"... the government to dissolve the people and elect another."
Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
91–100 of 409 posts
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's very hard to give up your home, your friends, your connections, and potentially your family even if you have an opportunity for a better life. Yes, a lot of those connections can potentially move to the same city & country as you but will your neighbor still be your neighbor? Will the bar at the end of the street you go to after a hard day still be there and know exactly what you want when you walk through the d…
Better than being ruled by communists, that's for damn sure. That was my experience, anyway.
I’m really curious: what is your experience that you’re referring to?
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#93I would have said that returning Hong Kong back to China was one of the biggest mistakes the UK has made, but here we are in 2020. It would have been better if they made it into an independent city state like Singapore.
Not a very savory opinion to say "I wish colonialism had gone even further".
Supporting HK in gaining independence wouldn't have been an act of Colonialism. It would have been enabling self determination of a population. Colonialism is "the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically." Giving the HK people independence is literally the opposite of colonialism.
In contrast, the new law by by the CPC is an act of colonialism by definition as it is the CPC overriding 1 country, 2 systems and asserting political control over HK.
The British providing a path to independence could have been very similar to Belize (with CPC being equivalent to Guatemala in this case).
The British left a battalion of troops in Belize, the British Forces Belize, in order to act as a deterrent to a Guatemalan invasion.[1][2]
While China is obviously much more powerful than Guatemala, they still wouldn't have been able to invade given that it would have caused a nuclear war. Also, at that point China was much weaker economically so an economic war would have severely hurt their economic growth, undermining the key source of their power over the past 20 years.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belizean%E2%80%93Guatemalan_te... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Army_Training_and_Supp...
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#94If I was China, I would love for the US and the UK to take the law-aware and dissident people off my hands.
It will disproportionately take away the more wealthy and better educated. The majority of HKers live in public housing, pay no tax and are unlikely to have the means to live in the UK since there will be no recourse to public funds. This level of brain drain, as in the other mass migration events away from HK, could trigger the government to loosen their grip.
> This level of brain drain, as in the other mass migration events away from HK, could trigger the government to loosen their grip.
I've heard that HK is no longer as important to China as it was 20 years ago. HK's contribution to China's GDP has declined in relative terms as the rest of China has developed. With regards to the brain drain I get the impression that there are plenty of people from the mainland that could fill the gap.
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#95Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#96If I was China, I would love for the US and the UK to take the law-aware and dissident people off my hands.
From what I've heard almost everyone tries to get out, so I expect that the alleged hope of the CPC will come true. Nonetheless it is the right thing to do for the UK (where are the EU nations on this?), and exile doesn't have to mean abandoning the future of your birthplace. Hong Kongers might be able to achieve more for HK from the UK than under a Beijing cyber-dictatorship.
That's if their children don't assimilate and forget their HK identity. Children of Asian migrants in anglophone countries losing touch with their language and heritage is a very common phenomenon.
Actually that raises an interesting comparison with the Tibetan diaspora that mostly left during around 1950. How many of their descendants growing up in India/US/UK still know how to speak Tibetan?
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pretty soon the law-abiding and obedient people will become aware that life outside of authoritarianism is better and safer, and they will either run away or revolt.
This is exactly why I'm trying to move out of the USA.
Why trying?
If it is so bad in the US, what is keeping you there? Many developed countries have relatively few immigration hurdles for US Americans to pass. UK in particular, European countries are lax in general in these regards (I live in Germany).
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you don't return something at the end of a contract is that theft? or piracy? Its not like the UK had a choice. We're you expecting them to go all Hawaii on the situation and just annex it?
The government they made the contract with didn't even exist anymore. The Qing Empire made that contract with the UK. Independence or just keeping HK in the UK both make at least as much sense as giving it to a country that didn't even exist when the contract was formed.
The government that ruled the territory of the Qing Empire was willing to roll tanks into HK--Deng Xiaoping said "I could take it in an afternoon". China made it clear that they were going to end up with HK one way or another.
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you don't return something at the end of a contract is that theft? or piracy? Its not like the UK had a choice. We're you expecting them to go all Hawaii on the situation and just annex it?
The government they made the contract with didn't even exist anymore. The Qing Empire made that contract with the UK. Independence or just keeping HK in the UK both make at least as much sense as giving it to a country that didn't even exist when the contract was formed.
Then Honk Hong should have been given back to the Republic of China (Taiwan) which is the direct successor of the Qing empire, not the PRC. RPC is not a successor of Qing nor ROC since ROC still exists.
Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents
#10068% of conservative voters, 71% of labour voters, and 77% of libdem voters support this. https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2020/0...
Surprising isn't it, given how much of a driving force EU immigration was in the Brexit debate.
Is it surprising? UK has a problem with certain races coming over. What’s the difference between Syrian refugees and Hong Kongers? They would both be seeking refugee status essentially.