong defends Hong Kong's protesters, and gets a visit by the authorities. “Can you call 2 million demonstrators rioters?” he told
@InkstoneNews
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We wanted to check out how Hong Kong's office workers joined lunchtime protests in shirts and heels. Then we saw this exchange.
Full video by
@InkstoneNews
:
Some of Hong Kong’s bankers are taking their lunch break at protests
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Who were those people on Hong Kong's streets?
@InkstoneNews
made four charts based on survey results collected from the most recent protests where the relevant data is available.
1. Who protesters are
Who are Hong Kong's protesters? Field surveys conducted over 2 months suggest they are mostly young, educated, middle-class, and unlikely to stop demonstrating anytime soon
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It pains me to say that the entire APAC team at VICE World News is being laid off.
It’s one of the most ambitious and talented teams of journalists I’ve had the privilege to work with. Nimble, skilled, and truly multimedia, they’d be an asset to any newsroom
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China's Weibo has banned all new posts mentioning John Oliver (who mocked exactly this kind of internet censorship)
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But Lu, a former detainee who escaped a scam center, told us that these compounds have backing from local officials and police chiefs. A provincial deputy governor said his administration doesn't tolerate bribery and corruption.
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What was then a budding Chinese gambling tourism industry in Southeast Asia, in places like Sihanoukville in Cambodia, took a hit from the travel restrictions and an earlier online gambling ban. Businesses that once catered to tourists desperately needed a new source of revenue.
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It's an apt analogy. As in pig butchering, you fatten your target before the slaughter. When the victims put real money in, scammers go in for the kill and take off with the funds. They preyed on people like Tsai, who is terminally ill. The human suffering is hard to fathom.
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Real estate was repurposed for online scam operations, something we've seen also in Myanmar and Laos. The pandemic created an equally desperate workforce—trafficking victims told us that one scamming center has a "staff" of 7,000 people, though it's unclear how many are willing.
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We also spoke with people who were scammed out of their life savings. In such scams, known as "pig butchering," scammers lured their targets into investment schemes (often crypto-related) and earn their trust by giving them real and attractive returns. Why "pig butchering"?
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Foreign embassies of countries across the region—including Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand—have warned their citizens of the dangers of being lured into scam compounds in Cambodia. Local authorities have acknowledged the issues and said the wrongdoings are "intolerable"
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But on the other side of the scam, what we've found is nothing short of a humanitarian crisis. Now, what can be done about this?
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The driver Tony was a regular in Hong Kong's street racing scene. He and his buddies met online and frequently raced on the city's mountain roads. It's an age-old sport, but some racers told us they took delight in doing it as a fuck-you to police after the 2019 protest crackdown
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Hong Kong’s Mong Kok Stadium erupted in claps at the 47th minute of a soccer game on Friday night—to show support for the 47 pro-democracy activists charged with subversion: Apple Daily
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So Beijing, using a secretive new national security committee it appoints, will now vet all Hong Kong politicians before they could run for legislative office. Its assessments are *explicitly* immune from legal challenges. This is a selection, not election, process.
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It takes a lot to break into something like Hong Kong's legislative building, but it took precisely one British Hong Kong flag to turn a symbol of colonial rule into an image defining the break-in. But what exactly does the flag mean? A short FAQ:
Photo: Winson Wong/
@SCMPNews
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Thinking of Nathan Law and his mom, and what it means to be exiled from Hong Kong today
Photo by
@billyhckwok
8. At the same time, I hereby reiterate: My advocacy work overseas is conducted in my own personal capacity, without any collaboration with others. Since leaving Hong Kong, I have also stopped contacting members of my family. From now on I’ll sever my relationship with them.
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I’m happy to share that I’ve joined Bloomberg News as a China editor with the economy and government team. Excited to be working with a stellar cast of reporters and editors to cover this complex and hugely important story. Say hi at awong478
@bloomberg
.net 👋
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Newly released Xi Jinping speech on “rule of law” in China is an unambiguous rejection of the tenets of liberal democracies: China “must never adopt Western ‘constitutional government,’ ‘separation of powers’ and ‘independent judiciary.’”
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Horrific violence in Yuen Long, where groups of men in white shirt used sticks to beat up people in black. A
@StandNewsHK
reporter streaming the event was herself beaten by several men. The injured reporter is STILL live on Facebook. 154k people watching.
