The trial of outspoken media tycoon and longtime Acton friend Jimmy Lai, along with seven other influential pro-democracy activists, began Nov. 1 in a Hong Kong court.
The group is being tried for participating in an unauthorized Tiananmen Square Massacre vigil last year, which is now forbidden under Hong Kong’s stifling National Security Law. Continue Reading...
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November 02, 2021
Hong Kong’s extreme National Security Law wins second conviction
A Hong Kong court has handed down a second conviction under the wide-sweeping National Security Law (NSL), this time for chanting pro-independence slogans.
According to ABC News, Ma Chun-man was convicted on Oct. Continue Reading...
November 01, 2021
How Hong Kong moved from two systems to one tyranny
Hong Kong has become the face of China’s dictatorship, the most dramatic evidence of Xi Jinping’s determination to extinguish even the hint of dissent among his people. Today residents of the Special Administrative Region are ruled as completely and cruelly by the Chinese Communist Party as are those living in Beijing or Shanghai. Continue Reading...
October 30, 2021
Discovering human dignity in Villeneuve’s Dune
With an opening weekend revenue of $41 million, director Denis Villeneuve’s Part 1 of his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s science fiction classic Dune has succeeded in getting Warner Bros. to greenlight Part 2, set for a 2023 release. Continue Reading...
October 29, 2021
Pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai to receive the 2021 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award
At the annual International Press Freedom Awards, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) will honor Jimmy Lai, longtime Acton friend and outspoken political dissident in Hong Kong, with the 2021 Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award. Continue Reading...
October 27, 2021
Amnesty International to withdraw from Hong Kong
London-based Amnesty International has succumbed to the pressures of Hong Kong’s wide-sweeping National Security Law (NSL), announcing on Oct. 25 its decisions to withdraw operations from the city.
The human rights organization will close its two Hong Kong branches, citing fear of “restrictions of freedoms of expression.” Continue Reading...
October 26, 2021
Beyond material prosperity, economic freedom fosters virtue and relationship
In defending the cause of economic freedom, it can be easy to focus only on the material fruits, whether it be new innovations and efficiencies or the ongoing expansion of opportunity and abundance. Continue Reading...
October 20, 2021
We are a fractured nation, but there is still hope
It’s become a commonplace observation that while we are indeed a divided nation, we have been divided before and, some claim, in much worse ways.
The first part is undoubtedly true, while the second seems more debatable, and this particularly in light of a recent poll coming from the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) at the University of Virginia that shows roughly half of Americans on both sides of the political spectrum seriously indulging fantasies of secession. Continue Reading...
October 19, 2021
The political murder of Sir David Amess shines a light on the virtues of public service
The name of Sir David Amess, a Conservative member of the British Parliament for 39 years, was little known in the U.K., and almost certainly not at all known in the United States. Continue Reading...
October 16, 2021
Constitution protects nonprofits despite political activism
A healthy state protects life, secures liberty, and defends property. A totalitarian state does the opposite: it arbitrarily kills, compels, and seizes property.
J. D. Vance recently appeared on Fox News with Tucker Carlson to discuss a verbal altercation between Arizona State University students, one of whom was the recipient of a Ford Foundation fellowship. Continue Reading...