I'm really happy the UK did not leave the former colony to suffer under the communist regime. Reminds me of the situation with Jews before WWII - if they were given the same kind of refuge by any country, Holocaust would hot had happened.
Sometimes I dream, who'd have offered citizenship or at least refuge to residents of Russia, to escape our ongoing Soviet Union restoration.
Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
191–200 of 409 posts
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#192Isnt this the kind of thing that starts wars.
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
They said “try”. Rest of the EU might have said “no”, but now the EU hasn’t got any more reason to listen to the UK than to listen to, say, Australia’s opinion about Hong Kong. Then there is also the reduced power of the EU post-Brexit. Just because Brexit costs the UK influence doesn’t mean it doesn’t cost the EU too — without the UK, the EU is only about 85% of the GDP of the other two big trade giants (the USA and…
But there's no reason that an independent UK and the EU cannot work together where their interests align, is there? The idea that it's all or nothing is nothing more than yet another canard put about by anti-Brexit protagonists.
If their interests aligned. Without the UK having a seat at the table, they ‘ain’t going to align. That is literally the point of Brexit in the first place, for the UK to diverge from the EU, because without that the members of the current U.K. government would not have campaigned for it in the first place.
And that big flashing neon “if” is still true with a competent government, let alone the current lot which (as per recent news) is pouring money into a failed multinational project that cannot fit their requirements just to avoid the embarrassment of continuing to spend money on entirely successful multinational projects that happen to be EU-branded.
Also, what do ducks have to do with anything?
> yet another canard
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#194I would have said that returning Hong Kong back to China was one of the biggest mistakes the UK has made, but here we are in 2020. It would have been better if they made it into an independent city state like Singapore.
The UK didn't have much of choice. Their lease on the New Territories (basically all of HK except Kowloon and the Island) expired in 1997, so that was going back to China regardless, and they concluded that HK was not viable without it.
If they still recognised ROC instead of PRC they could have returned it to ROC instead.
Alternatively, UK could have made switching recognition from ROC to PRC conditional on a New Territories lease renewal.
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#195Hong Kong as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) instead of a Special Administrative Region (SAR) would be an easy transition. Although I don't see it more appealing than other SEZ's Shanghai's Free Trade Zone or the entire Hainan Province. But the consolidation of existing companies and operations in Hong Kong would still be pretty unique, its uniqueness still not that relevant. For regional price discovery it would be us…
HK has the inertia of having lots preexisting international HQs there. Any takers on how many of those will move out over the coming decades? > or < 50% of them?
Losing its special trading status with the US should already be the catalyst for that.
But the market based economies of China's Special Economic Zones should make Hong Kong as attractive as any other major financial center, instead of as a micro-state.
There are many international HQs in major financial centers under high tax regimes, whether it is Shanghai, New York City, London, Frankfurt.
I would say 30% move, so less than 50%. Incumbents in Hong Kong are already beneficiaries of the Communist Party in Beijing, otherwise corporate consensus in the LegCo would have matched the individual consensus already.
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pretty soon the law-abiding and obedient people will become aware that life outside of authoritarianism is better and safer, and they will either run away or revolt.
Life in China is fine right now. They are living about 50x better off than their parents. They are educated. The CCP is super clever and imbued a sort of nationalistic pride from birth. Instead of the US's more complicated dualistic individualism/patriotism combo, the Chinese people actually get some sort of pride for being a cog in the CCP machine. It's a completely different paradigm and obviously super dangerous b…
So I think you're saying that, people are brainwashed to believe in the party?
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you don't return something at the end of a contract is that theft? or piracy? Its not like the UK had a choice. We're you expecting them to go all Hawaii on the situation and just annex it?
The British could have done what they did with Belize. Belize wanted independence but Guatemala claimed that it was actually a province/state of Guatemala. The British supported independence and left a battalion of troops in Belize, the British Forces Belize, in order to act as a deterrent to a Guatemalan invasion.[1][2] While China is obviously much more powerful than Guatemala, they still wouldn't have been able to…
> While China is obviously much more powerful than Guatemala,
China isn't just more powerful than Guatemala, it's more powerful than the UK.
> they still wouldn't have been able to invade given that it would have caused a nuclear war.
If Deng Xiaoping really thought the UK would accept nuclear ese as the cost of keeping China out of HK, sure, that might have kept China out. But literally no one would believe that.
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#198I live in Vancouver.
The pattern for many Hong Kong immigrants is to have the mother and children live in Canada while the father works in HK.The family doesn't declare the foreign income in Canada.
So they enjoy the benefits of a low tax HK income. And they get all the nice things that go with living in high tax Canada while not contributing to it -free healthcare, subsided University, safe communities, clean environment, low income benefits.
It's so common it has a name, satalite family/astronaut dad.
This isn't a good deal for Canada and Canadians.
https://vancouversun.com/news/staff-blogs/the-unsettled-live...
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
Surprising isn't it, given how much of a driving force EU immigration was in the Brexit debate.
It kind of depends, immigration wasn't a big part of it from talking with many business partners. Many just dont like the idea rules are being made in Brussels.
Immigration was a big part of it.
Although unemployment was officially low, many in low end jobs felt that the huge influx of Eastern Europeans pushed wages down.
There is also the societal aspect of it because of the demographic change caused by a large influx of immigrants into an area.
Then, the prospect of Turkey joining the EU was raised, which would mean free movement for Turkish nationals and that scared people as well.
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you don't return something at the end of a contract is that theft? or piracy? Its not like the UK had a choice. We're you expecting them to go all Hawaii on the situation and just annex it?
The government they made the contract with didn't even exist anymore. The Qing Empire made that contract with the UK. Independence or just keeping HK in the UK both make at least as much sense as giving it to a country that didn't even exist when the contract was formed.
So if country A asks for a loan, then immediately dissolve its government and form a new one, should the loan be forgiven?