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I'd like to take a moment to highlight the incredible work done by the VICE World News team in Asia. Our stories exposed crimes, held power to account and led to real change. I know it sounds corny but it's been a dream to do these things for a living. Let me start with a big one
Our APAC team has been decimated amid widespread layoffs today at VICE World News. A sad day for us all, but that means some of these fantastic reporters & editors in Hong Kong, Thailand, Pakistan, India, Singapore, the Philippines, Australia & Japan are available. Hire them!
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Every time "Ten Years" pops up on my Netflix feed I wonder if it would be prematurely removed. Now you can't help but wonder if a filmmaker, not just a film, would disappear—into detention or exile
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Tony was no political firebrand though. He just loved cars and the adrenaline rush of racing, despite the danger it posed to himself and other road users. "I know it’s not exactly the right thing to do, but it’s what makes me happy," he told
@MihirMelwani
in an interview in 2021
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Hong Kongers are calling on one another to bring a flower to the march tomorrow and leave it outside Pacific Place, where a protester against the China extradition bill fell to his death
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The Hong Kong government called the exchange between a fireman and riot police officers last night a “misunderstanding” and said “the matter was tackled” at the scene. I think we all saw exactly what was tackled.
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We're running out of superlatives to describe what's happening in Hong Kong. Can a dead opposition be deader? How much dissent is allowed, and how many ways can you say zero, nada, zilch?
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Police are well aware of where all the illegal racing hotspots are. But David Bennett, a former police official who oversaw traffic enforcement, said illegal racing was rising because of a lack of enforcement action—and police leaking to the racers
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Beijing: We condemn political meddling by a foreign...wait never mind
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"Now I understand Lu Xun," a Weibo user comments on Li Wenliang's death, quoting:
"Speak up if you can. Generate a little heat, emit a little light, like a firefly flickering in the dark. There is no need to wait for the torch.
If the torch never comes, I’ll be the light."
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On the eve of the killings in Hong Kong, about a million people took to the streets to demonstrate solidarity with the Beijing protesters.
Photo taken on May 28, 1989 via
@HKAA1989
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Historically, a fall at the Great Hall of the People is followed by monumental changes to Hong Kong’s fate
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I still don't know what the single best translation for the Cantonese saying "add oil" is. It expresses encouragement and support, and is ubiquitous in Hong Kong's protests. I wrote about it when the Oxford English Dictionary added an entry for "add oil."
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This is trippy – 9 simultaneous live streams of the Hong Kong protests, the break-in attempts at the Legislative Council and all.
(Change the last number in the URL for more or fewer streams)
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Stunning how Toy Reid of South Carolina, who clearly has a gift for languages, could decipher Chinese official documents that a native Mandarin speaker "can't really follow"
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Admiralty, the heart of Hong Kong's government, is officially occupied.
http://t.co/GqVczZUPwF
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Hong Kong protesters have barbecue over a metal barricade on the eve of police clearance.
http://t.co/hgWWq0HvlL
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A photo of the original document here, shared by Li on his Weibo account last month.
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"There’s a vested interest for young constables to leak intel to the racers. If our guys tell the other side about an operation, there’s no need for the operation," Bennett said. Tony said he always felt racers had the upper hand
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“Every punch to his head breaks my heart”: Video of assault on Hong Kong activist spurs outrage
I talked to the student who filmed the attack to find out how it happened, and why the taekwondo black belt didn't fight back.
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The meaning of "dead," in English, is clear enough, but what Carrie Lam said in Cantonese, 壽終正寢, gives a better idea of what's going to happen to the extradition bill: nothing.
The phrase means something has reached its end of life, not dying because of an intervention.
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Hong Kong, summer 2014. Protesters brace for standoff with the police.
#NotKiev
http://t.co/1fQ9Xldjk2
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They wore masks not because of the tear gas (they didn’t help much anyway). Many of them didn’t want to be filmed at all. And they were reluctant to say things on the record or use their names.
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Look! Hong Kong protesters love Pepe the Frog and wave the American flag. They must be this and that.
[Star-Spangled Banner plays]
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Agnes Chow had a chance to stay out of it all, and almost did when she quit political activism at the height of Hong Kong's 2014 Umbrella Movement. Yet she chose to return, stay and fight, and now she is paying for it via
@VICEWorldNews
with
@heatherchen_
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This is significant. They didn’t want to be tracked down by the authorities and get punished somehow.
