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

nytimes.com

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

#171

Post by jwtadvice »

inimino wrote: post #160
jwtadvice wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to me that it's an actual genuine effort, given that the publicity of the drive has damaged Chinese public confidence in their institutions of government (high profile corruption is often featured in the news) and because many of the people taken to court have been in Xi Jinpeng's own circle and have represented for him a loss of personal power in the party. I haven't read much about Xi's personal power grow…

> Documents and communications from Jinping The family name is Xi, just FYI.

Thanks. I'm aware of this! I just used Xi a bunch and didn't want to keep typing Xi Jinping either so I used Jinping. Changed up the pronoun for readability and variety.

Is it culturally unacceptable to refer to Xi Jinping as Jinping?

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

#172

Post by rrauenza »

filoeleven wrote: post #150
rrauenza wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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!" There are certainly such complaints coming from those who voted against him, but it's also worth noting that by far the biggest sore loser is Trump himself. He has insisted that the only reason he failed to win the popular vote is due to vot…

Ah! Good point, and also reminds me of the existence of this article:

https://www.wired.com/2017/01/author-trumps-favorite-voter-f...

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

#173

Post by sctb »

pcardh0 wrote: post #14
pdog wrote: post #10

How will Trudeau respond? Xiao Jianhua is a Canadian citizen, after all.

He should denounce President Trump and then ask for help.

We've asked you twice before not to do exactly this, so we've banned the account. We're happy to unban accounts if you email us at hn@ycombinator.com and we believe you'll post only civilly and substantively in the future.

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

#174

Post by RestlessMind »

brilliantcode wrote: post #84
RestlessMind wrote: post #51

Mossad 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…

All diplomatic power boils down to the lowest common denominator which is military capability. A weaker country can claim foul all they want but the military capable country will simply ignore it when it is in their interest and act with force which will see no resistance from a weaker country. Power justifies as well as corrupt those who wield it.

As I grow older, I seem to be coming to the same conclusion again and again - there is nothing right or wrong, moral or amoral. Power is what matters. Heck, entire notion of "Government" can be boiled down to "entity with monopoly on force" for a given area.

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

#175

Post by hluska »

brilliantcode wrote: post #144
hluska wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand that this is a sensitive issue, but your point would be stronger if you dropped the tone by several degrees. In this case, you seriously misrepresented the parent and turned what should be a very civil conversation into the polarized bullshit that absolutely ruins the internet.

Yes, my fault for being emotional and on the edge. I guess my jimmies have been rustled for lack of a better word in the context of populism and my lone campaign of troll eradication on reddit have made me far too sensitive. I'm going to take some time off from reddit and focus on HN.

I've read more of your comments and it's clear that you are very smart.

Please don't try to eradicate trolls. Instead, focus on doing. With your mind, you will accomplish amazing things while all the trolls sit in their moms' basements, shitting on people who actually accomplish things.

My email address is in my profile. Feel free to use it!

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

#176

Post by rbcgerard »

iaw wrote: post #92
rbcgerard wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and by that you mean he's only LEGALLY Canadian and Antiguan...

No, I meant what I wrote. He holds properties in Canada, and has diplomatic status from Antigua, but they were purchased and he hasn't shown loyalties to those countries. He didn't take up actual residency in either of the countries, he used their names to suit his international agenda.

How can you asses if has "shown loyalty" to a country?

What does residency have to do with anything?

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

#177

Post by RugnirViking »

FabHK wrote: post #52
giarc wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was just going from this quote from the article. >who saw his abduction as a violation of the city state’s ability to run its own affairs, guaranteed by international treaty until 2047.

Exactly. It's a special administrative region with contractually guaranteed freedom to run its own affairs in all aspects (law, immigration, currency, economic policy, etc. etc) except for defence and foreign affairs.

I know very little about this kind of thing; how does one -avoid- representing one's self in foreign affairs? isn't being the government basically that in entirety?

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

#178

Post by RugnirViking »

EdHominem wrote: post #152
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but no. Hong Kong is officially the "Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China". It's an autonomous region, but it's part of the PRC, not a separate state.

Ahh, right, right. The people were given to one country by another. Silly people.

'given' to whom? The only way I can construe this is that the Chinese government 'gave' hong-kong on a 100 year lease and the UK held up this deal. Unless you expect the UK to avoid the deal, which while I wish they could, they aren't in a position to say no to china

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

#179

Post by RugnirViking »

Tuna-Fish wrote: post #119
imjustsaying wrote: post #117

Hong Kong has fallen, democracy there officially died after they refused to let those two legislators swear in. Not sure whose idea it was to let HK get handed over to the commies back in the 1990's, why Taiwan didn't make a louder claim to it, or why HK didn't assert its right to independence from extraterritorial governments altogether.

At that point, Hong Kong was entirely dependent from the fresh water provided by the mainland, to the point that if the taps were ever closed, hundreds of thousands would have died before alternative sources would have been available. You cannot just ship enough water for 6.5M people, and HK authorities were scared that if they started constructing desalinization systems, PRC would pressure them to stop doing that wi…

Thank you for this information, very interesting!

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

#180

Post by inimino »

jwtadvice wrote: post #171
inimino wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Documents and communications from Jinping The family name is Xi, just FYI.

Thanks. I'm aware of this! I just used Xi a bunch and didn't want to keep typing Xi Jinping either so I used Jinping. Changed up the pronoun for readability and variety. Is it culturally unacceptable to refer to Xi Jinping as Jinping?

It's culturally about the same suddenly referring to Obama as Barack. As in, unless you are actually on a first-name basis with the person, you wouldn't do it.
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