“I knew some of the people involved,” said Nury Vittachi, the prominent Hong Kong journalist and author, “and the allegations were just ridiculous.” He was referring to the US Justice Department’s demand, in late August, for five American subsidiaries of Sing Tao newspaper to register as foreign agents . The newspaper is Hong Kong’s oldest in the Chinese language. I subscribe to its Canadian edition, read it every day and find it quite innocuous. Maybe the American versions are different, full of Chinese state propaganda and run by Chinese intelligence operatives. You never know! In his YouTube clip on the…