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

Hong Kong activists wanted by police gain protection in Germany

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 54 posts

Re: Hong Kong activists wanted by police gain protection in Germany

#21

Post by chungleong »

Tomte wrote: post #3
Iv wrote: post #2

“If the German government thinks that the Hong Kong judiciary is independent, they would not grant me refugee status,” I just want to point out that refugee status is given on a case by case basis. Even with an independent judiciary, if your laws oppress some people, refugee status can be obtained. Europe has accepted refugees from USA during McCarty's era. Accepting a refugee from another nation does have diplomatic…

And, preposterously, America has given political asylum to German home-schoolers a few years ago.

Recently a Norwegian woman was granted asylum by the Polish government. She claimed Norwegian child services were going to take her child because she suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome.

Re: Hong Kong activists wanted by police gain protection in Germany

#22

Post by VanPossum »

sampo wrote: post #16
silvester23 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also I think all the people expelled for hate speech in EU could gain asylum in US. Who was expelled from the EU for hate speech?

> Who was expelled from the EU for hate speech? At least Denmark and Austria have been planning to deport radical imams, especially when they have preached about killing Jews. Not sure about actual cases, though. https://www.thelocal.dk/20160303/denmark-eyes-deportation-of... https://www.vox.com/2018/6/8/17442240/austria-closing-mosque...

Which shows that the initial statement "all the people expelled for hate speech in EU could gain asylum in US" is false: expelling foreigners for breaking hte law is not persecution in itself, and of course pro-ISIS advocates would not be illegible for asylum in the US.

I suspect the GP had EU far right dudes in mind, but most such 'hate speech' is often basically "slander and/or harassment that happens to be also racist" and typically ends up with a fine: hardly 'persecution'. And even if we go from "all the people" to just "a handful of ideologues": why would the US say no to ISIS but yes to Nazis?

Re: Hong Kong activists wanted by police gain protection in Germany

#23

Post by dominicl »

wongarsu wrote: post #10
adminu wrote: post #8

Assuming Hong Kong is indeed tightening its grip on the people and accepting more influence from Beijing, I wonder if that was a smart move. I mean, Hong Kong is a cash cow for China and an innovation driver. It foots on lots of trade and internationals coming in. Why would you fiddle with that and threaten making Hong Kong less desirable to foreigners?

China as a whole has grown massively, making Hong Kong proportionally much less important than it was 20 years ago. That allows Bejing to stop their hands-off approach and "bring them into the fold".

Yep, in 1992 Hongkong was still responsible for ~25% of China's total GDP, today its contribution little below 3% on par with other big cities.

Re: Hong Kong activists wanted by police gain protection in Germany

#24

Post by pergadad »

mieseratte wrote: post #19
Tomte wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And, preposterously, America has given political asylum to German home-schoolers a few years ago.

> And, preposterously, America has given political asylum to German home-schoolers a few years ago. Why preposterously?

Hard to understand why the wish to homeschool your child would fulfil any of the criteria of 'refugee', which primarily is about bring persecuted and having your life threatened. That is rather unlikely in Germany...

Re: Hong Kong activists wanted by police gain protection in Germany

#25

Post by FabHK »

mieseratte wrote: post #19
Tomte wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And, preposterously, America has given political asylum to German home-schoolers a few years ago.

> And, preposterously, America has given political asylum to German home-schoolers a few years ago. Why preposterously?

Because it is preposterous to consider the German "Schulpflicht" (ie, the obligation that children visit a public^W school) religious or political persecution.

You can teach your children whatever weird shit you want. What you cannot do (in Germany) is take them out of school, where they will also be taught what everyone else is taught, including sex-ed, history, comparative religion, etc.

EDIT: correction, it's not an obligation to visit a public school, it's an obligation to visit a permissible school (there are private ones, but homeschooling does not constitute a permissible school).

Re: Hong Kong activists wanted by police gain protection in Germany

#26

Post by FabHK »

syntaxing wrote: post #20
adminu wrote: post #8

Assuming Hong Kong is indeed tightening its grip on the people and accepting more influence from Beijing, I wonder if that was a smart move. I mean, Hong Kong is a cash cow for China and an innovation driver. It foots on lots of trade and internationals coming in. Why would you fiddle with that and threaten making Hong Kong less desirable to foreigners?

I think the brain drain from HK to China is much more prevalent than people know these past five years. China have been doing various "assimilation" techniques since the Qin Dynasty. I feel like China has been pretty aggressive with their "wash generation" (direct translation). Bathe the citizens in decent wealth and comfort while increasing the immigration rate from Mainlad China. Look at the new train and bridge to…

> it's only a matter of a couple decades where HK today will cease to exist

Well, at most three decades, to be precise, when in 2047 it will fully revert to China under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and lose its status as a Special Administrative Region.

Re: Hong Kong activists wanted by police gain protection in Germany

#27

Post by FabHK »

PlasticTank wrote: post #11
adminu wrote: post #8

Assuming Hong Kong is indeed tightening its grip on the people and accepting more influence from Beijing, I wonder if that was a smart move. I mean, Hong Kong is a cash cow for China and an innovation driver. It foots on lots of trade and internationals coming in. Why would you fiddle with that and threaten making Hong Kong less desirable to foreigners?

Hong Kong these days is nothing more than a clearing house for China A shares. Shanghai is the big hub for International-China business these days and Singapore takes the APAC business.

Harsh, but not wrong. :-/

Re: Hong Kong activists wanted by police gain protection in Germany

#28

Post by erentz »

adminu wrote: post #8

Assuming Hong Kong is indeed tightening its grip on the people and accepting more influence from Beijing, I wonder if that was a smart move. I mean, Hong Kong is a cash cow for China and an innovation driver. It foots on lots of trade and internationals coming in. Why would you fiddle with that and threaten making Hong Kong less desirable to foreigners?

> Why would you fiddle with that and threaten making Hong Kong less desirable to foreigners?

Because China is not as naturally unified as it likes to make out and having an example of a previously free and democratic state that still wants to agitate for freedom within your borders is intolerable to an authoritarian regime that needs to maintain control everywhere.

Re: Hong Kong activists wanted by police gain protection in Germany

#29

Post by michaelt »

mieseratte wrote: post #19
Tomte wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And, preposterously, America has given political asylum to German home-schoolers a few years ago.

> And, preposterously, America has given political asylum to German home-schoolers a few years ago. Why preposterously?

Perhaps I wouldn't go so far as to call it preposterous, but it would seem to imply a very broad interpretation of what you can be granted asylum for.

Germany ranks highly in measures like the World Index of Moral Freedom, the Freedom in the World rankings, and the Freedom of the Press report. If Germany's citizens are entitled to asylum, is there any country whose citizens aren't?

Re: Hong Kong activists wanted by police gain protection in Germany

#30

Post by Iv »

silvester23 wrote: post #7
Iv wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also I think all the people expelled for hate speech in EU could gain asylum in US. It does not mean that US thinks EU courts are not independent.

> Also I think all the people expelled for hate speech in EU could gain asylum in US. Who was expelled from the EU for hate speech?

I was mostly thinking of this guy:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/france-to-expel-pro-wife-bea...

Post reply on HN