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China’s assault on Cathay Pacific

economist.com

71–80 of 218 posts

Re: China’s assault on Cathay Pacific

#71
Why don't we form a new WTO, without China or other dictatorships, and only allow in democracies that are liberal or liberalizing? There's no point in opening our arms to China if they aren't moving on the right track anymore towards becoming a free and fair society.

Re: China’s assault on Cathay Pacific

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's not a remotely legitimate security concern. The pilot is not politicized just because some people employed by her company are protesting. Even if she were politicized, what's she going to do, crash the plane?

It could be disinformation, but I've read that some Cathay pilots and cabin crew were reprimanded for participating in the protests. Also, I don't necessarily mean a terrorist incident. Any kerfuffle at 35,000ft would be enough grounds to turn an airplane around and land it at the nearest runway as per standard safety practices. With HK-mainland tensions at an all time high, I don't think this can be completely ruled…

I was a bit surprised the economist used the word absurdly actually. There are several incidents happened before China's aviation authority made the demand:

https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/08/21/cathay-pacific-pilot-w...

This pilots announcement happened before July 26.

Re: China’s assault on Cathay Pacific

#73

Can anyone recommend a good book on China, or modern geopolitics?

The book I'd recommend most would be Age of Ambition for an understanding of China from the inside. How China Escaped the Poverty Trap has a lot of good bits on what the tin says but also how bureaucratic promotion and governance within China works.

For geopolitics I thought Asia's Reckoning: China, Japan, and the Fate of U.S. Power in the Pacific Century, * Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push for Global Power, and The Rise of Eurasia* both had some value but I didn't find them as enlightening as the previous two.

EDIT: Oh, and China Airborne had some great insight into where China's technological abilities are as good as anything in the world and where it still has catching up to do. Or at least the state of play as of 2012.

Re: China’s assault on Cathay Pacific

#74
post #71

Why don't we form a new WTO, without China or other dictatorships, and only allow in democracies that are liberal or liberalizing? There's no point in opening our arms to China if they aren't moving on the right track anymore towards becoming a free and fair society.

Because the big money making opportunities are not in the liberal democracies. With Europe and USA on a path of the decline - none of the powers that come online care about liberal values. They learned the lesson that it is important how you manage the economy, not the social values.

Re: China’s assault on Cathay Pacific

#75
post #67

Samsung magically fell to zero market share in China in the span of 2 to 3 years, that's a warning to any company doing business in China, now they are targeting Fedex over the alleged intentional diversion to the US of some Huawei packages, when China is angry at Korea, Lotte and Samsung became sacrificial lambs to the pent-up ire, Fedex and maybe some other American campanies may be the new ones (Amazon narrowly es…

Did you remember Galaxy Note 7? That's the magic sauce.

Indeed, Samsung decided they wouldn't bother recalling exploding phones in China.

Re: China’s assault on Cathay Pacific

#76
post #71

Why don't we form a new WTO, without China or other dictatorships, and only allow in democracies that are liberal or liberalizing? There's no point in opening our arms to China if they aren't moving on the right track anymore towards becoming a free and fair society.

Potentially because people have different understanding of what a free and fair society is.

Re: China’s assault on Cathay Pacific

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I won't say "the west" because I think it's really "capitalism", but Global capitalism created this situation by deepening trade relationships with China to the point that we're all dependent on them to the point that there's very little leverage over their international behaviour. Look at how the PRC is behaving against Canada right now. Illegal torture-like detention of two of innocent Canadian citizens in China, i…

That is absolute bullshit. If Western countries had refused to trade with China for human-rights reasons, we'd be hearing accusations of economic imperialism! Now we're responsible for their ultra-nationalist authoritarian capitalism because we don't impose our imperial authority on them?

See anyone saying anything against Western countries for not trading with Iran, Venezuela, or North Korea?

Re: China’s assault on Cathay Pacific

#78
https://www.newsweek.com/cathay-ceo-refused-name-hong-kong-p...

> The Taiwan News claimed that Cathay Pacific CEO Rupert Hogg's decision to resign last week came after he refused to name names to the Chinese government when he was asked to provide a list of employees who were involved in the Hong Kong protests.

> China's Civil Aviation Administration ordered Cathay to provide a list of employees who were involved in a recent protest. He was also ordered to suspend the employees. According to the Taiwan News, Hogg provided the list—but it included only one name: his own.

> His resignation was first announced by CCTV, China's state-run television station, 30 minutes before Cathay Pacific announced Hogg had stepped down.

Re: China’s assault on Cathay Pacific

#79
post #51
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the early 90s many countries started opening up pathways for HK citizens fearing this - there was a lot of talk of "Brain Drain" in HK. Canada in particular did a great job of encouraging emigration. These days it's a little harder. The classic "HK passport" is the BNO - British Nationality Overseas which doesn't give you right of abode in the UK because racism. Asylum is also extremely difficult to achieve - you'…

Canada encouraged emigration to the point of completely fucking over Vancouver and Toronto housing markets.

Money laundering is the problem, not Hong Kong emigrants. Mainland China does not allow dual citizenship, this is why many Chinese living in Canada do not apply for Canadian citizenship, but instead stay as permanent resident or visa student to launder money.

https://business.financialpost.com/real-estate/billions-in-d...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/pro-china-de...

Re: China’s assault on Cathay Pacific

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The protesters are more working class than the richer HKers with multiple passports. Sure, they can leave, but it is much harder for them to establish themselves in a new country. They can buy a plane ticket, but then what?

They can do what the Chinese have done since the 19th century: move and adapt. It's what my family did. Easier said than done, but I feel it's pretty ingrained now when you can even find Chinese families in places like Africa.

It was much easier to move somewhere in the 19th century if you had the money.

Its essentially impossible to move to another 1st world country without years (or decades) of process + usually a highly valued university degree these days

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