The Truth is Out There

Last look at Jumbo before it capsized in the South China Sea

Just when we thought Jumbo Floating Restaurant had sunk 1,000 metres in the South China Sea on its way to Cambodia, there was word yesterday that the vessel capsized, but hadn't sunk.

It is apparently still afloat near the Xisha (Paracel) Islands.

You'd think the owner of the massive vessel, Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises, owned by Melco Group, which is majority owned by Stanley Ho's son Lawrence, would want to see exactly what state the floating restaurant is in.

Jumbo in its former brilliant glory

There are no photographs or video of it to prove that it has capsized and not sunk so it's still really fishy.

People joked on Twitter that if Apple Daily was still around, they would have already sent a helicopter there to take photographs and video of the capsized restaurant.

But alas, Hongkongers are deprived of knowing what really happened to Jumbo Floating Restaurant...

This mystery continues along with if President Xi Jinping is physically coming to Hong Kong or an impersonator would show up.

Meanwhile Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, a former Hong Kong delegate to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, is saying 50 years of no change is will continue unchanged under the "one country, two systems" framework.

So the 2019 protests against the extradition bill, which lasted for months that set the wheels in motion for the implementation of the national security law, and led to the exodus of over 100,000 people and counting didn't happen?

Fan claims 50 years no change will continue

"The so-called '50 years unchanged' is not only written in the Basic Law, but in fact, if you look at the comments of previous state leaders. Fifty years is really not a deadline, it's the initial stage," she told reporters.

"In future [50 years unchanged] will surely continue, unless the one country, two systems [principle] is not done well. But right now, the [principle] can be implemented well."

Gaslighting at its best.

And then there's former chief executive Leung Chun-ying who likes to provoke with interesting statements.

His latest? 

That Hong Kong is not a "show flat" for western-style democracy for China.

Leung doesn't seem to know his HK history

"Our place isn't a 'political show flat' for the country to demonstrate how so-called western-style democracy operates," Leung said. "No. Our country knows very well about these things. On political issues, many taxi drivers on the mainland know more about Hong Kong lawmakers."

What? Where does he even get this idea that taxi drivers in China are more knowledgable and what does this have to do with Hong Kong not being a "show flat" for western-style democracy for China?

So while Leung thinks he's created a clever catch-phrase, it's not even correct. Hong Kong didn't have democracy, but it did have lots of freedoms before 1997.

Perhaps he's been reading those updated textbooks that claim Hong Kong was never a British colony?