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founding

Since all of these people are the same, I’m surprised Mayer Brown didn’t advise the CCP to pronounce

“At this point, what difference does it make? Come on man, that was 4 or 5 days ago.”

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Thanks for the post Eli. The real issue with China is that they figured out that doing business with the West would co-opt us. They realized that OUR values would change as we foolishly hoped that their engagement with us would change them. From tech companies helping the CCP with surveillance technology to NBA players falling all over each other to criticize executive Daryl Morey for standing up for Hong Kong, we go through one shameful episode to another and certainly shame is what Mayer Brown should feel. Obviously, there is no shame! Taiwan is done. And it is not the fault of the US Government, it is the fault of all of these private enablers and apologists for a repressive and immoral regime.

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How very quaint to think international law firms have “morals”. They are whores and will service any customer. On second thought I have more respect for the oldest profession as they meet real human needs.

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Ironic that firms such as Mayer Brown prosper precisely because of the American system of justice and due process and then shill and whore for a regime that has worked for 70 years to destroy any semblance of that. Makes one think again of the adage of capitalists and rope.

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The important thing is: Are the folx at Mayer Brown using correct pronouns . . .

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A small quibble: you slander the neanderthals when you use them as a metaphor for the Taliban. Our best evidence is that neanderthal women were fully equal members of the tribe, participating in hunts on an equal basis with the men.

Could the citizens of all free countries with a better record of keeping treaty obligations than we Americans have, please unite in condemning China's treatment of Hong Kong? (I'm not sure after the way we Americans "kept" our treaties with various Indian tribes we have a basis for complaining.)

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Mayer Brown has earned a spot of its own on a pillar of shame.

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founding

While I don’t know the details beyond what Eli Lake includes in the article, China is a signatory to the Berne Convention and also the sculptor retains certain “droit moral” with respect to his work. I wonder whether that is why Mayer Brown is setting this case up as one of “abandoned property” if the sculpture is not removed from the University’s premises within the designated number of days … which also raises the issue of what conditions the parties agreed to when the work was first placed at the University.

These considerations would be important if they could be presented before an independent judiciary but, given Xi’s inability to abide by the agreement with the UK that Hong Kong’s democratic system of government could not be abolished until 50 years after retrocession (so not before 2047), such an eventuality no longer appears to be the case.

As to Mayer Brown itself, the firm has made a business determination that its overall billings from China are too important a bottom line to jeopardize over some work of art. The firm speaks of the University as its longtime client yet the client it originally took on bears about as much resemblance to today’s as the Hong Kong legal system of 1997 does to today’s.

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FYI Bari, when I clicked the link under the word “arrested” in this line of text:

“Most alliance members have been arrested for illegally commemorating Tiananmen,” I was taken to a page advertising the benefits of obtaining a Gmail account. Does this mean I need to be signed in to Gmail in order to access the information in the link, or that the link has been hacked?

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