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Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

nytimes.com

121–130 of 185 posts

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#121
post #56

>Mr. Xiao is a Canadian citizen with an Antiguan diplomatic passport, though he was born in China. Ah, the Antiguan diplomatic passport. This has tax evasion written all over it.

Still, diplomatic passport, although a shady one. I guess we could go an lock up all Chinese diplomatic representatives then?

Can you can buy a Chinese citizenship with a Mastercard or Visa and not even appear in the country? Buying passports in these countries are almost exclusively used for hiding money.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the US isn't a population based democracy Incorrect. Population corresponds to representation at national and state levels. This is enforced with a Constitutional base. "One person, one vote" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_v._Sims

> "One person, one vote" So how come Trump's President? (It's because "one person" gets "one vote" for an elector. But some people get more electors than others, and electors vote for the President, not individual voters.)

We should keep in mind as well that the campaigns play the game they are given -- to maximize electoral votes. There is an opportunity cost (the popular vote) to only campaigning in the swing states.

For example, a large number of Hillary's popular vote was claimed in California. Trump didn't campaign much in California. One could argue if Trump spent more time in California (which he strategically did not), Hillary's popular vote lead wouldn't be as high.

I think its culturally important that Trump didn't get the popular vote, but it's also a little like playing a game of chess, losing, and then decrying "but I took more pawns!"

That wasn't the agreed upon rules of the game.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#123
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "One person, one vote" So how come Trump's President? (It's because "one person" gets "one vote" for an elector. But some people get more electors than others, and electors vote for the President, not individual voters.)

Yep. There are a lot of things in the US political system that give states with lower populations more representation per capita than states with greater populations, and the electoral college is one of them and perhaps the most egregious, given that we're long past the time when it made sense to fear that US presidents would prioritize their home state over the country, if that was ever a concern. The Senate is the…

> Even the more egalitarian House somewhat overrepresents the more sparsely populated states, [...]

And then add gerrymandering to that!

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#124
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 think parent is making a good point. See, in corrupt/poor countries when someone becomes a billionare he does not get the benefit of doubt. The entire legal and executive systems are so rotten and shady that there is no legal way for someone to become that rich unless they play dirty regardless of their capabilities, luck, education or great ideas.

I'm not sure that any billionaire should get the benefit of the doubt. Sure, somebody like Bill Gates seems unobjectionable, but he's pretty far from the typical billionaire.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#125
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. The Canadian government hides most everything from it's citizens, especially when it comes to China. Statistics on real estate transactions using money from overseas are considered none of our business. People operating illegal hotels out of houses while not paying taxes on revenue? Just fine. Egregious tax evasion? No problem. Buying citizensh…

Canada and the United States should require citizenship before buying Realestate.

(This has really bothered me for years.)

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#126
post #56

>Mr. Xiao is a Canadian citizen with an Antiguan diplomatic passport, though he was born in China. Ah, the Antiguan diplomatic passport. This has tax evasion written all over it.

Still, diplomatic passport, although a shady one. I guess we could go an lock up all Chinese diplomatic representatives then?

Antigua might? How could China punish them?

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the US isn't a population based democracy Incorrect. Population corresponds to representation at national and state levels. This is enforced with a Constitutional base. "One person, one vote" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_v._Sims

> "One person, one vote" So how come Trump's President? (It's because "one person" gets "one vote" for an elector. But some people get more electors than others, and electors vote for the President, not individual voters.)

Trump is NOT president because some people get more electors than others.

If you're talking about the slight disproportion in the electoral college, that didn't matter. Trump was 74 electoral votes ahead his closest opponent. Removing two electoral votes for Trump's extra 10ish states doesn't matter. Theoretically it could matter, but 2016 wasn't close enough.

Trump won because some states have chosen to elect their electors so that they all vote for one candidate.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#128
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the Canadian citizen part was more in line with money laundering and being a safe haven. I'm sure he's part of the contributing force on real estate increases in major cities across Canada (Vancouver/Toronto) mainly due (to my understanding) to being able to move money out of China and into something more stable, like Canadian real estate. It really pains me that people use Canada as a crutch to do their di…

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.

I don't think this is correct and the other person who responded to you seems to have the right idea.

Look at San Francisco, my friends and coworkers are renting/buying crappy 1943-built, non-renovated 1br units that cost $3k to rent or $700k to buy. They could afford to throw out some more money for something slightly better but it's already a lot of money and pricing everyone out.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#129
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "One person, one vote" So how come Trump's President? (It's because "one person" gets "one vote" for an elector. But some people get more electors than others, and electors vote for the President, not individual voters.)

Yep. There are a lot of things in the US political system that give states with lower populations more representation per capita than states with greater populations, and the electoral college is one of them and perhaps the most egregious, given that we're long past the time when it made sense to fear that US presidents would prioritize their home state over the country, if that was ever a concern. The Senate is the…

> Even the more egalitarian House somewhat overrepresents the more sparsely populated states

"Sparse" isn't exactly true, since it's population not density that drives it. And, because of granularity effects, it's not consistently bigger states that lose in the House; the most underrepresented state in the House is also a small state (Delaware.)

Because of the 2/state Senate electors, though, it's consistently more populated states that lose in the EC.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#130
post #93
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's probably why they forcibly moved him across the border, taking a step to normalize the behavior, before moving on to more sympathetic targets in the future.

Sadly, you're probably correct.

Question: given that, would it make sense for HK's government to claim that it cooperated for the removal, or was even the instigator who requested the PRC take action?

Allows them to save their gunpowder of calling out the violation of HK autonomy for someone much more sympathetic.

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