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Ben Bland
@benjaminbland
Director, Asia-Pacific @ChathamHouse. Ex @LowyInstitute in 🇦🇺 & @FT in 🇮🇩 🇻🇳 🇭🇰 🇨🇳. Author:📘Man of Contradictions & 📕Generation HK. Brentford FC fan
London, United Kingdom
amazon.co.uk/Man-Contradict…
Joined April 2009
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  • user avatar
    Ben Bland
    @benjaminbland
    Nov 17, 2019
    Chinese officials and propagandists have also started using the pathological language of “virus” and “infection” to refer to the protests in Hong Kong (while the frontline HK police prefer talking about infestations of “cockroaches”)
    user avatar
    Alexandra Stevenson
    @jotted
    Nov 17, 2019
    Language matters. In internal documents from Xi's speeches and government policy, China uses words like "virus" and "infected" and "destroying root and branch" to describe the chilling and systemic crackdown of an ethnic group. Read this thread & @austinramzy+@ChuBailiang's story
  • user avatar
    Ben Bland
    @benjaminbland
    Nov 18, 2019
    It's very hard to negotiate with leaderless movement in HK. It's also hard to negotiate with leaderless govt, with chief executive absent at crucial moments, a number two who doesn't know why people are angry & justice secretary promoting dispute resolution abroad while HK burns.
  • user avatar
    Ben Bland
    @benjaminbland
    May 13, 2022
    Great event with Jakarta governor @aniesbaswedan at @CHAsiaPacific last night. We talked public transport, the pandemic, food prices, climate change, the new capital & ASEAN. The governor argued democracy is delivering for Indonesians but public trust can't be taken for granted.
  • user avatar
    Ben Bland
    @benjaminbland
    May 13, 2020
    There are few better feelings than putting the finishing touches to a new book manuscript, after a long, hard struggle of research and writing
  • user avatar
    Ben Bland
    @benjaminbland
    May 4, 2020
    Interesting that UK "intelligence sources", like their Australian counterparts, are briefing the media against Trump administration claims that the coronavirus came from a Chinese lab
    Five Eyes network contradicts theory Covid-19 leaked from lab
    From theguardian.com
  • user avatar
    Ben Bland
    @benjaminbland
    Aug 19, 2020
    Hi @CNNIndonesia. Thanks for writing about my new book. I encourage you to read the book for yourselves to get the full picture (available here 😉bookdepository.com/Man-Contradict…). I called the book "Man of Contradictions" because it's a complicated story
    Kepemimpinan Jokowi Dikritik dalam Buku Peneliti Asing
    From cnnindonesia.com
  • user avatar
    Ben Bland
    @benjaminbland
    Dec 1, 2020
    The ultimate symbol of Australia-Indonesia cooperation: the mi goreng toastie. A new guilty pleasure is born
  • user avatar
    Ben Bland
    @benjaminbland
    Oct 27, 2019
    This banner gets to the heart of what’s keeping HK protests going. People often ask what the “endgame” is for protesters. In such an asymmetric political conflict, it’s hard for the weaker side to have a realistic endgame. The aim is to keep the flame of resistance alive
    user avatar
    Aaron Mc Nicholas
    @aaronMCN
    Oct 26, 2019
    This banner advertising tomorrow’s protest and the November 2 protest has a simple message. “It’s not because we have hope that we can persist. It’s because we persist that we can have hope.”
  • user avatar
    Ben Bland
    @benjaminbland
    Mar 14, 2019
    You know your tax to GDP ratio is too low when... tycoons who pay their tax get a certificate and a photo op with the finance minister
  • user avatar
    Ben Bland
    @benjaminbland
    Sep 4, 2019
    “Applying a band aid, months later, onto rotting flesh will not cut it.”-HK protesters at “citizens’ press conference” tell Carrie Lam they will not settle for less than their five demands. “With a bleak and oppressive future ahead of us, Hong Kongers cannot afford to yield.”
  • user avatar
    Ben Bland
    @benjaminbland
    Nov 9, 2020
    On "heroes' day" in Indonesia, Kompas uses its front page to pay tribute to the 323 Indonesian doctors, nurses and other health workers who have died from COVID-19 bebas.kompas.id/baca/bebas-aks…
  • user avatar
    Ben Bland
    @benjaminbland
    Jan 26, 2021
    In the seventh year of his presidency, and in the midst of a worsening pandemic, Jokowi is still keen to portray himself above all as the infrastructure president. Today, he’s flying off to Sumatra to inaugurate a new toll road
    user avatar
    Joko Widodo
    @jokowi
    Jan 26, 2021
    Pagi ini, bersama rombongan terbatas, saya bertolak menuju kota Palembang untuk meresmikan Jalan Tol Kayu Agung-Palembang. Ruas tol ini bagian dari Trans Sumatra yang akan menghubungkan Lampung di ujung timur sampai Aceh di ujung barat Pulau Sumatra.
  • user avatar
    Ben Bland
    @benjaminbland
    Oct 2, 2019
    Doctor, teacher, social worker, editor of student magazine, Lego salesman, fashion designer, cook, welfare worker, construction worker, teaching assistant and many students, among 97 pro-democracy protesters who appeared in court in Hong Kong yesterday
    97 people hauled to court over protests on Hong Kong Island
    From scmp.com
  • user avatar
    Ben Bland
    @benjaminbland
    Jul 1, 2019
    22 years after the handover, Hong Kong protesters have taken over the legislature and put the old colonial flag on the president’s chair