06-12-2019, 07:34 AM
** 12-Jun-2019 World View: Will China screw up Hong Kong?
I've written in the past that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
cynically makes use of Hong Kong for foreign investment and diplomacy
with people who don't want to deal with the thugs in the CCP,
but can instead deal with China through happy, carefree Hong Kong.
Anti-Beijing protests were renewed on Wednesday, though much smaller
than the million-man protests on Sunday. They are protesting a
proposed new extradition law that will make it legal for Chinese
security forces to abduct anyone in Hong Kong and bring him back to
Beijing for trial.
Wednesday's protests provoked a great deal of violence by Hong Kong
police, who used rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas to force
the peaceful protesters to disperse.
I heard a pro-Beijing analyst on the BBC this morning say that the
extradition law is perfectly OK. He said:
To me, this is a very weird insight into the mindset of
the pro-Beijing view. No concern about human rights, freedom
of speech, or freedom of assembly in Hong Kong. The only concern
is whether Hong Kong is useful or useless to Beijing.
The CCP sees any large public pro-democracy protest as an existential
threat to the CCP, in the same way that pro-democracy protests in
Moscow brought about the collapse of Soviet communism.
The CCP would like to send in the army and turn Hong Kong into
a lake of blood, as it did in the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
However, it can't do that -- not because it's bad for human rights,
but because Hong Kong would then be "useless" to Beijing.
Hong Kong's "usefulness" to Beijing depends on
on the "one country two systems" agreement
under which Britain turned it's Hong Kong colony over to
China in 1997. An important part of that
agreement is that Hong Kong and China have separate legal
systems, with separate laws and separate processes. The
proposed extradition agreement begins to merge the two legal
systems.
International investors like to deal with Hong Kong rather than with
the thugs in Beijing because Hong Kong is very friendly to business
and finance, and that's how the CCP "uses" Hong Kong. If the
perception grows that Hong Kong is no longer friendly to business and
finance, and that anyone visiting Hong Kong can be abducted to
Beijing, then it will be just like Shanghai, and will be "useless" to
Beijing. What a country.
---- Sources:
-- Hong Kong Police Fire Tear Gas
https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/Ag...e-tear-gas
(AP, 12-Jun-2019)
-- Hong Kong extradition bill: thousands of protesters block city
streets and prepare for worst as riot police gather nearby
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/poli...ters-start
(South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, 12-Jun-2019)
-- Hong Kong Markets Roiled by Interbank Rate Squeeze Amid Protests
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...lock-roads
(Bloomberg, 11-Jun-2019)
I've written in the past that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
cynically makes use of Hong Kong for foreign investment and diplomacy
with people who don't want to deal with the thugs in the CCP,
but can instead deal with China through happy, carefree Hong Kong.
Anti-Beijing protests were renewed on Wednesday, though much smaller
than the million-man protests on Sunday. They are protesting a
proposed new extradition law that will make it legal for Chinese
security forces to abduct anyone in Hong Kong and bring him back to
Beijing for trial.
Wednesday's protests provoked a great deal of violence by Hong Kong
police, who used rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas to force
the peaceful protesters to disperse.
I heard a pro-Beijing analyst on the BBC this morning say that the
extradition law is perfectly OK. He said:
Quote: "Why should Beijing screw up Hong Kong? You tell me.
Because if Hong Kong is just like Shanghai, it will be utterly
useless to Beijing."
To me, this is a very weird insight into the mindset of
the pro-Beijing view. No concern about human rights, freedom
of speech, or freedom of assembly in Hong Kong. The only concern
is whether Hong Kong is useful or useless to Beijing.
The CCP sees any large public pro-democracy protest as an existential
threat to the CCP, in the same way that pro-democracy protests in
Moscow brought about the collapse of Soviet communism.
The CCP would like to send in the army and turn Hong Kong into
a lake of blood, as it did in the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
However, it can't do that -- not because it's bad for human rights,
but because Hong Kong would then be "useless" to Beijing.
Hong Kong's "usefulness" to Beijing depends on
on the "one country two systems" agreement
under which Britain turned it's Hong Kong colony over to
China in 1997. An important part of that
agreement is that Hong Kong and China have separate legal
systems, with separate laws and separate processes. The
proposed extradition agreement begins to merge the two legal
systems.
International investors like to deal with Hong Kong rather than with
the thugs in Beijing because Hong Kong is very friendly to business
and finance, and that's how the CCP "uses" Hong Kong. If the
perception grows that Hong Kong is no longer friendly to business and
finance, and that anyone visiting Hong Kong can be abducted to
Beijing, then it will be just like Shanghai, and will be "useless" to
Beijing. What a country.
---- Sources:
-- Hong Kong Police Fire Tear Gas
https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/Ag...e-tear-gas
(AP, 12-Jun-2019)
-- Hong Kong extradition bill: thousands of protesters block city
streets and prepare for worst as riot police gather nearby
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/poli...ters-start
(South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, 12-Jun-2019)
-- Hong Kong Markets Roiled by Interbank Rate Squeeze Amid Protests
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...lock-roads
(Bloomberg, 11-Jun-2019)
