Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 372 posts

Re: Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law

#151

Post by z3t111 »

Aunche wrote: post #142
zozin wrote: post #42

The thought of living in a China-centric world during the twilight of my life on Earth (2050+) makes my hair stand on end. I do not want to be treated as a second class human because of the color of my skin or my ethnicity. I do not want to lose business and professional opportunities because I am not Han. I do not want to live in a world where freedom of speech and expression are long lost memories, where even the r…

Unlike the US, China hasn't been interested in exporting its form of government since the Cold War. If anything, they'd prefer if their rivals stayed more democratic and free, so it's easier to make money and spread propaganda there. Also keep in mind that China is making way more enemies than friends these days, so there is no way the world is going to be China-centric to the extent that you're worried about.

"If anything, they'd prefer if their rivals stayed more democratic and free, so it's easier to make money and spread propaganda there."

We see no evidence for that. In fact, that's part of their current propaganda as well, if you read their news.

Re: Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law

#152

Post by ssalazar »

jessaustin wrote: post #102
ssalazar wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But when it comes to things that actually harm profits and challenge shareholder responsibilities, they stay mum. Cynical but this is why- it would cost them a lot , at least today. The Chinese government has zero reservations about sandbagging US corporations that publicly critique it or otherwise don't fall in line - just ask Google, Facebook, or the Houston Rockets. You wont hear a peep out of Apple until they'r…

If any firm in history has ever been rich enough to weather a bit of a business setback, surely Apple would be?

Certainly, but considering how much of their business is hardware manufactured in China, it would destroy basically every corporate performance metric their executive team has for some time and this is ultimately how their bread is buttered. Hardware manufacturing at that scale and sophistication is an intricate dance of suppliers, technology integration, and management, one that Apple has mastered- losing this and having to replace it overnight would be a huge setback, with basically no iPhones or Macs available for months or longer, closing of Apple Stores, and suspension of new technology development.

Re: Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law

#153

Post by knzhou »

Reelin wrote: post #149
knzhou wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What he directly said is that he thinks the prospect of there being a single non-white country not being crushingly poor "makes his hair stand on end", supplanted with some typical yellow peril fearmongering. I simply completed his thought.

> he thinks the prospect of there being a single non-white country not being crushingly poor "makes his hair stand on end" As I previously pointed out, that is absolutely not what was said. Please stop making things up. Concern was expressed about the racism against those who are not Han which currently exists in China. The original commenter professed a fear of what that would look like for outsiders in a China-cent…

> The original commenter professed a fear of what that would look like for outsiders in a China-centric world.

Yes, and for the third time now: my point is that the absolute worst-case scenario for the original commenter is still miles better than what 90% of the world (i.e. everybody non-white) faces today.

The worst-case scenario in OP's book is that China joins the ranks of first world countries, which then go from being 100% white to 90%. He'd still be rich, and he'd still be comfortable, but he'd have to share first world status with others. And for some reason, that's unacceptable.

Worst case, he might miss out on one business deal because it was struck in Mandarin, which is an absolutely tiny reflection of the loss of opportunity faced today by everybody who doesn't know English. And that in turn is tiny compared to the reality that 100 million people died of starvation in the 20th century. Famine, disease, and poverty are global moral catastrophes of unimaginable scale. And OP just thinks a country managing to stop them for its citizens gives him the creeps.

Re: Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law

#154

Post by ardy42 »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #125
actuator wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I share your sentiment on this. Among all the big tech, Apple is the only one which has a significant foothold in China and can possibly have an impact. But they have failed to live upto the ideals they speak about when it comes to earning easy money. BLM is easy to speak about and acts as good marketing for them. At least at one point Google stood up for its ideals and quit Search in PRC, which I highly respect. Wit…

> BLM is easy to speak about and acts as good marketing for them. Considering a good chunk of the US population (15-30%?) is vocally "anti-BLM" - it is somewhat ballsy for a high-profile company to wear pro-BLM in their corporate messaging - I'm sure we've all seen people on Facebook vow to boycott Apple or other "liberal" organizations.

> Considering a good chunk of the US population (15-30%?) is vocally "anti-BLM" - it is somewhat ballsy for a high-profile company to wear pro-BLM in their corporate messaging - I'm sure we've all seen people on Facebook vow to boycott Apple or other "liberal" organizations.

