The End of Hong Kong as We Know It
National Review,
by
Helen Raleigh
Original Article
Posted By: Pluperfect,
8/16/2019 4:54:04 AM
The protests in Hong Kong have been going on for more than four months now, and no matter how the current crisis concludes in the coming days or weeks, it will mark the end of Hong Kong as we know it.
The protests started in response to an extradition bill that was proposed by the city’s Beijing-backed chief executive, Carrie Lam, in February. Hong Kongers rightfully feared that should the extradition bill become law, the city would be forced to turn over to China anyone President Xi Jinping’s regime deems a “criminal,” including human-rights activists, political dissidents, and others who pose a threat
Reply 1 - Posted by:
varkdriver 8/16/2019 5:36:50 AM (No. 153615)
My only surprise is that it took this long. HK has been part of China, sorta, since 1997. Now Xi can be "President For Life", he can institute a crackdown and who's gonna complain?
China has other major problems looming though, with the sex imbalance of the population from forced abortions as well as a contracting economy. And can we talk pollution? Can we talk?
22 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
F15 Gork 8/16/2019 5:55:09 AM (No. 153621)
Brits should have kept Hong Kong. We should have kept the Panama Canal. Major mistakes.
68 people like this.
This is why National Review is not my favorite right now. The hopeful and imaginative outcome is that Hong Kong as we know survives after the whole Chinese Communist system comes crashing down! Can’t happen? That’s what they told Thatcher and a Reagan and Pope John Paul II. Nobody was willing to believe it could be done. I don’t really want to listen those people anymore.
17 people like this.
I blame the hapless Brits. They gave up the area based upon a 100(?) year old agreement with a country that no longer existed. When China became Red China the old papers should have carried no weight. Useless papers redux, eh Neville??
20 people like this.
I am unclear who actually thought the Chinese government would keep its promises regarding Hong Kong. Especially considering that the agreement was made AFTER Tiananmen Square happened.
15 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Dodge Boy 8/16/2019 9:05:53 AM (No. 153733)
It was just a matter of time. Tiennamen Square II massacre in the making.
5 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
learner 8/16/2019 9:08:41 AM (No. 153741)
We lived in HK from 2008-2010. It was a wonderful, vibrant city like NYC on steroids. When we left you could see it starting to come apart with Chicom plants taking over the Legislative Council or LEGCO. The Freedom and Democracy party was a front for Beijing. So sad to see what is happening now and what the future will hold. Beijing was supposed to be hands off for 50 years. Reality is that lasted about 10 years. Look for another exodus of the wealthy. Most established dual citizenship for their families at the handover in 1997 in other British Commonwealth countries. That is how Vancouver Canada became known as Hongcouver.
12 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
earlybird 8/16/2019 9:54:43 AM (No. 153786)
Those of us who knew Hong Kong see that the residents were in denial over what the turnover would eventually bring. It was inevitable that China would drop its panda mask and at some point become the dragon they had feared for a long time. Nothing can be done. They’ve had a brief run at the pretense that they were still independent. They had far more independence as a British crown colony.
15 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Catfur27 8/16/2019 9:55:59 AM (No. 153788)
Not our problem.
5 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
texaspast 8/16/2019 10:14:37 AM (No. 153805)
Back in the mid '90s I was corresponding with a Chinese lady in Hong Kong who went by the name 'Grace'. She had been educated in an English school and was very smart, but she didn't see any problem with Hong Kong being surrendered to the ChiComs, since the ChiComs had promised to leave HK to its own devices and grant it self-rule. Why an otherwise intelligent person would actually believe the ChiCom's promises, I couldn't understand.
10 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Chuzzles 8/16/2019 10:14:54 AM (No. 153806)
When Britain under Thatcher signed Hong Kong back over to the Chinese years ago, I have been expecting China to start turning the screws at any time. Hong Kong is a financial gold mine that Beijing is not going to allow to stay independent for much longer. The smart citizens of HK were the ones who fled shortly after Thatcher did the deed. Vancouver BC has the biggest Chinese community on the West Coast right now.
