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China Unveils Plan to Tie Hong Kong, Macau Closer to Mainland

bloomberg.com

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Re: China Unveils Plan to Tie Hong Kong, Macau Closer to Mainland

#51

Post by thaumasiotes »

entity345 wrote: post #29
arcticbull wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To play devils advocate, Hong Kong has become comparatively much less valuable to Beijing over the years. It represented 27% of all of China's GDP in 1993, and today it's less than 3%. [1] Beijing has become more forceful in its treatment of HK of late, with for instance, staffing the high-speed rail station in Kowloon with China Police (forbidden under basic law). I think what happens next is unclear. Is it still wo…

Well, of course as the mainland develops Hongkong loses its relative weight. This was expected and unavoidable. Let's not forget that Hongkong was boosted in the first place by people and companies fleeing the communists, but the historical hub was Shanghai. This does not change anything to my previous comment, though. > It's not like the UK... I think the West must understand that colonial times are over. This is a…

Wasn't the historical hub Guangzhou? (Canton)

That's where foreign powers had to go to conduct trade.

Re: China Unveils Plan to Tie Hong Kong, Macau Closer to Mainland

#52

Post by spacehunt »

entity345 wrote: post #43
NeedMoreTea wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Sino-British Joint Declaration declared Hong Kong's way of life would be left alone until 2047. Signed by both leaders on behalf of their governments, and lodged with the UN. China treating it as void does not change that. Nothing racist about making that observation.

China will do what they want, as they should. It is absolutely thin-veiled racism.

Can you explain what is racist about this? As a native Hong Konger, I'm really interested to hear your take as it's obvious we have completely different views on this.

Re: China Unveils Plan to Tie Hong Kong, Macau Closer to Mainland

#53

Post by smcl »

azurezyq wrote: post #17
geowwy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The opposite seems to be true right now. China's relations with the West are a bit strained at the moment.

That's unavoidable actually. Basically US just begins to treat China as an eligible opponent. There were never "friendly" relationships between two superpowers in history if I remember correctly.

The US and the British Empire in first half of the 20th century (until the dissolution of the empire) might be an example

Re: China Unveils Plan to Tie Hong Kong, Macau Closer to Mainland

#54

Post by spacehunt »

bobthepanda wrote: post #20
ksec wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would they want to do that? I would bet lots of people will revolt, forcing them to drive on the wrong side of the road.

Driving rates are pretty low in HK and Macau because the cost of car ownership is so high (namely, the cost of a parking space) and public transit/taxis are so good. So I don’t think you’d get much pushback from actual drivers.

Private car drivers don't have votes anyway so even if there's pushback the governments don't care.

The taxis, logistics and trucking industries do have political clout, though, and they will be the ones pushing back.

Re: China Unveils Plan to Tie Hong Kong, Macau Closer to Mainland

#55

Post by darrenf »

entity345 wrote: post #22
esturk wrote: post #3

I wonder if the mainland will ever force either of the 2 ex-colonies to convert into using the "right hand road" orientation? That would be an interesting experiment.

Sweden did exactly that in 1967.

As well as the fact that their neighbours drove on the right, the argument was made that switching sides would reduce accidents due to Swedes mostly owning left-hand drive cars. There were fewer accidents initially, but things returned to historic levels pretty soon thereafter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagen_H

Re: China Unveils Plan to Tie Hong Kong, Macau Closer to Mainland

#56

Post by porpoisely »

chottocharaii wrote: post #13

I heard from a Chinese legal academic that when China is diplomatically isolated, the two provinces tend to be left alone to enjoy the benefits of their independent foreign ties. When China is more politically feeling comfortable, that is when the pressure for conformity tends to come from Beijing.

That doesn't make much sense since hong kong and macau were only returned to china within the last 20 years give or take. And in that time, china has never been diplomatically isolated.

Re: China Unveils Plan to Tie Hong Kong, Macau Closer to Mainland

#57

Post by arethuza »

smcl wrote: post #53
azurezyq wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's unavoidable actually. Basically US just begins to treat China as an eligible opponent. There were never "friendly" relationships between two superpowers in history if I remember correctly.

The US and the British Empire in first half of the 20th century (until the dissolution of the empire) might be an example

Well, the US Army did regard the UK as a potential enemy before WW2:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Plan_Red

Re: China Unveils Plan to Tie Hong Kong, Macau Closer to Mainland

#58

Post by spacehunt »

esturk wrote: post #3

I wonder if the mainland will ever force either of the 2 ex-colonies to convert into using the "right hand road" orientation? That would be an interesting experiment.

Not sure if it's ever practical to do so -- a lot of the built up infrastructure here is asymmetrical.

Re: China Unveils Plan to Tie Hong Kong, Macau Closer to Mainland

#59

Post by emptyfile »

daliusd wrote: post #36
emptyfile wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The PRD megalopolis is an urban area of gargantuan proportions with few like it in existance. >It's home to 65 million people, a population similar to that of the United Kingdom. >It covers an area around 55,000 km^2, about the size of the country of Croatia. >The GDP of the PRD megalopolis clocks in at over $1.2 trillion, about the same as Mexico. Well damn, I live in Croatia, can't even make a mental image of that…

And Croatia's town (like Split) leaves impression like a really crowded place. At least for me as person from North Europe country.

You can't really take the one of the most visited and touristy places in Croatia and consider it the average.

By comparison the largest city Zagreb of about a million people, which is a quarter of the entire population, has the density of 1300 people per km2, that's about 1/3 or 1/4 of the pop. density of Berlin or Stockholm.

Compared to Norway which is the least populated country on the continent, Croatia has the same population in 20% of the space.

Re: China Unveils Plan to Tie Hong Kong, Macau Closer to Mainland

#60

Post by porpoisely »

Firstly, this plan has been unveiled for a while now. Secondly, this plan is as much hong kong/macau trying to "tie" itself closer to the mainland as vice versa. But bloomberg being bloomberg, we get a dose of stale news mixed with propaganda. Thirdly, rather than hong kong and macau being tied closer to the mainland, it's really the pearl river delta cities just integrating together as you'd normally expect cities in region to do.

Here is a 4 year old video on what the aspirations of the pearl river delta are.

https://youtu.be/gNE7VPtvfbI?t=1209

Another major megalopolis that china is building is centered around beijing.

https://youtu.be/gNE7VPtvfbI?t=19

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