One of the events of last week which was variously setting a precedent, and ice-breaking on the level of Nixon hanging out with the Great Helmsman that turned into Kruschev banging a shoe at the UN.

A bunch of Very Important Hong Kong Legislators caught the KCR up to Lowu, herded themselves through immigration into Shenzhen, and continued on up to Guangzhou East Station to elbow for a taxi. The idea was to have a bit of political niceness and general well-pleased with each other behaviour. The whole thing turned to shit when democracy, June 4th, and a few other unsavoury incidents in China where shouted around, causing a pretty swift cessation of niceties.

The whole thing has been thoroughly covered all over the place. If the only point of going up there was to piss of intractable foes by demanding a reversal of the official verdict of Tiananman Square and other obviously currently non-negotiable topics, then their mission was a success. If however it was the start of potentially more open discussion, then any further invitations are really unlikely, and all the pro-Democrats have done is acted like assholes.

On the other side, if Beijing could even imagine it would all follow a nicely scripted tea-party, then they are just confirming their serious delusional detatchment from reality and really need to get over themselves. Either way if there was anything at all genuine in the purpose of hopping across the border, it’s been lost for a while. Though it was just an exercise in ego-massage and media preening, then shouting “federal, secular, democratic China now!!!” didn’t go far enough.