8 people like this.
The British are complicit in this. Britain is not holding China to the 1997 agreement. What is the value of any agreement between nations today?
8 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
HotRod 8/16/2019 12:38:15 PM (No. 153977)
The city of Hong Kong will deteriorate into just another dirty, heavily polluted city. The Chinese will kill the Golden Goose. All the good things about Hong Kong will be gone to wherever the ''new Hong Kong'' develops. Hopefully, not anywhere the communist Chinese have any power, nor in some Muslim country!
1 person likes this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
earlybird 8/16/2019 3:13:52 PM (No. 154069)
Yes, the smart ones began leaving almost immediately after the turnover. They knew China and they knew what would inevitably come. In 1986, our compartment mate on an overnight train trip from Tsingtao to Shanghai was an “overseas” Chinese, a very educated, polished Chinese man from Hong Kong. He had already sent his family to Vancouver. He enjoyed talking with two Americans - one a naturalized American, a retired Brit banking executive - and told us of his plan to go to the United States at some point and have his family rejoin him there. It went without saying that he had moved his assets out of Hong Kong.
3 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
LoneVoice 8/16/2019 7:24:06 PM (No. 154299)
I'll bet this is letting the Chinese in Taiwan see exactly what will happen to them if Red China takes over. Taiwan will fight them to the death instead of surrendering because this would be worse than death.
1 person likes this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Ketchuplover 8/16/2019 9:35:55 PM (No. 154384)
It's easy to say this is none of our business and that the HK people chose this lot for themselves. But for me, it's more personal. I've gotten to know a Chinese young man who came here for graduate school. He graduated in May with a Master's Degree in Financial Analysis. We have become very good friends in the three years he's been here. He's also learned to love our freedom and has seen the corruption and evil of his own government from a new perspective. He started going to church with me and last month, he was baptized. According to visa regulations, if he wants to work here, he has to find a job that is related to his field within three months. Plus, the employer has to be willing to sponsor a foreign worker. He desperately wants to work here and live here. He hates the thought of returning to China. But he has sent out literally hundreds and hundreds of applications to American companies and has gotten one rejection after another. He is so discouraged and as he sees what's happening in his country, he is becoming more and more depressed at the thought of having to return. People in church are praying for him. Two months ago I wrote a letter to President Trump seeking his assistance, but I have received no reply whatsoever from anyone at the WH. The current Chinese govt/American govt. tension just aggravates the situation. So, you see, it's easy to sit here aloof and say that those Chinese are getting their just desserts, but the country is full of beautiful people who are subjected to tyranny that overwhelms them. My friend, as a new Christian, is asking some poignant questions: "Did God curse my country? Does He love you more than me? I was born in China which is an ailing country, but you were born here in the U.S." If he has no job lined up by the end of October, he is required to leave our country and he said it's very very difficult to get another visa to return.
1 person likes this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Omen55 8/16/2019 10:07:15 PM (No. 154401)
There is nothing,short of war,that Trump or anyone can do to stop the Chicoms from crushing Hong Kong.
No amount of economic or political pressure will matter.
This is about making sure the Chinese see that the Chicoms will not allow real freedom to seep across the border.
The elite is not gonna suffer no matter how much the people do.
0 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Sunhan65 8/16/2019 10:55:29 PM (No. 154436)
Again, it is a common misconception that the treaties ending in 1997 required the return of Hong Kong to China. Hong Kong Island and Kowloon were ceded to Great Britain in perpetuity. The only return required would have been the New Territories. Even that, as some others have pointed out, would have been necessary given that the PRC never recognized the treaties anyway.
0 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Sunhan65 8/16/2019 10:57:10 PM (No. 154437)
Key word in above post should have been *unecessary*.
0 people like this.
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