31–40 of 288 posts
"Way of life"? Way to trivialize their loss of freedom and autonomy and habeas corpus .
The phrase has been used in propaganda with the same meaning for maybe a century at this point, if not at least since the 50s.
It's so ingrained that I had to reread your comment several times to understand how you could possibly be upset at that.
The rest of the world needs to wake up and realize that China is not messing around. There will be a long list of Hong Kong’s if we continue to look the other way to authoritarian regimes.
US administration repeatedly failed to honour quite a number of defence treaties as of lately.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
US administration repeatedly failed to honour quite a number of defence treaties as of lately.
Which?
2. Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan, refused to acknowledge Chinese hostility against Japanese controlled island.
3. Mutual Defense Treaty Between the United States and the Republic of Korea, Koreans requested US aid countless times, on record.
4. Taiwan Relations Act, repeatedly failed to classify air incursions as attack under the act.
5. Suggested that Montenegro is not protected by the Article V, and voila, they got a Russian Coup d'état attempt in a few months.
6. Ukraine, you know the story.
Love how when the same restrictions are imposed in the USA, everyone starts talking about "doing the right thing"
So perhaps you were downvoted for being vague. But certainly things like the supreme court recently refusing to hear an important case on qualified immunity have me concerned that USA-ians are whistling past the graveyard right now.
But what’s really happened is that the internet has given new powers to governments to regulate and control the people. While I would love to talk about how big and bad the CCP is (they are both of those adjectives and many more) I would be in remiss if I didn’t look at my own country (US) and see that we have been guilty of creating false narratives on free trade.
It’s sad to me that we lack Political leadership in our country. That’s one thing that China does not lack. Both governments are propagated by lies. But the difference is that the Chinese people have suffered greatly and now (on average) are suffering less. So they may be willing (as a whole) to turn a blind eye to situations like HK and what’s happening to the Uighur people.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a time and place for that conversation and it isn't this.
why?
What has happened to Hong Kong is a strong canary-in-the-coal-mine indicator for other Chinese territorial disputes [i]. With Hong Kong it was somewhat inevitable but I can't help but imagine how different it would be if the US and EU/Britain (as leads) would have strongly denounced their approach. I suspect in a decade from now the West will be lamenting how Hong Kong was the right opportunity to stifle China's ambi…
Truly sad. When HK was handed back to China in 1999, did we know this is inevitable?
Considering China's relationship with Taiwan, I would say yes, we absolutely knew that China would not allow a Chinese territory to be outside of thr CCP's control indefinitely. If anything, I am surprised it took them this long to decide the rest of the world would simply watch and do nothing of importance about it.
China has been extremely pragmatic and results-oriented. When Hong Kong was the most economically successful part of China, they were happy to leave it be and learn some lessons from it. Now the rest of China has largely caught up and it's time for them to make HK more like Shenzhen, rather than the other way around.
Truly sad. When HK was handed back to China in 1999, did we know this is inevitable?
Considering China's relationship with Taiwan, I would say yes, we absolutely knew that China would not allow a Chinese territory to be outside of thr CCP's control indefinitely. If anything, I am surprised it took them this long to decide the rest of the world would simply watch and do nothing of importance about it.
They weren't going to make big moves until they had built up their navy.