51–60 of 155 posts
Anyone else wonder why legitimate, thoughtful responses are being downvoted?
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The CCP can now afford to sacrifice HK, their economy is now much larger than it was in 97.
They can't. For one thing they desperately need the dollars that flow through Hong Kong. The GDP size is now among the least valuable aspects of Hong Kong as it pertains to China. That has never been primary. Hong Kong is the economic staging point that much of the world uses to enter China's economy. Think of it as a translating middleman, that the world uses to convert from foreign market-based economics to China's…
HK has grown since 1997, but China has gotten so much richer that HK is now basically economically irrelevant to the mainland.
As far as the mainland is concerned, Hong Kong is now only a political issue.
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I don't think the main problem Hongkongers have with this law is necessarily the content, but the fact it has been pushed on them by an external government which many Hongkongers expected to remain independent from for the next 27 years. From their perspective, having their own government taking marching orders from Beijing undermines the principle of "one country two systems". Aside from the principle of it, there a…
Was Hong Kong ever really independent though?
And the real losers in this fight here are Hongkongese citizens, who fought for their freedom and ultimately are losing it, on top of facing an economic crisis.
I saw the suggestion on twitter that the US and other countries should hand out visas to people from Hong Kong who want to live in a free country (with the hope that the US doesn't continue to decline, from that perspective).
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Elsewhere I've ready that Hong Kong and Taiwan have a lot of differences like Mandarin vs Cantonese. Also Hong Kong has a much higher GDP per capita.
> like Mandarin vs Cantonese Noob question, how much do these differ? Also does it go further, perhaps a difference in culture as well as language?
I read all these headlines, but when I then followup to read more about the text of the proposed laws [1], I have a hard time seeing that aside from freedom of speech infringements (and ability to imprison, fine based on those -- which are clearly a bit vague in terms of enforcement, but otherwise as bland as a lot of US legislation), these laws are not egregiously different from what exist in some other countries. A…
I don't think the main problem Hongkongers have with this law is necessarily the content, but the fact it has been pushed on them by an external government which many Hongkongers expected to remain independent from for the next 27 years. From their perspective, having their own government taking marching orders from Beijing undermines the principle of "one country two systems". Aside from the principle of it, there a…
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Besides sanctions, what other implications would this declaration realistically have?
It's going to devastate the Swiss watch industry which is already in rough shape from COVID. Hong Kong WAS their No. 1 market. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/fashion/watches-hong-kong...
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Was Hong Kong ever really independent though?
Essentially, yes. Besides China having sovereignty over the city, it has its own currency, government, different law system than China, a border with China, and different passport. In recent years on the rise of Chinese Nationalism, the Chinese government seems to downplay this a lot to eliminate the HKer's local identity and creates an image of HK = China. Culturally, it is also vastly different than China.
From an American perspective it’s more about losing a territory under Allied jurisdiction. From the local perspective it’s about losing independence rights—though they didn’t really have that right under British rule either.
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Was Hong Kong ever really independent though?
Well, it made its own laws, had a different style of economy, had much greater freedom. From an outsider's perspective (mine), seems so.