Hong Kong
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@Snowy yep. Plus Hong Kong is nowhere near as important to China in relative terms as it was in 97.
I work for a HK headquartered company. Always had very strong relationship with Beijing (Chair was on the Organising Committee for the 10th anniversary of the handback etc).
The internal reports we are getting and the warnings about staff remote working etc are the type we normally see from Africa
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I guess the test will be to see how much the protesters are willing to sacrifice. If sufficient numbers are willing to die and shed blood then I can't see it ending well.
I don't think Beijing gives a shit about the optics. They are an economic superpower in their own right and have plenty of countries in their pocket (Australia amongst them). The outrage will probably only last a week until people get distracted by Twitter or something a Kardashian has done. Beijing will probably happily take the short-term negative publicity if it means subduing HK permanently. They couldn't get away with it in 97 but they could now.
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@Rancid-Schnitzel given the existing tensions with the US, I don’t think it will boil over quickly because if this issue escalates with the world watching (many countries citizenry are being affected by the airport strikes for example), then any lack of action by Beijing or any hardline action by Beijing will get entangled.
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@ACT-Crusader said in Hong Kong:
@Rancid-Schnitzel given the existing tensions with the US, I don’t think it will boil over quickly because if this issue escalates with the world watching (many countries citizenry are being affected by the airport strikes for example), then any lack of action by Beijing or any hardline action by Beijing will get entangled.
For sure, but so many countries have hitched their wagons to China and are dependent on them. Furthermore, no country is willing to go to war with China over this.
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Another media item this morning in the 'if that can happen here, what could happen across a small land border' files:
Cameron said these types of approaches by CCP representatives in New Zealand was nothing new, but the nature of the requests had changed over time.
“They’ve become more brazen as time moved on. The more funding and international students, the more confident they are that they can tell universities what to do.”
Cameron said the average New Zealander did not know this type of influence was a reality, “and I don’t think they want to know about it”.
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@Donsteppa said in Hong Kong:
'if that can happen here, what could happen across a small land border' files
Yeah, they can bring a fair bit of pressure to bear.
"The Civil Aviation Administration of China’s demands also included the airline submitting aircrew lists for Cathay flights entering Chinese airspace for pre-approval. Flights which did not go through the procedure would be barred from its airspace.
As a result of the threat of losing the right to fly to and over Chinese airspace, Cathay has cracked down hard on staff. On Monday, the company threatened to sack any employee who actively supported the protest movement, including taking part in the illegal airport demonstrations."Two pilots sacked so far and two other staff members.
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@Rembrandt said in Hong Kong:
He is the biggest hope for the HK people. Can't see anyone else standing up.
There actually isn't anyone else. Who else has the clout?
Yep, and even then it's a big ask for a small area of land right on the Chinese border. Interesting times...
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@Rembrandt said in Hong Kong:
Hopefully there is enough money at risk from big players that some good old fashioned rational self interest might save the day.
Yep, I'm thinking the trade war/related implications are the one (only?) thing that might stay Beijing's hand.
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The thing is, how can Beijing back down from this and avoid future protests and, most importantly, potential protests on the mainland? Could it be the case of weighing up the short-term international outrage and financial pain against allowing a movement that could be the spark that eventually topples the regime? China has been compared to Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany. I reckon that's pretty spot on, but I hope to Christ they have the good sense not to go the full retard like Bill did.
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@jegga That stuff makes me sick. Reminds me of Maxim Gorky's visit to the soviet 're-education camps' to quell international concern over what they really were. Bodies were hidden, places were tidied, slave labour and torture stopped for a couple days. He met the prisoners who dared not breath a word of the horrors that were going on but a 14 year old boy bravely took him aside and told him everything.
The boy got a bullet in the back of the head before Gorky had even boarded his return ship. The piston wristed gibbon didn't write about it, god forbid reality get in the way of an ideological utopia.
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@Rembrandt said in Hong Kong:
@jegga That stuff makes me sick. Reminds me of Maxim Gorky's visit to the soviet 're-education camps' to quell international concern over what they really were. Bodies were hidden, places were tidied, slave labour and torture stopped for a couple days. He met the prisoners who dared not breath a word of the horrors that were going on but a 14 year old boy bravely took him aside and told him everything.
The boy got a bullet in the back of the head before Gorky had even boarded his return ship. The piston wristed gibbon didn't write about it, god forbid reality get in the way of an ideological utopia.
Henry A Wallace visited Ptompkin villages in Siberia and came home convinced by what he saw and played down the Soviet threat . He was going to run for president and was going to appoint two kgb spies to senior positions in his administration if he did.
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@jegga Wallace did run for President - for the Progressives. At least he fessed up and admitted the USSR was evil.
Interesting guy - should have been the President after FDR but lost the VP nomination despite being the popular party choice because some good ol' boys didn't like his anti-segregationist stance.
Real contrast to Truman. World would be a different place if he'd compromised on his racial equality principals. Also founded a multi billion dollar company.
Prett sure he'd be on the protesters side in HK