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Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested under national security law

reuters.com

221–230 of 372 posts

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

#221
post #189

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 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. Not suddenly, but every other major economy could probably afford a gradual distancing that ends up in more-or-less the same place.

US's bipartisan opposition might just be electioneering.

I think Germany's actions speak far more than any other country's. I would have assumed someone like Merkel to be tough here based on her standing on social issues and how she handled the migrant crisis. She, at least in the West had an image of a liberal leader with the right attitude on challenges of our times like climate change. But even Germany seems to be tiptoeing around while they look to sign a trade deal.

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

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hitler also sent word that he supports restoration of the monarchy...only to kill those that agreed with that

Would love to read more about this if you have any sources.

my comment was based on a movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exception based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kaiser%27s_Last_Kiss Of course any monarchy would've recognized the Nazis so maybe the monarchs would have been as figureheads only. Reading more, looks like the book might not be 100% accurate. For example, Himmler did not meet the exiled last Kaiser but Goring did.

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

#223
post #210
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fear is real - A lot of pro-democracy Hong Kong activists in US are harassed and threatened by PRC government agents, many of them Chinese students studying in US. [1] https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2019/08/30/hong-kong-activist... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/26/us/hong-kong-protests-col...

.

If they are reporting their fellow students who criticize the gov. to authorities, are they not essentially agents?

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

#225
post #150

Why are we empowering this regime? Shouldn't we force companies like Apple to make a statement of why they manufacture their goods in China? Apple is happy make a statement about BLM - it is cheap, doesn't cost them anything. But when it comes to things that actually harm profits and challenge shareholder responsibilities, they stay mum. We need to force Apple (and other giant corporations) to speak up about atrociti…

If it is immoral for Apple to do business in China, then why is it moral for Mr. Lai or anyone in Hong Kong to do business in China? This smacks as a pretty partisan double standard, and I have to wonder what you have against Apple that you would single them out in this way. Hong Kong and people like Mr. Lai has always done business in China and there's nothing reprehensible about that, nor is it reprehensible for an…

> If it is immoral for Apple to do business in China, then why is it moral for Mr. Lai or anyone in Hong Kong to do business in China?

Why is it moral for Jimmy Lai – who was born there, grew up there, and lives there – to do business there? Are his only moral choices to be unemployed or emigrate? He needs to be economically active somewhere and that’s his home.

You don’t have to have a "partisan double standard" or bias against Apple to see the clear difference between a corporation expanding to a foreign territory and a local working in his home country.

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

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is most probably Apple doing diversification to avoid SPoF and taking advantages of tax breaks. They will never stand up for these things because they don't just manufacture, they sell a lot of devices there.

Why does the reason matter? Pulling production is pulling production. We are better off letting companies quietly pull out than starting big rights that fundamentally hurt Western firms. Let them quietly move towards the exits.

That’s a good point. If we assume the best of Tim Cook, he’d still be savvy enough not to announce “China sucks we’re moving to India” but rather the SPoF argument, and then one day, well we need to reduce capacity and for reasons XYZ (which are aha nothing to do with the CCP) we’re going to focus on India.

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

#227

If you're feeling despair, there are real things that you can do. I do one thing that makes me proud every day. I run an obfs4 Tor bridge on an old Linux Mint box that's just sitting around in my home.* The bare minimum thing that Chinese and any other country's citizens need is information, and freedom of information. This is where tech truly, truly helps. [*] Yes, they may first need to connect to a working VPN, bu…

How is it useful? (Sorry for my ignorance)

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

#228
post #68
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just try US sanctions and pushing the EU, Australia, Japan, Canada not to conduct any business with China. You dont to sanctions to countries that provide most of your goods without a viable alternative. Sanctionning Iran does not change your daily life. Sanctionning China would suddenly make a large impact as to what you can actually buy and at what price.

So we trade out future freedom for currently cheap goods? I'd rather buy stuff from Taiwan and other places in SE Asia.

Taiwan can't compare with China in terms of production capabilities right now. And other countries in Asia don't produce the same goods as China either.

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

#229
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should treat those students as agents of a foreign government in that case.

Because there’s no chance they are just people with an opinion, right?

> Because there’s no chance they are just people with an opinion, right?

Not when your Education system is literal State propaganda and they deny access to the Internet due to the specific fear of subversive acts, also known as: personal research.

It's one thing to hold an opinion and argue from that POV in honest discourse, its quite another to be operating and rewarded for your loyalty to the State and be monitored and possibly dissapeared if you deviate from this path. This is the same type of Human Conditioning seen during the Soviet Union, which I think can be universally understood to be a negative thing.

Many people in Hong Kong feel as though they've been forgotten by the International Community, the Umbrella Revolution/Yellow Movement was trying to oppose this since 2014, and it mainly went unnoticed other than some sound bites about violent protests, and not much else was understood beyond that.

When what should have been the real focus was the ever increasing Hegemony that was being built by the CCP that could essentially become so seemingly 'indispensable' to those addicted to its cheap labour/manufacturing that it could commit literal Crimes Against Humanity out in the open, lie and cover up International Pandemics that have cost untold Lives and Suffering several times (SARS as well as COVID), and still make People question if it's 'worth' decoupling from China.

That was my biggest fear all along, as I knew Hong Kong (the city) would eventually be returned to China. We stand at a critcal point as a Species on how we Live on Earth and I really want to maintain faith that Humanity can come to the most reasonable albeit difficult conclusion that this cannot continue, but its statements and sentiment like that that make me wonder just how detached people have become to this cancerous threat model. And if they can even muster the ability to be inconvenienced enough to actually see it for what it is instead of detaching into some perpetual self0induced distraction, often viewed from their Chinese made device.

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

#230
post #227

If you're feeling despair, there are real things that you can do. I do one thing that makes me proud every day. I run an obfs4 Tor bridge on an old Linux Mint box that's just sitting around in my home.* The bare minimum thing that Chinese and any other country's citizens need is information, and freedom of information. This is where tech truly, truly helps. [*] Yes, they may first need to connect to a working VPN, bu…

How is it useful? (Sorry for my ignorance)

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