From a sovereignty perspective, Hong Kong is part of China.
And from the perspective of legislative, judicial, and executive powers (incl. police work), it isn't.
Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China
71–80 of 185 posts
Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the minority wants a Constitutionally limited government founded on equality replaced with a racist, religiously-biased authoritarianism, and manages to elect a government with that intent over the wishes of the majority, that doesn't make that governments steps to implement it's authoritarianism any less of a crisis.
> minority The Republicans have a majority in the House, in the Senate, and they have the President. Is the American voting system so defective that a minority can achieve all that?
Yes. By design.
Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China
#73I don't have a lot of sympathy for this man's problems. When you're making your billions from the corruption in the Chinese state, you run the risk of ending up on the wrong side of it. It's no different than any other organized crime. I will be very surprised if Canada does or says anything of significance, given that these people are politically unpopular and causing issues for British Columbia. China has all the p…
Agreed, the issue is not so much that particular guy. The issue is the rule of law. No one in Hong Kong should be apprehended by Chinese police. If Colombian police came to Miami to snatch some drug lord, you'd object presumably, no matter your sympathy for the criminal.
US/CIA does "extraordinary rendition" all the time and sends missiles into sovereign states via drone daily. Whether or not one objects doesn't matter if there is no way to deter the behavior. If China sees no consequences China will do as China pleases. Law is irrelevant.
I agree that I don't like seeing China wandering into Hong Kong, but the way China acts, the "one country, two systems" thing really is in name only. China will eventually subsume all of Hong Kong as they see fit. The question is whether it is done subversively or not. As of right now, the subversive actions are costing them less on the world's stage so they'll keep chipping away at the SAR until it is at least controlled by puppets of the PRC government.
Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China
#74Swimming with sharks includes being eaten by some on day or another.. Thats a chinese saying btw, HN folks.
Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China
#75I don't have a lot of sympathy for this man's problems. When you're making your billions from the corruption in the Chinese state, you run the risk of ending up on the wrong side of it. It's no different than any other organized crime. I will be very surprised if Canada does or says anything of significance, given that these people are politically unpopular and causing issues for British Columbia. China has all the p…
I am a Canadian citizen who lives in British Columbia and is not Chinese or of Chinese descent. The fact that a Canadian citizen was "seized" is very concerning to me and I hope that our government gets on top of this swiftly. I also don't see any facts on which you can base your corruption claim.
>I also don't see any facts on which you can base your corruption claim.
"Some of his most successful deals involved buying stakes in midsize financial institutions in smaller Chinese cities, often through a complex web of shell or dummy corporations. When Citigroup and other investors agreed to buy a big stake in the Guangdong Development Bank, for instance, one of Mr. Xiao’s investment vehicles — Puhua Investment — took an 8 percent interest, and then just weeks later transferred it to another state financial institution. Few analysts or journalists knew he was involved.
While shell companies are widely used in China as investment vehicles, securities experts say they can also be employed to hide the ownership stakes of public officials, providing cover for favors distributed by businessmen. Their frequent use by Mr. Xiao has fanned speculation that he gets privileged access to deals involving state assets and that he shares the benefits with the families of the ruling elite."
[...]
"But a review of corporate registration records has found that on at least three occasions during the last five years, companies affiliated with Mr. Xiao have struck deals that appear to have benefited the relatives of China’s highest-ranking leaders."
from: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/04/world/asia/tiananmen-era-...
not conclusive, but he certainly walks like a duck
Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the minority wants a Constitutionally limited government founded on equality replaced with a racist, religiously-biased authoritarianism, and manages to elect a government with that intent over the wishes of the majority, that doesn't make that governments steps to implement it's authoritarianism any less of a crisis.
> minority The Republicans have a majority in the House, in the Senate, and they have the President. Is the American voting system so defective that a minority can achieve all that?
I don't know if this is a rhetorical question, but if not, the answer is yes.
Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China
#77Mossad abducted Adolph Eichmann in Argentina and took him to Israel. US Navy Seals raided and killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan. Indian army stormed across the LoC and destroyed terrorist camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Chinese police captured Xiao Jianhua in Hongkong and took him across the border. When are these actions justified? Only when someone is a killer or a torturer or a terrorist? Or are they okay in…
> Indian army stormed across the LoC and destroyed terrorist camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
It is not clear if any border violations occurred in this attack.
Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the minority wants a Constitutionally limited government founded on equality replaced with a racist, religiously-biased authoritarianism, and manages to elect a government with that intent over the wishes of the majority, that doesn't make that governments steps to implement it's authoritarianism any less of a crisis.
> minority The Republicans have a majority in the House, in the Senate, and they have the President. Is the American voting system so defective that a minority can achieve all that?
The idea is that Republicans are a numeric minority, because all the densely populated cities are Democratic and thus the population majority of America is Democratic.
However the US isn't a population based democracy, so Republicans hold all majority power in all the branches of government because they have the widest geographical coverage of any political party.
Is this good or bad? Well.... hypothetical question. If we had a democratic world government, would it be good or bad that China and India combined would have majority power by virtue of population alone? Are the issues of a far away land more virtuous just for the sheer size of the population there?
It can be argued yea or nay---but balancing geography over population is the way the US was designed, without that compromise the less populous colonies would never have agreed to join the union.
Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
The billionaires increase the housing supply(see Cityplace) or are buying such high end properties that the worst they do is make life a bit more expensive in the Bridle Path.
Where do the people who can no longer afford the high end go? And what about the people they displace when those people move into the "medium end"? There is only one market for housing - over-paying at the top end causes a ripple effect which impacts everyone. Aside from that, a lot of foreign money is buying existing property and not adding to the supply. In many cases properties are left empty, i.e. they are reduci…
Typically they buy land up in like Aurora/Stouffville and build their mansion there.
>There is only one market for housing - over-paying at the top end causes a ripple effect which impacts everyone.
This is wrong. There are lots of housing markets at all levels of cost and very few of them overlap. On the higher end if you can't buy your mansion in the area you want you're not going to be content with a slightly oversized house elsewhere.
>Aside from that, a lot of foreign money is buying existing property and not adding to the supply.
Maybe(reports indicate this is way below the level most Canadians think it is) but this isn't the billionaire class. They have too much money to get away with buying a bunch of houses. They have better ways to invest in property in Canada.
Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China
#80I don't have a lot of sympathy for this man's problems. When you're making your billions from the corruption in the Chinese state, you run the risk of ending up on the wrong side of it. It's no different than any other organized crime. I will be very surprised if Canada does or says anything of significance, given that these people are politically unpopular and causing issues for British Columbia. China has all the p…
> given that these people are politically unpopular and causing issues for British Columbia.
so who are you speaking for when you use the blanket term "these people"? Are Chinese Born Canadians and other East Asian Canadians included in your labels?
I'm seeing more and more of these anti-Chinese comments popping up on reddit /r/vancouver and frankly annoyed to see similar fear mongering and FUD spreading fake comments outside of that cesspool of bitter and shut in crowd.
What the hell does British Columbia have to do with this man? He made his money in China and he got kidnapped. What possible blame do you place on this person or the government of BC? As far as I am aware, Canada has never successfully extracted hostages or expats in physical trouble by foreign government or militias.
There's no Seal Team Six and CSIS really isn't tasked with Jason Bourne styled missions which you are thinking of.