But they weren’t like that in 2014. Something changed in the last five years, and we’ve seen that happen before:
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Periodic reminder that you can use this link to get simultaneous streams of protests going on your computer
This is trippy – 9 simultaneous live streams of the Hong Kong protests, the break-in attempts at the Legislative Council and all.
(Change the last number in the URL for more or fewer streams)
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Hong Kong in 2021: The photos say it all
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Now China has denied that it *required* US personnel *stationed in China* to take the test. Updating our story.
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People who think that soldiers can solve the Hong Kong crisis are simply delusional. The local police force has all the arms and manpower it needs to crush protesters if it wanted to. The core issue here has always been political, not tactical. Put your gun down, commander.
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Defying police, thousands of demonstrating block main highway connecting Central and Wanchai to protest China.
http://t.co/Gw20Ic4rbf
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An article titled "The possible origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus" says the new coronavirus "probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan." It has disappeared from ResearchGate but you can read an archived page below. It's circumstantial and speculative.
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I mean, Hong Kong’s protesters lined up to buy train tickets like the bad ol' days in order to avoid leaving a digital footprint! On normal days, you’d get murdered if you’re slow at the turnstile.
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In a phone call to a local radio show, a protester recalled how the mall saved their lives when the police kept chasing them. (On Thursday, the mall was shut down.)
Photo: SCMP/Antony Dickson
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7 in 10 people who died of COVID-19 in Hong Kong were 80 years old or above. This is why
📈 Vaccine uptake by age in Hong Kong via OurWorldInData
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No wonder why the Hong Kong government fought so hard against the idea of separation of powers...
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But Hong Kong has a free press and people can see what happens when a state has almost unchallenged power to record its citizens in every imaginable way and actively use it to impose social control. They don’t want that.
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In mainland China, people from ordinary folks to scholars have become a lot more reluctant to speak on the record when it comes to politics or the government. Sometimes the topic isn’t even sensitive at all.
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To think that Beijing once thought Taiwan would like a "one country, two systems" arrangement...
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Unless that bottle sprays evian, the Hong Kong police are truly redefining what minimum force means.
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Despite Beijing's vow to leave no one behind, a city that can build hospitals seemingly overnight is far from being capable of handling the deluge of patients. More details in
@violazhouyi
's story for
@InkstoneNews
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This video appears to show what the old man surrounded by Hong Kong airport protesters did before the confrontations
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(Unarmed?) PLA soldiers have come out of their Kowloon Tong barracks to remove protesters' roadblocks near Hong Kong Baptist University. Was the HK authorities told about it? Did Beijing greenlight it? What would they do if confronted by locals? LIVE:
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Peng's story is hardly unique. Many in the locked-down city whose loved ones are put into quarantine centers are crying for help online for medical attention. Some of the facilities seem little more than sites to isolate the ill than to treat them.
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The next time we saw that many people on the street was last Sunday, when march organizers said 1.03 million people joined to protest the extradition bill. (More on the bill here: )
Photo of the June 9 march by SCMP/Sam Tsang
Let's start with the bill at the center of the protests this week. Hundreds of thousands of people marched on Sunday to protest a bill that will change Hong Kong's laws to make two things possible.
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That brings us to
@jeffielam
’s piece about how protesters with different views managed to come together this time around instead of fighting each other.
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The mob violence committed by Hong Kong protesters against the defenseless man - someone in the crowd called him “mainland dog” - was bone chilling. Can’t imagine what would have happened had the cooler heads not prevailed.
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When Peng visited the hotel, he found his father in his room unresponsive. He touched his father's hand and knew that he had passed. Peng thought his father would be treated in the center. He died without ever seeing a doctor, he said.
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Hong Kong police say 22,000 people joined protest Sunday against the jailing of Joshua Wong et al, making it the largest march since Occupy
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Joshua Wong and Nathan Law are released after Hong Kong’s top court grants them bail, pending application to appeal their prison sentences
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The umbrella part about him is the same today, but a few other things aren't, and the differences are revealing. Let's start from his head.
Most protesters we saw on Wednesday outside the government HQ, the same main site of the 2014 and 2019 protests, did not show their faces.
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Thousands of people gather in Hong Kong to protest the jailing of Joshua Wong, Nathan Law & Alex Chow: "Release all political prisoners."
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Full translation of Charter 08, over which Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in jail
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But who can blame them? One of the first people to get arrested in the protests this week was a moderator of a chat group on Telegram.
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