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Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

nytimes.com

141–150 of 185 posts

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#141
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, you're probably correct.

Question: given that, would it make sense for HK's government to claim that it cooperated for the removal, or was even the instigator who requested the PRC take action? Allows them to save their gunpowder of calling out the violation of HK autonomy for someone much more sympathetic.

I honestly don't know enough to answer that question. The complexities of international politics plus the One China & Separate but Equal HK status makes it something one could spend a lifetime studying to begin to speak intelligently on.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#142
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The billionaires increase the housing supply(see Cityplace) or are buying such high end properties that the worst they do is make life a bit more expensive in the Bridle Path.

I don't think this is correct and the other person who responded to you seems to have the right idea. Look at San Francisco, my friends and coworkers are renting/buying crappy 1943-built, non-renovated 1br units that cost $3k to rent or $700k to buy. They could afford to throw out some more money for something slightly better but it's already a lot of money and pricing everyone out.

San Francisco doesn't allow new construction.

Toronto, on the other hand, is filled with glass 40+ story condos constructed in the last 10 years and there are many more being constructed all the time. We can keep building and exporting new condo units to rich foreigners indefinitely, no different than Boeing constructing and exporting new 787s.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> given that these people are politically unpopular and causing issues for British Columbia. so who are you speaking for when you use the blanket term "these people"? Are Chinese Born Canadians and other East Asian Canadians included in your labels? I'm seeing more and more of these anti-Chinese comments popping up on reddit /r/vancouver and frankly annoyed to see similar fear mongering and FUD spreading fake comment…

> There's no Seal Team Six and CSIS really isn't tasked with Jason Bourne styled missions which you are thinking of. I'm not sure how you extrapolated my post to this extreme. I replied to a poster below as to how I am viewing the politics of the situation in more detail, if you'd prefer to get a more reasoned view than the "gut summary". I'm not anti-Chinese. I don't live in Vancouver. It would be rather strange for…

My bad I've been reading a lot of negative comments on /r/vancouver and my trigger level was too sensitive.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#144
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> given that these people are politically unpopular and causing issues for British Columbia. so who are you speaking for when you use the blanket term "these people"? Are Chinese Born Canadians and other East Asian Canadians included in your labels? I'm seeing more and more of these anti-Chinese comments popping up on reddit /r/vancouver and frankly annoyed to see similar fear mongering and FUD spreading fake comment…

I understand that this is a sensitive issue, but your point would be stronger if you dropped the tone by several degrees. In this case, you seriously misrepresented the parent and turned what should be a very civil conversation into the polarized bullshit that absolutely ruins the internet.

Yes, my fault for being emotional and on the edge. I guess my jimmies have been rustled for lack of a better word in the context of populism and my lone campaign of troll eradication on reddit have made me far too sensitive. I'm going to take some time off from reddit and focus on HN.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#146

Hong Kong has fallen, democracy there officially died after they refused to let those two legislators swear in. Not sure whose idea it was to let HK get handed over to the commies back in the 1990's, why Taiwan didn't make a louder claim to it, or why HK didn't assert its right to independence from extraterritorial governments altogether.

At that point, Hong Kong was entirely dependent from the fresh water provided by the mainland, to the point that if the taps were ever closed, hundreds of thousands would have died before alternative sources would have been available. You cannot just ship enough water for 6.5M people, and HK authorities were scared that if they started constructing desalinization systems, PRC would pressure them to stop doing that wi…

Thanks for sharing. I had wondered what the word on the street was and couldn't find good information about it despite having searched before.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#147

This appears to be an aspect of the anti-corruption drive that has been holding billionaires and politically connected people high up in the Chinese government to account of the law, with Xiao Jianhua caught in financial fraud. The controversy here isn't that China took Xiao Jianhua in to face the law, but that he was taken from Hong Kong, where an agreement with Britain gives its former colony de facto autonomy with…

It's not clear to me whether the anti-corruption drive arises out of a genuine antipathy towards corruption or as a means for Xi Jinping to consolidate personal power. This is especially hard because it seems likely that every Chinese bigwig is at least somewhat corrupt, and high-level Chinese power politics is opaque enough that it's not clear if only Xi's rivals are being targeted. I really don't know how to unpick…

I would be inclined towards genuine antipathy towards corruption.

I have a brother that at one point regularly dealt with top levels of Chinese government. His summary was, "China is a country of crooks ruled by honest men; the USA is a country of honest men ruled by crooks." He's not sure which is worse in the end.

Based on that, I would bet on the top levels of the Chinese government being basically ethical (albeit within an ethical system that values life and liberty a lot less than we would).

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#148
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not clear to me whether the anti-corruption drive arises out of a genuine antipathy towards corruption or as a means for Xi Jinping to consolidate personal power. This is especially hard because it seems likely that every Chinese bigwig is at least somewhat corrupt, and high-level Chinese power politics is opaque enough that it's not clear if only Xi's rivals are being targeted. I really don't know how to unpick…

I would be inclined towards genuine antipathy towards corruption. I have a brother that at one point regularly dealt with top levels of Chinese government. His summary was, "China is a country of crooks ruled by honest men; the USA is a country of honest men ruled by crooks." He's not sure which is worse in the end. Based on that, I would bet on the top levels of the Chinese government being basically ethical (albeit…

This sounds eerily like something a Chinese government propaganda person would say.

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#149

Hong Kong has fallen, democracy there officially died after they refused to let those two legislators swear in. Not sure whose idea it was to let HK get handed over to the commies back in the 1990's, why Taiwan didn't make a louder claim to it, or why HK didn't assert its right to independence from extraterritorial governments altogether.

The British had a 99 year lease - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a-lease-no-one-thoug....

Re: Billionaire Is Reported Seized from Hong Kong Hotel and Taken into China

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "One person, one vote" So how come Trump's President? (It's because "one person" gets "one vote" for an elector. But some people get more electors than others, and electors vote for the President, not individual voters.)

We should keep in mind as well that the campaigns play the game they are given -- to maximize electoral votes. There is an opportunity cost (the popular vote) to only campaigning in the swing states. For example, a large number of Hillary's popular vote was claimed in California. Trump didn't campaign much in California. One could argue if Trump spent more time in California (which he strategically did not ), Hillary…

> I think its culturally important that Trump didn't get the popular vote, but it's also a little like playing a game of chess, losing, and then decrying "but I took more pawns!"

There are certainly such complaints coming from those who voted against him, but it's also worth noting that by far the biggest sore loser is Trump himself. He has insisted that the only reason he failed to win the popular vote is due to voter fraud, and not due to a brilliantly-executed campaign strategy by his staff. They knew how to get the electoral votes, and they went out and got them. But instead of being thrilled to have the office and focusing all effort on his agenda, he had his press secretary defend his delusional idea that he won on the merits of being the most popular, and then doubled down and claimed widespread voter fraud in the states he didn't need to win.

It's worth noting because it shows how divorced the reality of fitness for the office is from the ability to gain the office. We have known this for a long time--almost everyone acknowledges that absent an extremely fortunate turn of circumstances one cannot become president--but I don't think there has been in at least a century here (and probably longer) such a stark negative example.

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