That doesn't really matter. Voluntary boycotts have little effect, and there probably no enough people who are so "anti-BLM" that they'd actually follow through on a boycott for Apple to notice.

Re: Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law

#155

Post by Reelin »

aww_dang wrote: post #136
Reelin wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What they actually fear ... That's a baseless claim not related to the original comment. Why are you making things up and trying to derail productive discussion like this?

At this point you could create a drinking game based on each iteration of whataboutism or conflation of criticism of the CCP with racism.

> conflation of criticism of the CCP with racism

Which is particularly ironic since it appears to have been pointing out the racism that currently exists within China that started all this.

Re: Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law

#156

Post by fqye »

When it comes to politics, HN is similar to Reddit. People just comment by emotion and ideology, because they could feel the satisfaction by chanting the beautiful words of democracy and freedom, without burden of insightgul knowledge of history and culture of other people and countries.

Some here even wanted to start a war with China in the name of human rights. Remember crusades in the name of Christian?

Most people here don't know or don't care if HK was a democracy under UK, and don't care if there is a law to guard the arrest of Jimmy Lai and if ordinary HK people are sick of Ted Cruz etc coming to HK to fan up fire when HK was burning, whom and also other US politicians Jimmy Lai has met with.

Edit:

For those who don't know, Ted Cruz came over to HK to show his support in Oct. 20019 when HK was burning. And the most despicable was he claimed no riots in HK. That was the moment HK's fate was sealed.

https://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=4714

https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3032751/ted-cru...

HK's political movements have no leadership or strategy at all. This kind of acts would turn all Mainland people against them. And CCP would feel empowered to do what ever.

My point is the situation in HK is much complicated than beautiful democracy vs evil CCP. It's much more than ideology.

Re: Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law

#157

Post by mtnGoat »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #123
Benjamin_Dobell wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because no matter how depressing it is to say/hear, he was elected democratically.

What kind of excuse is that? Are you going to stick to that when one of your Nimitz class carriers is sitting on the bottom of the Pacific and China and Russia have occupying forces on mainland USA?

Reaching for the stars much? Russia nor China could get boots on the contiguous states. An ice cube has a higher chance of surviving in hell.

Lol!

Re: Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law

#158

Post by peanutz454 »

throwaway77643 wrote: post #76
actuator wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't see any change that can realistically take roots there. We have seen harsh sanctions fail to bring changes in a small poor country like NK where anyone looking South must be amazed at where they could have been. In case of PRC, forget a kinetic physical action. Their economy is so interconnected with every other major economy that no one can afford even actual sanctions.

In the 1920s, I don’t think any person could have imagined the progress in Civil Rights that would occur in America. And yet it happened. From racist Jim Crow laws to Gay Rights, the progress made in 100 years is astonishing. Give the PRC 100 years and who knows how it might change.

I guess that's exactly what Thatcher thought would happen when she handed over Hong Kong - That China will make progress towards liberalism in politics and economics. Instead of China becoming like the rest of the world, I am wary of the world becoming like China. Progress has been made in the past, but cannot take that for-granted.

Re: Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law

#159

Post by xfs »

themgt wrote: post #91

I highly recommend doing some reading about what Xi and the CCP are really thinking and planning. It's a fascinating situation, and I'm not sure we or even they precisely know. But there has been a feel of a very dark turn overall in recent years, where perhaps an alignment between an appearance of widespread and growing failures of the US-led world order combined with China's unabated growing power, has cemented in…

I highly recommend doing some reading about Wallerstein's world systems theory and Kojin Karatani's The Structure of Empire, from which Jiang obviously drew his influence. If you think the global empire is something dystopian you may have misunderstood its use in its theoretical context.

Re: Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law

#160

Post by ardy42 »

dqpb wrote: post #52
iabacu wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Xi Jinping and the CCP’s official goal is for the Chinese people and everyone else to have a common destiny. Interpret these how you wish, because they are interpreting these how they wish.

How does force sterilizing of Uighurs fit into a common destiny?

>> Xi Jinping and the CCP’s official goal is for the Chinese people and everyone else to have a common destiny.

>> Interpret these how you wish, because they are interpreting these how they wish.

> How does force sterilizing of Uighurs fit into a common destiny?

I believe the "common destiny" the GP was referring to is living under the control of the CCP.

Post reply on HN